ShelfTrend has taken 5 of the most active categories on eBay UK and, using real sales and eBay search rank data, have identified the best-selling products within them.
This report shows you:
Products and categories customers are hungry to buy
Niche pockets where listing competition is relatively low but sales are high
Whether customers are brand sensitive or focused on function.
The high performing eBay UK categories that we have analysed are:
Baby
Clothes, Shoes & Accessories
Garden & Patio
Health & Beauty
Sound & Vision
1. Baby Category: Baby Shower
The baby category is very broad, so what are customers buying and how competitive is this space?
The Baby product category with the most buyer interest is Baby Showers. Brits are splashing out over £10,000 a week on the top 100 eBay listings. The average sale price is just under £4 per item, reflecting the small nick-nacks and decorations that are purchased when holding a baby shower.
This sounds much more fun than what’s happening in Australia – their best-performing baby category is Nappy Bags.
Best Performing Listing
Despite the challenges faced, Brits are clearly not going to let a lockdown stand in the way of a good party and a baby shower is no exception. With over 10,000 sales in total, the top listing is a transparent box featuring white lettering used for baby showers. It sells for bang-on the average price at £3.99.
But if your newborn’s name is spelled with E, M, N, O, R or T you’re out of luck because they’re out of stock.
Top Brands
In keeping with the thirst for bargains in this category, unbranded items are the most popular. This is followed by UK Baby Shower Co Ltd, Hongpar, The Little Party Company, and Handmade.
Pricing and Sales Trends
This chart shows the distribution and volume of sales over different price points in the baby category in an average week (blue dots) compared with the percentage of listings at that price point (green bars).
Given that baby showers require decorations and party favours, there is a strong clustering of supply and demand at the lower price points with demand dropping off dramatically at price points above £6.
2. Clothes, Shoes & Accessories Category: Masks
The Clothing, Shoes & Accessories sub-category with the greatest buyer interest was Masks. Masks delivered £70,240 in sales per week from the top 100 listings, with an average price of £4.66.
Best Performing Listing
Pandemic couture topped this category, with the top-selling product a washable fabric infection-control double-layer face mask available in a range of colours for £9.99. With over 20,000 sold and turning over more than 790 units a week, this listing shows the huge growth in pandemic related products providing opportunities for nimble businesses.
Top Brands
Big brands haven’t successfully leapt onto the mask bandwagon, with unbranded masks being the most popular. Top ranking brands include Greenzone and By Neki. This shows that nimble businesses moved quickly to enter the mask-making market and now own it.
Pricing and Sales Trends
Sales and listings in the Masks category are both clustered at the lower end of the price spectrum, with the vast majority falling under £4.
The most popular price point for both listing and purchasing is £2 to £4. There is a significant over-supply of listings in the £4 to £10 categories making competing in these price points difficult.
3. Garden & Patio: Growing Media (Hydroponics)
Home gardening in the UK seems to be a popular pastime, particularly hydroponics – which one can only assume has led to many thriving crops of tomatoes across the country. The Growing Media (Hydroponics) category turns over £19,089 a week from the top 100 listings. The average price per sale is £10.57.
Best Performing Listing
A light mix hydroponic compost was the top-selling listing in this category, selling 28 items a week at £14.99, to earn a total of £421 a week. It’s sold over 6000 in total.
Top Brands
Branded products featured prominently in this category, suggesting Brits are not willing to trust their tomatoes to just anyone. The top brands in the category were Canna, Jiffy, and Plantit.
Pricing and Sales Trends
Once again, buyers were on the lookout for bargains, with the top-selling category being £6 to £12. The majority of listings were also in this price range.
Sales continued up to £24, but dropped off beyond that.
4. Health & Beauty Category: Vitamins & Minerals
A global pandemic has got Britons reaching for the vitamins, with over £61,000 flowing in from 8958 sales from the top 100 listings in this sub-category.
But they’re doing it in style – while smoking an e-cigarette and wearing fake eyelashes (the next two most popular sub-categories).
Best Performing Listing
The best performing listing is Omega 3 Fish Oil capsules, selling 171 units per week at £6.99. The listing has sold over 8,000 units.
Interestingly, this top-selling listing wasn’t for an immune-boosting product but rather one related to brain function, indicating people have seen Sean of the Dead and know you need to keep your wits about you during a zombie apocalypse.
Top Brands
All products in this category are branded, with the top five brands being Lindens, ZipVit, Naturplus, Mobu and Phoenix Nutrition.
Pricing and Sales Trends
Once again, shoppers are incredibly price-sensitive, with the majority of sales taking place between £3 and £9 and very few sales at all above £12. This demonstrates that this category is highly commoditised and extremely competitive, providing a significant barrier to new entrants.
5. Sound & Vision: Single Use Batteries
Sales in the Single Use Batteries category reached a very healthy £73,239 a week from the top 100 listings, making it one of the higher performing categories. The total number of items sold from the top 100 listings was 18,159, for an average price of £4.
Best Performing Listing
The best performing listing was a 2-pack Duracell coin battery, selling 1380 units a week for £1.79, netting a total weekly earn of £2471. The listing has sold almost 40,000 units in total.
Top Brands
Known brands topped the sales in this category, with Duracell, Energizer and Panasonic taking out the top three spots, unbranded products coming in at number four and Eunicall at number five.
Pricing and Sales Trends
While few will be able to compete at the bottom end of the market, where the bulk of sales and listings are, there is an opportunity in £6-£8 price range where there are sales but little competition.
What does it all mean?
There are thousands of niches across eBay where sellers can find an easy opening and exploit lack of competition and gaps in supply and demand. ShelfTrend’s data acts like a bloodhound sniffing out opportunities and showing you where you can have the biggest impact.
ShelfTrend data can help you:
• Pivot your business to address changing consumer behaviour
• Find complementary products to support your core range
• Learn what products customers are struggling to find
• See where small price changes can make a huge difference to your sales.
Find out more about how ShelfTrend can grow your business. Sign up for ShelfTrend’s free basic plan now and upgrade if you need more detail.