If you want to buy a good quality product on eBay, the best thing you can do is take your time and check out all of the feedback. Why? Because this will help you make a good decision about who to buy the item from. To make this process easier for people, researchers have created a ton of free tools that you can use for market research on eBay.
What is product research?
Product research is background research on a new product idea. Ultimately, it helps you to determine whether a product will make you money.
Why is product research important
Product research is important, especially if you’re new to eCommerce or looking to invest a lot of money into a new product line. Aside from helping you to identify sellable and profitable products, product research is also crucial for:
? Knowing the demand for the product, particularly seasonal demands;
? Understanding your competitor’s pricing and shipping options;
? Finding suppliers who fit in with your pricing model;
? Determining shipping costs;
? Beginning your keyword research; and
? Predicting future trends and demands.
What are eBay product research tools?
You can conduct eBay product research without a tool – scrolling through eBay, making notes and going with that gut feeling. But that takes time. eBay product research tools take the manual labour out of product research and provide you with extensive statistics to help you make better business decisions.
What is an eBay product research tool?
Just as it sounds, an eBay product research tool helps you quickly find which items and product categories visitors are currently looking for and are profitable to sell.
Nevertheless, some tools do more than that. They may include the following common features:
- Determine shipping costs
- Suggest best SEO keywords
- Monitor competition
- Benchmark your listings against similar products
- Compare prices
- Estimate profit
- Offer real-time statistics and updates
Mostly designed to help you simplify your eBay business and streamline your operations, eBay product research tools are great options for business owners.
The top eBay product research tools
So what are the best tools for the job? There are several product research tools out there – the best ones for the job and your budget?
1. TeraPeak
TeraPeak’s product research tool helps you identify the best products for your business by examining the competition’s performance, market share, average pricing and shipping options. Even better, you can use TeraPeak’s advanced research tools to identify key statistics including sales volume, product availability and shopper engagement. Then, you can use the market trends feature to plot these results over time to stay ahead of demand.
Pricing: From $12 p/month (free to US Basic, Premium, Anchor, or Enterprise eBay Store holders.)
Find out more: here
2. Algopix
Described as the “leading multi-channel product market research solution”, Algopix allows eBay sellers to conduct fast and easy research on product sourcing and selling. Actionable product insights provided include recommended market price, expenses, competition analysis, demand, estimated profit and total sales estimation. All data is processed in real-time, using advanced algorithms and Algopix will provide you with its helpful “recommended” or “not recommended” opinion at the end. Winner.
Pricing: From $19.99 p/month (seven-day free trial available)
Find out more: here
3. ShelfTrend
ShelfTrend boasts sales and inventory data for an impressive billion+ eBay listings in over 20 different countries. Simply enter in your intended product to see a real-time overview of the critical stats, including:
? Search rank
? Inventory levels
? Sales velocity
? Location,
? Price ranges a
? Listing volume
Plus, ShelfTrend’s advanced functionality lets you monitor competition, analyse marketplace movement and find product niches and opportunities. Everything you need for successful product launches.
Pricing: $14.99 p/month (free version also available)
Find out more: here
4. ListingsHistory
Don’t be fooled by ListingsHistory’s simple appearance. This free to use tool comes with all the basics that you need to get started with product research. Once registered (for free), you can search every item sold on eBay since 2014 and access information including the title, image, category, sold for price and full listing description. It doesn’t get easier than that.
Pricing: Free!
Find out more: here
4. Google Trends
While not explicitly built as an eBay product research tool, Google Trends helps you to discover what products people are searching for generally on the internet over time. This allows you to identify product trends and peaks in demand. As you can see from our product research on slush machines – they’re well searched for in July and December…but no so much in January and February. You can also view long-term trends by customising the time range – in our example, slush machines are selling well now but only took off in 2017.
Pricing: Free!
Find out more: here
Trending on eBay
If you’re looking for some quick wins, eBay’s Trending on eBay section is the perfect place for research. Showing you precisely what’s hot right this second, the Trending on eBay page lists the top ten trending products alongside the search volume and a little trending graph.
Pricing: Free!
Find out more: here
Amazon best sellers
And, let’s not forget the competition. Whether you’re selling on Amazon alongside eBay (using eBay to Amazon listing software) or not, Amazon is full of useful product inspiration and information. Head to the “Amazon Best Sellers” page to see their most popular items over the past hour per category.
Pricing: Free!
How to Do Market Research for eBay
Listing and selling items on eBay can be a real moneymaker, especially if you spend time conducting market research. There’s more to the research than just figuring out what price to seek for your item. You also need to spend time doing research to learn strategies that help give you a competitive edge so buyers click on your listing and purchase from you, rather than from someone else.
View Completed Listings
One of the first and cheapest places to start your research is with eBay’s completed listings, a free tool available to eBay users. Review completed listings to review the final price on items similar to those you want to sell. Look at how many of the products are sold to get an idea of their popularity. A low number sold tells you the item is not a hot item, and you may want to sell a different product. Review the title and descriptions that other sellers use to get a feel for the sales language used. Looks at other sellers’ guarantees, shipping methods and the type of listings they used, such as an auction or Buy It Now listing. Examine the clarity of the photos used to describe the products, and make sure you can supply something similar or better.
Track Trends
Third-party tools give you another way to track eBay trends. For instance, Terapeak helps you analyze the products being sold and suggests opportunities for improving your listings. Another tool, HammerTap, helps you uncover ideas for making more money from your listings by better understanding the products people search for on eBay. You also get information about direct competitors, learn how to develop attention-grabbing titles and find out which days are best for ending your auctions.
Learn About Positioning
Solid marketing research means familiarizing yourself with eBay’s positioning. Then you’ll know how to optimize your listings to get as many clicks as possible. Review eBay’s Best Match system — its default sort order for buyers who are searching for items — to make sure you understand the factors that affect your position. These include your track record, your pricing and whether you include shipping costs. Your research will also help you learn about creating a listing that hits the spot and makes buyers want to click to learn more. (See Resources for more details on Best Match.)
Research After You List
The market research doesn’t stop once you list your item for sale. Instead, once you create a listing, learn how it’s doing by downloading eBay’s free Listing Analytics application. The tool helps you search listings by keyword to help figure out where your product ranks in results, especially important if competition is fierce. Use the tool to learn about your potential buyers’ behavior, such as determining whether they click through to your listing or avoid it. The application also gives you data on trends for the past 30 days on completed and active listings so you can review how many clicks similar products received and how many sold.
Conclusion
eBay is one of the most popular platforms for buying and selling goods. However, with 1 billion registered users, it can be an uphill task to find out as much as possible about the people that come into contact with you as a seller. With eBay research tools, you can gain an edge on your competition and continue growing your business.