eBay prices tend to be closely monitored by successful sellers, as a new entrant with a lower price can steal sales and charge to the top of eBay’s search rank.
However, not every listing with a lower price will have this impact, and aiming to be the cheapest on eBay is unrealistic and unnecessary for the vast majority of sellers.
In this article, we’ll discuss the factors that make a listing worthy of being price-matched and how to get that data quickly.
Which listings could be a threat to your sales?
Often, shoppers on eBay are presented with pages of products varying greatly in features and price, from a diverse range of sellers. However, eBay’s search algorithm is so finely tuned that shoppers mostly purchase from the first page.
This means that the listings that could impact your sales can be narrowed to:
Highly-ranked listings – the listings on the first page of search results. As most shoppers aren’t searching through the many pages of results, you don’t need to worry about those on the following pages.
Listings with substantial stock on hand – these sellers need to move their stock and will be competing longer term for sales.
Listings offering very similar products to the one that you’re selling – the closer their item is to yours, the more price-sensitive the buyer will be when deciding between them.
How do you access the right pricing data quickly?
ShelfTrend enables you to capture a set of high-ranked listings using Seller ID, category and keywords (including product identifiers like EANs, MPNs and IPNs) by creating a Top 500 Live Listings report.
The reports can be downloaded into a spreadsheet, which means you can then narrow the data set using:
eBay search rank – are they on the first page of results?
Listing stock levels – do they have hundreds to sell or just a few?
Seller ID – some people focus on a small set of competitors.
Narrowing the set will reveal a tighter, more relevant price range that you need to compete with – at least until they’re knocked down in rank.
Sellers don’t always choose to price match competitor listings – sometimes using Promoted Listings or multi-quantity discounts are just as effective and enables you to keep your pricing more consistent.
With ShelfTrend, when it comes to pricing, you’re informed and in control.