As I write this post it is almost 9pm here in the UK, and we still have clear skies and it is still very warm outside. In the distance you can hear children playing in the gardens and people mowing their lawns and having barbeque’s. Is summer here ? In a matter of days the Football World Cup will be on the TV, and following on from that we have Tennis. And in a matter of weeks children will be breaking up for their holidays.

Now you may be thinking what on earth has the above got to do with eBay and e-commerce. Well in one way it has got nothing at all to do with selling on line or off line, or eBay. But if we take a closer look it has everything to do with selling. While the sun is shining and the weather is hot, people are out side enjoying barbeque’s, spending time doing their gardens and going for long country walks. They are not interested in what is happening on the internet and when we couple that with these major sporting events on TV sales are well down, we just need to watch our timings of when we finish the auctions.

For instances if we normally decide to finish auctions at 9pm in the UK we should look at moving them to a 10pm finishing time. If you have several of the same item, try finishing them at say 8pm, 9pm, and 10pm and do a test. You could turn some of the auctions into Buy It Now’s, you just need to find what is more suitable for the niche you are selling in to. Something else you could try is finishing your auctions over a lunchtime period. You just need to test, test and test.

If most of your auctions and items are aimed at men you do need to make a note on your calander of all the times when England are playing, and do not have auctions finish during that time period while the match is on. You could try finishing them before the match or after – or even not have them finish on that day. Now I did say auctions aimed at men, but there a lot of women out there who love football, so just plan and do not loose out on sales, because you have 100 items finishing during an England match. (Please not while I am writing this from a UK angle, the format will work for every country who has major sporting events on, or who has a team in the World Cup).

In closing I just want to point out for those not into sport or gardens, now is a good time to be on the look out for some cheap items going on eBay. Cheap because they have not read, this article and are sitting there thinking – normally my item sells for £10.00, why today did it go for £0.99……………. Maybe because England were playing in their opening game, and there were only a few people bidding. Take care, and watch those times and keep a diary of all these major events around the world.