You'll find your growth ladder as an eBay seller below. At the moment, you may still be at the first stage. But with every step you take, your business will grow, and, as it does, the eBay team will be on hand to advise all the way.
Stage 1
Create your eBay account and list your first items
To become an eBay seller, you’ll need to create an eBay account. This way, you can list items and get payments from buyers worldwide.
Creating your account is simple!
Get registered on eBay
Сhoose a proper account type (Individual or Business) and go to the Registration page.
Verify your account details
eBay will confirm your identity, checking account details for payouts, and business details if applicable.
Confirm your identity
The information that you need to provide depends on how you will trade on eBay: Individual sellers or Registered business (as legal entity or as a sole proprietor or owner).
Verify your banking details
If eBay can't verify your information, you may be asked to verify your linked checking account.
See our How to register as a seller on eBay: step-by-step guide to learn the sign-up process in detail.
eBay is managing payments
Sell globally
Payments from more than 200 countries worldwide.
Sell simpler
Checkout is more flexible, with more payment options for buyers.
Simpler fees
Fees are deducted from your earnings.
Simpler to manage
You’ll find everything you need to manage your business — reports, returns, claims and disputes — all in one place.
You can read more about how eBay is managing payments here.
Your most important step — creating your first listing
Comprehensive item description
Want to increase the search rating for your listing, boost its efficiency, and increase its selling power?
Provide buyers with accurate and thorough information about your item.
Add details to your Sell Your Item form.
High-quality photos
Want to show your item at its very best?
Take high-quality photos. Listings with better photo quality are up to 5% more likely to sell*.
Read more on taking good pictures.
Fast order handling
Succeed in handling orders and packing items for shipping just in 1 working day? Great! Tell buyers about that.
But keep your scope realistic: delays or late shipments may cost you your rating.
Find out how to set up minimal handling time.
Beneficial shipping policy
Looking forward to attracting more buyers?
Set free shipping by default (more than 80% of buyers filter search results by this option). Also, make sure your buyers have options to choose from.
Read more on setting up your shipping options.
Fill in your Sell Your Item form and list it. Here is our Step-by-Step Guide to help you. Now your item will be seen by 154 million buyers!
As a new eBay seller, you will be subject to selling limits for some time. This means you will have a limit of up to 10 items with a total value of up to $500 per month. If you have reached one of these criteria, you will have to wait until the first day of the next calendar month to list more items or to request a limit increase.
Zero insertion fee listings include up to 250 listings without you being charged for their insertion. Use this to understand the platform and research demand for your items. Read more about Selling limit and Zero insertion fee listings.
It’s time to ship your first order
Keep in mind that all the deals on eBay use advance payment. This means you first get the payment from your buyer and ship the item after that; this is intended to protect you from abusive buyers. In addition to that, you can make your shipment more secure in other ways. Choose trusted shipping services that provide tracking numbers, such as DHL or UPS.
Stage 2
List more items and plan your profits
It feels like yesterday when you listed your first item, and now your initial selling limit (up to 10 listings and up to $500 per month) is not enough. To list more items and reach the next level of profit, it is important to track your performance so that it corresponds to eBay standards. This is where your Seller Dashboard can help.
eBay fees
Plan your expenses along with the profit. All eBay sellers pay Selling fees.
Basic fees
Insertion Fee for listing extra items after you've used up your Zero Insertion Fee allowance;
Final Value Fee charged when your items are sold.
Other fees
Optional Listing Upgrades Fees and Promoted Listing Fees are up to your choice, but can boost your sales.
All the fees charged are listed in the Reports section in Seller Hub or My eBay so that you can always track your spending. Reduce expenses or invest in your promotion.
See what is popular on eBay right now and plan your selling agenda to increase your profit.
Stage 3
Open your eBay Store
It’s time to launch your eBay Store and enjoy all the advantages of having customers worldwide that you simply can’t get with an offline store. Moreover, managing your eBay Store is much easier.
Choose one of the Store subscription packages: from Starter to Enterprise. Every option has its benefits. Starter Store type is designed for beginners: pay less (and even less with annual* payment) with a smaller Zero Insertion Fee allowance compared to the Enterprise Store type. Compare the options to see which is the most cost-effective Store subscription for you: no need to pay for Premium if you are only starting your business on eBay. You can upgrade your Store type anytime.
* Yearly Store subscription is not available on ebay.de.Even more benefits of an eBay Store subscription
- Access to Promotions Manager
- Free access to Terapeak Sourcing Insights market research tool (at Basic subscription and higher)
- Your own brand on eBay
eBay Store subscription does not oblige you to keep an inventory and quantity of goods or even to do business on a permanent basis. Sell as much and as regularly as you want and get the full use of eBay Store benefits.
Communication with buyers
Your clients may ask questions at any stage of buying your item. You will need to give a quick, polite and comprehensive response. Unresolved conflicts may end up with the buyer opening a dispute. eBay protects both sellers and buyers, so anyone may request support from us. To find out what a dispute is, what to do when a buyer opens a request, and how to open a dispute, read the Disputes and Seller Protection section.
Stage 4
Get your listings seen by more buyers
You are certainly willing to sell more items. Promo campaigns are here to boost your sales.
Use eBay advertising tools:
Promotions Manager
You do not need any special skills to use this tool. Sell out stocks, offer codeless coupons for discounts, set up diverse types of discounts for order volume, shipping, or any special conditions.
Promoted Listings Standard and Promoted Listings Advanced
This tool helps your items stand out among billions of listings on eBay. For Standard campaigns, you pay your promotion fee only when the item is successfully sold.
Stage 5
Conquer markets around the world
Your next step is to cover new regions. Who knows, maybe at this very moment a buyer from Germany is looking at ebay.de for the items you sell. What if the potential buyer fails to find them because your listings aren’t easily viewable? What can you do? List your item directly on the international site.
Try eBaymag. This is a special tool for eBay sellers to easily post listings on 8 eBay international sites and increase visibility with buyers in certain countries.
Expanding your sales borders is not the only feature of eBaymag. It will help you optimize listings management. Use it to:
- Import listings from eBay and upload new ones: one by one or in bulk;
- Coordinate shipping routine: combine items into a single shipment or split items into multiple shipments in a way that is good for both you and the buyer, add tracking numbers, and process shipping online.
Use all these for free! The tool requires no additional charges. Anytime you feel like quitting — feel free to go back to the standard eBay interface.
Would you like some more?
Meet our sellers
Enjoy stories from experienced sellers. You will definitely learn useful tips for your store.
Even more useful info
Surf through export.ebay.com. You will find manuals and step-by-step guides that will be of great use to you.