Testing is absolutely essential if you want to improve the performance of your auction listings and maximize your profits. After all, how else will you know which parts of your sales process are pulling the best results -- and which are just pulling you down?
Luckily, eBay is the perfect platform for testing. You can run as many tests as you want all at the same time or consecutively. Run one "control" listing and then for each test listing, change one element. When the results come in, take all the elements that outperform the control and add them. Now run more tests against your new, improved control listing.
Once you find out exactly what strategies are working for you, you can duplicate your results -- which will take your eBay business to new and more profitable heights.
Let's dive in with the 10 most critical elements of your auction listings you can tweak for MAXIMUM profits:
- Your offer. Your offer includes your main item plus any incentive items you may have included. Try emphasizing different benefits or including a couple of bonus items.
For example, if you're selling a manual camera, try including a free roll of film with every purchase to see if that raises your final sales price. Another terrific offer to consider testing is free shipping, especially on bulk orders.
Measurable metric: Ending price - Auction title. Your auction title is what initially captures shoppers' attention and compels them to visit your auction. So test variations of keywords, brand names, abbreviations like NR (no reserve), or variations of descriptive words.
One of our advanced eBay mentors tested two auction titles against each other over the holidays: one with the word "reindeer" against a title with the word "sleigh."
The result? The title with the word "sleigh" performed twice as well as the other -- and increased his final selling price by an average of $15 per item! If he hadn't tested, he never would have known.
Measurable metrics: Number of visitors, Ending price - Subtitles. Try out a few of these at different times of the year to see if they bring more people to your auctions. Since subtitles are not searchable when someone does a basic search by title, focus on using persuasive and motivating text to get people to click through to your listing.
Measurable metric: Number of visitors - eBay listing features like bold, border, or highlight. These features should be tested carefully before being rolled out on a larger scale because they'll cost you!
These upgrades are easy to test; just run a listing with and without them around the same time, then compare the results.
Measurable metric: Number of visitors - Gallery image. Usually the Gallery image -- the small "thumbnail" version of your picture in the search results page -- increases the number of people who will click through to your auction.
But if you're selling hundreds of a particular item, definitely test a few listings without it. If it doesn't affect your final sales price or your sales volume, drop the picture. Eliminating the 35 cents it will set you back per listing can add up to considerable savings over time.
Measurable metric: Number of visitors
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- Your product description. Tweak your product description until it's the most compelling and most descriptive it can be. Consider adding some testimonials or moving around any photos within your description.
Experiment with your product benefit descriptions, salescopy formatting, design/layout, and placement of images, and so on until you find the best combination.
Remember to test only one element at a time -- for instance, you might try out four different headlines against your control, leaving all the other auction elements the same.
By running all five listings at the same time, you'd know which headline worked best as soon as the auctions ended.
Measurable metrics: Visitor-to-bid conversion rate, Ending price, Comparison to average price.
- Pricing strategies. Finding your optimum pricing strategy can have a huge impact on the final selling price of your item. And the only surefire way to find out if you should start the bidding on your auctions low, high, or with a BIN option is to run some tests.
Find out what works best for your product. Does a low starting bid result in more bids? Or does starting high increase the perceived value and encourage more sales? Some sellers find the Buy It Now option brings more profits than through bidding -- particularly if they're selling mass-produced items.
The only way you'll know for sure is to test!
Measurable metrics: Number of visitors, Visitor-to-bid conversion rate, Ending price - The number of photos you include. Having great pictures is one of the key elements of your sales process. They play a major role not only in generating more bids, but also in raising the final sales price. So make sure to run some test auctions with different numbers of photos to measure the impact they have your sales.
Taking top-quality pictures of the items you're selling can take a lot of time and effort. So if you find that certain items sell for the same amount whether you use one picture or eight, then don't waste your time snapping a lot of useless photos that don't add any value to your listing.
This is more likely to be true for cheaper items, but assume nothing, and test!
Measurable metrics: Visitor-to-bid conversion rate, Ending price - Duration and timing of your auctions. Make sure you test different auction lengths per item grouping: three, five, seven, and ten days. You may be surprised at the results!
Your auction will also get the most attention the first day it's posted and a few hours before it ends. Think about your target market, look at the busiest times on your auctions, and try starting and ending your auctions at different times and on different days.
Measurable metrics: Number of visitors, Visitor-to-bid conversion rate, Ending price - Design elements in your description. After you've tested all the things listed so far, you can start testing your choice of font and the colors used in your description, as well as any other such design elements.
Product descriptions need to be "scannable," which means that visitors to your auctions can see the key messages just by scanning the listing instead of having to read every word.
Test different headline sizes, use of highlighting or bolding, and the use of bullet point lists outlining the benefits of your product.
Measurable metrics: Visitor-to-bid conversion rate, Ending price
Just remember to test only one of these elements at a time so you know exactly what element is accounting for a change. Also, you should create a test for each type of product you sell. What works for one kind of product won't necessarily work for another.
Knowledge is power. Testing and tracking your results can give you exclusive access to the kind of powerful knowledge that can have a HUGE impact on your business.
Make no mistake: to truly be successful on eBay, you MUST test everything you can, and test often! Unless you do, you'll never know how much profit you're letting slip through your fingers.
And as eBay continues to put more emphasis on developing new technologies and selling techniques, ongoing testing of your auction elements becomes even more important.
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