Ebay articles
Spotting Hot-Selling Items before the Competition Heats Up
by Stuart Lisonbee, Doba Education Specialist
Because of the volume of products sold on eBay, it's an excellent place to do market research. However, if you're an eBay seller you've probably come to realize that by the time you discover an item that's a hot seller on eBay, it's already too late to take advantage of that knowledge.
In November of 2005, a new member caught our attention. Now you've probably heard us say that running your own business is hard work, requires planning, and takes time to build. The vast majority of our most successful members fit this mold.
However, when we saw somebody breaking that mold, we sat up and took notice. Within his first 30 days of joining Doba, we watched one member place over 150 orders totaling more than $10,000 in gross sales. Since one of our goals is to help all our members be successful, we wanted to find out what this member was doing.
We contacted this member and asked if he'd be willing to share some of his trade secrets with us. Fortunately, he agreed. While he didn't reveal everything to us, he did reveal one of his secret strategies... Read More
Product Research Basic Principles
Of all the questions we receive here at Doba, the question of what to sell is far and away the most frequently asked. Many of our customers ask us to tell them exactly which products to sell. Though we may give an example here or there, we generally shy away from telling people exactly what products we think will sell well.
Why? Because what sells well is whatever is in high demand and low supply, and in retail, the supply and demand changes as often as the tides.
Instead of telling you which products to sell, we would rather empower you to discover products on your own - products that you can most effectively market. To achieve that goal, this tutorial presents four articles that reveal basic research principles and techniques.
Learning to fish
An old Chinese proverb advises, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." Admittedly, this adage has become cliche, but it serves as a perfect summation of the need for acquiring product research skills. Doba can tell you what to sell today, but what you can sell today for a profit, you may have to sell tomorrow at a loss - if you can even sell it.
Doba wants to "teach you how to fish," so when customers aren't biting on your current product line, you can quickly change the bait. Applying the laws of supply and demand Anyone who's grown up in a capitalistic society knows the laws of supply and demand, but you may not know some of the nuances. The following list explains the basics, variations on the laws, and how to apply them to running a retail business...Read More
Product Sourcing 101: Tapping eBay's "What's Hot" Page for Product Ideas
By Mikal E. Belicove, Director - Community & Education, Doba
If you're an eBay seller, you're well aware that eBay earns a commission on everything you sell through eBay. Because of this, eBay is highly motivated to help you sell more stuff. One way eBay helps sellers is through eBay Seller Central's What's Hot area.
This often overlooked eBay feature serves up a host of juicy details on fads, trends, seasonal merchandise, popular search phrases, and a whole lot more. To pull up the What's Hot page, go to eBay's Seller Central and click the "What's Hot" link.
The following sections describe the eBay research resources that you can tap for leads on your next hot-selling products, but be careful not to chase the hot sellers, as cautioned at the end of this article.
Merchandising Calendar
One strategy for picking hot-selling products is to time your product selections with...Read More
Riding the long tail of e-commerce to increased profits
By Mikal E. Belicove: Director, Community & Education - Doba
If you look at a sales chart of all items sold, as shown below, you quickly see that a relatively small number of popular products account for a high percentage of sales, while a large number of not-so-popular products also accounts for a substantial percentage of sales.
The wide assortment of less popular products (illustrated by the green area at the bottom of the chart) comprises what is called the "long tail."
Note: The long tail concept is not exactly new. As explained in Wikipedia's entry "The Long Tail," this concept has been around for several years and is usually attributed to Chris Anderson, who first coined the phrase in an October 2004 Wired magazine article, which he later expanded upon in a 2006 bestseller, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More.
Riding the long tail
Generally speaking, popular products are those that are in high demand and supply. Sure, plenty of shoppers are buying these products, but because so many retailers are selling them, the competition is stiff. Shoppers can find these products anywhere and are more likely to buy them from big retailers who can buy in bulk and offer big discounts.
Products that comprise the long tail, however, are still popular, but they are popular in niche markets. For online retailers, this is great news, because... Read More
Driving More Traffic to Your eBay Listings
by Stuart Lisonbee, Doba Education Specialist
Unlike an eCommerce website, eBay has a built-in base of over 60 million users, many of whom are actively shopping for products on a daily basis. This means that you don't exactly have to go out shaking the bushes for customers. To get your products in front of those eager customers, however, requires that you give your eBay listings a higher profile. Whenever a customer searches for a product that you're selling, you want your listings to pop up at the very top of the list.
This article offers several tips and tricks to improve the visibility of your products and increase the number of potential buyers looking at your eBay listings.
Optimize Your Listing's Title
As most eBay sellers know, the title is perhaps the most critical element in your listing. When most people visit eBay, the first thing they do is conduct a search, and when eBay goes looking for items that match the visitor's keyword entry, it searches listing titles. Strategically add the right keywords, and you give your listings a much higher profile.
Optimizing your auction title with appropriate keywords is vital in getting people to view your listing. Make sure you use all the most important keywords and phrases in your title. You have space for 55 characters. Use them all!
Make It Easy for Buyers to Understand What You're Selling
While having appropriate keywords in your title is important...