The listing design (ebay item template) is very important as it is the first impression your buyer will see. Buyers search for items on ebay more than they would search for your shop itself.

Great branding will make that listing stand out and memorable, but you need to make it for the right reasons. You need to make sure that your buyer has all the information needed to make the purchase. Your information has to be displayed for ease of navigation ( say, breaking up large amounts of text or specifications with bullet points etc) and also communicated to the buyer in their own language.

When you are drafting up an eBay design project make sure your professional ebay design company can consult with you on the features and functionality specific to your product type.

Plan the steps of your buyer as if making a purchase yourself and tailor the content so they see exactly what they expect to see. The stunning design should be enough attraction for the client in the first instance giving you the wow factor, but then you need to think on functionality and information.

Give the buyer all the information they need and they won’t hesitate! The visual aspect of a professional design is only touching the surface of what your design should do. eBay design needs function, and purpose.

So they still have 300 items, and with the $29.95 a month cost and 3% GMS fee from Marketworks is viable. On assurances that the stability has significantly improved since my last experience with Marketworks I advised the client to sign up.

Marketworks is still the most unnecessarily complex system, but luckily complexity does not phase me, just reliability of functions. Once set up I shall review the Marketworks system as it stands now as it is the only software localised in the UK (apart from eBay tools) that has the functionality to expand an eBay business by automation.

I have been in Berlin, and busy expanding my own future to blog of late but I will have some interesting blogs on persuasive writing and ebay education soon enough. I am currently in cahoots with a company called createyourtemplate.

$9.3 billion spent online from November 1 through 23, a record and 17 percent higher than the $8.1 billion spent online last year

Check out the post $700mm Cyber Monday? for more details.

If you have been following our marketing series, the last post Christmas Marketing – What to do in November. you would have been ready for the Christmas Crunch time between the 23rd of November and 16th December.

So what do you get up to in December?

Check, check and re check! You still have time to tweak your marketing strategies before the 16th of December! Do you have the last shipping date displayed for your target market? If you ship internationally make sure you distinguish between the posting dates.

From the 17th of December:

Ramp down your festive keywords and marketing to avoid wasted pay per click sales. Gather and analyse your data to outline the best method of increase your sales in the next festive season.

Celebrate your success, and forget about your failures until next year when you make moves to eradicate them!

Prepare stock and website for the sales. In the UK sales start on boxing day, so you will need to get moving implementing your strategy, boasting the best prices and driving the bargain ethos. Advertise NOW that your sales start boxing day, in pay per click and on your site. Email all your customers about the fantastic bargains to be had!

Repeat the main and successful steps from your Christmas marketing. top make sure you clear old and redundant stock ready for the trends of 2008!

As well as training to be an eBay education specialist I have secured consultancy and web development in the last few weeks of December to take me though to January.

In pure on-line entrepreneurial fashion I have been building up my web business ( practising what I preach) to its highest level yet and it continues to grow. Over the Christmas period I am going to be organising an eBay January Sale. I plan to make £900 with excess materials and stock hoarded over the years!

I shall also spend the time re-designing my ebay shop!

I started shopping online in the summer of ’99 with Gothic Auctions which prompted signing up for paypal almost instantly as everything was in Dollars. My first purchase was from a Canadian seller.

By the winter I was actively selling on Gothic Auctions and a competitor Goth Auctionslater on in 2001, and set up my own very basic HTML e-commerce website in May 2000, making sales and taking orders via email with promotion on community based sites.

Both of these auction sites were community driven and the gothic community contributed to how the sites were run. eBay has strived to become what these sites had all along.

It was not long before I signed up and brought and sold a few things on eBay.com (before eBay.co.uk was born)

Unfortunately then the eBay boom started and I neglected these free auction sites as the dollar grew weaker with respect to the pound. I plan to relaunch the Hairfreax range back onto these community driven auction sites as I feel they have once again come into their own. They were the first social shopping sites, everyone knew everyone and who was buying what! When your products do reflect a specific culture you should not forget the smaller, community driven exposure you can get. I started out supplying the community with products, but now I provide shops and studios with my creations. They spawned an addiction to e-commerce.

Promoting my old favourites:

1. Make the average sentence length 15 to 20 words.

2. Use words your customers are likely to understand. Try not to abbreviate or use extensive jargon.

3. Use only as many words as you need.

4. Prefer the active voice, unless there is a good reason for using the passive.

5. Use the clearest verbs to express your thoughts.

6. Use vertical lists to break up complicated text.

7. Reduce cross-references to the minimum.

8. Avoid sexist usage.

9. Put your points positively when you can.

10. Put accurate punctuation at the heart of your writing.

11. Plan before you write.

12. Organise your content in a way that helps readers to grasp the important information early and to navigate though the document easily.

In the case of terms and conditions, which most on-line sellers draft their own…..

Where there is doubt about the meaning of a term, the interpretation most favourable to the consumer shall prevail.

Typically you can create yourself 4 persona’s. You need to think carefully about your customers, look back through contacts and also ask your customer service and sales teams. Some generic questions you can ask about your customers are:

1. What is their background?
2. What is their level of computer literacy?
3. What position do they hold in life? E.g, school teacher, pharmacist, mother, father
4. How much do they typically spend on a single purchase online?
5. What do they look for in a sale? e.g free shipping, extended guarantee
6. How do they phrase their own needs?
7. What keywords do they use when searching your site or contacting you? (you can look at logs from your site and also through customer service emails)

So with a basic set of questions, you can start to build a basic set of persona’s to represent your customers. Once you have this data you can start writing and addressing the needs of your customers and planning their route through your site.

You need to make sure you have key metrics to show the exit points for your customers. You can theorise about why your individual persona’s might be leaving at that point, before they have taken the action you want. (e.g., register their interest or buy) Have you addressed their needs and communicated in their language?

A good example of language for you the retailer and your typical customer, we can take the example of a digital camera. I want to spend around £130 on a new digital camera.

The camera that has taken my fancy is: Fujifilm FinePix Z10 7MP Digital Camera – Red.

The Argos description is:

# Design/style: Slim.

# 7m pixels.

# 3 x optical zoom.

# 4.8 x digital zoom.

# 2.5in LCD screen.

# Digital anti-blur.

# Face detection.

# SD/XD memory card compatible.

# 26MB internal memory.

# Movie capture with sound.

# Maximum ISO range: 1600.

# 15 scene modes.

# Pictbridge compatible.

# Accessories included in the box – NP45 battery and charger, wrist strap, AV cable, USB cable, CD ROM, PC and Mac software.

# NP45 battery supplied.

# Weight 135g.

# Size (H)5.6, (W)9.1, (D)2.3cm.

Yeah, well knowing nothing of digital cameras, I got the fact it used SD cards and it has a charger.

on eBay however, a seller explained the camera as:

The Z10fd has all the power of Real Photo Technology. The guiding principles behind RPT are simple; to set the highest possible standards for overall image quality, to expand digital photography opportunities and to give you fewer wasted shots

With the human eye as the ideal, Real Photo Technology cameras are designed from the ground up to capture ‘real’ photographs with stunning quality – giving you the power to capture the moment exactly as the eye sees it, no matter how challenging the shooting conditions.

Ultra-fast Face Detection
The FinePix Z10fd boasts Fujifilm’s acclaimed ultra-fast Face Detection technology, which will seek out faces in the darkness of a party (edited to add – this seller has used a real life and common situation to illustrate the features) to give perfectly focused and exposed pictures every time.

A green square surrounds the face of the primary subject on the camera’s LCD screen, whilst white squares identify up to nine other subjects. Movement tracking keeps the camera ‘locked on’ to its subjects until they move out of the picture. The technology works regardless of the subject’s position in the frame, and is not confused by anyone wearing glasses.

Anti blur
Users will immediately appreciate the benefits of Fujifilm’s Super CCD sensor. The increased surface area means it is more sensitive to light, enabling faster shutter speeds to help reduce image blur and the need for flash when taking photos in low light.

The Picture Stabilisation mode on the Z10fd uses high sensitivity (up to 1600 ISO) to help reduce camera shake, freeze subject movement and improve low-light background detail to deliver virtually blur free images.

Ahh, now that makes a bit more sense to me! I would have been taking a chance with the argos purchase as I didn’t really know what it meant. I saw this camera back in August, but have not got round to purchasing it because, well I knew I had to do my research. Not everyone (I would say about 90% of digital camera buyers are like me) is a professional photographer and knows exactly the effects of all the specifications.

So when you are writing your titles and descriptions to suit your persona’s……… remember, where as one persona might have the technical knowledge, another might not and you would have got this from your research! Don’t ignore your persona’s.

Remember you are selling to me, not to yourself or your staff!

This is especially important during the fury of the Christmas Season when snap buying decisions are made.

They also have a blog : Future Now’s Marketing Optimization Blog

If you are tired of text book internet marketing reads, this plays out like a compelling novel. I can’t put it down, suddenly it all makes sense!

You could find at least 6 different types of online shopper within your own set of friends and family. A small sized start-up online business may not be able to afford professional customer modelling, but these techniques are still important, even to the smaller player.

New to the Net:

These buyers are still getting used to the internet and the idea of e-commerce. They use the web for research purchases and start will smaller value items in safer environments. A common start off point for these shoppers is eBay, where all the sellers are rated and they can proceed with caution. At this early stage this shopper can either become addicted to the life of e-commerce or be put off by a bad or fraudulent purchase.

This buyer needs a simple interface, and a way to verify the e-commerce site. Make sure you have clear precise pictures, a simple stream line jargon free checkout and display your returns policy clearly outlining your responsibility as an online retailer. You can invest in an eBay type feedback system such as FeeFo.com which is an independent customer feedback system and also feature customer testimonials. Make sure you use well known and simple payment processing for example Paypal, Lloyds Cardnet or HSBC.

Bargain Hunters

These shoppers rely heavily on marketplaces such as eBay and shopping comparison engines. They have no real brand loyalty and are just shopping for the lowest price. You need to convince these shoppers they are getting the best deal. Make sure you products are included in shopping comparison engines and have an RRP shown so they can see the great deal they are getting. Within this group you have the impulsive bargain hunter who wants to purchase now and a competitive bargain hunter willing to bid against other shoppers for the deal. EBay is a bargain hunter’s paradise; you can almost use eBay to cater primarily for these customers, letting them battle it out for bargains and also have fixed price items for your impulsive bargain hunters.

Precise Shoppers

These shoppers have a surgical approach to online shopping. They know exactly what they want and will research until they find the best fit to their criteria. These shoppers are hard to please as it is luck of the draw that you have the product they need. You need to make sure part numbers and the true name of your product is present in the product title to allow precise optimization. Product configuration tools like the ‘Build your Porsche’ cater for these types of shopper and are great for a multitude of shopper types.
These shoppers need customer opinions to make sure the product will fit it intended purpose and also great customer support so they can seek verification for the seller about the item.

Hobby Shoppers

Shopping for these buyers is a past time. I fall straight into this category myself. It’s an addiction and I almost need to find something to buy online if I have a penny to spare. I often have to quell the urge. These shoppers purchase frequently and enthusiastically. These are the most adventurous shoppers and you need to grab their attentions by offering engaging tools to view the merchandise as well as product recommendations and incorporating social media into their purchase. These shoppers love community applications such as forums, bulletin boards and social shopping sites.

Direct Shoppers

These shoppers buy out of necessity. They do not shop around or waste time. They want the information now and to find the product within the 3 click recommended navigation. Excellent navigation and product organization is needed to cater for these shoppers. These shoppers need all the information at their finger tips in close proximity to the items, as well as quick access to customer support. Live chat appeals to these kind of shoppers, as they want answers quickly. These shoppers respond well to expert and customers opinions and testimonials.

Nervous Shoppers

My mother very much falls in this category, afraid to ‘put her credit card’ online or that she will be subject to fraud. Identity theft has risen to 1 in 4 in the UK so this is a valid concern. These shoppers start off by only using the internet to research products they mainly buy offline. To make these customers feel secure you need to clearly state your security /privacy policies and use a SSL certificate at checkout. These shoppers watch out for the little padlock at the bottom of the browser so make sure you have no non-secure items on your secure pages. Non-secure Google analytics tracking code is famous for this, they have a https version. You need to state that their information is secure and not sold or distributed. These customers also need customer support, with most of these shoppers wanting to hear from a human before they make their purchase. You need to make sure you include a phone number contact for these shoppers, and also an option that they can pay over the phone for their purchase. You might find these shoppers are only leads for your bricks and mortar or catalogue operations. These are still valid customers as most types of customers have a little bit of the nervous shopper in them.

You can not please or cater for every shopper that will land on your e-commerce site, but you do need to consider the information you need to give your customers and the shopping experience as a whole. Always consider your product type and match it with your typical customer profile. These are generalisations on shoppers, but as with the colour symbolism and psychology, every product type attracts a different set of customer profiles! You can even go as far as moulding your search engine optimisation to match what each shopper type is looking for. Intelligent search engines will deliver your products and message directly to these shopper types, Google personalised search will make this easier for you.

The course material will include client and server side application development as well as open source. I hope this course will give me a good grounding so I can develop my skills to combine e-business sense and internet marketing with online application development.