Selling on eBay, Amazon and other marketplaces

Is a marketplace right for you?

Many businesses use a marketplace for volume and discovery, and their own online store for repeat customers and better margins. See Selling online: setting up an online store.

Types of marketplaces

• General marketplaces with huge audiences across almost every category, such as eBay, Amazon and Kogan.
• Specialist and craft marketplaces for handmade, vintage, art, fashion or particular hobbies.
• Local and social marketplaces for selling to people nearby, including community buy-and-sell groups.
• Business-to-business marketplaces for wholesale and trade buyers.

Each has its own audience, fees, rules and level of competition. Start with the one where people already search for products like yours. This guide doesn’t recommend any particular marketplace; compare their current seller terms yourself.

Do the numbers first

Fees are where marketplace sellers win or lose. For each product, list:

1. Your cost: what you pay for the product, delivered to you.
2. Selling fees: usually a percentage of the sale price (often including shipping), and sometimes a fixed fee per order.
3. Subscription fees: a monthly fee for a seller account or shop, on some platforms.
4. Payment processing fees, if charged separately.
5. Fulfilment fees, if the marketplace stores and ships for you.
6. Packaging and postage, if you ship yourself.
7. Advertising: sponsored listings are common and can become essential in competitive categories.
8. Returns and refunds: the cost of returned stock, return postage and items you can’t resell.

Subtract all of these from the sale price. If there’s not enough left to cover your time and overheads, the product isn’t right for that marketplace, at least not at that price. Check each marketplace’s own seller fee pages for current fees; they change regularly. If you’re registered for GST, ask your accountant how marketplace fees and sales are treated.

Setting up

• Read the seller agreement and policies before you list: prohibited items, category approvals, returns rules, performance standards, and how accounts can be suspended.
• Use your business details: business name, ABN and business contact information.
• Set up returns and dispatch settings that you can actually meet.
• Protect the account with a strong, unique password and multi-factor authentication. A hijacked seller account can be emptied of funds quickly. See Cyber security and backups.
• Only accept payment through the platform. Requests to pay or be paid outside it are a common scam and usually breach the platform’s rules.

Listings that sell

• Title: what buyers search for, in plain words: brand, product, model, size, colour. No keyword stuffing.
• Photos: several clear photos on a plain background, plus one showing the product in use or for scale. Show any flaws on second-hand items.
• Description: specific and honest. Dimensions, materials, compatibility, what’s included and care instructions.
• Price: the total price must be clear. Don’t advertise a price that’s only available with conditions buried elsewhere.
• Delivery time: realistic, not optimistic.
• Safety information: warnings, age grading and instructions where needed.

Under the Australian Consumer Law, every claim in your listing must be accurate. Descriptions like “genuine”, “Australian made”, “new” or “waterproof” must be true.

Fulfilment: ship it yourself or let the marketplace do it

See Shipping, couriers and freight for choosing carriers and pricing delivery.

Ratings, reviews and customer service

Your seller rating affects how often your listings appear and whether buyers trust you.

• Dispatch on time, every time, and upload tracking.
• Reply to messages quickly, usually within a day.
• Resolve problems generously before they become disputes or negative feedback.
• Never buy, swap or fake reviews, or offer incentives only for positive ones. The ACCC treats fake or misleading reviews as illegal, and marketplaces remove sellers who manipulate ratings.

See Customer service that keeps customers coming back.

The rules that apply to you

A marketplace’s own buyer protection and returns policies sit on top of Australian law, not instead of it.

• Consumer guarantees: customers have automatic rights to a repair, replacement or refund if a product is faulty, not as described or not fit for purpose. “No refunds” statements aren’t allowed.
• Delivery: when you take payment, you must supply within the time you said or a reasonable time, and keep customers informed about delays.
• Product safety: the ACCC says online businesses at every stage of the supply chain must follow Australian product safety laws: comply with mandatory safety standards, don’t supply banned products, recall unsafe products, and report deaths, serious injuries or illnesses linked to a product you supplied. Products sourced cheaply from overseas are a common risk. Check standards before you buy stock, especially for children’s products, electrical goods, button batteries, cosmetics and toys.
• Intellectual property: don’t sell counterfeit goods or use other brands’ names, logos or photos without permission. Marketplaces remove infringing listings and may close accounts.
• Privacy: use buyers’ details only to complete their orders and as the platform allows. Don’t add them to your marketing list without consent.

Don’t put the whole business on one platform

Marketplaces change fees, rules and search rankings without asking you, and accounts can be suspended while issues are investigated. Reduce the risk:

• Keep records and stock data outside the platform.
• Build your own website and, where the platform’s rules allow, a way for happy customers to find you directly.
• Consider more than one sales channel once the first one is running well.
• Keep enough cash to cope if payouts are delayed.

For sourcing stock, see Finding wholesale suppliers and dropshipping.