how to maximize your sales on ebay by hugh williams

HOW TO MAXIMIZE

SALES ON

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Hugh Williams

eBay, Inc.

@HughEWilliams

#SMX #22D

October 2, 2013

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Hugh E. Williams

VP, Experience, Search, and Platforms

eBay Marketplaces, eBay Inc.

@hughewilliams, http://hughewilliams.com

hugh.williams@ebay.com

What buyers want from search

Trust

Value

Relevance

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Search is the first step towards a successful transaction

Seeing an item in Search

Choosing an item

Sales

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Maximizing your exposure in search

Search Recall

Keywords in title

Catalogs

Search Refinement

Item Category

Item Specifics

Item Condition

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Tips for Search and Sales Success

• List in the correct category with a meaningful title

• Use item specifics and item condition

• Use long duration multi-quantity Buy It Now format

• Study what it takes to be a Top Rated Seller

Being Found

• Make sure you are in relevant result sets, don’t keyword spam

• Use great pictures and a definitive title

• Be price competitive

• Specify shipping costs

Being Viewed

• Have a clear, structured, and comprehensive item description

• Have a clear returns policy

• Offer fast shipping and international shipping options

• Use the largest possible image

Sales

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Why isn’t eBay more specific about search?

• We want sellers to create a great experience for buyers

• We want a level playing field for all sellers

• Search is changing

– Trust, value, and relevance won’t ever change as our

guiding principles

– “Shortcuts” that work today may not work tomorrow

– We will take more data into consideration in Best Match

• Please beware of unofficial advice

– Much of what’s out there is wrong, misguided, or shortcuts

– Think: Trust, Value, and Relevance

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Cassini: eBay’s New Search Engine

• A ground-up rebuilding of the eBay search engine

• Cassini is replacing Voyager (circa 2002)

• Cassini is necessary because:

– Voyager is over ten years old

– We need modern search ranking

– We want a modern, operable platform

– We want to innovate faster

– Search is continually improving everywhere

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A Feature of Cassini: Description search

• In addition to searching titles and catalog data, Cassini will

search descriptions to improve recall

• It does this automatically without relying on buyers to use an

advanced option

• Sellers will no longer have to rely on the title to ensure their

item gets visibility

• Ensuring your description is accurate and relevant will matter

even more

• Description search is already powering parts of eBay search

today (specifically, Null and Low Recovery)

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eBay Item Description Example

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eBay (DE) Search

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Description search helps null and low result scenarios (US)

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When is Cassini arriving?

• Cassini has arrived for Completed search, and Null and Low

results search in most markets

• Cassini arrived for “active item” search in North America in

June

• You can expect Cassini to be powering “active item” search

in other markets by 2014

• You can then expect even faster, continuous innovation in

eBay search

@hughewilliams #SMX

http://www.slideshare.net/SearchMarketingExpo

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