eBay’s Algorithm and the Cassini Search Engine - Understanding and Become the Successful Seller
If you do eBay, you have to understand the Cassini Search Engine. What is the Cassini and how is it work? This video explain very deep detail but easy to understand. :)
Once you understand the background of Cassini, now it time to get on with tips;
Optimize your titles with “relevant” keywords: The maximum character count for eBay titles is 80 characters, be sure to pack the title with relevant keywords for your listing and to maximize the character count. By relevant, I mean use specific keywords and not broad keywords.
List using GTC (Guaranteed till canceled) with a twist - You should list using GTC to retain sales history. The more sales and watchers a listing has, the higher it will go up in search. This means that your listing has good buyer engagement. The twist is, what about listings with no sales after 30 days? You need to END these listings and re-list them! Why? Because it will re-index the listing and wipe the previous history of bad buyer engagement. Once re-listed, your listing will show up as a “new listing” and be on top of search. If the listing gets good buyer engagement, it will stay up at the top. If it gets bad buyer engagement, it will be pushed down in search. So make it a habit to always end and re-list items with no sales after 30 days.
Important: When re-listing, make sure you use the “sell similar item” function. This way, you’ll get a new eBay item # with fresh stats.
OUT OF STOCK Inventory Control and Scarcity - eBay has a featured called “Out of Stock Inventory Control”. Basically, this feature enables your listing from ending even though there’s no stock available. So if you have a sales history for example of 100 items sold and you run out of stock, previously your listing will just end automatically and you will lose all of your sales history. Now, with out of stock inventory control the listing will say “out of stock” instead of automatically ending thus retaining your sales history.
Offer the most value for your listing to stay competitive
Free Shipping - Offer free shipping on all your domestic listings, eBay will give you a boost in search
Offer additional shipping methods - like express, local pickup and international shipping. Use global shipping if applicable to your category
30 Day return policy – Offer a 30 day return policy to earn your buyers trust and to help increase conversions
Best Price - Buyers are always looking for the best price, if you have the highest price and you have other competitors with similar seller ratings and polices, the most likely you will lose the sale. You need to stay competitive by offering the same or better pricing.
Create a sale: using Markdown Manager you can create sales on a store category or per product level. Buyers love sales and will entice them to buy something if they see its on sale. This will also help increase buyer engagement.
Maintain YOUR DSR’S and Feedback: Cassini rewards sellers with great DSR’s and Feedback. You need to maintain great Detailed Seller Ratings to be on top of search (Top rated Seller status preferred).
Refresh RSS Feeds: Pick any day of the week and go into your marketing tools under manage my store settings and turn off your RSS feeds. Wait 10 hours or so and turn it back on. This process will re-index your first 100 listings and give it a temporary boost in search. If you have more than 100 listings, you can use an app called bayfeeds to process all of them.
Use the eBay catalog: When you’re able, use the eBay catalog. If your item is a well known brand, most likely it already exists in eBay’s catalog. All you have to do is enter the UPC or EAN of the product and the listing will automatically populate all of the product data.
Fill in all of your item specifics: Filling in all of your item specifics will help increase your visibility. Make sure all of your item specifics are filled in and they are relevant to your product. Also add in your own custom item specifics to help educate your buyer even more about your product.
Use plenty of high-resolution photos: Create high-resolution photos that are a minimum of 1600 pixels on the longest side. This will give you the zoom effect that you see on some eBay listings. Great photo’s are known to increase conversion rates. You also want to add as many pictures as possible, the maximum amount of photos allowed per listing are 12 photos. Use all of them!