Everyone else may be getting out their sweaters, but on eBay,
holiday time is the hottest season. For many brick-and-mortar
retailers, November and December are the make-it-or-break-it
months, when the offline world racks up as much as 50 percent of
annual sales and an even larger percentage of profits. So it's
not surprising that eBay sellers report that the holidays are
important to them as well. "We probably do a little more than
a third of our business in that period of time," says Jenanne
Hassler (eBay User ID: jenanne), who, along with her husband, sells
an average of $3,000 worth of video games and video-game books each
month on eBay from Waynesville, North Carolina.
Many larger eBay sellers have similar experiences. Jeff Hess,
54, owner of Hess Fine Art in St. Petersburg, Florida, does close
to $5 million annually on eBay, selling vintage watches, jewelry,
art and antiques. About 25 percent are holiday sales, says Hess
(eBay User ID: hessfine), who adds that since he began emphasizing
eBay over his brick-and-mortar store several years ago, the
holidays have become even more important. "In the past, like
most vintage retailers, we didn't have a very active Christmas
season," Hess says. "Our season was essentially over by
November 15. With the advent of eBay, we found we were more like
the standard Christmas holiday retailers, [which see an increase
during the holiday season]."
There are a couple of reasons why the holidays are critical for
eBay sellers. One is that eBay increases its advertising budget
during the holidays, executing a wide array of marketing,
advertising and promotional tactics to encourage buying holiday
gifts on eBay. Every retailer should take advantage of the
significant effort eBay makes to drive traffic to its site during
this crucial time of year.
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Another reason is that eBay is so mainstream, it can't help
but be affected by society as a whole, says Debra Schepp, a writer
in Middletown, Maryland, who co-authored eBay PowerSeller Secrets:
Insider Tips From eBay's Most Successful Sellers.
"It's becoming more and more true as people are more
comfortable with shopping on eBay--and devoted to shopping on
eBay," Schepp says. "Plus, there are lots of things that
make it convenient [for buyers] to shop on eBay, like the fact that
you can offer [them] gift-wrapping and direct shipping to
recipients. That makes eBay competitive with any online shopping
[destination]." The proof, Schepp says, is the fact that the
biggest shopping day of the year--the day after Thanksgiving--is
the same for both offline retailers and eBay sellers.
Best Sellers
Since making the most of the holiday season is a priority for most
businesses on eBay, where do you start? First and foremost, sell
what people want to buy. So what are the hottest holiday items on
eBay? "It all depends on what you're selling," says
Marsha Collier, author of eBay Business All-in-One Desk Reference
for Dummies. "That's the magic [of] eBay. People can come
and buy just about anything, and people want just about
anything."
The holiday hotties on eBay tend to mirror what's hot
elsewhere (and often what you can't find elsewhere). As a
marketplace of many small sellers rather than one dominated by a
few mega-retailers, it's truly a democratic free-for-all, with
the decision about what sells ultimately resting in the hands of
the buyers. "Since what's for sale on eBay isn't
dependent on a big corporation or a bunch of executives deciding
what to sell this season, it's a reflection of what's
happening [all over] America," Schepp says. "Anything
that's popular somewhere else is going to be turning up on
eBay."
With that in mind, eBay sellers who want to make the most of the
holidays should make it a point to know what's selling well in
society at large during the period. When an in-demand item is hard
to find offline, buyers turn to eBay. For instance, notes Schepp,
when the iPod was scarce in traditional brick-and-mortar channels
last year, units were still available on eBay--and selling like hot
cakes.
A few recurring themes outline what makes a product hot during
the holidays. For instance, Hassler, 37, says higher-end rare books
sell better during the holidays than at other times of the year. In
other words, if you're selling products like watches during the
holidays, think Rolex. Bundled products--items sold together at a
special price--are also better sellers during that period, Hassler
says: "It's a focus on items that may not sell during the
[rest of the] year because you're not going to buy them for
yourself, but you're going to put them on your wish
list."
One-of-a-kind custom orders also move better during the holidays
for Bob Kitchener, owner of Dangerous Threads, a Nashville,
Tennessee, eBay retailer of leather goods and craft items (eBay
User ID: bobkitchener). "Custom stuff is really good at
Christmastime, along with customized things like [guitar] straps
and belts with names on them," says Kitchener, 53.
The price tag is likewise a key indicator of what will sell for
Hess. "It seems like everything expensive sells better during
the holidays," he explains.
To know everything about what sells, you'd have to survey
all eBay sellers, or at least a large sample of them. Luckily, you
can use a variety of tools that track, analyze and report on the
bestselling items instead. The "Hot Categories Report" is
an eBay tool for sellers that lists Hot, Very Hot and Super Hot
categories each month based on factors including month-over-month
bid growth, bids-per-item and conversion rate. To view the report,
go to Seller Central, click on "What's Hot,"
then click "Hot Items by Category." eBay Pulse gives you a
sense in real time of what people are looking for. You can also
find out what items are hot in a particular category by going to
Seller Central, clicking on "Category Tips," and clicking
on "In Demand" under any category.
There are also third-party sources for information on what's
hot for the holidays. Terapeak Marketing Research licenses eBay transaction
data and goes back as far as a year to provide its own "Hot
List" reports. Andale is a third-party subscription service that
includes detailed research tools, including information on
hot-selling products.
Finally, don't neglect to place at least some trust in your
own well-honed instincts, advises Jim Migdal, senior category
manager for eBay Toys & Hobbies. He's been impressed and
occasionally amazed at how eBay retailers seem to intuitively stay
ahead of hot-item trends. "Our sellers just have a nose for
that stuff," he says. "And they find it and get it on the
site."
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