How Becoming an eBay PowerSeller Will Increase Your Profit Margins

Lemonade Stand
Image by jasonfrench via Flickr

While the PowerSeller logo on auctions has been expired, PowerSeller status, as a whole, hasn’t gone away and earning this title can help you not only save money on final value fees*, but can also help you get more customers, and save precious time (I have so much extra time because of this, I’ve started eating some of it with my breakfast. Some A1 covers up that weird burnt taste).

PowerSeller Discount
The discounts you receive with PowerSeller status start at 5% and climb from there. While a 5% discount may add up to saving 25 cents for the volume some sellers deal with, if you’re trying to sell enough to make any sort of living, this discount adds up to tons of green resting peacefully in your wallet. Besides, 5% is only the beginning of the discounts. Good eBay buyer satisfaction can earn you up to a 20% fee discount. Now we’re talking.

Eligible for Top Rated Seller Status
You can’t be a Top Rated Seller unless you’re first a PowerSeller. And you want to be an eBay Top Rated Seller. First of all, you get an automatic 20% discount as soon as you earn the title. Secondly, being a Top Rated Seller gets you tons more buyers (and you can’t start making money until you get the buyers – fees, discounts and shipping charges are irrelevant unless you can actually make a sale).

You’ll first get more buyers being an eBay Top Rated Seller when your listings are popped up to the top of Best Match searches. On top of that, there’s a well-advertised search option that allows you to filter out all listings except those listed by Top Rated Sellers. Well, if you’re not a Top Rated Seller, any buyer who is a fan of this feature (which gets used more often when you’re selling a popular item) will never see your items if you don’t fall into this category.

But I even included that “LQQK!!!” bit in my title and got a picture upgrade! Nope, they still won’t see it. Once buyers, one way or the other, do end up clicking on your listing, if you’re a Top Rated Seller, you’ll get that catchy little badge at the top that says that you’re great, ship stuff on time and blablabla. People trust badges. If you have one, people are more likely to bid on your items.

Cool, huh? But you have to be a PowerSeller, first.

Prioritized eBay Customer Support
Funny thing about spending more money with a particular company – the management can now justify more customer service resources can be aimed at you.

You’ll get an answer to your phone call faster (and probably from the more astute reps), an answer to your email faster and connected to chat faster. What does all that faster faster faster mean to you (aside from getting dirty snickers)? Well, if you have a pressing issue – such as a disgruntled buyer who’s filing a claim against you, your side of the story will be heard in half the time meaning you only have to spend your energies and resources on the matter for half as long. And time is money, so if you want to be able to eat time with your bowl of corn flakes like I do, you need some prioritized customer support.

Increased Review Before Action is Taken Against Your Account
Nobody likes pissing off their most generous customers, and eBay is no different. If you’re a PowerSeller, you can bet that an extra few minutes of careful consideration before someone decides you’re really detrimental to the rest of the eBay community and absolutely have to be suspended.

You’ll Be Eligible for UPS Discounts
Which is neat because you presumably have to ship a lot.

23 is a big number. It’s how old I currently am – not that you care because you’re insensitive like that. But, more importantly (according to some people who don’t particularly like me much) – it’s the percentage you’ll save on shipping fees as an eBay PowerSeller when shipping UPS.

You’ll have to sign-up to be an eBay PowerSeller, of course, but after that, get ready to find even moolah (I don’t actually know how to spell that word, and the internet is not helpful) in your proverbial pocket. I never find actual money in my pocket anymore.

If you so choose (and it’s recommended), you can pass these shipping savings onto your buyer. This might sound like less money for you in the short-run, but listings with lower shipping charges tend to go to the top of eBay searches and get bought more.

Health Insurance
OMGosh, really?? Yes, really. (You know, if you sell a lot on eBay, you really need the mental health option)

Regardless of which side of the current political public health care turmoil you’re on, if you’re a PowerSeller, you can still get discounted health insurance through eBay – almost as if you had a legitimate employer.

eBay PowerSellers can get all sorts of types of insurance through eBay from vision, dental, life, travel and individual. They even provide you the phone number and all the resources you’ll want/need to get you started.

Well, if milking that isn’t incentive enough to set your sights on becoming an eBay PowerSeller, I don’t know what is.

*PowerSeller policies, eligibility and discounts may vary depending upon what site you use. The information here pertains primarily to eBay.com and eBay.ca users.