Preparing for the Back-to-School Sales Rush on eBay

Back-to-School is just around the corner. According to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), American consumers will be spending $38.4 billion on back-to-school merchandise in 2010. Meanwhile, the National Federation of Retailers are pegging it at a higher amount, approximately $55.12 billion with each American family spending $606.40.

Here are some tips for starting your eBay marketing campaign for back-to-school season:

• Discounts. Discounts. Discounts. One of the prime reasons consumers will want to buy from you is because you are offering a good deal. Create promos for products, give special discounts on themed items and offer savings on bulk shipping.
• Advertise early. Back-to-School season marks a big event for most retailers. It is also the start of the third quarter of the year as well as the fall season. Several advertisers will start their online marketing efforts early and so should you. The second week of July is the ideal time to start. (Start now!)
• Communicate to your customers why they should buy from you. Competition can be tough and the big retailers will definitely be your major contenders for school supplies and other must-haves. So, hype on what makes your eBay store/inventory different – be it the price or your delivery options.
• Target the right audience. During Back-to-School season, you actually have two major audiences: the students and the parents. Between the two, it’s the parents that have control of the budget, but do not discount the purchasing power of the students.
• Highlight the right products. School bags, backpacks, shoes, shirts and school supplies are the top sellers during this season. Make sure you are offering a good deal on the bare necessities such as pens and paper products.

Happy selling!

Article from the Shopster blog

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

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 You Need to Know to Take Advantage of eBay's Best Match

Best Match on eBay is a complicated search algorithm that helps buyers shop from the best sellers on eBay first. It has been eBay's default search for more than a year now.

The main criteria that affect your ranking for any type of listing in any category via Best Match are:

• Seller track record
• Competitive pricing and shipping costs
• Relevance of the listing to what the buyer is looking for

eBay says there is no "silver bullet" that will get you ranked on page one, but I guarantee there are some definite areas that you need to look at and fix if you want a fighting chance at beating the competition. These variables are not consistent across all categories and eBay constantly updates them as it learns more about how the buyers search and what they are looking to purchase.

Auction-style listings are treated a bit differently than fixed-priced listings in Best Match search. The main ranking factor for auctions would be time ending soonest. This means that doing research using a tool like Terapeak on "best ending times" is still in effect for this type of listing.

For fixed-priced listings, the main factor is sales-to-impressions ratio, also called "Listing Performance Score." An impression is when a buyer sees a page that includes your listing. Newly listed fixed-priced items get a temporary bump in search to help level the playing field. Also, time recently listed is an important factor for fixed-price listings in the following categories: Art, Antiques, Coins & Paper Money, Collectibles, Dolls & Bears, Pottery & Glass, Toys & Hobbies, Stamps, Sports Memorabilia, Cards & Fan Shop and Entertainment Memorabilia. Hey, I didn't say this was going to be easy.

Grouping identical items into one listing not only helps you save on fees, but it may also increase your sales-to-impressions ratio.

Best Match love
Here are some factors that will help your items get some Best Match love and a possible bump in search:

• Price competitively: You can utilize the completed listings on eBay to find out what successful listings similar to yours are selling for on eBay.
• Shipping cost: This doesn't always mean free shipping, although that helps in many categories. This also has to do with keeping your shipping costs within an acceptible range.
• Impressions versus sales: Grouping identical items into multi-quantity/multi-variation fixed-priced listings not only helps you save money on fees, but it may also increase your sales-to-impressions ratio for your listing.
• Relevancy: This refers to keywords in your title and attributes. My last article talked quite a bit about locating the right keywords to have in your title. You can pick up a refresher course here. Also make sure you fill out as many item attributes as possible using Item Specifics.
• Your seller rating: Seller ratings include Top-rated, Above Standard and Standard. Being a Top-rated seller will give you an increase in search. Now, that doesn't mean that someone who isn't a Top-rated seller won't be ahead of you due to relevancy, pricing, or other factors, but it does give you a competitive advantage.

Even with all of this there is no guarantee, but these are the factors we know are included in how you rank in eBay's Best Match. Your best option right now is to utilize your built-in Store and eBay Reports and completed listings to consistently check on these factors and test them on your inventory. Of course there is another way…

Use the eBay Search Visibility Analysis tool in My eBay to find out how a specific item of yours is being ranked on the first page of search for:

• Price range
• Shipping cost range
• Free shipping (or whether you need to offer this for a page-one bump)
• Format (should you offer auction-style or fixed-priced?)
• Seller rating (for this item, in this category, will being a Top-rated Seller provide you small advantage or a big advantage for showing up on the first page?)
• Catalog product details (is this an item that utilizes features from eBay's catalog?)

Search visibility analysis provides information on factors that affect where your listing ranks in search results.

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 Seller HelloBaby Grows Business with Terapeak Research

Article from the Terapeak Blog

A Terapeak interview with Trevor Ginn of Hello Baby (http://stores.ebay.co.uk/hellobabydirect)

How long have you been selling on eBay?
I’ve been selling on eBay as Hellobabydirect for about 18 months. Before that I was working for Auctioning4u who were the UK’s largest eBay trading assistants. All in all I’ve been selling on eBay as a business for about 4 years.

What got you started there?
At Auctioning4u I provided consulting services to businesses to help them use eBay as a sales channel. With online sales experiencing strong growth most of my clients were doing pretty well, much better than me it seemed. I was itching to give it a go as I was sure I could build a successful online retailing business.

I choose baby products as my research showed that the industry had healthy margins and was not as competitive as areas like electronics. I also wanted to be in an industry which I knew something about (my first daughter had just been born), was largely non seasonable and mostly recession proof.

What sort of things do you like to sell?
We sell a wide range of baby and nursery items. Items range from small toys nursery and baby safety items like safety catches to larger, more expensive items like prams and cots. We sell a lot of our items internationally, especially to Europe as the strong Euro makes our products good value for our friends in the Eurozone. We sell on eBay and other online channels.

How do you use Terapeak to help build your business?
We use Terapeak to research products and also to investigate the tactics and best selling product of our competitors. eBay data, provided by Terapeak, is the only source I know of actual sales data about online sales. Other, very expensive, reports from companies like Mintel make broad statements about market sectors, but this is not much use when a merchant is looking to make purchasing decision at the brand or product level.

When we are analyzing new products we will use a product search on that particular brand to establish what items are selling well and then drill down to individual products to establish average selling prices. We then put the sales data into a spreadsheet which allows us to calculate the profit we can make from selling the item by taking into account cost like sales tax, PayPal and eBay fees. This process saves us from buying product for which the market is very competitive and there are poor margins.

We also make extensive use of the seller report. This allows us to see the products which our competitors are selling successfully and how their business is performing.

Terapeak Tips from Matt – What else Hello Baby can do to build their business using research?

Trevor mentioned a good portion of his business is targeted at international marketplaces. A lack of availability for products in certain regions can create excellent opportunities to sell your goods for a higher price. Terapeak’s International Report compares statistics for 6 eBay marketplaces around the world including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany and Australia.

The International report provides charts detailing buyer and seller location and helps identify which eBay site represents the highest potential margin.

I (Matt with Terapeak) would recommend Trevor try using the International report for some of his products and see if he can expand his offerings into more eBay sites around the world.

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.

How to Adjust and Update Your eBay Selling Strategies with Tips and Tools from Auctiva

Article from Auctiva Education (Education for eBay Sellers)

More than a week after eBay announced its spring seller update for 2010, many eBay sellers are still digesting the news and trying to make sense of how it will impact their businesses. Major changes on the site will include adjustments to the fee structure on March 30 and phasing out the Store Inventory Format.

If getting a grasp on how you'll be affected by the impending changes is making your head spin, that's understandable. Adjusting to it all will take some time—and some number crunching—but here you'll find a few tools and tips you can enlist to make the transition easier.

Helpful tools

Starting March 30, eBay will allow sellers to list their first 100 auctions for free if they start at less than $1

Keeping this in mind, you might decide to reduce your fees by lowering the start price of your auctions to 99 cents. If you list hundreds of items, this task may seem overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be, especially if you're a user of Auctiva's tools for eBay sellers. The software offers several approaches to edit multiple listings at once.

Bulk Edit: Auctiva's Bulk Edit feature allows you to change the start price of up to 100 saved listings at once—a real time saver for anyone. Think of all the other tasks you could accomplish in the time it would take to do this manually. For instance, you could update your checkout details—something eBay Motor sellers should do in the coming weeks. Remember, come June, eBay will be on the lookout for listings on that site that don't include a handling and return policy.

Auctiva Find & Replace: Luckily, Auctiva's Find & Replace is a handy tool you can use to quickly and easily specify return policies and handling times. (As we've mentioned in previous articles, this requirement doesn't mean you'll have to accept returns, but you will have to let buyers know what your policy is, one way or the other.) This tool is located in Auctiva customers' Saved Listings page and allows users to edit up to 100 listings at once.

Sellers should also think back to any listing upgrades they've added to their listings, such as subtitles. With eBay's Store Inventory Format being eliminated, the subtitle feature will now cost at least $1.50 per listing, and you'll have to consider if the additional cost is worth it to you. If it isn't, the Find & Replace feature will let you edit or delete subtitles for multiple listings at once.

Bulk Live-Listing Revision: Active listings can also be updated right from sellers' Auctiva accounts. Add, remove or change information, such as subtitles and return policies, from live eBay listings using Auctiva's Bulk Live-Listing Revision Tool. This tool is located in Auctiva customers' Active Listings page and allows up to 100 listings to be edited at a time.

Scheduling: But those aren't the only ways you can help your bottom line. If you schedule your listings, consider doing it through Auctiva, since it won't cost you extra. On eBay you'll pay 10 cents a listing for this convenience—$1 if you list on eBay Motors—but this feature is free when you're on one of Auctiva's listing plans. You can also post more than 24 photos with your listings, and get free Supersizing and image security features using Auctiva's tools.

It's natural to feel apprehensive about how the upcoming changes will impact your bottom line. But hopefully now you feel better prepared to tackle what's ahead. March 30 will be here before you know it, so take the horse by the reins and start making the necessary adjustments to your listings.

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

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.

eBay Sellers Can Save Time Updating Live eBay Listings in Bulk with Auctiva's Find and Replace (new to eBay's App Store)

Auctiva's new App for eBay, Find and Replace, allows eBay sellers to bulk edit the descriptions of multiple live eBay listings at once. With Auctiva Find and Replace, a seller can search for words or phrases in their listing descriptions, and replace with new content or updated policies.

Sellers can easily update their listings to employ new listing strategies or make changes per eBay policies.

Features:

• Find and replace text in just 1 listing or 1,000 listings
• Edit live eBay listings within minutes
• Search for text by whole-word or partial words
• Change descriptions in some or all of the targeted listings
• Changes are made in accordance with eBay's policies
• Easily undo find-and-replace changes
• Free 24x7 technical support
• International language support
• Completely FREE!

Auctiva's Find & Replace application now available in “My eBay” as part of Selling Manager Applications. Also known as eBay's App Store.

Check out Auctiva's Find & Replace today!

New Seller Education and Consulting Services from eBay Certified Providers

Selling on eBay is an easy and great way to make extra cash while cleaning out a garage or closet. All a new seller really needs to do is decide what to sell, take pictures and write a description about the item. No matter if an eBay member would like guided help or go it alone, Certified Providers can make the transition from buyer to seller quickly and easily.

If you have a new or beginner seller that would like to enlist the advice and help from experienced eBay sellers and consultants to guide you, then our Certified Providers can help. They can teach sellers how to sell effectively on eBay and perhaps even increase their eBay selling to full-time and start an online business.

Benefits:

• Learn what items sell on eBay
• Avoid common selling mistakes
• Self-paced learning environment
• Personalized advice
• Find the products buyers want and locate suppliers
• Set up your business properly

eBay Certified Providers can help sellers interested in getting started selling on eBay or learning how to be more successful. Look into -

The Queen of Auctions
WhatDoISell

We suggest you contact the Certified Provider directly and decide if they offer the right education and consulting service for you.

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.

Sales of Disney Items on eBay Increase During the Holidays

Article by Terapeak

A week ago, we blogged about the holiday toy racket, which year after year provides one of the more reliable markets on eBay. But what if you were to boil that phenomenon down into one single brand? (Perhaps in a wicked witch’s cauldron, or as part of a poisonous apple?)
That brand would be Disney.

For more than 85 years, The Walt Disney Company has been one of Hollywood’s biggest money-makers, and a source for some of the world’s most sought-after merchandise. And, naturally, that fervor tends to reach its peak around the holidays.

For starters, here are Terapeak’s current top 5 Hot DVDs on eBay:



Those numbers, of course, come on the heels of Disney remastering several of its classic animated films this year, and sales have continued to rise since October. Also in the Terapeak top 20 Hot DVDs on eBay are: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Alice in Wonderland.

How about a Terapeak product report? Well here is a 90-day All Sites search for “Disney” total sales:



Now that’s an extremely broad search, but you can see how the demand for just one keyword rises!

Finally, to show just how annual “Disney Demand” is, here are a pair of two-year category trends. First is a total sales trend for the Collectibles > Disneyana > Contemporary (1968-Now) category:



And second, a total sold listings trend for Toys & Hobbies > TV, Movie & Character Toys > Disney:



Those are some pretty serious peaks and valleys, and it’s easy to see how they match up with the holiday season. So with close to a year before next December rolls around… imagine all the Disney schwag you’ve got time to collect!

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.

5 Tips to Prepare for a Successful 2010 - eBay Radio with WhatDoISell.com

Listen on eBay Radio as Lisa Suttora, CEO & Founder of WhatDoISell.com, shares her insights and tips on how eBay sellers can create a prosperous 2010!

“5 Tips to Prepare for a Successful 2010”

• Look back at 2009 and assess your business
• Review your financials and create goals
• Organize inventory and workspace
• Analyze inventory and reprice or remove slow selling items
• Find new or fresh products and expand in your current niche

Check out www.bizplan2010.com to receive these tips and more from Lisa Suttora. Lisa's Top 10 Tips for a Successful eCommerce Business.

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.

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.

Are Your eBay Listings Holiday-Ready? by Auctiva

Article from Auctiva Education (Education for eBay Sellers)

As the holidays near, buyers will be bombarded with special offers, sales and a bevy of items to choose from. Yes, every seller will be vying for their attention—and that means you have a lot of competition. So now is the time to ensure your listings are in tip-top shape to attract buyers.

Not sure where to begin? Just glance through the following aspects of your listings to make sure your listings pop, entice and give you a very merry selling season.


Try on a new template for size
If you've been to your local mall, or even the mom-and-pop shop down the street, odds are you've seen wreaths, candy canes, twinkle lights or other holiday decorations hanging in the windows as you go by. There's a reason for this: The wintery decor is inviting and it attracts buyers.

The same holds true for eBay listing templates. Templates organize eBay listings into digestible segments, including descriptions, shipping details and payment information, so buyers don't have to read through one massive block of text to find the information they need. It's there at a glance.

Auctiva recently added a number of new themes to its gallery of more than 1,700 eBay listing templates. You could go with a holiday theme, or opt for a template that complements the color of your items.

Try Bing for cha-ching
The Bing Cashback program allows buyers to purchase qualifying items and get a percentage of the item's price as a cash rebate. eBay buyers and sellers have been taking advantage of this program since it began a year ago.

So why not give it a shot? Get full details about Bing Cashback. To qualify for the program, items must be listed with a Buy It Now price, whether you're using the fixed-price or auction format. Be sure to mention the rebate program in your subtitle and description to entice buyers. The cash-back incentive will be very appealing.

Get the Best Match
As we mentioned in an earlier EDU article, relevance is the name of the game with eBay's new Best Match search algorithm. Remember, Best Match tries to show buyers the listings that most closely match what they're looking for, so use focused and appropriate keywords in your titles and descriptions.

"Titles are more important than ever," eBay notes. "Relevant titles will be more important than ever in getting the best position for Fixed-Price listings."

Titles that are too general might get more impressions, or click throughs, but they won't get more sales—and they'll wind up with lower performance scores. Lower scores mean a lower standing in search results.

Also be sure to describe your items accurately; that includes mentioning any minor defects an item may have. The holiday season is no time to surprise your buyers. They should know exactly what they're getting.

Offer free shipping
Budget-conscious shoppers are looking for the best deals this season. Offering free shipping will not only save them money and make them happy, it will give your items a boost in search results.

If you just can't do free shipping, offer the lowest-possible shipping cost. According to eBay, auction-style and fixed-priced listings with excessive shipping will be "demoted" in search results.

Do your research
Yes, prices will definitely matter this holiday season, so take a look at other listings to find out what similar items are going for. Buyers will certainly be doing this, even as the economy starts to improve. In fact, comparison shopping is expected to be the norm in the coming weeks, as shoppers look to buy items for all the people on their holiday lists.

Make use of that camera
Good photos and lots of them can promote trust with buyers. Remember that Auctiva lets you add more than 24 images to your listings.

Make sure photos are clear and detailed. A white background is always a good idea, as is taking photos in direct light to get good images. A picture really is worth a thousand words when it comes to selling online.

Find the right format

Lastly, your selling format will matter, too. It may seem difficult to decide if you should list your items in the fixed-priced or auction style, but there are some guidelines.

Auctions typically work well for one-of-a-kind products such as collectibles and antiques. It's also a good option if you don't know the value of an item. This could prevent you from over-pricing a product, since buyers will determine its worth. And you don't want to over-price your items. Buyers will be looking for deals, and so will Best Match.

However, if you have several of the same or similar items, and you can compare your item to others to determine its value, opt for fixed-priced. While several factors go into determining your standing in Best Match search results, Best Match will follow these guidelines.

So take one more good look at your listings to make sure they'll grab buyers' attention, and let the selling begin. Hope you have your packing supplies ready. You'll need them soon enough. Enjoy the sales.

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

Should You Use eBay Cross-Merchandising? by Vendio

Article from the Vendable Blog

eBay recently announced Cross-Merchandising where watched items will appear at the bottom of sellers listings. This is an opt-out program, and you'll need to decide if you want your items displayed in other seller’s listings, at the cost of having their items displayed in your listings.

Example:

Typically, in a cross promotion program, some do better than others and you’ll need to determine if it benefits your business or detracts from your items. Here are a few questions you could ask yourself before you make a decision:

1. Are your prices in general lower or higher than your competition? If your prices are lower, then you could benefit from the Cross Merchandising.

2. Are your images compelling? Do you images really shine? If your images are clearly better than your competitors, then you could benefit from Cross Merchandising.

3. Are you a Top Seller? Top seller badges are displayed in the Cross Merchandising Panel, which could be a benefit to you.

4. Can your items be sold multiple categories? For example, if you sell sterling nurse charms, getting “shown” in medical categories could be helpful.

We (Vendio) would suggest considering your options before you make a decision.

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.

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!

Creating an Emotional Connection with Buyers Can Increase Sales by WhatDoISell.com

Marketing Online: Why You Must Create an Emotional Connection with Your Customers - by Lisa Suttora, Founder & CEO of WhatDoISell.com

If you think shopping is a perfunctory, logical process for us human beings… think again! The decision to make a purchase is largely based upon emotion (often subconscious emotions) that is then justified by logic.

Too often however, niche online sellers offer pages and pages of products that are devoid of emotion and personality.

Inanimate objects sitting on a page, the sales copy brings no life, no emotion, no meaning to what they sell. And because of that they don’t sell.

How then do you reach your customers and inspire them to click the “Buy” button?

You inspire by creating the right emotional connection with your buyer. One that speaks the language of a conversation that is already happening in their heads.

7 Questions to Help You Make an Emotional Connection When Marketing Your Products

If your product sales have been devoid of emotion so far, the prospect of creating an emotional connection when marketing your products may not come intuitively to you. Below are 7 questions that will help get you started connecting with your customers.

1. What do your customers want?
2. What do they care about?
3. How can your product contribute to their life? Their day? Their well-being?
4. What will inspire them? Perk them up? Make them feel some enthusiasm for what they are about to buy?
5. What are their worries? Their cares?
6. How can your product make their life easier, less stressful, more productive, calmer?
7. How will your product make your customers feel?

No matter what you sell or where you sell it, you have to make an emotional connection with your potential customer. Go right now to your eBay listings and eBay Store and look at your product offerings through a new pair of eyes.

*This article has been condensed. Click here for the full article.

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