How to sell online

Have you recently received some not too exciting gifts and want to try to get rid of them by earning some money? Do you have a passion for creating handmade objects and would like to sell your works, in order to supplement your salary? Well, in this case, you have to start selling online the products you make or the old gifts that would otherwise end up locked in the cellar. How do you say? Were you considering this possibility and you wonder if I can give you some advice on this? Of course; you came across the right tutorial at the right time!

There are many websites that, at almost negligible costs or even free, allow you to sell used items, start auctions and even open “virtual shops” in a few clicks. I refer, for example, to Subito.it, eBay or Etsy, which are some of the solutions I will tell you about in this guide of mine. What do you say, then, to give me a few minutes of your free time? I want to talk about them in detail and explain how to use them for sale. This is a great way to make money on the internet and I’m sure you can make some extra money out of it.

Courage: let’s roll up our sleeves together and see, in detail, how to publish ads for the sale of products online on these platforms that I just told you about. Read carefully the instructions that will follow, in order to identify the website that best suits your needs. Are you ready to get started? Yup? Very well! I wish you a good reading and a good sale!

Index

• Create an e-commerce
• Ad sites
  • it
  • Shpock
  • Kijiji
• Facebook Marketplace
• eBay
• Other sites to sell online

Create an e-commerce

If you are planning to open your own e-commerce, there are various solutions you can rely on. Personally, however, I recommend the use of a CMS coupled with solutions for the creation of online stores.

More specifically, I suggest you use WordPress (the most used CMS in the world for creating blogs and websites) in conjunction with the WooCommerce plugin, which allows you to create and manage e-commerce suitable for any volume of business in a handful of clicks.

To create an e-commerce based on WordPress and WooCommerce, you can choose to independently purchase an online space, a domain and manually install the CMS and the plugin or, if you want to simplify things a lot and also get numerous additional services, you can contact all-in-one solutions, such as Aruba Managed WooCommerce Hosting.

Aruba Managed WooCommerce Hosting includes the registration of a domain name with annual maintenance, unlimited space on SSD, a 2GB database on SSD with support for 200 connections and traffic of up to 500,000 monthly visitors and a WordPress installation with WooCommerce ready to use.

In addition, it includes a DV SSL certificate for secure HTTPS connections, automatic monitoring and backup, unlimited 1GB mailboxes, 10 PEC mailboxes on domain and much more.

The price of the service is 124.50 euros + VAT the 1st year and then 249.00 euros + VAT/year. To learn more, read my tutorial on Aruba Managed WooCommerce Hosting and visit official Aruba Managed WooCommerce Hosting site.

Another solution that you can consider is Shopify, a service within everyone’s reach, already used by over 1,000,000 stores around the world, which allows you to create e-commerce with unlimited products, unlimited secure hosting, unlimited bandwidth free, a free domain name shopify.com (with the possibility to buy a custom one or use an existing one in its replacement) and everything you need to manage orders, products, customers, payments, shipments, inventory, marketing campaigns via social network, email or SMS.

It also allows you to use the Facebook sales channel to synchronize your products with a catalog on Facebook, create marketing activities on the famous social network and take advantage of the Instagram Shopping function on Instagram. You can try Shopify for free for an initial trial period (with no obligation to renew or need to enter payment information), after which the service offers various plans starting at $ 29 / month.

To open your shop on Shopify, all you have to do is connect to the official website of the service, type your email address in the appropriate field and click on the Start free trial button. Then you have to fill in the new form that is proposed to you with password and name to use for the shop, you have to press the Create your shop button and indicate if you have already started selling, what are your current income, in which sector you want to operate and if you are creating a store for a customer.

Enter the information in question, click on the Next button and fill in the additional form that is proposed to you with the address to receive payments. Then, click on the Enter the store button and you can start setting up your e-commerce site. Find all the tools you need in the menu located on the left.

The Home item allows you to view the Shopify main menu; Orders allows you to manage orders; Products to manage products and add new ones; Customers to manage the customer list; Analysis to visualize sales data; Marketing to set up marketing campaigns on social networks, via email or SMS; Discounts to integrate discount codes in the store; App to expand the functions of e-commerce with apps, while clicking on Online store you can customize the appearance of the pages.

I also point out the availability of the Shopify app for Android (available on the Play Store and alternative stores ) and iPhone / iPad (available on the App Store ) to manage your store on the go. For more details, check out my tutorial on how to create an e-commerce with Shopify.

Ad sites

To sell unprofessionally online, I recommend that you first turn to the use of ad sites, which allow you to publish free advertisements to sell your products. These are solutions that facilitate contact with potential buyers; they can contact the seller and thus start a private negotiation.

Subito.it

The first classifieds site that I want to advise you to use is Subito.it, a historic Web portal that can also be used on  Android and iOS through a dedicated application, which allows you to publish advertisements for free and thus sell the most varied types of products and services (it is can be used to sell goods such as cars or real estate, but also to sell services and post job offers) There is no commission in the sale but registration is required for its use.

Then connect to the Subito.it home page and click on the Register button, which you can see at the top right: enter all the required data, referring to the text fields ( Your Email,  Password,  Birthday, Municipality and  Gender ), you agree to the terms and conditions of the service, by placing a checkmark on the words present, and then pressing the Confirm button. You will receive an email within a few minutes to activate your account: click on Confirm, in order to verify your profile and start publishing your ads.

Now, from the main page of the site, press the Insert ad button and, on the next screen, fill out the form you see on the screen in its entirety. From the Category drop-down menu, indicate the category of the product to sell (for example Car Accessories ), put a checkmark next to the item For sale, insert an image that represents the product (it is optional), type the title and the text of the announcement in the respective fields and then provide the information relating to you (your name and your telephone number that you can possibly hide by putting the checkmark on Hide number ). Once the operation is complete, press the Continue button.

On the next screen, check all the information of the advertisement and choose whether to use this service for free or to use one of the paid features for the publication of ads (for example, check the item Put back to top to select this option which serves to ensure greater visibility for the ad). The price of the mentioned feature (and other similar paid ad options) depends on how long the ad will be sponsored. As you can see, there are several other promotions ( Promo 2 in 1, for example) and the costs for them start from € 1.65 up to € 22.95.

To publish the announcement, press Continue and wait for it to be approved by the Subito.it staff. If so, you will receive an email confirming the publication.

Shpock

Initially known as a virtual market also accessible via a free application for Android and iOS, Shpock has become very famous due to your frequent use as a site to sell online, similar to Subito.it and Kijiji. Its main feature is that of being a web portal dedicated to the sale of second-hand items among people located nearby, although it is not exclusively aimed at this purpose. It is therefore frequently used for the sale of objects in private form throughout Italy, as it is possible to publish advertisements for free.

To use it, connected to its main page, press the Sell button located at the top right and then create an account, pressing the Login with Facebook or Login with Google buttons, to connect respectively with the Facebook or Google profile, or presses on the entry Log in with your Email + SMS. In the latter case you must fill out the registration form you see on the screen, indicating all the required data ( name, surname, email and password, among these), while the compilation of your profile takes place automatically, transferring with the Facebook or Google account.

Using the next form, enter all the information relating to the ad you want to create: use the text field below the item Title of the article,  to provide information on the sale of the product, enter all the information that describes the article in the text field below the item Description of the article and indicate the Category to which your ad belongs using the menu Choose a category, such as Electronics.

Now all you have to do is provide your location information (use the text field Enter your address and house number ) and then type the price at which you want to sell the asset in your possession, using the EUR text field.

If necessary, choose whether to share the ad on Facebook as well by placing the checkmark on the item Share and sell faster and finally press the Sell button to publish it. The announcement will be published on this website and potential buyers will be able to contact them privately to establish a bargain.

Kijiji

Another site that I recommend you consider selling online is Kijiji, a free classifieds portal that is part of the eBay group. Kijiji is also usable on mobile devices, by downloading the free app for Android and iOS .

The first thing you need to do is connect to the main page of the site and press the Insert button located at the top right (registration is not mandatory). On the next screen, fill in all the necessary data relating to the publication of the ad. First indicate the category  (for example Clothing and accessories ) and the municipality of sale, then type the title of the ad, specify if you are selling a product, placing the checkmark on the item I offer and then use the text fields Price and Description, to indicate respectively the price and the description of the product you want to sell.

Optionally, you can also upload images (maximum 8 photos of 4 MB each) and, finally, indicate your personal information: email, name and telephone (the latter is optional). Finally, make sure that there is a checkmark next to the wording relating to the terms of use and the privacy policy and then presses the Publish your ad button, located at the bottom. Within a few minutes you will receive an email from the site staff, at the address you provided, to approve your ad.

Ads posted on Kijiji can be sponsored for a fee to be more visible. The prices depend on the category of the same: starting from a minimum of 34 € per month for the activation of a Premium profile. For more information on costs, see the official Kijiji website.

Facebook Marketplace

An alternative solution is to use the instrument Marketplace of Facebook, functionality included within the social network (and also available through the app Facebook for Android and iOS ). To use this service dedicated to the sale of various types of objects, registration to the social network is required and you must also be of legal age.

To use Facebook Marketplace, then connect to the official Facebook website and log in to the social network or proceed with the registration, following the instructions I have given you in my dedicated tutorials.

Once logged in, press the Marketplace item, located in the left sidebar, then press the Sell ​​something button that you can always see on the left. Now, fill out the form for the publication of an ad, indicating, in the next screen, all the information necessary for the sale: the type of item to sell ( What do you sell? ), The price ( Price ) and the category ( Select a category ), such as Furniture.

Finally add the description, using the text field Describe your article, press the button with the symbol of a painting, to add the photos to attach to the ad (maximum 10) and press the Publish button, to confirm the publication

The sale on Facebook Marketplace is managed privately: the interested user can contact you via private message to request more information.

Using the Facebook application for mobile devices, the Facebook Marketplace sales tool can be used by pressing the button with the symbol of a house from the bottom bar and then on the item What do you sell. Finally presses on the items Items for sale, Vehicles for sale, Accommodation for rent/sale or Job offers, in order to fill in the relevant ad form, as I explained to you in the previous lines.

For more info on Facebook Marketplace and how it works, see the tutorial I dedicated to the service.

eBay

eBay is a very popular auction site that can also be used to post ads with the “Buy Now” formula. It is available for use from its official website but also from mobile devices, by downloading the free application for  Android and iOS.

The publication of ads on eBay is free but there are some paid features, which I will talk about in the following lines, and in addition there is a commission applied, in case of sale, equal to 11.5% of the amount collected (to which you must add a commission of 0.35 euros per transaction + taxes on shipping costs).

To post an ad on eBay, connect to its home page and, first of all, create an account. Then click on the Register button located at the top left and then fill out the form with all the required data ( Name,  Surname,  Email address and  Password ). Finally, press the Subscribe button.

Once registration is complete, take an additional step to associate a payment method with your account, so you can start selling. Since the agreement between eBay and PayPal expired in 2021, which led eBay to remove PayPal as the default payment tool on its platform, provide the details of the bank account on which you intend to receive payments from your buyers. You can do this by going to this page, logging into your account (if required) and, once you click on the Continue button, indicate the IBAN  (including a prepaid one) and all other required data. Then click on the Submit button.

Once this is done, click on the Sell button that you can see at the top and, first of all, enter the description of the object, using the text field Describe the object offered for sale and then click on the Start button. Now complete the other information relating to the announcement by entering, the title, the subtitle, verifying the category and indicating all the required information, such as the condition of the object, the specifications and all the details concerning the sale, including the format, duration and price of the same.

Regarding the format of the sale, click on the Online Auction drop-down menu to see the available options: the Online Auction is an auction with a set duration ( 1, 3, 5, 7 or 10 days ) that presents a price starting point, a buy it now price and a reserve price. Simply put, using this sales format, you will be auctioning an item with a starting price. This will be sold at the price offered at the end of the auction or upon reaching a minimum amount ( reserve price); However, buyers can immediately buy the sold item, buying it at the buy it now price.

The Buy It Now sales format is a way to sell an item at a fixed price. In this case, it is necessary to indicate the price of the asset that you want to sell, but also possibly the possibility of receiving a purchase proposal. This means that buyers can offer the seller a lower economic offer than the set price that the seller can accept or reject.

Before publishing the ad, therefore check the cost of the same: some options such as the subtitle are paid and you can therefore consult the section dedicated to eBay fees for more information. At the end of the compilation, presses the button Put for sale at the rates shown to publish the ad. For more information on how eBay works, read my guide dedicated to the subject.

Other sites to sell online

Those I have told you about are just some of the most popular solutions for selling products and services online. If the web portals indicated by me have not been able to meet your needs, do not worry; I want to tell you about other valid solutions in the following lines.

• Etsy– is the portal dedicated to the sale of handmade products. This Internet site allows you to publish paid advertisements at low prices, after creating an account ( Register button from the home page). The ad serving fee is € 0.17, there is a transaction fee of 5% of the sale price which is also applied to shipping. In addition, there is an additional payment handling fee of 4% + € 0.30. For more information on rates, I recommend that you consult the page published on the official website. The site can also be used on mobile devices, by downloading the free application for  Android and iOS. For more information, check out my guide on how to sell on Etsy.
• Bakeca– is another site for posting advertisements related to the sale of products and services. Its operation is, in general, similar to Kijiji and it; moreover, for the publication of the announcement, registration is not necessary but just press the Insert announcement button, located at the top right of the home page. For the publication of the announcement all the requested information must be entered, such as the title of the announcement, the category, the description and the price.
• AutoScout24– is one of the most used websites for the sale of cars, motorcycles, campers and other used vehicles. To publish the announcement, you need to create a free account (click on the My AutoScout24 button from the home page and then on Register now ), after which you can use the publication form by clicking on the Insert button on the home page of the site. The publication of the ad is free for the sale of cars, motorcycles and scooters, while it is paid for caravans or campers and for commercial vehicles. For more information on how this portal works, read my guide on how to post an ad on AutoScout24 or the one in which I explain how to edit an ad on AutoScout24.