How to Increase eBay Sales With Domain Redirect

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How to Increase eBay Sales With Domain Redirect

Online marketers can sell on eBay through auctions or product listings. Frequent eBay sellers can also build an eBay store. However, eBay provides a long URL, or Web address, for its stores. Some marketers seek to increase their eBay sales by using a shorter website address.

This has the potential of getting more repeat visitors and sales, because customers can memorize a short, catchy URL. Marketers can purchase a domain name from any of hundreds of registrars. They can then use domain redirection to automatically send visitors of that domain to the eBay store. Marketers can increase eBay sales potential with domain redirection.

1 – Select an eBay store plan.

At the time of publication, you may get a Basic Store for approximately $15 per month, a Premium Store for approximately $50 per month and an Anchor Store for approximately $300 per month. You may use the “eBay Stores: Subscriptions and Fees” page to see the full range of features.

2 – Access your eBay Stores account.

Use the included store-building tools to build your store. You don’t need technical skills to build a basic store layout. Advanced users can add their own HTML, headers and other features.

3 – Write down your store URL.

If you named your store “Fishing Gear,” your eBayStores URL would be “http://stores.ebay.com/fishing-gear.” Marketers use a shorter domain name for branding and increased sales potential because the standard eBay Stores URL is somewhat difficult to memorize.

4 – Find a domain registrar that allows domain redirection.

ICANN accredits hundreds of registrars. You may find names and links to these registrar websites on the “ICANN-Accredited Registrars” page (icann.org/en/registrars/accredited-list.html). Read the individual registrar websites to see which registrars allow domain redirection. Some may call this “URL forwarding” or “domain forwarding.”

5 – Select a domain name.

This domain name should be reasonably short and relevant to whatever you are selling with eBay Stores. For example, if you are selling wooden dolls, you would choose a domain name that includes the phrase “wooden dolls.”

6 – Purchase the domain name.

Prices vary for domains. However, the typical price is about $10 to $15 to rent the use of a domain name for one year. (See References 4)

7 – Access the domain account provided by your registrar.

Set up domain redirection from inside the account. The place where you find this feature will vary based on the software system used by your domain registrar. However, during the process, you always enter your eBay Stores URL as the website address for domain redirect. This process does not generally require any technical expertise.

8 – Disseminate the domain

Disseminate the domain name when promoting your store instead of your official eBay Stores website address. The domain redirect will automatically send visitors from the domain to your eBay Stores home page.

Tips & Warnings

You may use this method for individual eBay listings instead of a store. All eBay listings have an assigned URL. However, you have to consider the price of purchasing the domain. For example, if you are selling a $5 product, then the cost of the domain would be more than what you make from the sale.

Marketers have reserved many of the most desirable domain names. Your top choices for domains may not be available. In that case, you may add a number or geographic name to your product.

How to Link Your Domain Name to eBay

eBay is an online marketplace for buyers and sellers to conduct auctions and buy and sell items and services. It is the largest online auction site in the world. Many sellers are professional and have eBay stores. A seller may wish to give his eBay business a more professional image with a private domain name, that links directly to his member page or eBay store. This gives the appearance of a more proprietary brand for the seller, particularly if the domain name and the seller ID name match.

Instructions

1 – Try to register a domain name that closely matches your eBay member ID or store name.

Register a domain name for your eBay store from a reputable domain name registrar such as GoDaddy. For branding purposes and easier memorability, try to register a domain name that matches your eBay user ID. You must register the domain with a registrar that allows domain name forwarding. With domain forwarding, customers will be redirected to your eBay store when they type in your domain.

2 – Log into your registrar’s control panel using the user ID and domain name the registrar gave you upon registration.

3 – Find the domain forwarding options in the dashboard for your domain name’s control panel. The appearance of your domain’s control panel can vary widely depending on the registrar with which you registered. Try to find an option that reads “DNS settings” or “Forwarding and Parking.” It may also say something like “Domain Aliases” or “Domain Masking.” Click until you get to the screen that asks you to input to what site you’d like your domain to forward.

4 – Enter your eBay profile or eBay store URL in the field provided in the domain forwarding screen. The syntax for this URL is “https://www.stores.ebay.com/your_store_ID”

without quotes. Replace “your_store_ID” with your unique eBay store ID. If you want your domain to just forward to your eBay profile, type “http://myworld.ebay.com/your_eBay_ID” without quotes. Replace “your_eBay_ID” with your unique eBay member name. You can also forward the domain to your current list of items for sale, by copying and pasting the “Items for sale” link in your member profile.

5 – Save your settings in your domain control panel. Once your domain registrar has processed your request, which can take as little as five minutes or as long as 72 hours, your domain name will now to your eBay account.

Tips & Warnings

Some domain registrars will lock your domain name upon registration. You will not be able to make any changes to it, including forwarding, unless you unlock the domain name through your control panel.

If your domain name is already pointing at hosted web space, you can upload a redirect script to the site in order to redirect visitors to your eBay store. Some hosting control panels have an option that lets you set this up automatically.

If you register the domain with a registrar that has mail server management, you can add even more professionalism to your eBay business by setting up a mail client to receive email at your new domain name.

If you registered the domain name with a registrar that doesn’t allow domain forwarding, you must transfer it to a domain registrar that does allow it before forwarding.

How to Link eBay to a Website

Ebay is an online auction website where both individuals and businesses can sell products and services. It is free to open a seller account on eBay; however, a small fee is charged for every item sold. Sellers who are serious about making money online usually have a website where they sell their items in addition to selling them on eBay. With eBay’s ability to reach a worldwide audience, linking a website to eBay makes perfect sense as this will help to build a customer base. However, eBay does not allow its sellers to link to their websites directly from their listings. It is possible though to link eBay to your website using a few indirect methods.

Instructions

1 – Create an “About Me” page by signing into your eBay account and clicking the “Community” tab at the top of the page. Scroll to the bottom of the page and look under the heading “More Community Programs”. Click on the text that says “Create an About Me Page” and follow the steps provided. Add a link to your website when prompted to add “Favorite Sites.” Consider adding things such as your contact information, auction terms and conditions, and your postage prices to the About Me page.

2 – Link to your About Me page in the body of your auction listing description; for example, you could write “Visit my About Me page to read more about my business and read feedback left by other buyers.” Be sure to use the HTML option when creating auction listings so that you can link the text directly to your About Me page.

3 – List your website’s URL whenever you leave feedback for anyone, no matter if you are the buyer or seller in the transaction. An example would be something like “Great Transaction…Thank You“