Your eBay listing has finished and you have made a sale, now the next important stage starts - the after sales. Again we are aiming to develop the professional image or ourselves in the customers eyes to encourage them to come back to us again and again because it is easier to sell to a current customer than it is to a new customer.

eBay after sales is almost 100% email based, apart from very rare occasions, and you need to set up a process whereby you can accurately monitor the stage of after sales that each customer is at. This is very easy in the early stage with not many auctions but when you start to develop as an eBay seller it needs to become very organised.

eBay start this process off for you, they email you (and the seller) to confirm the sale and provide you with the contact details so you can start your after sales process. Always send a reminder email as sometimes, due to the number of fraudulent eBay emails that are around, the buyer never actually opens the original email.

Again eBay provides this functionality by means of allowing you to send an invoice using the eBay system, always include a copy to yourself (a simple tick box) if you plan to use this method so that you have a record of the email and can use it for your records. I would recommend however that you actually send an email using your own email provider as it forms the basis for developing a customer relationship.

The email you send should include the following:

A short thank you for using your auctions and a congratulations on them winning.

Then the item specifics:

Item Purchased, Final Price, Shipping Price, Total Price Due (final plus shipping), Payment Methods Accepted (also indicated in the listing), Payment Time Frame, Mailing Address for Payment and a link to your feedback page so that you can encourage the buyer to leave feedback.

It is also advisable to provide another email address so that they can contact you if they experience any difficulties using the original and of course always include a link to your own web site (if you have one, if not get one!). It works along the same lines as the eBay about me page method.

I have a draft copy of the contact email saved so I do not need to keep retyping it out, all I do is change the customer specific information and send it.

The customer then sends you your payment and the final stage of the after sales process begins.... Post and Packing.

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