Not everyone has benefit of an item to auction with a perfect eBay category waiting such as “Barbie Contemporary.”

Here’s a simple research process you can use to increase your chances of success. Search for similar items and see what categories they’re in. If they’re scattered across a few different categories, look for categories where bids are being made. Bids matter, listings don’t. Just keep in mind that bids could be result of other factors such as price, desirability and condition. Also, look at performance of seller. If she’s a power seller she probably has an understanding of which categories work best for her auctions.

But what if your item doesn’t seem to fit anywhere? What if nobody else is auctioning something similar? Get to know eBay’s “Everything Else” category. Is there a fit for your item in “Gifts and Occasions” or one of three subcategories in “Weird Stuff?”

These areas get high levels of traffic. Specifically there are a lot of browsers and your item may catch some attention here.

Just like in-person shopping, making online shopping easy and painless is key to getting customers to purchase from your store. Advertisement Let's examine internet shopping process from start to finish exposing some places in process that your store may have a squeaky cart.

Make Product Easy to Find Offer a search capability if your store has a large number of products. Most buyers don't have patience to wade through 20 pages of products to find what they want.

Share Availability Early On Now that customer has found product, let them know that it is in stock and ready to ship. Right on product page or when they place it in their shopping cart let customer know their purchase can be on its way soon. Don't wait until after they've placed order to tell them it will be another 6-8 weeks.