How to Create A Listing on eBay: A Step-by-step Tutorial

Ebay, Sep 2, 2021


The key to securing your online sales, eBay or otherwise, is building buyers' confidence in your business. When trust is high, shoppers pay less attention to the potential risks of shopping online and feel ready to make a purchase.

How do you build that buyer relationship? Appeal to the instinctive logic of shoppers.

According to the Harvard Business Review, people rely on their associative reasoning system – based on personal experience and intuition – when making risky decisions such as online purchases. This finding means that the innate factors of your eBay listings – aesthetics, professionalism, visibility – often have the biggest impact on whether buyers buy your eBay products.

With this research in mind, we've outlined 10 tactics that hone the associative reasoning of shoppers. By improving your listing's intuitive factors with these strategies, you'll build buyer confidence in your eBay business and boost your sales.

1. Use high-quality photos

Because online eBay buyers can't see your products in person, photos of your items matter a lot. Through color, image quality, and more, product photos help buyers assess whether or not they want to buy the item.

To make the right first impression, here are some tips for curating your eBay product photos:

Use high-quality photos. Well-lit, colorful, high-resolution photos inspire shoppers to trust your products—they can clearly examine your item's details, so they feel ready to make a purchase.
Make sure they are the right size. eBay requires that photos be at least 500 pixels on the longest side. Images must be 1600 pixels on the longest edge to optimize for mobile.
Present a selection of photographs. Include a variety of photos that show your products from different angles to give shoppers a better understanding of your items.
Keep your images to a minimum. eBay asks that sellers keep product images with clean backgrounds and no text or borders. In addition to meeting market guidelines, following these rules eliminate distractions and keep shoppers focused on your products.

With a handpicked selection of product photos, your listing will give buyers a clear idea of what to expect from your products. Shoppers have the knowledge they need to feel confident making a purchase.

2. Apply SEO to your listings

Online shoppers don't want to browse pages of products. To save time, they would prefer to choose one of the results they see first. With this logic, a listing that ranks higher in eBay's search results will attract more sales than one that ranks lower.

These search rankings are determined by Cassini, eBay's search engine. In deciding which listing to rank highest, it considers which will be most relevant to the buyer.

An important factor in determining this "relevance" is keyword usage. When keywords in your listing match your buyers' search terms, Cassini considers your product to be more relevant to that buyer.

There are a few key ways to find out which keywords your customers are searching for most often.

Use a keyword research tool. You can take advantage of the eBay-specific keyword tool TeraPeek or use a more general keyword tool, such as Ahrefs or Google Keyword Planner, to generate a list of keywords that buyers are frequently searching for.
Do your own eBay search. Search for products on eBay that are similar and identical to yours, and note which keywords are used most often in the top-ranking listings. Because these listings rank high, these keywords are searched for frequently by buyers.

Once you have compiled a list of keywords, you can narrow down your list to the most popular words and phrases. Then, add those keywords to your list.

Title.
Description.
Catalog specifics.
Listing specifics.

When you want to distribute these keywords throughout your list, avoid keyword stuffing. If you aimlessly add frequently searched keywords, Cassini will detect that your listing is not relevant to your buyers. Add keywords meaningfully at appropriate places to keep your listing ranking high.

With a relevant distribution of keywords, your listing will be ranked higher in the search results of targeted buyers and through more exposure, generate more sales.

3. Promote with eBay advertising

Beyond SEO, you can improve the visibility of your listing with eBay Promoted Listings. Available to top-rated sellers and eBay Store customers, this paid advertising program allows you to place your listings where they'll get the most exposure, such as at the top of a search ranking page.

Buyers can easily find promoted listings with advantageous placements, so they're more likely to buy those items. But because Promoted Listings is not a free service, you want to be sure that you are getting the highest possible value from your investment. Here are some strategies for effectively placing a promoted listing.

Choose items that benefit most from more exposure. Items that are expected to get a lot of attention, such as bestsellers and new items, will attract more buyers with greater visibility through promotion.
Choose a time for your campaign when shoppers are particularly motivated to make a purchase. Launching promoted listings when people are especially ready to make purchases, such as holidays or special events, is likely to drive higher returns.
Find an ad rate that maximizes your ad's chances of winning without hurting your budget. Consider your expenses and evaluate these average advertising rates for eBay promotion to find an amount that works for your business.
Take the test and track your results. Monitor your promoted listings dashboard in Seller Hub to determine if you need to improve the quality of your listing or adjust your ad price for greater returns.

Because it provides more visibility for your products, eBay promoted listings allow you to attract more buyers to your items and generate more sales.

4. Maintain a high seller rating

Beyond SEO and promotion, visibility can also be affected by your eBay seller rating. If you have negative feedback, the Cassini search engine will lower the ranking of your listing.

To make sure your listings are getting noticed (and that you're keeping customers happy), you should always aim to meet eBay's Top Rated Seller benchmarks:


Defect rate: Less than or equal to 0.5 percent with three or fewer defects from unique buyers
Cases closed without vendor resolution: Less than or equal to 0.3 percent and two or fewer cases
Late shipment rate: less than or equal to 3 percent and five or fewer late shipments
Shipping: Tracking uploaded within the handling time you specified; US Carrier verification for 95 percent of transactions with buyers

Meeting these standards requires consistent planning and diligence. Understand clearly which areas of your performance need improvement with these tips:

Monitor your rating in Seller Hub regularly. Continually check the performance metrics listed above in Seller Central, and you'll be able to catch if something is starting to slip and hurt your rating.
Set reminders to check messages from buyers. Shoppers value when sellers respond quickly to their issues. If you often forget to check buyer messages, set daily reminders to respond.
Specify an exact dispatch time and shipping charges. Buyers can quickly become frustrated if shipping takes longer or costs more than originally expected. To keep customers happy, always provide accurate shipping times and shipping costs.
Ask buyers for feedback. Buyers generally aren't motivated to respond unless a major issue occurs. Give them some incentive by sending a follow-up message a week after their purchase to request that they respond.

As a backup, you can use a variety of tools to set up feedback reminders to automatically request input from customers. Implement these strategies, and you'll be able to maintain a positive seller rating that will keep your listing ranking high.

5. Offer generous shipping and returns

When online shoppers hesitate to make a purchase, they can often be convinced to buy when offered free shipping and fair return policies. If they don't love the item, they'll appreciate that it won't be expensive or time-consuming to send it back.

eBay buyers are no exception. The marketplace found that more than 60 percent of shoppers check return policies before completing an order.

If you don't currently offer free shipping and free returns, consider how and why you might switch to these policies and attract more buyers.

Evaluate your costs and whether any can be reduced. Are there any expenses that can be reduced? Finding room in your budget to accommodate free shipping and returns can be worthwhile if it helps you attract more sales.
eBay now protects sellers who offer free returns if an item is damaged or used, giving them the option of offering only a partial refund to the buyer. Top Rated Plus sellers are required to offer 30-day free returns.

Switching to free shipping and return policies may seem risky and expensive at first, but the investment is worthwhile. With the protection of these policies, reluctant buyers will have more confidence in your business and make a purchase.

6. Create a custom listing with software

Buyers are attracted to professional looking listings. A high-quality design builds shoppers' trust in your business because they combine a sophisticated look with reliability.

However, this style can be difficult to achieve if you are not a designer. Instead of hiring an expensive freelancer, you can save money and still create a professional listing with software. Online programs, such as Crazy Lister, provide templates to easily create eBay listings at an affordable cost.

To get the most out of this listing software, choose your templates carefully.

Avoid templates with too much clutter. If a template has too many elements – colors, text blocks, CTA buttons – buyers are going to be distracted by your product and, as a result, may abandon the listing.
Make sure the template is responsive with mobile devices. In order to keep your conversion rates high, it is essential that your eBay listings are mobile responsive. According to BigCommerce, 6 percent of all US retail sales can be attributed to mobile ecommerce sales in 2021, and that number is expected to grow to 10 percent by 2025, according to Statista forecasts.
Highlight pictures more than text. Visuals attract people more than text, so make sure your template features high-quality product photos to attract buyers.

Use a custom listing software template along with these tips, and your listing will have a professional look that builds buyer confidence and encourages sales.

7. List with eBay’s catalog

As an alternative to using custom listing software, you can achieve a professional look by listing items through an eBay catalog. Instead of creating your own unique catalog, the eBay Catalog lets you share it with other merchants selling the same product.

For each catalog listing, eBay selects product photos from sellers' submissions, and product information is presented in a standardized format. With this uniform look, eBay catalog listings look professional in the eyes of buyers.

To list with the eBay catalog, your item must be brand new and match similar items in the catalog. If your product isn't already included, you can request that eBay include it.

Providing a professional and sophisticated look, an eBay catalog can help you impress and delight buyers, so they're ready to make a purchase.


8. Select item specifics strategically

To maximize the visibility of your products, you'll want to include relevant item specifications when creating your listing. Items are unique identifiers – color, brand, size – that help you differentiate your listing from similar products.

Item specifications will make it easier for buyers to find your item in a few ways:

Item specifics help buyers find your items on eBay. Using the Refine column to the left of the product search, shoppers can select specific items to help them find your product.
Item specifications help shoppers find your item through Google Product Search. In order for your eBay listing to appear through Google Product Search, you need to include the unique product identifiers that are required by the search engine.

With more item specifics, buyers are more likely to find your listing through search engines - whether it's eBay's Cassini or Google - and proceed to place an order.


9. Have a competitive price strategy

As buyers scroll through eBay listings, they are comparing pricing, among other factors. To attract buyers while being mindful of your finances, you want to find a price point that is competitive and fits your budget.

Finding that effective price point comes down to a few steps:

Determine the cost of your product. Having a complete understanding of the expenses associated with your item will help you determine a profitable price.
Find out what competitors' prices are. Search for your product type and note the prices of the top-ranking listings. You can find pricing information on your competitors in Seller Hub. Stay up to date with updates on pricing guidance by checking Seller Updates.
Use psychological pricing to motivate buyers. Different approaches, such as the left digit effect, can affect how shoppers perceive your product's value and their willingness to pay. Understanding the psychology of competitive pricing will help you step up your game as a seller on eBay and in ecommerce in general.

After you've found a competitive price, you'll want to constantly re-evaluate your competitors and budget to make sure your price still works for your business and buyers. With competitive pricing, your listing will attract buyers and get them one step closer to buying.


10. Make sure your listing is compliant

At the very least, your listing may not attract buyers if it is not legally compliant. Failure to meet these standards may result in the removal of your listing by eBay and may disrupt your business.

eBay does not pre-approve listings, so it is your responsibility to ensure that your listing is legally compliant. Examples of these legal requirements include:

• Not stealing text or using images from other eBay listings without the owner's permission
• fair use of brand names
• Ensuring that listings are accurate to avoid intellectual property concerns

Review the full list of guidelines for legally compliant listings here. By being aware of these standards, you'll be able to ensure that your listings are all compliant and won't be removed, and your customers can continue shopping.


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