Even though it is more a nuisance than anything else, every
eBay store owner should know how to properly deal with
nonpaying bidders.

Once an eBay buyer has placed and won a bid on your item or
clicked on the Buy It Now button and went through the checkout
process, they have entered a legally binding transaction with
you.

You are legally obligated to deliver the goods as advertised to
them and they are legally obligated to fulfill their financial
obligations in terms of the purchase transaction.

In rare cases some buyers take a long time to pay or do not pay
you at all.

Often these are people who have been taken away by life
circumstances such as dealing with a crisis. Sometimes people
get buyer's remorse and do not want to go through with the
transaction. Some people run into adverse financial
circumstances that are outside their control. Lastly, some
people are just jokers who troll around on eBay and frivolously
bid on things they have no intention of buying.

None of these circumstances excuse bidders from their
obligations to complete their financial transaction with you.

The first action you should take is to give the bidder the
benefit of the doubt.

Malicious bidders are in such a small minority that you would
alienate valuable customers if you treated every nonpaying
bidder as a malicious bidder by default.

Contact the bidder by e-mail or telephone and politely remind
them of the outstanding payment.

Remember, you are a business person, so always remain
professional, courteous, and polite in your communication with
the bidder, and always stick to the facts. Do not get
emotional about the transaction and do not allow emotions to
impair your judgment.

Give the person a reasonable amount of time to respond to your
request for payment.

If the person simply forgot about the transaction then it is no
big deal. Those people usually pay promptly once reminded.

If the bidder has buyer's remorse you need to use your best
judgment. You could force a person to go through with the
transaction, but they are likely to activate your refund
policies or give you some grief in the future. Usually these
people are willing to defray your costs and cancel the
transaction.

For people who have run into financial circumstances that make
it difficult for them to pay for the item, you could talk to
them about payment terms or other arrangements that would be
suitable to you both.

As a last resort for the people mentioned above, as well as for
the frivolous bidders, you could follow the Non-Paying Buyer
process that eBay has put at your disposal.

If a person gets three nonpaying strikes against their eBay ID
they are automatically suspended from the eBay site.

Golden rule: Never send the merchandise to the buyer until you
have received payment in full.


About The Author: Jason Griffith writes eBay Store reviews for
http://www.bestauctionstores.com.

 

Few things are more frustrating than visiting an eBay store and
be presented only with a mile long list of items that one has to
scroll through. It is very difficult to find items in a long
list if you are looking for a particular type or genre of item.


What many eBay store owners do not seem to realize is that eBay
buyers are not desperate to find and buy their particular items.
There are so many auctions going on at any particular point in
time, that the browser Back button is probably the most used
function when browsing or searching for items.

The default sort order for the listing display in an eBay store
is listing end time, with those auctions ending soonest
displayed at the top. There are other listing sort orders
available as well, but unfortunately none of those are
necessarily very well suited for a store inventory display.

The primary means at your disposal to make it easier for an
eBay buyer to find what he or she is looking for are the
categories.

Think of the categories as virtual aisles in your store. You
need to use those virtual aisles in your store to guide the
buyer through the merchandise on offer.

The easier you make it for the buyer to find the desired item,
the better the chances that the person will buy your item and
not someone else's.

You know your merchandise best and know how you can slice and
dice the types of merchandise into meaningful categories.
However, do not limit a particular item to only one category.
With an eBay store, you can list an item in two different store
categories free of charge. Make full use of it.

An eBay buyer might miss an item while browsing one category
but notice it in the second category. This is synonymous to
putting cans of the same cream in both the dairy section and in
the baking section of a groceries store.

You cannot predict all the uses that a buyer will have in mind
for your merchandise, but you can at least cover off the most
obvious ones. When a buyer visits your eBay store and sees the
categories, they will first think of what they want to use the
item for and see if there is a matching category.

You can have up to 300 different categories in your eBay store.
Make full use of it to help your buyer easily find the item (or
even similar item) they want to buy.

Generally, a person visits your store wanting to buy something,
i.e., with money in hand. It is a great loss when they leave
your store because they couldn't find your item that is hidden
amongst tens or hundreds of other items.


About The Author: Jason Griffith writes eBay Store reviews for
http://BestAuctionStores.com
(http://www.bestauctionstores.com), a site dedicated to
providing eBay Buyers with the ability to review and rate eBay
stores.