Hi! I'm Debbie Levitt, Founder and President of As Was. We are an eBay Certified Service Provider specializing in starting, marketing, and improving eBay businesses. Our most popular services include custom and unique auction templates, personalized strategies, marketing, and training.

Today, we have some really interesting results of a survey we ran. We asked random eBay buyers and sellers to look at real screen shots of eBay listings and then fill out a questionnaire about each. They were asked to measure how unique, memorable, informative, easy to read, and compelling a listing was. However, they were also asked emotional/feeling questions in response to seeing the listing. The same area that asked them to rate "memorable" also asked them to rate "truthworthy," "helpful," and "friendly." Our survey attempted to determine how people think and feel when they see eBay listings. We also asked respondents to rate if the listing made them want to bid on or buy the item (if they were interested in that type of item).

The results say a lot about what shoppers think of you and your item just from looking at your listing. Let's take a quick look at the 5 listings people saw and what they thought of them. As you look at the images, what do you think of them?! For the full size image of each listing, please click on the shrunked and cropped versions. With respect to the ratings, 1 was strongly disagree, 2 was disagree, 3 was neutral, 4 was agree, and 5 was strongly agree. That means that an average score of 2.5 would be between "disagree" and "neutral." An average score of 4.5 would be between "agree" and "strongly agree."

(Note: For this workshop, we had to blur out any text or image that indentifies who this seller is... that's not how these listings looked!)

This is the second listing, and has not much in the way of design. The most interesting thing about this listing is that we didn't have to blur anything out. Nowhere in this listing does the seller say his eBay user ID or his eBay Store name. So how will you remember who this is so you can buy from him again or tell a friend? You won't!

This listing did not make it to neutral or better on average for any of our adjectives. "Trustworthy," "friendly," and "informative" nearly made it to an average rating of 3. The lowest average rating was 1.91 for "attractive" though "compelling," "easy to read," and "unique" all rated an average score of just above 2. "Concise" didn't do very well either!

This listing scored a 2.58 average for how likely people were to bid or buy if they were interested in this item just from looking at this listing. Like the first listing, most people would not have bought from this seller purely from how the listing looks.

This is the fourth listing, and has a lot in the way of design. In fact, this seller just happened to hire us to create this custom and unique template to connect with his target audience. So did it?

This listing's lowest average rating was 3.97 for "trustworthy," still a great score as it's nearly an "agree" answer on average. The highest average scores were 4.50 for "unique" and "memorable," and when you stand out from competitors, you're likely to make more repeat sales and have buyers spread the word. Remember that the highest possible average score is 5, so 4.5 is excellent.

How likely were people to bid or buy if they were interested in this item just from looking at this listing? The average score here was 4.13, which is between agree and strongly agree. The numbers say that the look of this listing will drive sales.

So what is the big cliff-hanger about listing 5? Listing 5 and listing 1 are the same seller selling the same item. The difference is that listing 1 was the way their listings looked before working with us. You might say it's a "before and after." Let's compare the numbers.

Trustworthy: 2.88 before, 4.24 after
Friendly: 2.71 before, 4.45 after
Informative: 3.18 before, 4.48 after
Attractive: 1.51 before, 4.62 after
Easy to read: 1.51 before, 4.20 after
Likely to bid/buy: 2.00 before, 4.45 after

It's the same seller. They're just as trustworthy and friendly as they were before they got a new design! And how interesting is the change in rating for informative? The text in each listing is nearly identical, so neither is more informative from a purely factual point. Look at the "easy to read" scores. You may think a plain paragraph is easier to read than text worked into a design, but not according to this survey.

Clearly, these scores show that the buyer is going by feelings and impressions when they decide who they like and where to place that bid. People didn't want to buy from this seller when his listing was plain, they were less likely to buy from other sellers who paid little attention to their design and text, and they were strongly likely to buy from the two very unique listings.

Thank you for attending my workshop on how listing design affects how shoppers perceive you. Please ask any questions that you have. If I don't get to your question here, please feel free to email me at auctions@aswas.com.

- Debbie

Hi, George. Many things can make a listing more professional. A custom and unique design is the first step. It's best to stand out from everybody else.

Next has to do with how you lay information out. Don't have all capital letters. Don't centre everything. Think about nice magazine ads and how those are laid out. They're designed to be warm and inviting!

You're welcome. Feel free to ask anything else. Anybody else who's done reading, feel free to ask questions?