Why Keywords Still Count on eBay and in Search

Why Keywords Still Count
Keys to making the 55 characters in your listing title add up to profit

What's in a word? Well, when it comes to the titles of the items you post for sale or bid on eBay, there could be gold in them thar' words—or not. The truth is your potential to get your item seen—or, better yet, bid on, or purchased—depends upon how well you choose your words.

In listings on eBay, "keywords" are those words and terms that buyers search for, found within your listing title. If you haven't given much thought to this aspect of marketing your goods, or if you wonder whether you're making optimum use of your item titles, consider these keys to choosing keywords, why they're critical to your sales success and why you should literally make every word count.

Understanding searches and indexing
At eBay (as well as within the major online search portals), listings are "indexed" in a search engine that identifies the words within the item title. When a user performs a search using a particular word or term, the search engine uses the index to locate and return a listing of items that match the user's search terms.

You're listing in the vast sea of offerings at eBay. Your challenge is to be seen among the millions of other items up for bid or sale.

55 characters or less
When you list on eBay, your listing title is limited to 55 characters, including spaces. Each word needs to serve a purpose, both as an effective search keyword and also as an accurate descriptor of your item for sale. Yes, you'll want to include a bit of marketing "pull" in your title to help encourage potential buyers to take a closer look.

For now, begin crafting your title to include as many pertinent keywords shoppers are likely to search for. Here, you need to know your commodity well, and know what terms buyers are using to locate these sorts of items. Review other active listings or closed listings to see what words others have used—did those words translate into a sale? Also, look for effective keyword combinations and other details that will help your listing get more hits.

As a guiding principle, you'll want to include as much of the following information within your listing title:

• Brand name
• Item origin
• Year (or period) of production
• Manufacturer
• Item color, size and other descriptive attributes
• Item condition

While that may seem like more than can be communicated within 55 characters, consider this example:

Polar Lights Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine model kit 2000 MISB

In the above example, a model kit of the iconic Mystery Machine van from the Scooby-Doo cartoon is being offered. Note that the title includes manufacturer (Polar Lights), item identification (Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine), item type (model kit), year of production (2000) and item condition (MISB, or Mint In Sealed Box). And, after all of that, there are still four characters of the available 55 left to use.

Don't get cute
Simply enough, don't waste valuable title space on words that do little to describe your item or properly identify it to buyers. Useless words like "cute," "adorable," "desirable" and the like often do little to help attract, let alone convince, any buyer. Words like "rare," "hard to find" and so on are not only unneeded (especially when buyers are already aware of the scarcity of an item) but they can also expose a seller's misguided (or, at best, misunderstood) attempt to wrangle a higher price. And, visual come-ons like "L@@K" and its sort are nothing short of obnoxious and should be avoided always.

Remember you're working to specify recognizable and understandable terms within your item titles, the sort that search engines have indexed and for which buyers are searching.

Condensed blog post from Auctiva Education

Auctiva is an eBay Certified Solutions Provider offering listing management solutions and features for beginner -to mid-to high-volume eBay sellers.

What To Do if eBay Sales Are Down

Blog post by Debbie Levitt, CEO of As Was

What To Do if eBay Sales Are Down

A client called today saying his April eBay sales were down. I said how we fix this depends on the answer to this question: Are your items getting lots of hits? The answer changes my advice.

If your items are not getting a decent amount of hits, then one (or both) of two things are going on:

• Demand may be down. Maybe your item is seasonal. Maybe the newest hottest one just came out, and people really want that. What to do about this: Not much. You can't make people want an item they don't want. I hear this all the time from people who buy liquidation stock, and find out that people kinda don't want what they happened to buy. That's not a blanket statement; plenty of liquidation stock is VERY successful on eBay. My point is that you can't make people want an item they do not want.

• Something is wrong with your listing strategy that is keeping people who want your item from finding yours. This can range from strategy mistakes you might be making to issues with how eBay sorts you in search results. What to do about this: Check your Seller Dashboard. Check what may be holding you back, and fix that. We'll cover more of that in another post. But these should be things you CAN change.

If your items are getting a decent amount of hits, but not really getting sales, that tends to mean that people want your item but for some reason don't want YOURS from you. Reasons might include:

• Something about your item is not what people expected. For example, I've been searching laptop batteries lately. Most of the items in search results are not clear about the mAh rating for the batteries. So I am hitting a LOT of items, but I am leaving when I realise that they are half the power of my existing "standard" battery. I'd like something the same power or a more extended life. What to do about this: Build more info into your title. You can also build into into item specifics and the subtitle. In my case, if someone had shown the mAh in the title or subtitle, I wouldn't have bothered looking at low-powered batteries.

• Something about your listing is turning them off. Not enough pictures, not good/focused pictures. Unclear policies or too many policies that people don't want to read. Fear of what's hidden in the fine print. What to do about this: You can fix this. Clean up your listings. Take better pictures. Make sure your pics tell the story of what this is and the condition it's in. Revise your policies to be more organised, clearer, and in an order that makes sense to eBay shoppers (shipping first). Not everybody who has a question will ask it. Some will just hit their back button. And even if they ask a question, while they wait for your answer, they might hit the back button, and shop your competitors.

• Your listing design and organisation could be turning people off. Some listings look very unprofessional... clip art, lots of wacky font colours, everything centred, and Comic Sans can make people think you're a small nobody. What to do about this: Revise your listing. Create a template that is organised. Don't try to design your text. Let your info be info. Let your design be design. If you have no design, still let your info be info, and don't try to design it. Make info easy to read and professional-looking.

And as always, hire a pro if you could use more help! :)

This is where we start when looking at why people are having issues with eBay sales. It starts by knowing if you're getting hits, so make sure you are using a (hidden) counter.

Founded in 1995, As Was is a full-service consulting firm specializing in branding, design, sales and marketing strategies, operations management, and training. As Was is an eBay Certified Service Provider and has been working with eBay sellers since 2001.

4 Surefire Ways to Make More Money on eBay This Spring

Blog post by Lisa Suttora, CEO & Founder of WhatDoISell.com

4 Surefire Ways to Make More Money on eBay This Spring

Spring has sprung and so have online sales! We’ll be hearing about the March ecommerce sales figures in the coming weeks, but early indicators reveal that an early Easter and the arrival of spring weather will bring a boost of online retail sales in the neighborhood of 8-10% over 2009.

For eBay sellers, spring also brought with it some major changes to the way business is transacted on eBay. With the end of the Store Inventory Listing Format, millions of items formerly nestled away in eBay stores, saw the dawn of a new day in eBay’s core search.

For many eBay sellers, the inclusion of “store in core” has been a boon for sales. Many people are finding that inventory they’ve had sitting on their virtual store shelves for two years is now selling.

Other sellers who had enjoyed a sole position in core, while their competitors left their listings in store, have seen their categories explode with many competing products alongside theirs where none were before.

But there’s no doubt about it. No matter what changes you’ve seen in your sales on eBay over the past week or so, with the eBay changes and the arrival of spring, it’s time to refresh your strategy!

Today we’re going to look at 4 ways to get started doing just that!

1. Put Your Spring and Summer Merchandise Front and Center

Walk into any brick and mortar retailer these days and you’ll see the signs of spring. Brightly colored signs, spring products in the hot new colors and a fresh array of merchandise to choose from. Spring is a time or renewal and rebirth, and people are wired for that. They’re also very ready to make new purchases for spring and summer. And the eBay seller who actively markets their spring and summer products is the one who increases their sales! Unfortunately, I see many eBay stores and listings that are not doing any spring marketing at all. Even worse, holiday messages and graphics remain. Fall and winter categories are featured in stores and spring merchandise is buried in sea of fall and winter products.

Take a look at your store and listings. Will customers be excited by what they see when they land on your eBay pages?

2. “Top Up” Your Store Categories

If visitors to your eBay store can’t find your new merchandise, they won’t become buyers. And part of putting your new spring merchandise front and center is rearranging your eBay store categories so that the new in-season categories are featured at the top. Many people list their categories in alphabetical order, but by doing that, you relegate your Spring and Summer merchandise to the bottom of your category list where no one will find it!

Keep in mind that a shopper’s focus is going to be “above the fold” which means you have to engage them with what’s on their screen BEFORE you can get them to scroll down to see what else you are offering. Always put your most popular 5 or so eBay store categories and in-season categories at the top of your store category list. If you have a lot of categories, once you feature your top 5-7 categories you can continue your category list alphabetically.

3. Use Subtitles for Marketing not Product Details

eBay subtitles are the best marketing deal on the web IF you use them for the right purpose. eBay listing subtitles should be used for one thing only – MARKETING. Think of eBay listing subtitles as the banner you hang outside your store or the sign you place on a product that tells people what makes that product different, unique or special than everything else the customer is being offered.

Two important things that every eBay seller must know. eBay listing subtitle keywords are not included in core search, this means that if you are putting item specific keyword data into your subtitle in the hopes that it will help people find your products, it does not contribute at all to that purpose.

For marketing purposes you want to craft what we call in marketing a USP (Unique Selling Position) or a “headline” – that will make people do ONE thing… and that is CLICK on your listing and go to your listing description page.

A listing subtitle has ONE purpose – to get a prospective buyer to CLICK on your listing and go to your listing description page where you then display the product information that will convert that browser into a buyer!

So what should go in your listing subtitle? Anything that showcases what’s different about your product or service. The thing that sets you apart from every other seller. Maybe, you’re selling a “Limited Edition Platinum Retro 60 Series”. Maybe your product is an “Exclusive Set. Only Available on eBay”. Maybe you are fortunate to carry an item that is “In Stock with Same Day Shipping. Sold Out In Stores”. Maybe your item is “Eligible for Bing Cashback”. Or the product your carry is “Winner of the Top 10 Toy Awards”. In many categories these days “We Ship Worldwide” is a USP – there are a lot of eBay sellers who no longer ship worldwide. (Which is the subject for another blog post.) Or your item is “100% Made in the USA”.

4. Use eBay’s Search Visibility Analysis Tool to test and track your strategies

The most important key to success when running a business on eBay or anywhere else is to know what works for your business. Each business has so many variables to it, that you have to apply the strategies and then test them and track them to make sure that they are right for you. eBay’s Search Visibility Analysis Tool will help you test and track changes you make to your listings as well as view the impact they have on your ranking in eBay’s Best Match. For example, the tool will show you how many times your listing has been displayed to buyers and the number of times a buyer has clicked-through to view your listing description. This information is critical to determining why your listings are or are not selling. If shoppers aren’t clicking on your listing, they definitely aren’t buying. With the Search Visibility Analysis Tool, you can pinpoint where the problem in the process is and make changes accordingly.

We’ll we’ve just covered four solid business strategies to increase your sales this spring. There’s only one thing left to do now… apply what you’ve learned and implement!

This article has been condensed. Read the full article here.

Since 2004, Lisa Suttora of WhatDoISell.com has provided thousands of online sellers with the skills, knowledge and support they need to build a unique, thriving business on eBay.

Use Research to Understand Your Competition and Improve eBay Sales by Vendio

Article from Vendio's Vendable Blog

Understand, then Challenge your eBay Competition

Recent eBay changes are now including eBay Store inventory in the main or core search. With this change, it is much more important to understand your competition on eBay. Remaining (or becoming) competitive is truly the only way to achieve success when selling commodity items.

For one-of-a-kind items, auctions still remain the best bet, but for commodity items, you’ll need to stand out from the crowd.

To understand your competition, it's all about research..research and research.

Vendio Research provides competitive data on a seller or product level and it’s a great place to start when developing your competitive strategy.

On a product level (researching by product), you’ll be able to view at a glance all the pricing data and recommendations for listing successfully. In addition, you can view keywords that should be used to drive a products success (what terms are buyers using to FIND the product) and on a competitive level, you’ll be able to see the top sellers by product and view the details on what makes them successful. This will give you great insight. Find out when and how they are listing their items and at what price. Do they charge shipping or offer free shipping? Use the information to create a listing strategy that really works for your product.



In addition to product research, you can type in your competitor’s eBay user ID to get the same great information on a seller level (vs. a product level). You can view their overall strategy and see what’s really driving their success.

I can’t show all the graphs that are available (or this blog post would be loaded with Images). However, you can see from the image that you can view the graphs and trends for many different areas (average selling price, keywords, time of day, categories, etc.).

While Research gives you the “numbers and data”, it does not account for the other reasons a seller may or may not be successful, such as customer service, attractiveness of the listing and policies.

Use Research to actually look at the successful listings and determine how you can improve on what you see.

Can you make your policies friendlier? Can you make your ads more readable? Can you make your ads more attractive. Go into your competitors ads with a “red pencil” and then do the same for you own ads.

There is always room for improvement and better methods to convert browsers to bidders and buyers; it just takes a bit more work than it used to.

And one final recommendation, if you go through the process of researching and understanding your competition – don’t stop there. Make it a part of your normal weekly, bi-weekly or monthly process. Doing it once is great, doing it regularly ensures you can always stay ahead of the “next” curve.

Happy Selling!!

An eBay Certified Solutions Provider since 2004, Vendio provides an ecommerce solution for eBay sellers of all sizes. Vendio offers a series of applications which can be installed on a standalone basis or used to extend the functionality of the Vendio's eBay listing and inventory management solution.

eBay Workshop Feb 10th - "5 Strategies to Increase the Visibility of Your eBay Listings"

Workshop: 5 Strategies to Increase the Visibility of Your eBay Listings

Host: Debbie Levitt, CEO of As Was
Date: Feb 10th, Wednesday
Time: 11AM - Noon PST

Location: eBay Workshop Board

Description: In this workshop, Debbie Levitt, CEO of As Was, will outline what you can do to maximize the visibility of your eBay listings. Learn more about Best Match and how you can create more effective listing strategies to save on fees and show up higher in search results.

Founded in 1995, As Was is a full-service consulting firm specializing in branding, design, sales and marketing strategies, operations management, and training. As Was is an eBay Certified Service Provider and has been working with eBay sellers since 2001.

Visit http://certifiedprovider.ebay.com/ to learn more about eBay Certified Providers and the services and solutions they offer to help eBay sellers.

How to Write Great eBay Item Descriptions that Sell by Shopster

Blog post by Shopster

Writing eBay Item Descriptions that Sell
Buying online as a rule is an impersonal exercise. While very efficient, it’s essentially, a no-touch experience i.e. the consumer and the seller do not need to make contact for a sale to occur. Because online business owners don’t have any live salespeople to fall back on, they need to guarantee that their site answers any questions a customer might have - hence, why great product descriptions are so critical. A product description is your salesperson, your chance to engage a customer and get them to buy, buy, buy.

3 Tips for writing engaging product descriptions:
Know your audience and write to them
Ensure that your writing style aligns with the audience you’re writing to. If it’s a highly technical audience use the appropriate jargon. Likewise, if you’re writing for a group of grade 6 children – write at a grade 6 level. When writing product descriptions, imagine your target audience and let that guide your language.

Get your customer’s attention
Use attention-grabbing phrases to grab shoppers’ interest quickly and keep it. Don’t be afraid to use strong words, questions, and phrases to do so. Pierotucci does a great job with opening sentences like: “Walk into a room and make an impression”, “Looking hip and cool is easily achieved when you are wearing this fabulous short fitted jacket”.

Tell a story & appeal to emotions to encourage buying behaviour
Once you have a potential customer’s attention, appeal to their emotions to encourage buying behaviour. Then offer logical support to help them rationalize their desire to purchase. Use each product description to paint a picture in your shopper’s mind, tell them a story, and let them insert themselves in the lead role. Use descriptive language and specific examples to get the best results.

Back to our Pierotucci example “Walk into a room and make an impression. Buttery-soft leather adds distinctive class and undeniable comfort to this sleek blazer perfect for work, weekend, and travel." This product description lets me visualize myself wearing this jacket - I can almost feel the leather on my skin, hear the whispers as I walk into a room. This product description does not just make me want this jacket, it makes me feel like I need it.

The moral of the story: Write to your audience, grab their attention, and then engage their emotions to keep it. By keeping these three tips in the forefront of your mind when writing your product descriptions, you stand a much better chance of turning your site browsers into paying customers.

Shopster is an eBay Certified Solutions Provider providing additional product and inventory for eBay sellers through dropshipping. Shopster has customers in 22 countries and provides full service dropshipping to both the United States and Canada.

Toys, Toys, Toys: Santas Worldwide are Buying on eBay by Terapeak

Article by Terapeak

This is not exactly the hardest time of year for us to find visually-dramatic sales trends — in fact, it’s almost certainly the easiest. A majority of all two-year Terapeak trends will show peaks and valleys in correlation with the holidays, and there’s no better category for that than eBay’s Toys & Games.

We have seen time and time again how certain toys will blow up for one season (Furby, Tickle-Me-Elmo, Cabbage Patch), while others will continue to sell year after year. Today, we’ll look at a few examples from 2009 — though of course there are hundreds more.

First is Leapster, an educational handheld game console that teaches kids the alphabet, phonics and basic math (among other things). First released in 2003, there’s been a recent spike in demand for Leapster 2, released last year. Here’s a 60-day total sales trend for “Leapster”:

Next is a classic: Lego. Dating back to the 1930s, the little building blocks are a big-time seller all year round… but rarely to the scale that the holidays provide. Here’s a 60-day sales trend for “Lego” (which, last Sunday, totalled more than $1.5 million in eBay.com sales!):

And finally, here’s this year’s phenomenon: Zhu Zhu Pets. You may have read about them already — robotic hamsters! — but if you have yet to believe the hype, check out this 60-day trend for “zhu zhu pet”:

It’s a prosperous venture, this toy racket. Here’s to guessing what next year’s craze will be!

Terapeak is an eBay Certified Provider and a member of the eBay Market Data Program. Terapeak 5.0 is a full, web-based solution providing real-time market research and data analytics on eBay. Terapeak 5.0 provides eBay sellers and buyers with two years worth of trending data.

New eBay Research App for the iPhone from Terapeak

New! eBay sellers can easily determine their products success rate on eBay (and more) with their iPhone! Terapeak just launched their new eBay market research app for the iPhone.

“The Terapeak iPhone app has been in the works for a long time, and it's a tool we feel will add a whole new dimension to conducting market research. Now you'll be able to take Terapeak with you wherever you go -- to garage sales, trade shows, thrift stores, and more!” - Terapeak







Terapeak helps answer the questions:

• What is the value of my item?
• Will my items sell?
• When should I list my item?
• Which features should I use to list my item?

• Similar to the web version of Terapeak, the new iPhone app will enable eBay sellers to see average prices, listing totals and sell-through rates for each search they perform.
• Results are viewable and sortable by end price, start price and number of bids. The results can also be filtered by category, minimum end price and maximum end price. All of this eBay data is easily accessible with your iPhone.
  
  Tereapeak’s iPhone app will be available free to anyone with a paid Terapeak subscription. Also, anyone who signs up for Terapeak before the end of December can take advantage of this offer.
  
  To access the application and get started, all you'll need to do is download it from the iPhone App Store and enter your Terapeak username and password.
  
  Terapeak is an eBay Certified Provider and a member of the eBay Market Data Program. Terapeak 5.0 is a full, web-based solution providing real-time market research and data analytics on eBay. Terapeak 5.0 provides eBay sellers and buyers with two years worth of trending data.

New to eBay Selling Manager Applications is Research for eBay by Vendio.

New to eBay Selling Manager Applications is Research for eBay, by Vendio.

Selling more profitably is simple with Research for eBay. For nearly 8 years

Research for eBay from Vendio has given smart sellers the upper hand in the eBay Marketplace. Now eBay sellers can access this powerful research tool within their eBay account! Research for eBay is an application sellers can subscribe to and add to their "My eBay" as part of Selling Manager Applications.

With Research for eBay, eBay sellers will know which items to sell, when to list them, how to list them, and which keywords to use in the listing.

Benefits of Research for eBay:

• Know what, when, and how to list items to for the best sales
• Retrieve accurate data from proprietary clustering technology
• Determine which keywords drive the highest amount of traffic to your listings
• Watch your competitors and stay ahead by learning their strategy
• eBay Motors and Parts and Accessories data included at no additional cost

Research for eBay can increase the sales volume of your eBay listings and reduce relisting costs. Know what to sell, how much it may sell for, when to sell it and how to market the item all before you list. Save time and money.

Below are screenshots of Research for eBay in action. Take a look.


An eBay Certified Solutions Provider since 2004, Vendio provides an ecommerce solution for eBay sellers of all sizes. Vendio offers a series of applications which can be installed on a standalone basis or used to extend the functionality of the Vendio's eBay listing and inventory management solution.

Vendio now brings eBay sellers Research for eBay as part of the eBay Selling Manager Applications feature. Checkout Research for eBay!

eBay Workshop Nov 10th - "Top 5 Last Minute Christmas Research Tips"

Workshop: Top 5 Last Minute Christmas Research Tips

Host: Terapeak

Date: Nov 10th, Tuesday

Time: 11AM - Noon PST

Location: eBay Workshop Board

Description: The busiest shopping days of the year are rapidly approaching (Saturday before Christmas, Black Friday, Cyber Monday…) and you're going to want to be ready to sell! What are the hottest items and opportunities for your eBay business this holiday?

Spend an hour with us and discover how to use research to plan your biggest sales month of the year! We'll review the top five research tips that can help your sales soar.

Join Matt and Denise from Terapeak Marketplace Research to learn about last minute Christmas research. After the material is presented we'll open the board for discussion and questions.

Terapeak is an eBay Certified Service Provider and one of the third party providers included in the new Selling Manager Applications feature.

Visit http://certifiedprovider.ebay.com/ to learn more about eBay Certified Providers and the services and solutions they offer to help eBay sellers.

eBay Workshop Nov 3rd - 12 Sales Boosting Strategies to Put More Jingle in Your Holiday Season

Workshop: 12 Sales Boosting Strategies to Put More Jingle in Your Holiday Season

Host: Lisa Suttora, Founder/CEO of WhatDoISell.com

Date: November 3rd, Tuesday

Time: 11AM - Noon PST

Location: eBay Workshop Board

Description: The holiday season is upon us! And holiday shoppers are headed your way. But will YOU be ready when they arrive? With new holiday shoppers coming online each year and return buyers coming back for more, NOW is the time to ready your store, listings, and marketing for prime time!

Please join Lisa Suttora, ecommerce strategist, and Founder/CEO of WhatDoISell.com as she shares 12 sales boosting marketing strategies that will get you ready for holiday buyers and put more jingle in your holiday sales!

Since 2004, WhatDoISell.com, an eBay Certified Service Provider, has provided thousands of online sellers with the skills, knowledge and support they need to build a unique, thriving business on eBay.

Visit http://certifiedprovider.ebay.com/ to learn more about eBay Certified Providers and the services and solutions they offer to help eBay sellers.

Build Great eBay Listing Titles with Terapeak Keywords (New in Selling Manager Applications)

Terapeak, an eBay Certified Provider and eBay Market Data member, just released a new and completely free app for the eBay Selling Manager Applications - Terapeak Keywords!

Terapeak Keywords is a free tool helping sellers optimize their eBay listing titles. eBay sellers know, the first step to creating a listing is coming up with a title. The first step to creating a great listing? Come up with a great title.

Terapeak Keywords asks a seller to type an item’s name/description into a search field. It then samples 100 recent eBay listings that have also included the specified search term(s), and automatically produces a list of related keywords accompanied by average prices and other metrics.

By clicking the most valuable relevant keywords and adding them to your listing, you can continue to build your title until you have used up all 55 characters… And as any eBay seller should know, every character counts!

"We’re very excited to be able to offer a free application that will benefit anyone who sells on eBay. The app will remain free and independent of any Terapeak subscriptions, so there's no need to create an account. Just add it to SMApps (Selling Manager Applications) and go!" - Terpaeak Team

Below is a sample of Terapeak Keywords for eBay Selling Manager Applications.


Terapeak is an eBay Certified Provider and a member of the eBay Market Data Program. Terapeak 5.0 is a full, web-based solution providing real-time market research and data analytics on eBay. Terapeak 5.0 provides eBay sellers and buyers with two years worth of trending data.

True Blood, True Value: HBO’s Vampire Series Best-Selling DVD on eBay by Terapeak

Post provided by Terapeak demonstrating how to use eBay market research to determine sales trends, popularity and average sales price.

As if that other vampire-riffic phenomenon couldn’t get any bigger, we were peeping the Terapeak Hot DVDs section this morning and noticed a TV series atop the list…



For those keeping score, your crazy-colored vampire eyes don’t deceive you: that’s HBO’s True Blood laying a whuppin’ on the former undead champs.

But unlike Twilight, which has more than its share of detractors, we’ve heard almost exclusively good things about the HBO series. Now in its second season, the show stars Oscar-winning actress Anna Paquin as Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress, and chronicles the mystifying events of a small town in Louisiana.

Below is a 90-day total sales trend for “True Blood,” produced by Terapeak’s All Sites package:



We’re not actually sure what’s produced such a spike — the DVDs were released several months ago, and the show’s second season only just began — but then we also haven’t had a chance to really bite into the television series… (hah!)

Maybe if there weren’t so many freakin’ Twilight books to finish?

Terapeak is an eBay Certified Provider and a member of the eBay Market Data Program. Terapeak 5.0 is a web-based solution providing real-time market research and data analytics on eBay. Terapeak 5.0 provides eBay sellers and buyers with two years worth of trending data.

eBay Sales for Julia Child and Cookbooks Are on the Rise by Terapeak

Article by Terapeak

From 1961 until her death in 2004, Julia Child was a celebrated American chef who brought French cuisine to the masses. In 2002, then-unknown Julie Powell created a blog titled The Julie/Julia Project, which detailed her attempts at all 524 recipes from Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking collection.

And in 2009, Nora Ephron made a movie about the two. Titled Julie & Julia, the film, which stars Meryl Streep as Child and Amy Adams as Powell, opened #2 at the box office, earned a glowing review from The New Yorker, and has so far grossed more than $70 million worldwide.

It’s also sold a lot of cookbooks.

Really, this is one of those merchandising fall-outs that should have been predicted a mile away — and surely hundreds of savvy book-sellers out there are congratulating themselves on stocking Child’s best-seller. Of course, many of these crystal-gazers do their business on eBay, and the following results speak for themselves. Just check out these 30-day All Sites trends for “Julia Child” — first Total Sales, then Average Price:

The latter graph, in our opinion, is the far more remarkable one: it tells us there’s extreme demand for Child’s books, which her publishers can’t reissue fast enough.

As for Child’s effect on “bigger picture” eBay sales, you can see in the graph below that total sales for “cookbook” in general have enjoyed a marginal increase over the past 30 days (probably less marginal that it seems, considering that’s a trend based on on nearly 75,000 listings):

Going forward, it’ll be interesting to see if cookbook sales continue to climb, and whether demand for Child’s recipes peters out as more books become available. (The upcoming holidays add even a further wrinkle.)

Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have some Beef Bourguignon to go whip up! - Terapeak

Terapeak is an eBay Certified Provider and a member of the eBay Market Data Program. Terapeak 5.0 is a web-based solution providing real-time market research and data analytics on eBay. Terapeak 5.0 provides eBay sellers and buyers with two years worth of trending data.

Comic-Con Sales Trends on eBay by Terapeak

Post provided by Terapeak

Every year, San Diego hosts an event called Comic-Con (”SDCC”), one of the world’s largest comic book conventions. This year, thousands of fans converged on the San Diego Convention Center between July 22nd and 26th to meet creators of their favourite comic books, games, movies and television series. Attendees were shown previews for popular TV series such as Dollhouse and Lost , as well as movie trailers like Iron Man 2 and Tron Legacy.

Perhaps most intriguing to eBay sellers is the litany of products available exclusively to SDCC attendees — many of which, according to Terapeak’s research tools, have seen high eBay demand since the event ended last week.

In the past seven days, more than 2,500 items using “SDCC 2009″ as keywords (not counting tickets and passes) have sold on eBay.com, accounting for over $130,000 in total sales. Some of the most popular products include Green Lantern: Blackest Night figure sets, He-man reissues, Twilight figures, Kidrobot vinyl toys, and Star Wars collectibles. And despite the high prices (many are already selling for over $200), the sell-through rate on these listings is an impressive 76%.

As always, Comic-Con will be back next summer, so if you’re an eBay seller focused on collectibles, perhaps it’s worth making the trip to sunny San Diego!

Terapeak is an eBay Certified Provider and a member of the eBay Market Data Program. Terapeak 5.0 is a web-based solution providing real-time market research and data analytics on eBay. Terapeak 5.0 provides eBay sellers and buyers with two years worth of trending data.

Improve eBay Sales with Research! (10/03)

Workshop: Quick and easy ways to improve your sales with Terapeak Research!
Host: Terapeak
Date: Friday 10/03
Time: 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time

Description: Join the Terapeak team and learn how to use Terapeak Marketplace Research to improve your eBay sales! We'll review the basic research functions within Terapeak, and how to apply the information to your current listings. Get more bids on your auctions, and better sales on your store listings, all using marketplace research.

CP Workshop: Maximize Your Keywords 7/18

Topic: Keywords, Keywords, Keywords and Listing Titles Too!

Host: terapeak
Date: Friday 07/18
Time: 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Pacific time
Location: Workshop Board

Description: Your eBay listings have a 55 character store front and that is your customer’s gateway to your items! Are you using the best keywords for your item, and are you maximizing your exposure? Join Denise from Terapeak Marketplace Research to explore ways to use market research and find top dollar keywords. We’ll review a few simple methods to evaluate keywords using Terapeak research using some topical examples. The workshop will be open for the hour for any questions relating to research and your eBay sales.