So we have covered some of the basics of effective
listing creation in previous blogs such as accurate descriptions, product
identifiers (UPC’s, model etc.), clear photos but what else can be done to
improve your odds of turning your products over more quickly? What follows is a
collection of basic dos and don’ts to maximize your sales.
Some dos
Load up with relevant keywords- These are keywords
pertaining specifically to the item you are selling these include brand, model,
style, size, material etc.
Consolidate your listings- have multiples of a single
item but in different colors or sizes? Use multi variant when selling on eBay
instead of listing individually this greatly improves your visibility to eBay’s
search engine.
Pick a font and stick with it- Going back and forth
between fonts in a description can be distracting and frankly annoying same
goes with colors remember some colors may be more difficult to read than others
so when creating a description go with one color and one font.
Purse, handbag, bag, pocketbook which is it?- Well
whatever you decide just use one don’t stack similar terms this is another
practice that most site search engines frown upon.
Price accordingly by checking the competition- Check
out the marketplace and see what the competition is selling the same or
comparable items for. Is your pricing in line with your competitors or do they
need tweaking? Maybe your competitors pricing is higher but they offer free
shipping, maybe try out offering free shipping to see if it is effective way of
promoting sales without sacrificing margin.
Some don’ts
USE YOUR INDOOR VOICE!!– Did you hear this old chestnut
from your mom, dad or grandparent’s growing up? It’s true too with online
retail turn that caps lock off and refrain from the digital equivalent of
shouting the all caps. Avoid using all caps in title listing and description if
you want to make your text more readable just increase the font size.
L@@K! D@n’t D@ IT!– Special characters and punctuation
marks are also a no-no. Sites like eBay allow 80 characters for your title which
may seem like a lot but can fill up quickly so avoid putting in non-essential
words or characters. Special characters are discarded by search engines which
can cause your listing to be downgraded.
Avoid the run on description– you have probably seen it
before a solid 300-400 word run on description which covers the item, shipping
policy, returns policy, payment options and a multitude of other non-essential
information that you don’t care about. Be concise and break it up into
manageable packets of information.
Active content is out!– Well at least for eBay this
goes into effect in June of 2017 this includes JavaScript, Flash, Plug-ins and
form actions within listings. In some ways this should be a plus particularly
for mobile users these formats are typically not compatible either slowing or
stopping page details from loading.