Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07 in Community Help Boards in Community

Last Post Dec 7, 2007 12:00 PM by: maeve@ebay.com

Replies: 43

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Nov 29, 2007 11:17 PM

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Topic: Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers

Host: terapeak
Date: Friday 12/07
Time: 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Pacific time
Location: Workshop Discussion Board

Description: With only a couple of weeks left in the holiday shopping season, the smart eBay seller will know how important it is to select end times carefully in order to optimize profits! In this workshop, the team at Terapeak will look at the best time to end your listings for those last minute eBay holiday shoppers. Using the research from Terapeak, which is based on actual closed listing data from eBay, you can leverage past transactional information to improve your future listings and make more money!

Cheers,

Deirdre
eBay Community Development

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Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Dec 7, 2007 10:50 AM

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Welcome and thanks for joining us today!

We love workshops to be interactive, so please feel free to ask your questions that directly relate to this topic.

Added note: If you click on the "Watch this discussion" link, you will receive an email each time someone posts to the workshop.

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A from our Legal Department: The statements and opinions made in this discussion board are those of the workshop host only and do not reflect eBay policy or eBay's opinion with respect to such statements.

Cheers,

Deirdre
eBay Community Development

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Dec 7, 2007 10:56 AM

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Welcome to our workshop!

For those of you new to this, here’s a quick overview.
Today I’m going to post some material on our topic, and show some examples from our web-based research tool, at Terapeak Marketplace Research (www.terapeak.com). Please read the entries, and then “speak” up if you have any questions or comments on the material! We’ll be here until noon PST to answer any questions you might have during this busy season! If you read this after the end of our time, you can always send your questions/comments to us at support@terapeak.com.

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Dec 7, 2007 10:56 AM

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Now on with the material!

In this workshop we’ll use an example of a Hot Item that we found by looking at eBay’s 2007 Holiday Hot List. (Check it out for yourself at Link).

This list says that snowboards – Burton Snowboards specifically - are a hot item this season.
So, if we had some snowboards to list, what would be the best day and time for us to do this, and put our products in front of the most last-minute shoppers? Let’s take a look at the research we can get from Terapeak.com and learn how to apply it to our auction listings.

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Dec 7, 2007 10:57 AM

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First, let’s do a search for Burton Snowboards, within the snowboard category to establish a baseline of value for our item:

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Dec 7, 2007 10:57 AM

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We can see from this quick overview that there are over $850,000 worth of sales in this type of snowboard within the past 90 days on eBay. 54.48% of the listings ended in sale, and the average amount of bids per listing was 4.66. What that says to us is that there is demand for the right items within this area, and that we could do well selling this on eBay. But how shall we determine when to end our auctions? The more of a buying audience we have for our item, the more competition is possible. And when you’re dealing with an auction, the more people shopping at a certain time for the item means more bids and more profit!

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Dec 7, 2007 10:57 AM

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First, let’s look at what day we should be ending our auction. We can look at the historical data – what dates were big selling days last year – and determine which days are best to end our listings this year.
In the following chart, we can see that the total sold listings peaked on Dec 10. Last year, Dec. 10 was a Sunday, and the second to last Sunday before Christmas day! You can’t see under the Date Mark in this picture, but Dec 11-14 were also quite high, with a downturn the 15 and 16 (Friday and Saturday) and an improvement on the 17th. After the 18th, sales start to slow back to average. So any holiday inventory that I want to move, I can project that I want to move it before the 18th!

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Dec 7, 2007 10:57 AM

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And just because I can, I’ll show off and look at December 2005’s statistics! (two years ago!)

Sure enough, Dec. 11 (the 2nd Sunday before Christmas) was way up there in sales, and the sales activity starts to return to average around the 19th. This gives me two years of past information to base this year’s sales. As an informed seller, I will definitely keep this information in mind when I consider the lifespan of my products.

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Dec 7, 2007 10:57 AM

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We know our day – but what about time of day? Let’s look at recent statistics to determine what time of the day has been hot for snowboard sellers.

Here is a time graph generated when we do a Terapeak search of “Burton Snowboard” for the past
90 days of sales:

The blue bars are the total listings (sold and unsold) ending within the time period. The green bars are the sold listings only.

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Dec 7, 2007 10:58 AM

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Terapeak also generates a numerical record – which is a bit more involved, but includes a lot of information:

If we use the numbers we received at the start of our report as our baseline, we’ll want to target times that meet or exceed these baseline numbers. Our average price overall was $241.52 and the sell through rate is 54.58%. Let’s focus on times that are higher than these numbers, to maximize the value of our auction listing.

The pink outline marks the highest values within the chart – the blue marks the lowest. The traditional “best time to sell” from eBay lore is around dinner time. This chart reveals that the 3-6pm time frame has a lower than average sell through rate, and only slightly higher average value. Compare these numbers to later on in the evening – 8-11 pm, and early morning sales (2-4 am) there are fewer listings ending, but the value and sell through are stronger.

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Dec 7, 2007 10:58 AM

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Depending on my sales strategy, I may want to list at an unusual time. I’ll factor in both average price and sell through rate, but since the two rarely coincide, I’ll have to look to my sales strategy to make the decision. Am I selling an item that I want to sell a lot of at a low price? Or do I have a limited stock that I want to get the highest price for? These are unique decisions that are part of your winning sales strategy, and it is a decision that you must make as a retailer to clarify your sales strategy.

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Dec 7, 2007 10:58 AM

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Well there you have it! It’s not a huge issue to determine the best time to end your auction listings.
In the time it took you to review this workshop, you could have completed the research on a few of your soon-to-be-listed items! Not much of a time investment for a big impact on your sales!

To do the same research we’ve done in this workshop, visit www.terapeak.com. The free site at Terapeak will allow you to do the time of day research, and the subscription site has all the 2 year trending data for the dates. To access this, please consider signing up to our 10 day free start subscription! This subscription begins with a 10 day free period for you to evaluate the site.

That’s the end of our part of the discussion – now it’s your turn to contribute!
Does anyone watching have any questions or comments about the material we’ve covered today?
Please jump in now! We’re here until noon.

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Dec 7, 2007 11:07 AM

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Does anyone out there have any questions on our material today?

I know you're out there...

-denise

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Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Dec 7, 2007 11:12 AM

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Okay, so everyone's out there applying all the things the Terapeak team has taught you throughout the year about buying/selling on eBay. If that's the case, everyone is excused from not asking questions

Remember, workshops are archived so if you're too busy buying/selling, you can read through the content on your breaks!!!!

Happy Holidays,

Deirdre
eBay Community Development

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Dec 7, 2007 11:14 AM

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Even when you think you are starting an auction at a specific time it dosen't always show up on ebay. Is the end time acutally the same time X days later from when you entered it on ebay or when it became available for buyers to see it on ebay?

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Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07

Member Workshop: How to Get those Last Minute Holiday Shoppers - Dec 07