9/4/10 Powerseller Profiteer Newsletter

How to increase the perceived value of your products in just 5 minutes

Hello!  

I was checking one of my eBay selling accounts earlier this week when I noticed that the number of watchers on one particular item had reached 103. Now, I already knew that this was a popular item and because I have it listed on a ‘Good Till Cancelled, Buy It Now’ listing, a high watch count is not particularly unusual, but I had never seen it top the 100 mark before so I was pretty excited. If every one of those watchers made the decision to buy then I’d be doing extremely well! Of course I’m not a dreamer and I know that not every watcher is necessarily a buyer or a bidder. Sometimes people watch an item just in case they want to come back to it later, then they forget all about it - and a percentage of watchers are always quite likely to be your competition keeping a close eye on you!

If you aren’t familiar with the eBay ‘watch system’ I’ll briefly explain. For eBay buyers it’s there for those who are interested in your products so that they are able to keep an eye on the bidding and to easily find the item if they want to return to the listing at a later time and bid or buy. Many users also ‘watch’ an item so that they can compare several similar products and make an informed decision. It’s a very simple tool to use, all a potential buyer has to do is click on ‘Watch this Item’ on the listing page and that item then appears in their personal ‘watch list’. eBay then send email reminders about any watched items in your list before the listing ends so that you don’t miss out. Then, once the listing has ended, if it is re-listed, eBay send another email stating the new listing number. 

For eBay sellers your watch list tells you how many people are interested in your item and have added it to their own ‘watch lists’. You can view the number of people who are ‘watching’ your items from within your ‘My eBay’ section - it’s stated next to each product you have listed. And don’t forget, you can watch your competition by placing their products in your own ‘watch list’ too! 

So, basically the ‘watch count’ that you see in ‘My eBay’ is the total number of accumulated watchers of your item. It starts at zero and can go on and on depending on the popularity of your product. This number is normally private and cannot be seen by buyers, only you, the seller of the item.

Anyway, my high number of watchers got me thinking. As I had such a large number of watchers, I wondered whether it be a good idea to advertise this fact. Would it increase my sales from the point of view that if potential buyers knew there were many people interested in the product, they would feel under pressure to purchase right now before the item sold out, or in other words could I create a kind of scarcity? Or, on the other hand, was there a danger that divulging the number of watchers would have a negative effect and put people off due to being able to see the competition for the item? This was a tricky one.

Your ‘watch count’ can help you increase your sales 

Now, as an eBay seller, your aim is of course to obtain maximum sales at maximum profit and as you know you only have a few seconds once a potential buyer has clicked through to your listing description to persuade them to purchase. So, my idea was, if I could find a way to advertise my number of watchers, there was a chance that it might possibly contribute to greater interest in my product and ultimately more sales. My reasoning was that because my ‘watch count’ had climbed to this impressive triple figure of 103, why shouldn’t I flaunt it for all to see. But I also had this little niggle that maybe I should keep quiet and not rock the boat!  

I had another dilemma at this point anyway because even if I decided to test this out, I wasn’t sure how I would get the ‘watch count’ to actually appear on my listing - I assumed that I would need to do it manually which wouldn’t look particularly professional and also there was the worry that people might think I’d completely made it all up!  

I pondered further and came to the conclusion that, never mind how to get the watch count on my listing, would this idea actually increase my sales? Well, this idea could work in a couple of ways depending on a few different factors. The first factor being whether you have Buy It Now listings or Auction listings. As you know, I don’t use Auction listings, all my products are on Buy It Now’s, so I figured that if I could find a way to advertise my ‘watch count’ on one of my Buy It Now listings it should theoretically create the effect of scarcity which is a huge power-trigger and increase sales. I’ll explain why.  

Scarcity sells 

Let’s say you have a multiple quantity Buy It Now listing with 32 products available. If you display your ‘watch count’ of 103, that’s a possible 71 watchers who might miss out on the product and are disappointed. Think about it. If you are thinking about buying product X and you can see that there are 103 people watching it and when you check the quantity available you see that there are only 32 left, what would you do? Personally if it was what I was looking for, I would be more inclined to purchase right away rather than potentially miss out, and there are millions of like-minded people out there and many, many more ‘impulse buyers’. This means that the ‘watch count’ should stir an influx in sales as buyers race to buy before the product sells out. Genius!

There are also other situations that by advertising your ‘watch count’ you can increase the perceived value of your item. Here’s a question: Do a large number of watchers make an item more desirable? Possibly yes. Why? Well, we all know that on auction listings lots of bids come in during the final seconds of an auction and so the watch count will increase as the end of the auction draws near. So, if you happen to be selling a one-off or unique item that is in demand you can increase its perceived value by showing off your ‘watch count’ and enticing even greater interest and more bids. If you’ve got an item that is difficult to get hold of (collectibles come to mind) it’s likely that potential buyers will be prepared to fight for your item if necessary, whatever it costs and so sending the final bidding soaring! So, what I’m saying is that you may be more likely to benefit from advertising your ‘watch count’ if you sell unique or scarce items than if you sell items that can be found easily elsewhere or have high competition.

My research paid off 

Anyway, the good news is that if you decide to test this, I’ve done my research and have made it very easy for you. I’ve found you a great free tool that…wait for it….will actually add your number of watchers to your listings automatically, which you have to admit is quite cool.  

It’s here: http://www.watchcount.com/widget-info.php

I’m testing it this week on one of my Buy It Now listings. It’s totally free, there’s no downloading or software to install and it works on eBay UK - hurrah! Just copy the html code in to your listings. You can even customise it and the best thing is you can hide it if you decide you don’t want to advertise the number of watchers within your listings at any point so it’s very flexible.

So, ultimately the decision to display your ‘watch count’ will depend on you, your niche, your market, your type of listing and your gut instinct as to whether this little widget will help your sales.

If you do decide to try it out, please let me know how you get on!

As always I wish you the very best of success,

Amanda

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I produce this newsletter on the understanding that these are my own personal opinions and experiences, which are as accurate as possible at the time of publication. I cannot be held responsible for any error in details, accuracy or judgment whatsoever. 

© Amanda O’Brien 2010 

 

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