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Start selling checklist

Start selling checklist

Here's what you need to do to start your business on eBay

Register on eBay

The first thing to do is register as a business on eBay. Many buyers have more confidence in business registered sellers and search only for items sold by businesses.

Enable buyers to pay you securely with PayPal

PayPal enables your customers to pay you quickly and confidently without having to enter their card details each time, providing a first-class customer experience.

PayPal also saves you the hassle of dealing with your customers' sensitive financial details. It's completely integrated with eBay and payments are instant, so you have the confidence to send goods to buyers quickly.

Learn about the different eBay listing formats and fees

There's a number of different ways to sell items on eBay – auction-style listings, fixed-price, Shops Inventory format and more. Different formats and items have different fees associated with them. You might find it useful to check which formats other sellers use to sell the items you want to sell.

In addition, if you haven't already, you'll learn loads about how eBay works if you buy a few items.

Familiarise yourself with eBay policies

All sellers should be aware of the following eBay policies. These policies help to keep eBay a safe place to trade. Making sure you know our policies before you sell will help you avoid breaking our rules:

Start selling

Now you've registered as a business, joined PayPal and familiarised yourself with eBay listing formats, fees and policies, it's finally time to start selling.

List an item for sale on eBay now

eBay's listing and management tools cater for all different sizes of seller. They'll help you to upload lots of items to eBay quickly and manage your sales.

Manage your buyers

Provide great customer service and you'll get great feedback. As your feedback score increases you'll become more attractive to potential buyers.

Answering questions and post-order queries quickly creates confidence in your business and encourages people to buy from you again.

  • Learn more about feedback
  • Learn how to Cancel Unwelcome Bids
  • Use My eBay to manage your sales and set up bidder rules such as the minimum feedback a member must have before they can bid on your items.

Open an eBay Shop

An eBay Shop enables you to list items indefinitely rather than for a short period of time. You can add your company logo and colours to customise your shop. You'll also have your own website address (eg: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/your shop name/) which you can promote externally.