Want to buy and sell items as efficiently as possible online?

Here are our top 7 recommendations for buying and selling quickly in any industry. 

Tip 1: Find The Right Website

The best way to buy and sell efficiently is to choose a website that enables you to do this. 

It’s easier to sell on some websites than it is on others. Look for websites that have a straightforward listing process with easy, self-explanatory steps to sharing your listing online. Ideally, find a site that gives you the choice between paying for an instant listing and paying upfront for a membership that allows you to make quick, easy listings at any point throughout the year. 

If you’re buying, look at sites that are specific to your industry. For instance, if you need turf equipment, tools, or related goods, looking on a site like Turf Market should help to cut through the noise and quickly source the item you need.

In both buying and selling scenarios, be wary of the generalized selling tools and websites, like Facebook Marketplace and eBay. 

From a seller’s perspective, selling on a website that isn’t targeted to your specific audience means you’re more likely to encounter time-wasters. As a buyer, you might find some great deals, but there’s less assurance of product reliability and quality if the seller is only sharing their listing on free websites. 

Tip 2: Create A Selling Template

Our second tip is aimed at sellers only: create a selling template that you can reuse when selling products in the future. 

Your template should include fields for all the information you need to include in any listing, regardless of what you’re selling. This includes: 

• The product name, model number, age/date of purchase, and other important information
• The product features
• Images
• Price
• Any faults/defects (for used products)

Creating a template means you’re more likely to sell quickly because you’ll already have the optimal structure to include all the essential listing information. All you’ll have to do is edit the data in the template to make it appropriate to the item you’re selling. 

Tip 3: Research Prices

Whether you’re buying or selling, researching prices will help you to make the quickest sale or purchase. 

As a seller, finding out what similar sellers are charging will help you to establish a competitive price that gives you a good profit without scaring potential buyers away. The better your price, the more likely that you’ll make a quick sale. 

As a buyer, you can research prices so that you know what to expect to pay and you can budget accordingly, so you don’t end up wasting time haggling with sellers that won’t budge. 

Tip 4: Prioritize Reputation

Another tip for selling and buying quickly online is to prioritize reputation. 

If you’re a seller, that means establishing yourself as a reputable seller. You can do this in a few ways: 

• By selling lots of items and accumulating positive buyer feedback
• By selling through reliable websites that check their listings for legitimacy before they’re uploaded
• By offering multiple methods of payment, including protected methods like PayPal and credit card purchases
• By making it easy for buyers to contact you via multiple options, including email and phone call

If you’re a buyer, you need to look for sellers that offer proof of their reliability and legitimacy (see the above bullet points). Avoid dodgy or half-hearted listings that suggest the buying process may be unnecessarily lengthy or you may not receive the product you thought you were purchasing. 

Tip 5: Get Straight To The Point

Here’s some advice to sellers: the more clearly and concisely you can describe the item you’re selling, the better. 

Buyers are more likely to take interest in your listing if it’s clear exactly what’s on offer, including the features, key data, and potential faults. 

Including images from lots of different angles and perspectives can also help you to get straight to the point with your product listings because buyers can instantly see what they’re buying.  

If you’re a buyer, you can also speed up the buying process by getting straight to the point. Avoid sending a generic “Is this still available?” message, which tells the seller that you’re still shopping around and probably aren’t serious about buying. 

Make a list of any important questions you want to ask the seller, then reach out with the questions and explain that you’re very interested in the product. Once the seller replies, if you’re happy to buy the item, ask the seller how you can proceed with the purchase. The seller should help to facilitate the purchase quickly if they can see that you’re not a time-waster. 

Tip 6: Use Multiple Marketplaces

We’ve already advised on the types of marketplaces that will help you buy and sell quickly – but that doesn’t mean you should limit yourself to one location. 

Selling on multiple different marketplaces can help you to sell faster because you’re targeting different audiences. Browsing different marketplaces also helps you to buy faster because you’ll have a higher chance of finding what you’re looking for at a better price point. 

If you’re selling, just make sure that you remove your item from other marketplaces once it sells in one location. 

Tip 7: Pitch To The Right Crowd

Our final tip for selling quickly applies to sellers only: Make sure you pitch your product to the right crowd. 

That means posting your listing on a marketplace that targets your potential buyers (as we mentioned earlier), and it also means including specific information in your listing that makes it clear who your product is for. This will avoid wasting your time communicating with buyers who eventually realize that your item isn’t suitable for them. 

Some information that will help you to target the right crowd includes: 

• Your selling location
• Whether you can ship the item or whether it’s collect-only
• Whether your item requires special training to operate
• Whether your item is intended for specific use points (i.e. golf courses) 
• Maintenance requirements & costs

Including this information in your listing should help you to find buyers who are located within the right buying area, intend to buy the item for the right purpose, and have the right knowledge and experience to use your item.