A leader in their field, MerchantSpring creates and manages online marketplace operations on behalf of businesses selling on eBay. In this guest post their Managing Director, Paul Sonneveld, shares his advice on how to leverage eBay data to grow your eBay business.
With over eighty-five clients, MerchantSpring is always looking at ways to outperform the market on eBay. Which is why ShelfTrend’s simple ethos of “know more, sell more,” not only seemed appealing, but simple too.
For the last two years we’ve been using ShelfTrend, an eBay competitor and market intelligence tool, to generate insights for eBay business sellers. As a company that manages a range of marketplaces across the globe, it is crucial to have access to data-driven insights as a way of boosting and increasing our sales, faster than our competitors.
Before we go on to tell you how we use ShelfTrend, first a little bit about what ShelfTrend is exactly. ShelfTrend is designed specifically for eBay. It’s a tool that gathers eBay data so you don’t have to. There are three key ways we use ShelfTrend that can also benefit your company. We’ve highlighted them below for you:
UNDERSTANDING COMPETITOR DYNAMICS AND OVERALL MARKET OPPORTUNITY
Here at MerchantSpring we've made particular use of ShelfTrend's supply and demand reports. This provides eBay sellers with details of sales taking place within their category of interest. Sellers can single out the category they wish to sell in and gain an understanding and analysis of key factors within this. ShelfTrend works out the average number of sales generated per week within these categories, and summarises it by seller, brand, as well as price range.
This tool offers an understanding of how fragmented or consolidated the competition is. ShelfTrend also provides key information like the number and quality of listings in each category. This is crucial in shaping the overall strategy and market share we should target. Here at MerchantSpring, data like this is essential, which is why ShelfTrend is an incredibly useful tool.
ASSESSING OVERALL LISTING QUALITY AND OPPORTUNITY FOR SELLERS
Today consumers make their buying decisions quicker than ever. So we need to make sure that we are conveying product information efficiently but also make it appealing enough to generate sales. It is of prime importance to understand the listing quality and opportunity for sellers on marketplaces such as eBay. With a marketplace like eBay it is all about search engine optimization. Therefore item titles and specifics are crucial when it comes to boosting SEO. Title lengths and item specifics are pivotal to search rankings.
ShelfTrend’s creation of the Top 500 Live Listing report gives us the necessary insights into products already listed on eBay. We can assess titles and the average length of these titles, the quality of the item specifics, and more importantly where the gaps and opportunity lie in each category. With this information we can identify what’s already working, what’s not and what we can do to make sure our products sell. ShelfTrend also offers other aspects of the listings that drive SEO such as free delivery. ShelfTrend’s accessibility to this information allows for analysis of these categories quickly, shaping sales and marketing strategy.
TRACKING EBAY RANKINGS
Here at MerchantSpring we prioritise how eBay rankings are changing as it affects how we should present our item specifics and product titles. ShelfTrend offers an efficient way of tracking product ranking. Using ShelfTrend while operating on marketplaces enables sellers to optimise item specifics and product titles, boosting sales and improving performance. ShelfTrend allows you to see if your efforts have been applied and if they are paying off.
ShelfTrend really is an amazing tool, especially for eBay sellers and for those requiring data-driven insights. ShelfTrend helps sellers turn marketplaces into viable sales options, providing practical insights and recommendations.
About
MerchantSpring helps sellers turn marketplaces into viable sales channels through its multi-marketplace management platform, Marketplace Manager, and a suite of complementary services including content production, optimisation, marketplace onboarding, ongoing marketplace management, customer service and consulting.