What are eBay research tools?
For any business to grow and sustain in this competitive world, the entrepreneur must conduct thorough market analysis to gain insights on consumer demands, product trends, sales performance, pricing, sourcing, buying behaviours, etc. This helps to identify market opportunities and improve business strategies.
Exclusive to eBay, Product Research and Sourcing Insights let you research what your competitors are doing, how they’re doing it, and how you can improve your own listings and sales on eBay.
All sellers can now take advantage of insights on what to sell, when to sell, and how to sell on eBay, directly from the Seller Hub Research tab and the mobile apps. Sellers with access to Seller Hub can use Product Research.
Business sellers with a Basic Store subscription or above also get access to Sourcing Insights as part of their Store subscription.
What is Product Research?
With Product Research, you can see how products and categories are performing across all of eBay's marketplaces. Easy-to-understand reports provide an overview of which products and categories are popular, and which strategies are successful in attracting buyers.
For customized and targeted insights about markets you're interested in, simply search by keyword or product, and apply filters such as Category, item Condition, or other filters such as Brand, Color, or Buyer and Seller locations.
Product research gives you access to the last 3 years of eBay sales data for millions of items, including:
- Sales trends
- Average sales price
- Sold price range
- Average shipping costs and the number of listings offering free shipping
- Sell through rate (for searches of items sold 90 days ago or less)
- Total number of sellers who have sold that item
- The selling format in which items are sold
What is Sourcing Insights?
With Sourcing insights, sellers can access real-world sales data to develop their sourcing strategy and identify areas of opportunity. Sourcing insights is available at no extra cost to business sellers with a Basic Store subscription or above. If you don’t yet have a Store but would like to use Sourcing insights, you can sign up for a Store today.
Sourcing insights also helps sellers to:
- Source inventory based off of sold single stock listings to discover what is in or out of stock so that you can offer a competitive option
- Research by category to gain insights into categories which have high demand and low inventory represented on eBay
Why use eBay research tools?
eBay research tools come with many inbuilt features for product research and analytics. Let’s look at some of the features and how they can help you:
Category selector
Product Research & Sourcing Insights allow you to narrow your search by choosing specific product categories or even sub-categories and view only those transactions.
Data visualization for market share
As an eBay seller it is very important that you understand your position in the market in comparison with your competitors. eBay research tools help you analyze the market share of your competitors within specific categories or products through graphical representations which enable you to identify your key competitors and understand their market.
Analyse relevant active listings
Within Product Research you can add filters to your search including, price, listing format, product condition and buyer’s/seller’s country. With Sourcing Insights on you can easily identify the top performing listings and understand market trends.
Type-ahead component
The Type-ahead component is designed in such a manner that it helps sellers to quickly find relevant keywords, categories or even items. Recommended keyword and category suggestions, based on the most frequent seller searches corresponding to the keywords you enter.
Data visualization for items sold and at what prices
eBay research tools provide you visualization for various data points such as sales trend graphs, price distribution graphs, average selling price graphs, etc. across various product categories and eBay marketplaces. Spot and analyze trends for items sold and at what prices over time, including sell-through rate.
How to use Product Research and Sourcing Insights
Product Research and Sourcing Insights are tools that empowers sellers to make informed decisions and optimize their online operations.
Product Research and Sourcing Insights are available under the Research tab in Seller Hub. Sellers with access to Seller Hub can use Product research. Business sellers with a Basic Store subscription or above also get access to Sourcing insights as part of their Store subscription.
Let’s look at how you can use these tools to gain market insights:
#1. Product and market research
Product Research will help you search for and analyze specific products or product categories on eBay. By simply applying the relevant filters and adding the right keywords you can get data that shows what you need to sell.
#2. Selling strategies
Now that you’ve found the right product via the keyword and category search, it’s time to start planning how you are going to sell it and which marketplace works best for your product. For this, you need the following strategies:
I. Pricing strategies:
If you are looking at making profits, then you need to stay competitive. This brings right pricing in focus. But how are you going do it? Of course, via Product Research which provides you insights on average sold price, the sell through rate, total item sales in each period. The tool gives you access to the last 3 years of eBay sales data for millions of items.
*Image used is for representational purposes only
II. Shipping programs
Deciding on the right shipping options and cost is also very crucial information that every business needs to sustain in these competitive times. With Product Research and Sourcing Insights you would be able to get shipping insights such as:
- shipping costs offered by other sellers
- shipping options offered by competitors
- average shipping cost to be paid by the buyer
- percentage of sales that included free shipping
III. Listing strategies
eBay research tools help you obtain much-needed data for setting listing strategies which include:
- Keyword optimization
- Competitive analysis
- Product research
- Performance tracking
- Pricing optimization and
- Listing recommendations
#3. Inventory optimization
With various data insights illustrated by graphical representations, eBay research tools help you make the best decisions when it comes to planning inventory management strategies.:
- eBay research tools help you in forecasting demand for specific products or product categories.
- With the available data you are also able to identify periodic trends and fluctuations in the market.
- You can easily identify underperforming listings and make necessary changes to keep up with your competitors.
#4. International Selling
One of the best ways to grow your business is to expand your reach by making your listings available internationally. To know which eBay site is best suited for your products on the basis of market trends and buyer demands, Product Research and Sourcing Insights provide you data to analyze international markets and identify sourcing opportunities.
Tips for Effective Item Research using Product Research and Sourcing Insights
Success and sustainability of any business depends on planning, strategy, implementation, continuous tracking of performance and progress and making necessary amendments from time-to-time.
Here are some tips for effective item research using eBay research tools:
- Develop a good business plan by setting clear objectives, defining strategies and clearly outlining actionables that will help you achieve your business goals.
- Implementing strategies requires commitment and clear understanding of business goals. With insights by eBay research tools ensure that you are deploying the right resources and assigning responsibilities to your employees who are focused on achieving your business outcomes.
- Regular monitoring of business performance and evaluating the effectiveness of business strategies is of utmost importance. eBay research tools allow you monitor your competitor’s performance and their strategies for specific periods and product categories across the eBay world.
Final Thoughts on eBay research tools
To summarize, eBay research tools help sellers to plan goals, design strategies, implement best practices, track progress and make necessary changes so that their business stays aligned with success and sustainability.
So go ahead and take sometime out of your busy schedule to explore Product Research and Sourcing Insights.