Bit of eBay advice needed please

[niagra]

Hi all,

I'm after a bit of advice for the eBay side of my automotive literature (classic car brochures etc) business.

My sales have been pretty slow this year and I have been keeping an eye on the other big sellers in my category and it seems they are doing ok and I'm not where I want to be (or think I should be).

This is the link to my shop:
http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/Classic-and-Retro-Car-Shop__W0QQ_armrsZ1

I'm a top rated seller, as are the other big players and I have higher DSRs (4.9 across the board) than the others.

The other sellers I aspire to are:
http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/vintage-motorshop__W0QQ_armrsZ1
and
http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/Pooks-Motor-Books__W0QQ_armrsZ1
who are both well established and have far more items than me listed.

The other seller is this:
http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/Brochurequest__W0QQ_armrsZ1
He has 2000 items as opposed to my 1500 or so, so we are similar in size yet he has sold more in the last 15 days than I have in the last month. He also commands prices which are very high. I just can't work out how he does it.

My listings give more information, I add an extra picture and I describe the condition of my items in greater detail (rather than just stating "very good condition".

Does my userid put people off? Is it worth changing it? (it was my id when I had just a private buying account)

Does the detail I give regarding condition give the impression that it is worse than it actually is? I have several emails/feedback saying how pleased they were that the item was better than described.

Should I have shorter listings? Motoringmagpie - (Pooks Books) lists in a similar way to me, but the others use very short listings.

I have spent a long time analysing their shops/listings and I am at a loss as to how to improve my eBay sales.

I hope someone can take a few minutes to offer some advice.

Many thanks,
Dario

 

[Mister B]

Hi Dario,

I'm no expert at all, but have you checked on the amount of views that you're getting? I clicked on one of your items which has only been viewed four times, (including two when you set the product up,) since it was listed on the 23rd.

It could be that you're just not getting the traffic.

Also, what type of listings do you use and what type of listings do your competitors use?

Mister B

 

[Gooseberry]

Hi, I dont think the user name would put people off, I dont ever really look at them and when I had an ebay shop a few years back my normal sounding Id never did me any harm.

But I think you could be right about the condition description. Whilst you have been very detailed it could seem to be in not so good condition. May be worth a go just altering that. If it works great if not you can always add it back in, just trial and error.

One thing I did notice was that your listings are centered and I have to move over the page to view them, not a big thing, but every little bit helps with people looking.

 

[ccp consultancy]

I think it is the look of your shop - most shoppers are very fickle and looks do matter

I had / have an ebay shop - when I had listings like yours my sales did not do well

When I had a logo / shop template my sales improved 4 fold

If you contact whitediablo (I think) - she does shop templates and logos for a reasonable price (about £30)

Also the text is a little on the small size - maybe a bigger font will help

Hope this helps

 

[TotallySport]

The issues I had were, you have taken an image of the inside of the book (Austin Metro Large Format Brochure c1982 3466/D), which is two wide for the page which makes the page look rubbish, it also shows the book to have been folded in half which might put some people off, and this isn't mentioned in the condition.

The advertising at the top of the listing put me off.

An your description is to spread out IMO

However I have no idea about your market, are the ones that sell quickly certain books, if so you need to targget the popular ones more, and weed out the none sellers.

Good Luck
​

 

[TotallySport]

One more point is the other shop is much brighter, and light that yours, yours is a little dark and drab, almost depressing.

 

[niagra]

Thanks for the replies and advice so far.

The issues I had were, you have taken an image of the inside of the book (Austin Metro Large Format Brochure c1982 3466/D), which is two wide for the page which makes the page look rubbish, it also shows the book to have been folded in half which might put some people off, and this isn't mentioned in the condition.

The advertising at the top of the listing put me off.

An your description is to spread out IMO

However I have no idea about your market, are the ones that sell quickly certain books, if so you need to targget the popular ones more, and weed out the none sellers.

The fold in the Metro brochure is not a flaw as it was done at the printers as it's an A3 size brochure - I stated this near the top. Maybe not clear enough?

Yes, I agree with you about the scrolling ads at the top. I don't like it as a buyer but a lot of sellers use it, which is why I have it.

I think it is the look of your shop - most shoppers are very fickle and looks do matter

I had / have an ebay shop - when I had listings like yours my sales did not do well

When I had a logo / shop template my sales improved 4 fold

If you contact whitediablo (I think) - she does shop templates and logos for a reasonable price (about £30)

Also the text is a little on the small size - maybe a bigger font will help

I will certainly get a logo but only one of the sellers I listed in my OP uses a template and they seem to be doing ok?

The text is font size 12, do you really think it should be bigger? Again, the other sellers use the same size.

But I think you could be right about the condition description. Whilst you have been very detailed it could seem to be in not so good condition. May be worth a go just altering that. If it works great if not you can always add it back in, just trial and error.

One thing I did notice was that your listings are centered and I have to move over the page to view them, not a big thing, but every little bit helps with people looking.

I have started listing items from today with "VERY GOOD CONDITION" at the start of the paragraph and then the flaws underneath and I've also left aligned the text.

I'm no expert at all, but have you checked on the amount of views that you're getting? I clicked on one of your items which has only been viewed four times, (including two when you set the product up,) since it was listed on the 23rd.

It could be that you're just not getting the traffic.

Also, what type of listings do you use and what type of listings do your competitors use?

Brochures in general don't get that many views before someone purchases them. I get the impression that buyers are looking for specific items and the search terms are very tight. I may be wrong in this assumption but how do I go about getting more views?

I use turbo lister for my listings. the other sellers use a mixture of turbo lister and auctiva.