eBay recently announced the details of their Fall 2016 Seller Update.  We will cover this update with a series of articles.  This article will focus on structured data -- a topic we've covered previously.    

With this release, eBay continues its march towards a more Amazon-like experience in terms of helping buyers more easily find and purchase products.  With structured data, eBay listings can be more easily indexed by search engines, including eBay's own search engine or external search engines such as Google.   And if products are easier to find, the sales will follow as well!

Prior to this current push, eBay's listings were hard for search engines to find.

The interesting change with this update is that eBay will now allow sellers to use other product identifiers, and specifically Amazon ASINs.  This new capability will be available in February, 2017.

And the even better news for CommerceESB users is that we continue to make it easy to include structured data as part of your eBay listings.  See our article on structured data best practices to review what should be done and how.  

At CommerceESB, we have a long track record of helping sellers create effective listings.  Please contact your account manager if you want some advice -- we are happy to help our customers continue growing their business!

It is nothing new or controversial to say that e-commerce via mobile devices is increasingly important.  And now, the data is explicitly backing that statement: according to a report in Bloomberg, "Smartphones. accounted for 45.1% of web-shopping traffic..." finally surpassing web shopping via desktops. 

This serves as a good reminder to ensure your ecommerce listings are mobile-shopping optimized.  As eBay likes to say: Mobile First!

Here are some basic rules and guiding principles to follow, especially as it relates to eBay listings:

• Be efficient yet thorough: shopping via mobile phones presents the opportunity to enable a quick sale, but is limited by less screen real-estate.  Don't waste the opportunity by adding barriers (e.g. lack of sufficient info to drive a sale) or providing superfluous information (e.g. "Last one!")
• Keep titles crisp and factual: include key facts like brand, model, color.  Look at our article on title best practices for more specifics.
• Use high-quality pictures: eBay allows you to include up to 12 pictures: so use 'em if you've got 'em.  But be sure they are a minimum of 500 pixels on the longest side.  Better yet are pictures that are 1600 pixels on the longest side.  eBay is now recommending square pictures as well.  You can see more recommendations on our article on picture best practices.  
• Include structured data: structured data are objective details about the item you are listing.  This includes UPC, ISBN, Brand, Manufacturer, Model, and Part Number.  We cover more on that in our article about eBay listings and structured data. 
• Keep your descriptions simple: descriptions are section of the eBay listing reserved for sellers to provide any additional information the seller feels compelled to provide to help the buyer make a purchasing decision.  Our advice: minimize the info you provide.   Don't include more pictures, don't invest in additional graphics or web design -- all this extra stuff is just not going to help with the purchase (remember: the buyer is on a mobile phone -- create an easy buying experience, not cumbersome!).  We've written two articles on descriptions, one providing eBay description best practices and and another reinforcing our view on keeping descriptions simple.  

If you remember anything, remember these two things:

• Mobile first!
• Be efficient yet thorough

At CommerceESB, we have a long track record of helping sellers create effective listings.  Please contact your account manager if you want some advice -- we are happy to help our customers continue growing their business!

On July 21, eBay released their 2nd quarter results -- and we finally have seen some good news ala growth:

• US GMV (i.e. total sales) grew by 5% vs. 3% in the previous quarter
• Sold items grew by 4% vs. 3% in the previous quarter
  
• $2.23B in revenue -- beating earlier estimates of $2.17B

And whereas only 1M active users added in the quarter (i.e. flat from Q1), it still represents a 4% growth rate -- good for the platform and good for sellers!

Now, truth be told, a good chunk of the revenue came from Stubhub (ticket sales), but it's a good leading indicator for the marketplace as a whole and the eBay management's willingness to invest in innovation and execute to deliver tangible results.

The other indicator of future growth is their continued commitment to structured data.  By structured data it is meant objective, pre-defined details that describe an item: UPC, Manufacturer, Part Number, and the like.  

eBay is saying that items with structured data convert at a rate of 10% more than those without -- a huge upside for sellers who can provide that structured data in their listings.

The good news for CommerceESB customers is that we make it easy (in fact, standard) to collect all the structured data required and include as part of the listing process.

If you need more detail on how we help your eBay listings with structured data, please ask your account manager!

The path to getting more sales on eBay can be made easier by following their guiding principles, and we make it even easier by enabling you to follow those same guidelines:

• ​Create great listings -- CommerceESB makes it easy to create great listings by consolidating almost all of the information you need: Titles, Pictures, Descriptions, and Structured Data.  See our series on Creating Effective eBay Listings to learn more.
• Minimize handling time and provide ship tracking -- CommerceESB automatically routes orders to your preferred supplier, and likewise automatically grabs ship tracking back from suppliers and uploads it to eBay.    This mimizes any delay in shipping, and ensures buyers will know when to expect shipment.
• Provide excellent customer service -- CommerceESB alleviates you of manual processes like keeping quantities in synch with suppliers and order processing, so you can spend your time delighting your customers with superior customer service or finding additional items to list.
• Avoid stock outs -- CommerceESB keeps inventory shown on eBay in synch with what your suppliers actually have on hand.  If the supplier runs out of stock (or below a threshold you designate), we will automatically end the listing (or set the quantity to zero) so you avoid stock outs.  When the supplier replenishes supply, we can automatically re-set the quantity so the items can be purchased again!  

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We take pride in enabling sellers to meet eBay's guidelines and help drive their sales.  If you are new to us, please contact us to learn more or schedule a demo!