It sometimes amazes me how bad eBay listing descriptions can be. eBay provides you with the space to incorporate a huge assortment of details about the products that you have for sale, and a description area where you can really sell the item in question. And yet with just a little looking around you can still see eBay listings that look something like this:
It’s an MP3 player from Sony, okay, but we don’t have a model number, we don’t know how much storage the item has, we don’t even really know what’s included apart from the unit itself and a tatty box. The description has spelling mistakes and no grammar at all, something sure to put off many buyers who are looking for the information that they desire printed in a neat and easy to understand manner. Unsurprisingly this particular listing didn’t sell for a lot of money.
Compare that particular listing to this one for an MP3 player that is unbranded.
There are loads of details here all clearly laid out to let us know exactly what we can expect to get should we click the Buy It Now button right away. If I was looking for an MP3 player right now I’d be far more tempted by this second listing.
In order to create the perfect eBay listing you need to think about what your description, picture, layout and information actually makes up. It’s a sales pitch! You have just a few moments to capture the attention of your audience and to subtly persuade them that the product you have is not only better than what your competitors have to offer, but that they should really make the purchase right away in case this excellent opportunity passes them by.
The trick to making significant sales here is to write your sales pitch in such a way that it appeals to buyers, without putting them off by being too, well, salesy!
Sounds like a contradiction right? It does take a bit of time and practice to perfect the art of a great description, but once you get it right you’ll find that your stock simply flies off the shelf. Don’t believe me? Take a look at how many units that informative description of the unbranded MP3 player has sold:
Looking at those sales figures in closer detail I can see that between 10 and 20 units are flying off this seller’s shelves every single day. Even at just a couple of pound profit that could still be £30 a day, or £900 a month, or almost £11,000 a year, just for one product! Not bad at all.
In order to create your own eBay listings it’s important that you think about each item of information that you need to provide, so let’s take a brief look at the fields that you’ll be presented with each time you sell a new item on eBay.
- Listing Title. The title of your listing on eBay should contain the keywords that you can imagine your customer searching for. There is no need to pad this out with words like ‘Cool’ or ‘Wow’, save the characters for a detailed description of what you’re actually providing such as the colour, the style, the size and so on and so forth. You can always take a look at listings from your competition to see what sort of keywords they use. Don’t copy and paste their ideas, but feel free to get inspiration from them.
- Item Condition. The biggest piece of advice I can give you when it comes to describing the condition of your product is to be honest! If your item isn’t new don’t try to pretend that it is. Now don’t get me wrong, you don’t need to go into explicit detail describing every tiny little flaw and problem with the goods, but at the same time you don’t want items returned or negative feedback provided due to an outright lie or emission of an important truth.
- Item Specific Information. Depending on the category in which you are listing, eBay will provide you with certain fields that you can complete to add extra detail above the main description of your product. I always suggest filling this section in as fully as possible as it will allow a buyer to see the details of what you’re offering at a glance.
- Pictures. Bad photos lead to smaller profits. It’s so important to capture a clear picture of what it is that you’re selling. Occasionally your supplier may provide you with pictures that you can use, but if not you should ensure that your photos do your products justice by ensuring that they are the main focus of the shot and that the shot itself is well lit so that the detail of the item can be correctly identified.
- Description. The description of your item needs to be both informative and persuasive. It should also contain emotional triggers that are likely to inspire a greater desire in your buyers to make a purchase from you. These triggers could include establishing yourself as an authority on the niche market in question, specifying a time limit in which a purchase can be made or establishing a connection between you and the customer by describing a relatable situation.
As I’ve already said, it can take a bit of time practicing with eBay in order to perfect your listings, but by paying careful attention to each element of your sales pages you’ll soon find yourself maximising your chances to make sales.