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To make the most of the holiday selling season on eBay, you need to understand the current eBay marketplace. Market research can help you figure out everything from the best time of day to sell an item to the best auction title keywords, the best starting price, and the best listing duration, so you can pull in the highest possible profits.
EBay offers some free, as well as paid, tools to help with that research. And companies that buy eBay's licensed data, like Terapeak, and HammerTap, offer even more advanced capabilities, detailed data, and in-depth analysis.
4 Seasonal Strategies
Uncovering the best sales approach for your auctions is key to having a profitable holiday season. According to Dave Frey, of Terapeak.com, market research has revealed several strategies every eBay seller should be incorporating:
- Around the holidays, every item has a specific day where sales drop off dramatically; these dates tend to remain consistent from year to year. As that date approaches, the demand decreases. Advises Frey, "It's important to research your product's 'last selling day' and time your auctions accordingly, so you don't have leftover inventory once those sales begin to decline."
- Holiday buyers want to know their purchases will arrive in time for Christmas — they don't have time to wait for an auction to end to find out whether or not they got an item. That's why during the holidays, the higher a product's demand, the shorter your listing duration ought to be. Particularly as you approach that item's final selling date, it's wise to shorten your auctions' durations. For the same reason, it's also a good idea to use a lot of Buy It Nows, and increase the listings in your eBay store.
- This time of year, online shoppers are in a bigger hurry than ever. They're scanning listing titles, not taking time to read descriptions. Your listing titles need to be clear and descriptive so buyers understand, at a glance, what you're selling. Having a clear title becomes even more important when you consider the amount of products for sale during the holiday season. Terapeak is offering a free trial of their under-development tool called TitleBuilder (www.Terapeak.com/TitleBuilder), based on eBay research, and designed to help you construct the most profitable titles.
- You need to have a selling strategy beyond the holidays: take advantage of the many products that sell better after Christmas. Calculator sales, which drop off after September, surge again in early January. The baby category also takes off — baby clothing sales start spiking around that time. Hockey cards, which do poorly during the holidays, sell very well from January to March. Research exposes the trends in your product market, so you can see sales opportunities you might otherwise miss.
Applied Knowledge
Performing market research is your key to seeing these types of patterns and making wise sourcing and selling decisions. Says Frey, "It's not enough to understand the research — you have to apply it. Basing your selling techniques on what your research is telling you is foundational to having a lucrative holiday season."
BIOGRAPHY: Product Sourcing Radio is Created and Hosted by Chris Malta and Robin Cowie of WorldwideBrands.com, Home of the Internet's Largest Source of Genuine, Factory-Direct Wholesalers for online sellers. Click Here for more FREE E-Biz & Product Sourcing info!
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