Creating Effective eBay Listings -- Pictures

This is the third in a series of articles about how you can create effective eBay listings that help drive both sales and great customer experiences.

A well crafted listing will have everything a prospective buyer needs to make a purchasing decision.

In general, you want your listings to follow these guidelines:

• Place the item in the right category
• Create an descriptive title
• Include high-quality, accurate photos
• Utilize eBay's catalog when available, provide structured data when it's not
• Provide a brief, concise description

This article will focus on pictures

Its a well-worn truism: a picture says a thousand words.  This is as true today as ever, especially given the limited screen real estate for buyers making ever more purchases on mobile devices.  

eBay and their buyers love it when you provide more, high-quality pictures -- so give 'em what the want!

Note that eBay now requires a minimum length of 500 pixels for the longest side.  

For best results, eBay recommends the following:

• Don't just settle for the minimum: use pictures with 1600 pixels on the longest side
• Use 12 pictures if you have them
• Make sure each has a white background
• Do not include anything other than the item in the picture.  For example, do not include borders, text overlays (e.g. "Free Shipping!"), or logos
• You can use watermarks, just be sure they use 5% or less of the total picture space, opacity is less than 50%)

For those taking their own shots, eBay provides a comprehensive guide for taking great pictures.

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!