How A Simple Twist To Your eBay Listings Will Help You Get Ahead In A Competitive Market

I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that there are many eBay categories that are very popular and so, as would be expected, are also extremely competitive, some more so than others. I have absolutely no doubt that those of you who are already seasoned eBay sellers will know exactly what I am talking about when it comes to the pitfalls of listing your products in competitive categories whilst still trying to ensure a healthy profit.

Researching markets, sourcing hot products and listing them successfully on eBay to continually make a good quantity of daily sales is probably the most challenging part of running an eBay business and like anything, the more effort you put in, the more you will get out of it.

So it is extremely frustrating when you have put in a huge amount of effort with a product that you know is going to sell like hotcakes, when ‘Bam!’ out of nowhere appears another seller who insists on listing the very same product as you. Now, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of healthy competition - it keeps you on your toes and ensures you don’t get complacent. But, here’s the problem; this seller has undercut you at a price you just can’t, and more to the point won’t match (because unlike your competitor you actually want to make more than 99p profit on each of your sales!).

How exasperating is that and what can you do?

Well this has actually happened to me and is a personal bug-bear of mine. It gets me on my soapbox a bit because to this day, I still don’t understand why anyone would prefer to make £1.00 profit on their resale items when they are perfectly capable of making £5.00 profit. Why buy at a fantastic wholesale price and then set the resale price so low? It just does not make sense to me at all.

Ultimately, all this does is start a pricing war between sellers of the same product, each undercutting one another until eventually none of these sellers can drop their prices any lower. It becomes pointless in even attempting to list that product, and so no-one can sell the product and it fizzles out. What good is that to anyone?

Having had past experience of this, if I start to see this happening in any of the categories I sell within now, I simply do not get involved in the price war. I either let my listings run their course and then don’t re-list - meanwhile watching the other sellers descend into a downward profit spiral as they fight it out between themselves - but more often than not, when this happens, I ‘Bundle’. And that’s what I want to tell you a little more about right now.

Get Ready to ‘Bundle’

Through my long term experience of selling on eBay, I firmly believe that if you want to stand out from your competition you need to do something just a little bit different. By all means sell exactly the same product as other sellers - this is a good idea because if plenty of other sellers are listing a particular product then you know it is a hot seller. But what you must do is make it your own - offer that little bit more so that buyers see your product listing as offering a great deal.

One of my current products (that other sellers are also listing) is not the cheapest priced item in it’s category by a long way, but it consistently sells over and over again on a daily basis because I have put together a unique package covering all bases from fast dispatch to a no quibble guarantee and my buyers take reassurance from the very fact that they know they are getting value for money. This is what you must do - get your buyers to ask themselves, ‘Well, why would I buy that from seller X, when I could get so much more if I buy from seller Y even though I might have to spend slightly more’. ‘Y’ being you and your product.

Buyers love ‘Value For Money’

Whether, like me, you do this in the form of a great deal, with a super-duper guarantee, same-day dispatch and a longer, more descriptive listing with high quality photographs, it’s up to you - but you do need to be ‘better’ than the rest so that people are compelled to buy and that’s why I use ‘bundling’.

‘Bundling’ is like a type of up-selling except you are not trying to up-sell people by directing them to separate listings for your other products. In fact you don’t want them to leave your listing at all without first hitting the ‘Buy It Now’ button!

By ‘bundling’ you are simply offering potential buyers a unique package or ‘bundle’ in which they get related products at a discount, compared with if they were to purchase them individually from you (or any other seller for that matter).

So, for example, let’s just say that you are selling dog training collars. Your potential visitors are obviously looking to train their dogs; therefore they are very likely to be interested in other products to do with dog training. Right now, as they are searching on eBay, these people are on a mission to train their dog and they are in exactly the right mindset to be purchasing anything that will help them with this mission.

So, you need to ask yourself what other types of products that compliment your dog training collar are your potential dog training buyers likely to be interested in. Put yourself in the buyers place and think like them. If you were training your dog, what else would you be tempted to buy if it was presented to you right at the very moment that you found the product you were searching for?

Can you source another dog training product like a whistle or a clicker, a lead, a book on dog training, or all of these and make your dog training collar into a unique ‘Dog Training Package’ or ‘bundle’? Of course you can! Remember, you are not trying to re-invent the wheel, you are simply adding value to an already hot product that is in demand. And in doing this, you will have four clear advantages over your competition immediately:

1. You can set your product price as you wish as long as you remain competitive, because you have created a unique ‘bundle’ which potential buyers do not have anything like for like to compare this with.
2. You are offering greater value for money than your competitors because you are offering a ‘Complete Dog Training Package Deal’
3. You have removed yourself from any pricing wars before they even begin because you are offering a product that is only ‘similar’ NOT ‘the same’ and it would be rare that another seller would copy your bundle exactly, even if they did decide to follow your lead (no pun intended!).
4. Your total profit goes up even though your margins may drop a tiny bit, because now your buyers are purchasing more from you than they had originally planned!

This tactic works in pretty much every eBay category. Obviously it’s a little more tricky if you are selling antiques or rare one-off items. But everything else works.

Some examples off the top of my head might be: If you are selling i-Pods, add accessories to your ‘bundle’ such as a case to keep the iPod in and a cloth to clean it with. If you are selling baby bottle warmers, add an extra bottle, or a bottle brush. If you are selling torches - add an extra pack of batteries. If you are selling hairdryers, add a curling brush or hair straightners to your bundle. The possibilities are endless whatever you are selling. All it requires is a tiny bit of thinking to come up with matching products. Every product has something complementary that can go with it to form a ‘bundle’ which can be created very cheaply.

Don’t forget you will need to convince your potential buyers exactly why they should spend that little bit extra and purchase your ‘bundle’ of products rather than the single item they originally searched for, from your competitor. So sell the idea to them - tell them that they can get everything now for one low price, it will all arrive together in one package, they will save on postage, state that there are only a few bundles available etc etc. Be a bit creative with your listing, make sure you explain the benefits of purchasing your ‘bundle’ and you will do well.

Finally

By grouping complementary products together to make a ‘bundle’, coupled with a compelling, descriptive listing with plenty of photographs benefits and features, plus a no quibble guarantee and fast dispatch you will still be selling your original ‘hot product’ but the chances of being undercut are considerably less. Plus you are following the rule of ‘similar, but better’ and selling more products in the process.

Even if you are not in a highly competitive market and the chances of being undercut are slim, you could still create your own unique product package and increase your sales immediately. Go on - there’s nothing stopping you - why not create a new unique ‘bundle’ and give it a try!

by Amanda O'Brien - September 2009

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