CATEGORIES Auto & Trucks Business & Finance Computers & Internet Education Family Food & Drink Gadgets and Gizmos Health Hobbies Home Improvement Humor Kids & Teens Legal Marketing Men Music and Movies Online Business Parenting Pets and Animals Politics and Government Recreation & Sports Relationships Religion and Faith Self Improvement Site Promotion Travel & Leisure Web Development Women Writing Keyword Search Article Title Author's Name SITE MENU Search Submit An Article Submit Articles in Bulk Submit Press Release Syndicate Articles Distribute Articles Privacy Policy Terms of Use Link To Us Contact Us Site Map Home

How To Sell More On eBay By Studying Your Competitors  by: Paul Duxbury If you’ve a savvy businessperson, the chances are you’ve already taken a look at your competitors’ auctions. What you might not have realised is just how much you can learn if you know what you’re looking for. To begin with, don’t bother looking at listings that haven’t ended yet – you don’t know what’s going to happen with them. Instead, use the advanced search page to search for listings that sold. Just go to the advanced search page, type in the keywords that you know will find your competitors’ items, tick ‘Completed listings only’ and set the minimum number of bids to 1. Set it to sort by ‘Price: highest first’. This will show you auctions competing with yours that have recently finished, starting with the ones that sold for the most (ignore any with prices in red – they didn’t sell). Go through and take a look, paying special attention to the following points: Titles. What information do the top sellers of your item put in their titles, and what do they leave out? If your titles are very different to theirs, it might be time for a rethink. Descriptions. You’ll probably notice that the highest sellers haven’t just copied text from the company’s website or an Amazon.com review – they’ve gone to the trouble of writing a little about the item, and about themselves. Learn from their example. Pictures. I can almost guarantee you that the listing will have very nice pictures – not catalogue quality, but good enough to see what you’re getting. With items of any significant cost, you’ll probably find more than one photo from different angles. Style. Is it written conversationally, or in terse businesslike language? The way you should write entirely depends on what the market seems to like – and the market seems to like what the top sellers wrote. Time. It’s pretty easy to ignore this as a factor without meaning to, but pay attention to when the top selling items’ auctions began and ended. This might give you a few clues about the best to catch buyers who will bid highly on your item, and then you can schedule your items accordingly. Price. If your competitors are selling using Buy it Now, you can see what the maximum is that they’ve managed to sell for recently, and set your own Buy it Now price slightly below that. Shipping. Look around to see the sweet spot for shipping. If you can figure out a way to get your shipping costs lower than the highest sellers, then this is a great opportunity to differentiate yourself in the market. Once you see what works, you can start to emulate your competitors – of course you can’t just copy them completely, but you can structure your auction similarly and make sure it includes the same information. About The Author Paul Duxbury is Head of Training for a major UK Charitable Organisation with a wealth of experience in personal development, management development, e-learning and operational management. In addition he owns PK eBooks (http://www.pk-ebooks.co.uk) two sites specifically aimed at those who want to successfully sell on eBay http://www.ebay-profits.co.uk and http://www.info-entrepreneurs.co.uk. This article was posted on September 26, 2005 Read More Articles from the "Online Business" Category: List Building vs. Search Engine Optimization by Robert Gwuzd Online Credibility by Julie Martin Maybe A Genuine Internet Business Opportunity Is Your Answer by David Nettles Bad Internet Traffic - Does this Exist? by Matthew Bredel Timeless Tips to Set-Up Your Online Work at Home Business by Harrold Swalve The Easy Money Earner Using eBay by Ian Stables Do You Ever Feel? by Jennifer Strohman How To Shop Online For Your Mother Of the Bride Dress by Audrey Cheong Is there an ebook in you? by Matt Canham Why, What and How to use Autoresponders by Dave Foster << Back to "Online Business" Index

Disclaimer: The information presented and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors
and do not necessarily represent the views of ArticleCity.com and/or its partners.

	Web www.articlecity.com