Seven Online Estate Sale Tips

We have put together a list of seven tips that can help make managing online estate sales easier. Many of these tips we have heard directly from companies that are currently selling online.

1. Preprepared Emails

Online estate sales come with a lot of emails. Whether you are replying to questions about an item, setting up local pickup, negotiating price, or setting up a payment. It can get overwhelming fast. We highly recommend creating prebuilt email templates that you can slightly edit and then send. This can significantly speed up the time spent creating new emails.

2. Including Phone Number

Ensure that you clearly indicate in the sale description if you welcome phone calls instead of emails about items. If you would welcome phone calls, be sure to include your phone number in an easy to see spot. You could even include the number on each item description. Remember, like emails, this can become overwhelming, so make sure you have a plan in place for how you will handle these phone calls.

3. Clear Pickup Instructions

Clear and concise pickup instructions can significantly reduce the number of questions you may have to answer when pickup time comes around. Make sure to include the pickup time window, the day or days you are allowing pickup, if they need to bring help or not, details about parking, and how large items can be picked up.

4. Make Payment Options Clear

Clearly state how you will handle payment and the forms of payment you take. Will you square away payment in person, or does payment need to be made before pickup? Do you take credit cards by phone? Will you need to take the credit card in person? Do you only accept cash? Including how you collect payment is essential to limit confusion. You can do this easily by clearly including it in your invoice email to buyers. Also, make sure to include it in the sale description and terms and conditions.

5. Be Prepared for People Not To Read

We all are bad about skimming things, and our customers do the same. Make sure to include important information in more than one place. Include on picture descriptions, in the sale description, along with emails and invoices. Over-communication is key.

6. Make more options for people to pick up

At this time, online estate sales can run for up to six weeks. This is a long time to wait for your items if you purchase them on week one. Consider offering multiple pickup times during the sale. This can significantly reduce the lag time between when an item is purchased and when the customer receives it.

7. Use a signup service for scheduling Pickups

Scheduling and managing pickup times can be challenging. Because of this, we highly suggest using a scheduling service such as Signup Genious or SignUp.com to make it easier. A service like this allows you to set specific times that your customers can choose from for pickup. It will let you know who is coming and when they are coming, limit the number of people at one-time picking up, and limit the interaction time.