Profiting from Fashion Vault

eBay officially launched its new Fashion Vault service this week, after running the system as a trial for several months. How do you sell on eBay Fashion Vault?

Chances are you can’t – unless you’re what eBay calls a “trusted seller” who are “authorized by the brand to sell their merchandise. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t profit from the new “flash sale” site where designer fashions are on sale at fixed prices for 48 to 72 hours.

How? By giving shoppers a taste of the same big-name clothes that start at prices of 50% or more off retail. eBay said recently that it already shifts more fashion than any other website.

According to eBay’s president of marketplace operations, Lorrie Norrington, the new Fashion Vault service helps to “position eBay as a premiere fashion shopping destination for customers looking for incredible selection at great value.” So here are six tips on how to sell designer fashions on eBay, so that you can profit from the huge advertising spending eBay is investing to bring fashion-conscious shoppers to the website this spring.

1. Sign up for the Fashion Vault newsletter, for advance notice of the brands that are going on sale on eBay. If you have the same brands in your closet, list them at the same time as the scheduled Fashion Vault sales.

2. If you have similar fashions from another maker – for example, if you can offer a lower price on a strapless print dress with the same look as the Woven Poison Ivy dress featured in this week’s Fashion Vault sale, mention the Fashion Vault price with a link to that auction in your listing.

3. Watch the brands and styles that are selling well in Fashion Vault – and look for similar styles from the same or similar brands when you’re scouting for items to resell on eBay. Use the “show completed listings” function in eBay’s search function to show you what sold – and what didn’t.

4. Take advantage of the need for fashion-forward style in sizes you won’t normally find on the Paris runways. Most of the items in the Fashion Vault come in sizes 0-10 only – but the average American woman is a size 12-14. So if you can offer high-style in larger fashion – especially designer labels in large sizes – you may be able to reach a large audience who can’t buy from the Fashion Vault.

5. The photos featured in the Fashion Vault listings are sometimes provided by the designer label, so they’re a good example of the kinds of photos that help to sell fashion. Don’t have a high-fashion model to wear your clothes for the photo shoot? That’s ok – but notice that most clothing photographed for the Fashion Vault listings are taken against a neutral background, where nothing competes with the item being sold.

6. Check out the expert advice on what sells on eBay, and consider consigning your designer clothing and accessories to maximize the selling price and give them the benefit of expert listing writers and photographers.

The experts at any of the five Easysale consignment stores in Addison, Arlington, Dallas, Plano or Southlake can help you sort through your designer items, to select those that have the best chance of selling on eBay – and make sure that each item is a legitimate, real item rather than a knock-off. (You can’t always tell by looking at a label, but the experienced valuations experts at Easysale can tell by matching the item against the known qualities of a genuine designer item.)

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/weddingdream/ / CC BY-ND 2.0