How one company managing 85 eBay businesses uses eBay data to beat the market

A leader in their field, MerchantSpring creates and manages online marketplace operations on behalf of businesses selling on eBay. Managing Director, Paul Sonneveld, shares his advice on how to leverage eBay data to grow your eBay business.

With over eighty-five clients here at MerchantSpring we are always looking at ways we can  propel our sales performance on marketplaces.

For the last two years we’ve been using an eBay competitor and market intelligence tool to generate insights for our eBay 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. 

There are three key ways we use eBay data to grow our clients’ sales. We’ve highlighted them below for you:

UNDERSTANDING COMPETITOR DYNAMICS AND OVERALL MARKET OPPORTUNITY 

Here at MerchantSpring we've made particular use of eBay data that shows supply and demand dynamics. For the category that we’re focused on, we gain an understanding and analysis of key factors including weekly sales, pricing, postage and price-demand insights.

We also review how fragmented or consolidated the competition is. This is crucial in shaping the overall strategy and market share we should target to achieve. The data we use includes summaries of the main competitors, their size, pricing and range details.

The tool we use to see this eBay data is ShelfTrend.  

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.

There are numerous keyword suggestion tools around – many that are free - but we use ShelfTrend’s Top 500 Live Listings report as we trust their data. It gives us the necessary insights into products already listed on eBay. We can assess titles, their average length, quality of their 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.

Other aspects of the listings that drive SEO, such as free delivery, is also important. 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 focus on 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 rank.  Using ShelfTrend while operating on marketplaces enables sellers to optimise item specifics and product titles, boosting sales and improving performance. It allows you to see if your efforts have been applied and if they are paying off.  

Using eBay data to determine your market strategy, realistic targets and to optimize listings is critical for any businesses wanting to use marketplaces as a viable sales option.

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.

ShelfTrend is an eBay product and competitor intelligence tool used by over 30,000 customers. Sign up for our FREE plan, and upgrade for more data-driven insights.