Online Workshop: Creating a Quality Listing and Managing Buyer relationship

[sapana@ebay.com]

Dear Sellers,

On eBay, to be a successful, two important elements for a seller is to ensure that:

1. Ensure that his online salesman - the listing - is well groomed, informative for a buyer.

2. After the item is sold, the next step is to manage his buyer relation such that the buyer is converted into a repeat buyer.

Join Category Manager - Sainath Pai and Trust and Safety Manager - Anil Shenoy when they share some tricks of making great listings and managing your buyer relation better.

Workshop Time: 11 - 12 AM

Workshop Date: 23rd September 2009

Workshop Day: Wednesday

To participate in this thread, please click on post reply button. You can also post your question in advance. Hoping to see you here on 23rd September, 11 AM.

Regards,
Sapana

[dsparklezz]

Looking forward to attend the workshop! Hope its going to be a great learning experience.

[sapana@ebay.com]

This topic was branched to [url thread.jspa?threadID=500006444]Re: eBay Blogs[/url]

[kishorstacto2001]

hi i have been listed on ebay for last 3 days as kishorstacto2001. i was egarly waiting for this workshop.
my problem is that my products are not diplayed in the list

[sapana@ebay.com]

Hi All,

A warm welcome to today's Online Workshop on Creating a Quality Listing and Managing Buyer relationship.

We have today Category Manager - Sainath Pai and Trust and Safety Manager - Anil Shenoy, who will share their learnings with you on the topic.

Please welcome them and lets get started.

Regards,
Sapana

[sai@ebay.com]

Dear Members,

I welcome you all on this workshop. Thank you for taking out your time and posting your messages. I will be available for the next 1 hour and will be happy to engage in discussions & will try my best to answer your queries.

Please feel free to share your thoughts.

Regards
Sainath

[sai@ebay.com]

Let’s start with the basic first, “What makes a good eBay listing?”. Best way to answer this query is put yourself in the shoes of a buyer and ask yourself “If I was a buyer what is it that I would want to see / understand from a listing “

Having asked this question now visualize a standard ebay listing. Every eBay listing essentially has 3 components to it which is - Head, Body and Tail.
Head basically means the Title, subtitle etc. Body comprises the images, description, terms and conditions and finally you have the tail part which is shipping details, warranty, return policy etc.

The Title
First and foremost of the listing part is the Title of your ebay listing. Title is your key business driver. Title is the first thing a buyer sees of your listing and it will decide whether buyer opens your listing or ignores it. Also, eBay search engine by default looks for the keyword in the title.
eBay allows you 55 characters to describe your item in the title. Try and Use these 55 characters entirely and judiciously. List down all the key words / attributes which define the item you are selling. Relevance is the key here. Once the relevant keywords/attributes/features/specification of the item is listed down, use as many of these to build your title . Probability of buyer seeing your title and opening it will be much higher.

Don’t: Never use frivolous /meaningless keywords to attract buyer. Keywords like WOW / LOOK might be good for extremely rare and unusual items. However, for most standard items using the key attributes of the product will fetch you better returns.

Images
If the traffic driver to your listing is the item title, then image is the one that is the key influencer in buyers’ purchase decision. Unfortunately most of the sellers completely overlook this most important aspect of listing. As I had mentioned earlier while listing an item put yourself in buyer’s shoes and then think if you would have bought the item if you were a buyer.
Remember, when you go for shopping, you normally pick the item, hold it in your hand, turn it around, see it from multiple angles and then decide to buy (even for standardized items like mobile phone etc). On internet, we can’t replicate “Feel” (touch) affect, however we can definitely influence the “Look“ (visual) element of it. Any good listing should have at least 3 images of the item from multiple angels. The ideal angles are (a) Item in totality (whole of item), (b) close up of the front, (c) close up of the back. These followed by images of the key features will give a fair idea of the product to the buyer.
Remember, you need not use eBay interface for uploading your images. You can upload images on your own server or on many free image hosting sites. Once your image is uploaded, you can use the link in your ebay listing. This way you should be able to minimize the listing cost, while giving buyers a great experience.

Don’t : Never upload low resolution images or images clicked with insufficient lighting. These are potential candidates for SNAD cases.

Description
Description performs the role of a salesman in your listings who persuades the customer to buy the item. Basis how good a description is, will define the sales of a product or the number of bids and amount you generate in case of auctions. Some key elements of a good description:
• Keep the description clean and easy to read and comprehend
• Exactly what the item is, an in-depth description in which you state its condition (New or used, and to what extent), brand of item (if it has one), what it includes, extent of any damage there may be, everything else – include as much as you can.
• Make the information easy to read by using bullet points or a tabular format
• Use consistent font size across your listing. Having too many font sizes are distracting
• Do not include any negative message in your description (fake buyers do not bid). Negative messages drive away genuine buyer.

Don’t : There is no scope of ambiguity in product description. Colour/Size / Other similar attributes should be very specific to avoid any buyer discontent

Terms and Conditions
A good listing also means setting right expectation of the buyer. Including terms and conditions in your listing will help you attain this objective. List down in brief general information about your services that a customer needs to know. This includes shipping details, shipping options, delivery time, return policy, Guarantee/warranty etc. Again keep this simple and in bulleted points.

Don’t : Terms & Conditions shouldn’t run into multiple paragraphs and shouldn’t be lengthier than your product description.


These are the very basic elements of what constitutes a good eBay listing. The mantra to effective listing is “Keeping it Simple : Easy on eyes and mind“.

[anil@ebay.com]

Dear Members,

A warm welcome to you all. Thank you for taking out your time and participating in this workshop. I very excited to hear from you & will try my best to answer your queries.

Feel free to share your views.

Regards
Anil

[aberacadabra1]

dear sirs,
i made the 13th post on this discussion, its a bet lengthy but i have typed my mind :-)... n i havent heard from ebay yet, i cal almost every day to ebay customer support.. wat they say is "the concern team will cal you" but they never cal. and i am not up dated at all.. i am worried, please tel me what i shoud do.
Regards
Reddy

[sai@ebay.com]

Ideally, I would have liked to analyse each of your listings and give you feedback. However, since that won’t be feasible, I have created a tool by using which you can yourself judge the quality of your listing and understand your strengths and the areas of improvement. Click here to use the Listing Quality Meter:

Understanding and Using the Listing Quality Meter:

1. Every attribute of a listing (as discussed earlier in this thread) is mentioned on the extreme left e.g Title, Subtitle etc

2. Central part of the meter further breaks the attributes into detailed components
e.g Product name, Specification, offers etc

3. The extreme right hand side section is the one where you will input if your listing qualifies meets the parameter.

4. How to use:
--Read the element mentioned in the central part of listing quality meter
--Check if the element is covered in your item listing
--If the elements is included in your listing , select “Yes” from the drop down box under “Select Values” or else select “No”. For example, If you have used Capital letters in your title, you will input No in the extreme right section.
--Basis your inputs the Meter will display Listing Quality Score
--If your score is 97% or more then you have a good listing. Otherwise you need to improve your listings.

I will encourage you to use the listing meter now itself and ask for any clarifications that you may have.

Examples of Great Listings:

Here are few of my favorite Indian seller listings:

1.http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/Toys-Treasure (Check the multiple images taken from all possible directions and quality of images)

2.http://cgi.ebay.in/New-Nokia-E63-Mobile-1-Year-Manufacturer-Waranty-Bill_W0QQitemZ130329604710QQcmdZViewItemQQptZIN_Mobile_Phones?hash=item1e583ff266&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14 (Check the Description, point wise , simple and easy to understand)


Regards,
Sai

[sapana@ebay.com]

Hi aberacadabra1,

Thanks for stopping by. Anil will be shortly responding to your specific concern. Please bear with us till then 🙂

Regards,
Sapana