Topic: New Selling Manager Applications - "Top 5 Last minute Christmas Research Tips" with Terapeak Host: Terapeak Date: Nov 10th, 2009 Time: 11AM - Noon PST Location: eBay Workshop Board
Description: The busiest shopping days of the year are rapidly approaching (Saturday before Christmas, Black Friday, Cyber Monday…) and you’re going to want to be ready to sell! What are the hottest items and opportunities for your eBay business this holiday?
Spend an hour with us and discover how to use research to plan your biggest sales month of the year! We’ll review the top five research tips that can help your sales soar.
Join Matt and Denise from Terapeak Marketplace Research to learn about last minute Christmas research. After the material is presented we'll open the board for discussion and questions.
Greetings! Welcome to our workshop today, thank you for joining us!
Before we get started with the material, a quick note on what Terapeak is, and how these workshops work!
Terapeak is a web-based market research tool and we are an eBay Certified Provider. Our subscription service provides access to 90 days of closed eBay listings, and two years of category trends. Terapeak can help you evaluate your items, determine how and when to sell them, and even guide you to new niche markets and hot sellers.
Any of the screenshots in this workshop are taken directly from Terapeak. You can visit at any time and try out our free tool (which provides reports on a 14 day data set for free) at http://www.terapeak.com/ebay_research/ . We also have a Selling Manager Application – check it out if you use Selling Manager or Selling Manager Pro and take advantage of the free trial to the full suite of tools!
I’m going to post some information now, please read along and at the end we’ll open the floor at 11 am PST for questions. Matt and I will be here until noon PST to respond to anything you’re curious about regarding market research and the material we look at today.
Today we’re looking toward the holiday selling season. Most of you will have a handle by now on what you want to sell, and are readying your products for the busy season. Hopefully, you used Terapeak research to determine what products are going to be hot this holiday season, and have your inventory arriving as we “speak”!
Let’s look at some last minute tips on how to use research to increase the value of your holiday sales. We’ll review a tip, discuss the Terapeak tool you’ll use, and look at an example how the tip may apply to your holiday sales.
Tip #1 - Use seasonal trending to pinpoint the peak for your sales this holiday season.
Tool: Category Trend report compares the performance of all listings in a category over time. This report is ideal for determining seasonality for a product group, as it references two years of sales history. Use seasonality information to help decide the best time of year to list things, and when to add or discount inventory.
Knowing the seasonal demand for your product can be a real advantage in terms of carrying less overhead during slow points in the year. Seasonal trending can also help you figure out when to boost your inventory. Sales for some products reach a highpoint the last week before Christmas, while other products peak earlier in the month.
Example: Let’s look at the seasonality for eBay.com > Toys & Hobbies > Electronic, Battery & Wind-Up > Electronic & Interactive >
Look at the peak dates in the past two years here – Dec 19, 2008 saw the highest total sales, then Dec 17, 2007. Judging by the increase in sales for this year (with a peak so far in Oct 7) you can anticipate a lot of action in this category. If you’re selling these toys, you’ll want to make sure you have inventory available till the weekend before Christmas!
Knowing when to expect demand for your product will prevent you from missing out on extra holiday sales.
Tip #2 Find out if buyers are searching for any other details about your product when they search to buy on eBay, and consider adding the specific keyword to your titles OR specific product to your store.
Tool: Hot Searches references the most popular keywords according to eBay's search engine. Find potential niche markets by surveying missed opportunities in buyer demand. Unlike eBay's Pulse list, you can view hundreds of results and pair them with other terms, or dig down into specific categories.
Example: A search for DSi (a Nintendo portable video game system) finds several variations of the name of the product in eBay’s most commonly searched keywords. The product is available in several colors, but only one color is found in the top searches: #7 dsi blue:
If you’ve got blue systems for sale, you’ll want to include that detail in your listing title, so that it will attract those buyers seeking blue DSi’s. OR, perhaps you’ll want to source additional inventory in the colour people are searching for!
Tool: Product Report uses keywords to search all listing titles in the eBay marketplace from the last 90 days. By analyzing real sales data, you can base your listing and pricing decisions on successful eBay sales and determine the most effective selling strategy for each product. Detailed charts and information tables are provided in the report, as well as a comprehensive history of matching listing results.
Example: You have a popular product for sale to add to your store. What’s the price that people are willing to pay for it? You can review current listings on eBay, but that doesn’t tell you what people are buying, just what prices sellers hope to get.
The data from Terapeak gives you information on sales, so you can gather an understanding of what the consumer is willing to pay right now. As the Christmas marketplace heats up and hot items get harder to find, pricing adjusts accordingly. Don’t leave money on the table by not knowing what other similar products are selling for!
Here is an example search for a popular kid’s toy – a specific ZhuZhu pet hamster. We can see the average price is just under $20:
We can also look at the price trend for the past 3 months:
It appears as though the price is slowly increasing – we’ll want to keep an eye on this to ensure pricing is appropriate for the current market.
Tip #4 Expand your offerings by discovering related products like accessories.
Tool: The Hot Media report provides a list of the top-100-selling products each calendar month in the following categories: Books, DVDs, Games, and Music.
Example: Sometimes you just can’t get your hands on high-demand products like popular consumer electronics. Try researching other products with the same keywords, to find ideas for accessories and complimentary offerings. If you can find an add-on product for one of the hot sellers – you may create yourself a nice niche market. Last year Guitar Hero games were hot (trust me – I had to search and search and eventually scored one online last holiday!). Some accessories sellers noticed the trend and started selling covers for the guitars! Genius! So whenever a search for “guitar hero” game was made, the covers would be included (large die cut stickers mainly) and what a great stocking stuffer or gift for someone who has everything!
Every year there are hot sellers that may have great add ons. Watch the Hot Media lists for top products. Here is the Top Books list – many of these books have potential add ons – we’ve already seen a huge increase in Where the Wild Things Are memorabilia.
Tool : Terapeak Keywords Title Builder generates a list of the next recurrent words appearing in eBay listing titles out of a sample of 100 listings. This list includes the average price, ship, max/min price to help weigh your results.
Example: Your listing title is your store front, and how the majority of people shopping will find your items. In order to ensure your products are found, you’ll need to use the best listing keywords. You only get 55 characters, so do a bit of research to make sure you’re maximizing their value!
Check out this example – perhaps I have some cashmere scarves to sell:
This gives me a great guide of words to use – “scarf” has a avg value of $20.69, but “shawl” has a higher value – as does “wrap”. These are keywords I may want to add!
I can add more words to the character bar and the keyword tool will re-sort and provide new suggestions.
There you have it, five quick tips on using Terapeak research to fire up your listings for the holidays! And remember, the sales don’t end at Christmas – the days after Dec 25 are some of the biggest sales days online and off – as people buy the gifts Santa neglected to leave. So don’t stop researching and learning about your market!
We'll be here from 11am-noon pst to discuss your research related questions - please join us!
A note from our Legal Department: The statements and opinions made in this discussion board are those of the workshop host only and do not reflect eBay policy or eBay's opinion with respect to such statements.
The workshop is open! Take advantage of this great opportunity to ask the Terapeak team how you can research for hot products and increase your holiday sales on eBay.
Workshops are interactive, so please feel free to ask your questions that directly relate to this topic. We will answer all questions!
With the economy, at least here in the US recovering somewhat, will is be the "all ocassion" $$ value of $10-$50 that will be selling, whatever the product is, as opposed to more expensive/luxurious items? Overall, of course. So, will I be more successful going for volume in the $10-50 range with items as opposed to $50+?
I think regardless of economic situation it's wise to have a range of pricing available. I'm not an economist, but I've heard suggested that in times of slower economies, people tend to purchase smaller value luxury items - so instead of a new car, you may be buying high end jeans, or designer purses. These are all items you could sell on eBay.
I hope this helps - let me know if I can get more specific!
I'm new to this. When selling new, facory sealed items, how does a seller determine ahead of time what their cost will be for a product, whether they have to buy a minimum quantity from the supplier, whether the product can be dropshipped, and if so what the shipping cost will be?
Thanks for stopping in - in your situation, it sounds like you'll need to source your items? Your pricing will then depend on who you source from, the volume you purchase, and how far you need to import them. Remember to include any exporting and shipping fees in your cost of goods.
You might want to look into different drop shippers or wholesalers to get specific pricing on specific items.
To purchase items at wholesale prices from manufacturers and wholesalers, you may want to look into Worldwide Brands.
Worldwide Brands helps eBay sellers find legitimate, fully-verified ecommerce wholesalers in order to source a regular supply of products from reputable and reliable wholesale suppliers.
Check out their Selling Manager App, you can try their service free for 7 days.
Thanks for the reply. Once I've sourced an item from a supplier such as those listed on eBay, do they provide me with the information I was looking for, i.e. my cost, min. quantity, etc.?
I would suggest that a seller research their item before picking a category - occasionally one category will see higher values than another for a similar product - its definitely an item by item choice you'd need to make.
My company does archival quality video to DVD transfers Do you think this is service that will sell well on ebay during the holiday season? Does your Terapeak servide have any data that would help me see if this is a service that would sell on ebay?? Thanks
I've noticed that Apple products such as iPod and iPhone are popular sellers. Is it possible for an eBay seller to sell these items directly from Apple, or would we have to go through a distributor.
When a trend changes, is there a way to research WHY the trend changed? What might be causing that change? Thanks! Kathryn IT'S ALL WRITE ~ Quality Pens & Refills ~ eBay Store TIMECATCHERS ~ Antiques & Collectibles ~ eBay Auctions
Sounds like an interesting business - I have no personal knowledge of that sort of market, so I would recommend doing some research on Terapeak first for similar products. This would be a service you offer yes? Not a product?
Just need some more information on that one from you please!
Here's an idea for what I think will be an Economy Christmas. Buyers are thinking not only about bargains, but about how to buy a quality brand name at a very low cost. The answer has always been: Buy Used. I've stumbled on this recently buying used digital cameras to resell. The market for these is exploding, with 10 12, 15 bids per item now on eBay. The 10 selling list is right: leading cameras are Nikon, Kodak, Canon, etc. Logically, these are the brands that I have found sell best used. But you better know something about cameras when you buy these for resale. And if you bid against me, you better be there in the last 3 seconds of the auction. You snooze ... you lose!
No idea - sorry - we don't do sourcing or reselling, we provide market research based on eBay listings.
SOunds like you'll want to connect with a drop shipper / supplier. I'm afraid I can't help you with specific questions on sourcing, I'm not qualified to answer those questions
A good book on sourcing is What to Sell on eBay and Where to Get It by Lisa Suttora. IT'S ALL WRITE ~ Quality Pens & Refills ~ eBay Store TIMECATCHERS ~ Antiques & Collectibles ~ eBay Auctions
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