There is a gold mine on eBay that is often neglected and overlooked, and that gold mine is repeat customers. A repeat customer is someone that buys from you more than once and sometimes on a regular basis. Repeat customers can become true assets to your business and be responsible for a large chunk of your monthly sales.

A fact is that it is much easier and less expensive to keep an existing customer than attract a new customer. If someone that buys from you is extremely happy with the product and the transaction as a whole they are likely to buy from you again. That is the obvious way to attract repeat customers, make them happy.

This is why good service is so important (in any business) and making people happy is a major part in becoming a successful seller on eBay. You need to make your customers happy, if you don't you will get a ton of negative feedback and will soon be out of business.

And just by providing people with good service and making them happy you will earn their trust and respect, some of these people will come back and become repeat customers. But where will they come back to? You need to be easy to find, you need a place where your customers can come back to.

That is why you need an eBay store with a .com or .net domain name. An eBay store gives you a location where your best customers can come visit you, it makes it easy to find you. All they have to do is type your web address into their web browser.

But even if you provide great service and make all of your customers happy you are still missing out on a gold mine. Great service is not always enough to get customers to come back and buy from you again. If you want to uncover the goldmine you will need to try a little harder than that.

The reason most sellers miss out on the gold mine of repeat customers is because they either don't know what a repeat customer is or they rely on their good service to attract repeat customers. Good service is definitely important in getting people to come back and buy from you again but it isn't enough.

You can't just let people go and expect them to come back; you need to give them reasons to come back. Let me explain why you absolutely need a system to attract repeat customers...

First let's talk about potential customers. Potential customers are people that visit your listings, eBay store and website. Whoever they are there is the potential for them to become one of your customers. That is why your listings, eBay store and website should be designed to draw them in by gaining their trust, making them comfortable, growing their desire, giving them a 100% money back guarantee and making it easy for them to pay for the product they want.

That's what all those graphics, photos, clear descriptions and super listings are for...to make people buy. Once a person buys and you satisfy them with your superior service, they become your customer. And that is where the gold mine is located, your customers.

Your customers are more likely to buy from you than any other group of people out there, your customers have no doubts about buying from you, they are comfortable with you and they trust you. You don't need to impress them with flashy graphics or try to gain their trust.

They are already impressed and already trust you. Your customers are the most likely people to buy from you, why would you let them get away!? It is so much easier to sell a product to someone that already knows you and trusts you than it is to sell a product to a complete stranger.

In your customers you have a group of people that trusts you and has nothing but memories of pleasant experiences when they hear from you, what group of people could be better to sell to? First of all you will need to capture the contact information (eBay ID, email, mail address, phone # etc.) of every single one of your customers.

This will be easy to do since you will be given that information every time someone buys from you. Once you get peoples contact information you should store it on your computer. To actually take advantage of this gold mine and turn you customers into repeat customers you can't just sit around and expect them to make the choice to come back themselves.

You have to go after them, you have to give them reasons to come back! That is why you need to store all of your customer's contact information. You need to give all of your customers' reasons to come back! What kind of reasons? The reasons you give them can be in the form of gifts, discounts, coupons, free shipping or you can even make them feel like they owe you another sale!

Reason # 1: after you receive payment from one of your first time buyers, send them a coupon that will save them money on their next purchase. The coupon can be sent by email, it doesn't have to be an actual paper coupon. It can be in the form of a small digital coupon or simply a number that the customer can type in the next time they buy.

Coupons that will save the customer money with their next purchase are a good reason to come back and buy from you again. It also gives a good reason for customer's next purchase to buy from you and not your competition.

Reason # 2: free shipping is also a good reason you can give for your customers to come back to you. Some people never use coupons, they might think it's cheap of embarrassing to take out a coupon in from of everyone. So even though your coupon may be digital they still might not use it.

Free shipping is not a coupon, it's free shipping. Shipping charges are a big pain in the butt for eBay buyers and it's almost like paying taxes. If you offer free shipping with the customer's next purchase, it can be a great bonus that the customer will want to take advantage of.

You don't have to give the customer free express shipping or overnight shipping which can be extremely expensive. You just have to offer free shipping, it's up to you if it's fast or slow. Reason # 3: you are having a special promotion for people that have bought products from you.

The promotion can give discounts, gifts, or special prize if the customer decides to come back and buy again. As you can see all you are really offering the customer is savings, savings in different categories, savings in different ways. The most important part is not always the reason you give, but how you give it.

Some ways are just more effective than others when trying to persuade the customer to come back and buy from you again. There are also tricks that make the customer more open to your offers. So how is it that you present the reasons for coming back? First of all, let’s look at what happens when you try and sell something to someone.

You are on offense the prospect is on defense. If you think about it, it's almost like an argument. You are trying to prove to your prospect that they need what you are selling, and your prospect is defending them selves from your attacks. It can go on like this for a long time and the sales person (you) usually loses.

Can you see what's wrong with that? It's almost like a fight, you are on completely opposite sides. What happens when a salesman comes to your door? You are probably against him right from the start, because he isn't envied and all he wants is your money. That is why it can be hard to sell stuff to people. You go on offense and the prospect goes on defense, automatically.

There is a simple way to disarm your customers of their defenses, you have already done part of the disarming when you made them happy with their product and provided them with excellent service. Now its time to disarm them completely! Now you must go in for the kill…

Disarming your customers: The key to disarming your customers is to be on their side, not against them. If you simply send them an email that says "buy this!" they will automatically play defense. What you need to do is get them to let their guard down, so you can go in for the sneak attack. Here are some examples of how you can do this:

1. Send a coupon in a couple of days after the customer receives their product. Send them a nice email that thanks them for their purchase and asks them how the like the product. Make sure you ask the something like "are there any problems with the product?" and "is there anything else we can do to make you happy?"

Do NOT offer anything for sale in this email, the only thing you can include that is related to selling is a discount coupon. Make sure your email is sincere and you don't try and sell anything in it. You want to sound like a friend or at least a person who really cares about their customers. Make sure you sign your name at the bottom, not the company name. People befriend other people, not companies.

2. As a week or two passes after you have sent your customer the first email, send them another email. This email, this one should say that you have just sent the customer a small gift that they should receive shortly by mail. Don't say what the gift is; say it is a surprise and you are sure they will love it.

What is the gift? Something small but thoughtful, something you can buy bulk from eBay for $0.10 per item. What could that something be? I have seen a box of small outdoors knives go for about $0.07 per knife, they were in boxes of 100 knives.

Can you imagine what a great gift those knives would be if you were selling outdoors equipment!? All you have to do is do a search on eBay for "wholesale lot" and you will most probably be able to find the gift you will be sending all of your customers.

When you send the gift don't try and sell the customer anything, just send it with a nice note that tells them how much you appreciate their business. Make sure to call the customer by name in the note you send along with the small gift, this way the note will look more personal instead of something your company does automatically X amount of days after a customer buys something.

Just by doing the above 2 steps you will have disarmed your customer. You have already satisfied their needs when they bought from you, you send a sincere email asking what else you can do for them and you actually sent them a gift free of charge without asking for anything in return!

You are not the enemy any longer! The customer no longer needs to go on defense when they hear from you because all you do is send them things that are welcome, not unwanted. By doing these 2 steps you will implant yourself in your customers mind as a good, honest, professional and thoughtful businessperson.

And if the customer does decide they need something you sell, there will only be one place to buy it...your place. You will not only be forever implanted in the customers mind, but the customer might even feel as if they owe you another sale. It’s human nature for them to feel the need to reciprocate your kindness.

3. The above 2 steps are already enough to turn your customers into repeat customers, but there is still 1 more step. What you have to do next is quite simple and profitable. Send your customer a list of all your products, you can send it by email or by regular mail (email is faster, regular mail is more personal and is more likely to get read as long as it doesn’t look like junk mail).

Send them a personal letter asking if they liked the free gift and how they are doing. I n this letter, ask your customer more personal questions like "how is your family doing" or "how have you been?" Remember, by now the customer is already quite familiar with you and won't mind those kinds of questions being asked.

Do NOT try and sell the customer anything. Simply say at the end of your letter that you have included a product list that includes the fixed prices of every product you sell in your eBay store, and say "oh and by the way, the prices you see on the sheet are for everyone else, you get a special discount"

By not trying to sell the customer anything but simply including the product list, you will appear more like a friend than a sales person. This way the customer won't have to play any defense, because you aren't asking for anything. You are simply including some information the customer might like to know.

Buy now you will have completely snuck in under your customers self defense radar. Instead of getting in your customers face with annoying offers he/she doesn't want you have planted an idea in the customer’s head. An idea to buy from you again. The idea was not forced onto the customer, it wasn't even a suggestion; all you did was let the customer know what items you sell, and that's it.

There is something you should ask of your customer, something that can make you extra money but doesn't require the customer to spend a penny: spread the word. Ask the customer to tell their friends about you, ask it nicely and not forcefully.

This is extremely effective in attracting new customers, because the potential buyers will be hearing about you from their friend! What you want your customers to do is not only come back and buy from you again but to tell their friends to do the same.

If one of your customers tell their friends you are the best, they are ten times more likely to believe it then if you simply claimed to be the best. And that is how you can take advantage of the goldmine right under your nose. Remember that providing good service alone will make customers come back to buy from you again.

But if on top of good service you give your customers reasons to come back. You will attract a lot more repeat customers, make more money, and spread the word about your great business without much effort. It's definitely worth the trouble to email your customers a couple of times.

NOTE: Actual eBay PowerSellers use the techniques above to gain repeat customers. And some sellers insist on contacting the customer after the purchase up to 50 times, others even insist you should never stop contacting the customer.

If your business becomes too large to personally contact each customer on a regular basis, then you need to get an autoresponder service which will allow you to collect information from your customers and send personalized responses at specified intervals, all on autopilot. The best and most reliable service on the web is probably Aweber.