ebay competitor research

[niagra]

Hi all,

Bit of background before the question. On eBay I sell classic car handbooks, manuals and that sort of thing which means that each person tends to only buy once as most people only have one classic car. I also sell old sales brochures which is the kind of thing that people collect so am more likely to get repeat buys (but only just moved into this area).

There are a few people with similar eBay shops as mine and from my research it seems to be that the more you have listed, the more you sell.

Probably an obvious observation but is this always the case?

I am also having the problem of working full time and having a young family which only gives me a couple of hours each evening and the weekends to get stuff listed so I'm finding it difficult to build up my presence, especially, as I mentioned I don't have repeat purchases.

I'm taking two weeks off work unpaid to get loads of stuff listed in the run up to xmas. Just hope it pays off.

I'd be interested to hear your views or advice.

Thanks,
Dario

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

You are right, it was our experience that the more listed the more traffic & sales. This was antiques & collectables. Put items in the auction to drive traffic to your inventory stock, consider the extra fees as advertising!

Are you using the cross promotion tools, etc?

 

[niagra]

Thanks for that, I do have a few items for sale as auctions.

What sort of %age of total items would be a reasonable number to offer? Also, do you put the more desirable or less desirable items as auctions?

Cheers,
Dario

 

[movietub]

Thanks for that, I do have a few items for sale as auctions.

What sort of %age of total items would be a reasonable number to offer? Also, do you put the more desirable or less desirable items as auctions?

Cheers,
Dario

We used to sell on Ebay, putting the high interest items is probably sensible as there are a lot of people who go onto ebay without a specific product in mind to buy.

You mentioned competitors but you didn't say how their prices aligned to yours. If sales are slow and they are cheaper (even by pence or postage) although you may offer a better service, or be more reliable a huge chunk of your potential customers will be drawn away.

I have been selling hobby stuff online for about 3 years now and I know that once you have proved you offer a decent level of service the repeat custom is good - initially however all prices online are comparable within seconds. Especially on Ebay because its almost impossible to search for what you want to buy without being shown several alternative suppliers!

 

[David P]

Get as much listed as possible.
Use auctions to ensure you are getting seen by people as if you are not a huge seller it is harder to appear high up with the best match search engine they now use.
Submit your store to google base, did it receently and as a result sales from google searches increased five fold.
75 BIN listings is the break even point for bothering to have a shop otherwise it is more expensive.
Make sure your listings, particularly auctions, are finishing at hte right time.

 

[niagra]

Thanks for the replies, at the moment I have around 140 listings whereas my competitors have 1-2000 and they are doing decent money (from looking at their feedback) and that's where I aim to be so I can do it full time!

I tend to sell around 20% cheaper than the established sellers and I do postage at cost and make a real point of it in my listings. My DSRs are pretty good too.

How do I get on the google base? I thought it was automatic when you opened a shop but I googled myself and I couldn't find the shop.

If anyone wants to have a look, my shop is called "classic and retro car handbooks"

Cheers,
Dario

 

[David P]

Go to google base and download google base store connector, you have to give a bit of information about yourself as well but is well worth it. Especially i would have thought in your area.
You are automatically on google search results for certain searches (which depends on lots of things like keywords etc) but google base you have to submit to.
Then you can appear above search results on google under 'shopping results'.

I would be tempted to change your ID name to your shop title, I just think it looks better.
Also using a listing template makes your listings look a lot better. I use auctiva and it is really easy to use with loads of positives about it for instance free templates, free scheduling image hosting ( although that may matter less to you due to the nature of what you sell), only bad thing is the time it would take to transfer your listings over to auctiva but it may be worth it.

 

[movietub]

Thanks for the replies, at the moment I have around 140 listings whereas my competitors have 1-2000 and they are doing decent money (from looking at their feedback) and that's where I aim to be so I can do it full time!

I tend to sell around 20% cheaper than the established sellers and I do postage at cost and make a real point of it in my listings. My DSRs are pretty good too.
Dario

If you are 20% cheaper than the competition and you can maintain a quality service (never underestimate what being 'busy' will actually do to you!) then in all honesty the skies the limit. If you have good prices then shout about it wide and far, on every free directory you come across. Just try and sign up for one each night for a couple of months. Job done.

It sound like your being unfairly beaten by other sellers with a vastly greater range than you - its pretty important that you cover all bases within your specific area. It may be that to complete a range you make less money on some products than others - but the repeat sales will be worth it.

No excuse for not being on Google Base, if you do it now there is every chance your products will be listed by tea-time tomorrow!

 

[niagra]

If you have good prices then shout about it wide and far, on every free directory you come across. Just try and sign up for one each night for a couple of months. Job done.

I'll have a look into this tonight.

And, thanks David P for the Google Base instructions, another task for tonight.

Just glad I've got two weeks of unpaid leave coming up to get as many things listed as I can in the run up to xmas!

Dario

 

[i234i]

Im feeling like this, i have around 80 items listed and i get 2/5 sales a day.
Last 2 weeks have been quiet.

My competitors have 2000+ products and are doing like 20+ sales a day.

Anyone care to look at my shop and help tooo

Im

 

[niagra]

Hi,

Just tried downloading google base store connector and am obviously doing something wrong. It saves a setup file on my pc and when I double click on it it doesn't know what type of file it is.

Any ideas? There doesn't appear to be any instructions on the google base site.

Cheers,
Dario

 

[willitbe]

Have a look at www.goofbay.co.uk it will tell you all you need to know about competitors....

 

[niagra]

goofbay, just had a go - fantastic tool!

Cheers,
Dario

 

[Christiane]

The new search is a problem, check the ebay shops forum (on ebay). It favours the bigger sellers. My sales dropped 50% since the changes. Glad I don't rely on ebay for my business.

I think indeed the more you list, the more you sell on ebay. Been there, done that. If you have a shop try and list a mix of 7, 10, 30 days and GTC.

 

[movietub]

Not strictly relevant but not only is Goofbay a fantastic tool (that I never heard of) but what a neat website they have!

Impressed just this once :redface:

 

[norwichchris]

hi,
I am doing a dissertation on PayPal for city college Norwich the report is on the growth of online fraud for the service.

would it be possible for you to fill in a short questionnaire about paypal. The questionnaire itself is totally annonymous and is hosted by kwiksurvey no personal information is held.

Please see below for the linkL:
http://www.kwiksurveys.com/online-survey.php?surveyID=KKLJG_3eba4661

Many thanks chris

 

[David P]

Cant help you with that google base problem I am afraid, try a post on the google base forum?

 

[David P]

Im feeling like this, i have around 80 items listed and i get 2/5 sales a day.
Last 2 weeks have been quiet.

My competitors have 2000+ products and are doing like 20+ sales a day.

Anyone care to look at my shop and help tooo

Im

Can you put a link to your shop, then I could try and help better