Making your Listing Stand out on eBay

Selling items on eBay is relatively straightforward, you open a listing template you add a title, put in item details and categories.

You then add an image and build your description. So far so good….right?

Lastly, you define your shipping and payment arrangements hit save and you are good to go, your listing is now live.

Making your listing stand out on eBay requires a bit more thought so you get more traffic and more sales.

In this post, we will learn a few of these tips to expand your reach and become more profitable with your eBay listings.

What you will learn in this tutorial to make better eBay Listings

Titles can Make the Difference for eBay Shoppers

To help them find your listing

Being excited enough in the first place to go to the listing

Offer further reasons to buy

Currently, on eBay you have 80 characters to work with to provide your title. My advice is to use all those if you can.

Make sure to include the item make, model, brand, size and any other words that describe it fully.

Example; Of these 3 Titles below which do you think is the best and will get most searches and click-throughs?

1)Nike sneakers

2)Nike white men’s size 9 sneakers

3)Brand NEW Nike Sportswear AIR MAX TAVAS White Men’s Size 9 Sneakers Best Seller

As you can see there is a remarkable difference between the 1st title and the 3rd.

Included is the brand, the make and model, the size, the color and a prompt that it is one of your best selling items.

All these are important to get the user who is searching for sneakers to find your listing in the first place.

There are ways you can use keyword search tools to find searches that are being made for specific items or using terms not always known to everyone to help in making the most of this.

However, it is important that you have all the information in the title that someone would use to search for it.

NB: Remember people search eBay as well as using search engines and these both have different ways of displaying results.

There is also the option of using the subtitle which gives you another 55 characters to play with. These are searchable on eBay if the user chooses that option but can be found by search engines.

The use of a subtitle is an extra charge however and if starting out maybe an addition you are not prepared to make until you can see how things go.

If your items are low priced that extra payment can dig deep into your profit but when selling something more expensive that percentage is a lot smaller and something maybe worth considering.

Like any POST in SEO, you need to provide the key searching terms in your listing a few times. I like to have it in the TITLE the DESCRIPTION and the IMAGE.

These all help to improve rank index and help search engines find you.  

Categories, Subcategories and Item Specifics

Next categories, choosing the proper category in eBay will provide item specifics listed by eBay where you can designate your item properties, eg color, brand, model, material, weight, etc.

eBay has you covered and gives you the specifics that buyers are looking for when buying items and have built these categories to make it easy.

Although you may have them in your title this means you have them placed again in the listing and helps with SEO.

Choose all the options available to you that make sense for your listing but be careful not to get carried away with specifics that you don’t need.

For example on fly fishing lines, there is the option of breaking strain which really isn’t specific when fishing for normal game species and so is not required so I leave it out.

The Description is the Main Area on your Listing

This is where you can provide a mountain of detail if you are able enough to write it.

You can provide extra images, write in HTML and build website looking listings that are delightful to read and look at.

You can embed multimedia elements to make your listing really sing. The downside to this is you need to be able to write in HTML or write it on a developer platform somewhere else and then copy it into your listing.

All these things you can add later when you get more advanced but for the beginner, I would suggest that you start by putting all the information available to you in text form and try to answer any questions your buyer may want to know.

The less your buyer needs to contact you before making a decision the better for you as you can spend more time building new listings rather than answering questions.

So for our sneaker listing, we would want to check out the Nike website and read what they have to say. Also, check out a few other websites to see what other sellers are saying and any reviews that are about.

Take the details from these then re-write that detail in your own words and highlight the pros and cons as best you can.

That way you will have created a unique listing providing all the answers that buyers are looking for.

If you have all that detail there on your listing there is a good chance the buyer will push the buy button rather than continue to shop or search for the answer.

Not all buying is about the size and color, buyers are looking for answers and if they find them they are much happier.

For example in our sneakers listing we could have a description to say;

“Running in these after 10 miles causes the feet to rub but if you apply some Vaseline to the soles for longer runs you can save your feet from blisters”.

“The sneakers work well on shorter runs however as the air vents give good ventilation for shorter periods”.

In this case, a buyer may need shoes for longer runs and go elsewhere but if they are for short runs that bit of info may make the sale.

You can play around with the content here as you can go back to your listing at any time to revise them.

Don’t be afraid to try new things if sales are not coming through.

A Picture Says a Thousand Words

Its an old saying and in most cases that is still true when building your listing on eBay.

As part of your listing options, you get to put up 12 images for FREE so make use of this tool as best as you can.

Take images from different angles and use brand images from the manufacturer’s website which is acceptable since you are selling their product. Make sure your images are clear and not cluttered.

You can even build your own image box with some clean white PVC sheets and a couple of led lights. This means your buyer is not distracted by the background images.

I’m sure you will have come across listings on eBay where items are photographed in a bedroom on the bed with other clothes and items around them. This is not very good as it doesn’t show professionalism.

You need to keep them clutter FREE and clear. Use a decent camera with at least 7MB pixels per image.

eBay suggests images of at least 1600 x 1200 pixels in length so use this as your standard. You can go bigger but you will have to pay extra.

I don’t see the need as there is enough quality in the suggested image to cover anything I need.

The important thing is to take images of every feature of the item that is unique so buyers can see them.

As stated above you can put more images into your description but you need to host them somewhere else like your own server or on dropbox.

This can prove to be messy if you change locations later as you will need to update each listing manually and can be very time consuming if you have a lot of listings.  

My advice stick to the 12 given FREE and hosted by the eBay platform.

Discounts can Help Make Sales.

You offer a “Buy 5 get 1 FREE” option or a percentage discount on orders over a certain value etc.

eBay has its own Promotions Manager tool where you can set limits for certain offers etc. There is plenty of options where you can offer order value discounts, $10 off or percentage 10%.

You can create codeless coupons that provide links to special offers these are good for newsletter signups etc, offer 10% when they subscribe.

Sale events offer an extra 10% off certain categories or the whole shop. Run for a week or longer to see how it goes.

Accessories discounts, someone buys a camera and gets 15% off a strap or bag, etc.

eBay has set up a good tool here to provide your buyers with better value. All these are options are in the tool and can be edited or changed as you feel fit. 

You can test how things work and try different things to see what works and what doesn’t. Just be careful you check your profit margins beforehand so you don’t eat into it too much.

International Sales are an Extra String to your Bow!

Selling internationally is another good way to make extra sales and help your listing to be found across more eBay sites.

You need to make sure you do your research into international shipping costs so you charge the adequate amount. International shipping can prove to be very costly for items over 1kg so make sure to weigh and do your homework.  

However, if acceptable shipping overseas can prove fruitful and opens up your store to a very large market place.

I have sold all around the world and it pleases me to think that some of my products have been purchased by someone in Japan, Australia, or other far off places.

When shipping great distances it’s important to ensure you have packaged it well so it arrives safely so consider those costs as additional.

Final Thoughts on Making an eBay Listing Stand Out

So making your listing stand out on eBay can be a bit of work but well worth the effort.

I have seen marked increases in sales by changing some of my older listings from plain and boring to something more pleasing.

It’s a continuous process however,  as I see something I need to add or change I try to do it as these all increase traffic and sales.  If you work hard to build your listings and shop I’m sure you will have success too.

So there you have it, follow these tips and you will be building better listings which will give better traffic and sales to make your store more profitable.

Have you any other suggestions on how to make your listings POP, I would be glad to hear them?