Episode #17: ‘What are the requirements you need to sell components like airbags on eBay?’

I know many of you are not aware of the requirements to become approved to sell components like airbags on eBay.

What are they?

• Well, firstly, you need to make sure that the product, the airbag hasn't been recalled. And obviously, that's, you know, quite topical from an airbag perspective, because of the Takata recall that happened over the past four or five years. So, you need to have a process in place where you can check for recalls.

• And secondly, you need to be able to demonstrate or document the fact that they have been checked, and that you as the seller certifies that the airbag you're advertising does not have an active recall on it at the time of sale.

So ultimately - I think it's an amazing opportunity.

I would suggest that you look into setting up a standard operating procedure and putting it in place so that you can check for recalls on any part really, but on airbags in particular.

When you have a process in place you should actually document that in the listing. This does two things.

• One, it allows you to sell it. It gives whatever online portal you are using to sell, for example in this case, eBay, the comfort that you've done the right thing by the consumer.

• Secondly, it gives the buyer comfort that you've done the checking to keep them safe. Another way to build trust. A lot of this is about building trust. Between you and the buyer and between your product and the buyer. Checking for that recall and documenting it on the listing is critical to this.

We do a lot of listings for a lot of different companies around the world: USA, UK, US, Australia, New Zealand. And what we're doing now is we're setting up a standard operating procedure with all of our customers that want to sell those types of components. We make sure we put that wording in that the seller certifies that the product they're selling has not been recalled.

And also, from an airbag perspective in particular, it's considered dangerous goods. It's explosive. So you need to make sure that you also document that the product will not be shipped through normal freight - that you'll be packaging it accordingly in an anti-static bag and the proper boxing.

So we are putting that in place with all our listing team and deploying that for all of our customers that wish to sell airbags, and we'd recommend that you do that as well.

One of the other opportunities is for those of our customers using the All Auto Recalls system, they are taking screenshots now of the recall check from the system and if there is no recall on that product they add it to the photos in the listing so that the customer can see at a glance that the part that they are currently buying, let's say an airbag, has not been recalled. It always pays to addf important info into the images as that's often where buyers are scrolling first rather than reading the fine print.

So have a think about it and consider doing that to up your listings quality.

I think it's really high value. As I said airbags sell really well so you might want to give it a go.

I look forward to sending any more information that we become aware so look out for more videos from me.