eBay Tips Newsletter January 2010
1. eBay Boasts Strong Fourth Quarter Results eBay released its fourth quarter results for 2009 last week, and the numbers suggest good things ahead for the company in 2010. The company's total revenue for the fourth quarter was $2.4 billion -- up 16% from the same time last year. The auction giant attributes the increase to "excellent growth" in their PayPal and StubHub properties, as well as improved growth rates in the company's core business. The fourth quarter's Gross Merchandise Volume was $14.2 billion -- a whopping jump of 24% over 2008 -- which offers more proof that, as the number of people who shop online continues to rise, the amount of money spent on eBay will rise along with it. But the biggest news out of the fourth quarter is about where that money is being spent. Mobile shoppers bought an incredible 1.5 million products from eBay using smartphones such as Blackberries, iPhones, and Androids. That's almost 20% of the total transactions and marks a 300% increase from the same period in 2008. What does all this mean to you? It's clear: mobile shopping is big, and it's only going to get bigger. Six million people have an eBay app on their iPhone in the U.S. alone. Last year, someone bought an item through one of eBay's mobile applications every two seconds. And in 2010 that number is expected to rise even higher! That's why, over the next year, you should expect a growing number of people to be looking at your listings via an eBay mobile app. And if your listings aren't mobile friendly, you might see a drop in your sales. To discover how you can avoid this, read our next article! 2. The Smartphone Revolution is Coming... Is Your eBay Business Ready?  According to a recent study by comScore, the number of people in the U.S. using multipurpose "smartphones" such as iPhones, Blackberries, and Androids more than doubled last year. This year that number is expected to climb even higher as more companies -- T-mobile, ATT, Spring, Garmin, and even Google -- gear up to release their own Android-supported mobile devices. In fact, experts predict that mobile Web usage will overtake PC usage in five years. If you want to make sure this trend doesn't have a negative impact on your business, you need to start preparing for the big shift now. Chances are, if you're not gearing some of your listings to the smartphone crowd, you're already losing sales. To help you get the jump on your competitors -- and maximize the potential of your eBay business-- here are our tips for creating mobile-friendly listings ... Tip #1: Check Out Your Listings on a Mobile Phone Whenever you put up a new listing on eBay, use your own mobile device to see what it looks like. If you don't have a mobile phone, take a look at your site through dotMobi's "emulator", which shows you how your listing will appear in a basic mobile display. You can also see how well your listing scores for its "mobile-friendliness" at Ready.mobi. Tip #2: Check Your Loading Times Smartphones normally take longer to load a web page than your typical PC. If your listing hasn't been optimized to load as quickly as possible, you might end up losing impatient customers to your mobile-savvy competitors. Reduce page loading time by shrinking the size of all your images to 200 pixels (max!), along with removing any videos that might be slowing down your loading time. Tip #3: Write Your Copy for the Small Screen Nobody wants to read a novel on a screen smaller than a postcard! Make sure your headline and copy are written as succinctly as possible. Keep your sentences and your paragraphs short and to the point -- and don't be afraid to go back and edit a few more words out, even if you think you've hacked out all the extras you can. Also consider the style of writing mobile surfers are used to reading on their smartphones: short & snappy, w/ lots of abbrevs (see what we did there?) Sometimes w/out full sentences! You get the point... only make sure your "shortcuts" don't sacrifice your meaning. Tip #4: Consider the Demographic Smartphone users typically have some amount of disposable income and tend to be early adopters of technological innovations. (In other words, they've got a little extra money... and they like their gadgets.) As you write your mobile-friendly product listing, make sure you emphasize the benefits that are going to hold the most appeal for them. Tip #5: Take it Slow and Track the Results Don't abandon your regular listings just yet! Even during the huge mobile shopping rush of holiday season 2010, four out of five buyers were still making their eBay purchases via a traditional computer. What we recommend you do is follow the 80/20 rule. Try optimizing 20% of your overall listings for smartphones and track the results. How many views are your mobile-geared listings getting compared to your regular ones? Which ones are yielding the most sales? The results will give you an idea which format works best for your particular audience right now -- and invaluable data to help you prepare your eBay business for the "smartphone revolution!" 3. Tell Us What You Think Thanks for taking the time to read our January Issue of Bidding Frenzy and as always, we wish you continued success on eBay. We love getting comments and questions from our readers, and we read every one! If you have any questions or comments about this issue, or want to suggest topics for future issues, please email us at: ebaynewsletter@marketingtips.com Until next month, happy eBaying!
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