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Market Research and Your Bottom Line
FEATURED COMMENTARY
By Chris Malta Home EBiz Product Sourcing Expert
You probably realize that you need to do
research before deciding what to sell on eBay knowing your market lets you pick
a profitable product line-up and avoid expensive mistakes. But you may not
realize that if you stop there, you’re missing out on a lot of potential sales!
Market research tools from Andale, Hammertap, and even eBay, supply you with
data that shows you not only what to sell, but also when and how to sell it for
the greatest possible profits! But having all that information at your
fingertips does you no good if you don’t apply it. Explains David Frey, of
market research experts Terapeak.com, Different products require different
listing strategies.
Reading the Signs You can sell the right products, but if you’re not presenting
them the way buyers want to see them, you’re not going to get top price every
time. Research tools break down selling strategies and show you which ones work
for your particular item, and which ones don’t. Timing. The day and even hour
in which you end an auction can result in increased bids and higher closing
prices. You want to time your auctions to end when the greatest number of your
buyer base are online. Categories. Though many items can reasonably go in
multiple categories, most have a category in which they sell best. If you list
an item under Electronics that the majority of buyers are searching for in
Toys, those buyers will never see your listing and you’ll have fewer bidders
driving your price up. Research shows you in which category your item will
likely prove most profitable. Listing features. There are no hard-and-fast
rules for listing promotions (a.k.a. bold, gallery, etc.) because different
features affect different items differently. You need to look at the data and
see how each feature improves your item’s chances of closing a sale, and
whether the higher price justifies the investment. Keywords. Using the right
keywords can bring more customers to your listings. For instance,The Little
Mermaid 2 may sell better than The Little Mermaid II because more people are
typing in the numeral 2 than the actual title. Market research shows you which
keywords buyers are using to search for your items. Starting Price. Another
aspect of research is finding which starting price will garner the highest
final price. As you research, you can set filters for your items that let you
see how buyers react to various starting prices, or to using a reserve price,
so you can determine the best pricing strategy.
There’s no question as to whether market research is an asset to your product
sourcing efforts. But once you’ve decided what to sell, market research lets
you greatly increase your profit margins by proving which selling methods are
going to be effective. Says Frey, Oftentimes, research shows the reality is
not what you guessed… So rather than guessing, you can actually see where
you’re going to get the most money.
