In our last post, we introduced eBay’s Best Match algorithm.  I have to admit it was a rather detailed and complex summary of the technical aspects of the new method in which eBay sorts it search results.  It left many requesting a less technical explanation of the process.

The Best Match algorithm considers many things when calculating the sort order in the search results.  Some things are beyond the seller’s control.  Other factors, the seller can influence – and exert significant influence at that.  These include shipping prices & methods, and keywords included in the listing’s title.

This post will focus on the aspects that sellers can control.

Score The Most Points

Think of your listing as a competitor in a sporting league.  The team with the most points rises to the top of the league standings.  In Best Match, the listings with the most points rise to the top of the search results for a particular query.

Your objective is to score the most points without cheating.

Points are awarded or deducted for various aspects of the listing:

• Your listing accrues points automatically as it gets closer to the time the auction ends.
• Your listing loses points if you have a 3.9 or lower rating for “Shipping & Handing Charges” in your Detailed Seller Ratings.
• Your listing gains or loses points depending on your shipping methods and shipping and handing fees
• Your listing gains points if you can identify and include certain keywords in your title.

Shipping Prices & Methods

Quoted in the New York Times Technology Blog, John Donahoe, who will be replacing Meg Whitman as eBay’s CEO, made it clear that shipping and handling fees and shipping methods influence a listing’s ranking in the Best Match search results.  He said:

“Sellers that provide reasonable and fast shipping, even free shipping, will rise to the top.”

Therefore, in order to score all of your points for shipping and handling, you must:

• Identify a shipping cost in the eBay “Sell Your Item” (SYI) form when listing your item (vice choosing “See item description”).
• Charge reasonable shipping and handling fees.  I cannot indentify how eBay defines a “reasonable” shipping fee, however I would suggest that you use the average charge for that product catagory as your guide.
• Consider offering free shipping.  Include the shipping and handling price into the opening bid or BIN (Buy It Now) price.  In the quote above, John Donahoe hints that free shipping might score extra Best Match points.
• Offer expedited shipping methods such as Priority Mail or overnight methods (again – see the quote above).  Ensure these methods are identified in the SYI form (so that eBay knows you’re doing it and give you credit for it).

Include Best Match Keywords

One of the main ways you can score Best Match points for your listing is to identify and include keywords in your auction title.  For any particular search query, there are keywords that are worth more than others.   A search query is simply the text that a vistor to eBay types into the search box.  In the example below, the search query is “Star Wars Comic.”

eBay Search Query: “Star Wars Comic”

Often, the keywords that are worth points to your listing’s Best Match score are pretty easy to identify.  For the query “Star Wars Comic,” I’ve pegged the following words and phrases and being worth extra Best Match points:

• Marvel (identifies the publisher of the original Star Wars comic series)
• Dark Horse (identifies the publisher of the most recent Star Wars comic series)
• Lot (signifies more than one comic for sale)
• nm (near mint condition)
• 1 (often identifies the first issue in the series)
• Jedi (identifies a popular mini-series)
• 1977 (identifies the year the original series was first published)
• etc…

eBay tracks the words in the particular titles of auctions that:  (1) get clicked, (2) get added to watch lists, (3) get bids, and (4) ultimately get sold.  For the search query “Star Wars Auction,” eBay has determined that these words appear more often in the titles of listings that get that desired bidder activity (click, add, bid, buy) that those that don’t.

Identify the Valuable Keywords

Of course eBay has their algorithm and databases to track those keywords.  They don’t provide the public access to them, so how is a user to identify them?

I used my eyeballs and a little bit of judgment.  In the examples below, I show a screenshot from the first page of the Best Match search results for the query “Star Wars Comic” and the third page of those search results.  All of these auctions close at approximately the same time (within about 12 hours), so I have controlled for the time factor (all of these listings should have earned the same amount of points for being close to end of their listing period).

So, the next step is to look for what’s different about them.  What words are prevalent among the listing titles that made it to page one, that aren’t so prevalent in the in titles stuck back on page three.

That’s how I identified the keywords that I listed above.  You can see the important keywords circled in the screen shots below.  The difference in the number of words circled is between the two pages is quite stunning.  In fact, you’ll notice that the listings on page three that do happen to have the high-point value keywords are actually auctions that close much later in time than the majority of the listings on that page.  These are the high-scoring auctions that close later and have moved sufficiently ahead in the ranking algorithm (Best Match score) as to appear amongst the listings that close much sooner.

Above: eBay Best Match Search Results Page 1
(Query: “Star Wars Comic”)

Above: eBay Best Match Search Results Page 3
(Query: “Star Wars Comic”)

The screen shots above provide a very graphic depiction of the value of identifying and using the keywords that give you additional Best Match points.

Analyze Your Niche

I’ve used Star Wars Comics because it’s a niche with which I’m familiar.  I’d have a harder time identifying the important keywords in your niche, because I’m less familiar with the adjectives that make items in that niche significant to potential buyers.  But, most of the things I identified above are adjectives, so that’s a clue to start your analysis for your niche.

Conduct Your Analysis:

• Use a search query that you think your bidders would use.  If the search results return more than a couple thousand of auction listings, narrow the search query some (example: “New York postcards” vice just “postcards”).  Too many listings will make your analysis overwhelming.
• Look at the first page, then click back a few pages to see the auctions that close at approximately the same time as those on the first page.
• Look at the adjectives in titles of the first page of the search results.  Compare those to auctions that close at about the same time but appear later in the search results.
• The adjectives (or other keywords) that are more prevalent in the first page of the search results are the ones that are worth more points.  If they apply to your listing, include them in your auction title.

Some things to consider:

• There’s a difference between optimization and manipulation.  You optimize when you find and use the keywords that apply to your auction listing.  You manipulate when you use keywords in your title that don’t pertain to the auction you are listing.  You can expect that eBay is already anticipating some less than ethical sellers are going to manipulate their rankings in the search results.  You can anticipate that they are working on perfecting automated methods to identify this manipulation and squash it when they find it.  You can also anticipate that other sellers will be quick to turn in competitors that are actively manipulating Best Match search results.  You can expect some sort of punishment for manipulation - such as cancelled listings, negative points awarded to your your Best Match score, and termination of your user account.  Optimize – don’t manipulate.
• You have 55 characters to use in the listing title.  Each word you include can potentially score points towards your Best Match ranking.  Don’t waste precious space in your listing title and don’t short yourself by not using the titles to their fullest.   There are several rather short titles languishing on the screen shot above of the third page of the search results.

Final Thoughts on eBay’s Best Match

Most sellers haven’t even realized that the eBay search results are changing.

Of those that do, most don’t really the significance of the change.

Most of those who understand the significance of Best Match are too busy lamenting the change and hoping that it won’t be permanent.

The rest of us see this as an opportunity.  If we can react faster than our competitors, Best Match could be the Best Thing that happened to us in a long time.

Where do you fit in?  Hopefully, I’ve given you enough information to conclude that this is an opportunity.

• Place a link to your active eBay auctions on every email you send, every message board post you write, with every invoice or packing list you ship and your offline correspondence such as your letterhead and business cards.

  AuctionInsights offers a free service that provides a short, easy to remember web-address that sends your visitors straight to your active eBay listings.  No gimmicks – just another useful auction tool from AuctionInsights available at http://www.AuctionLink.to

• Include a Gallery with your with your listing.

  A Gallery photo is a small, thumbnail image that appears in the eBay search results listings next to the link to your auction.  According to eBay, Galleries result in more bids and a 14% average increase in final selling price.  This is a premium service that adds an additional 35 cents to your listing fees, but I always find it a worthwhile investment and never submit a listing without this option.

• Post your active listings on your website or blog.

  If you have traffic to your website or blog, then you have the perfect venue to advertise your current eBay auctions to these visitors.  How do you do this?  Again, AuctionInsights has got your covered with our free http://www.ListingTicker.com.  It’s gimmick-free and you don’t even need to register – just type in your eBay user ID, generate the code, and cut and paste on to your site.  No SPAM, no ads, no pop-ups, no spyware. – Just another free auction tool courtesy of AuctionInsights.

• Pay a premium to make your listings stand out in the search results with bold font, borders, subtitles and featured listing placement. 

  In my experience, the return on investment for these options hasn’t been worthwhile.  They might be effective for big-ticket items.

What methods do you use to drive traffic to your eBay listings?  Share your tips in the blog comments below.

Coupons are normally sold on eBay in lots (see the restrictions below).  The listing can be a simple template that includes information on the store/product, the expiration date, any restrictions or requirements specified on the coupon, and a scan or picture of the coupon (altered with a “watermark” so the scan cannot be printed and used).  Sources include coupon inserts from your Sunday paper and free coupons sent via the mail.  Depending on the coupon, bids currently seem to fetch about 25% – 50% of the their total worth.

Because coupons technically have no cash value, eBay coupon auction listings typically include a statement that specifies that the coupons are free and the bidder is paying the seller for the service of procuring, clipping and compiling the coupon sets.

Selling coupons on eBay is permitted, however the auction site does have some regulations that must be adhered to.  Currently, these include:

• No expired coupons
• The coupons must be physically delivered (i.e. via mail).  No scans sent by email.
• Free coupons (with no purchase required) are limited to 2 per auction listing.
• No more than 20 coupons for the same item.  Additionally, no more than 5 coupons per item if they originated from a newspaper coupon insert. 
• No more than 100 total coupons per listing.

First, map out your route in advance.  You’ll want to make the most efficient use of your time, so plan your successive stops next to each other.  Avoid driving from one side of town to the other and then back again due to poor planning.  Try to visit sales in well-to-do neighborhoods first.  These yard sales offer the best opportunity to garner eBay inventory with the highest resale value.  Your next stops should be garage sales at older, more established neighborhoods.  These sales will likely be excellent sources of older collectables.

Next, get to the sales early.  It’s within the bounds of garage sale etiquette to arrive 30-45 minutes before the advertised start time.  If the goodies are out, start shopping.  The worst that can happen is the “proprietor” might ask you to wait until he or she is ready to open.  Conversely, you might get a jump on the competition and score some nice items to resell on eBay. 

Remember to bring small bills and plenty of loose change.  Many yard-sellers are ill prepared to make change and having exact-change will speed up the transaction and allow you to move quickly to the next garage sale your itinerary before the bargains are gone.

Neighborhood yard sales are terrific way to hit several sales in a short period of time.  The savvy bargain hunter will bring a cart or wagon to save time and energy that would otherwise be expended lugging items to the car after each purchase.  You’ll appreciate comfortable shoes after trudging around for a couple of hours at a neighborhood sale.

Don’t be afraid to bargain at garage sales.  People who hold sales are looking to get rid of stuff that has been cluttering their house and should be receptive to a little haggling.  Don’t neglect the free box either.  Remember the old adage, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”  You just might find something marketable on eBay.

Although garage and yard sales are seasonable events in most parts of the country, they can be a viable source for augmenting your inventory of products to sell on eBay.  Consider a shopping expedition after you’ve auctioned off all the extra stuff around the house and your family members eye you nervously each time you get near their (remaining) prized possessions.