Episode 31 || Refining Marketing Strategies with The Style Lister and eBay CMO Suzy Deering

[doug@ebay]

Our theme this week is Refining Marketing Strategies. In our Main Story The Style Lister joins us for an in-depth look at how she runs her business on eBay. On Inside eBay Chief Marketing Officer Suzy Deering shares what eBay sellers should know about eBay marketing programs. We’ve also got The Buzz and your questions! To have your questions answered on Selling on eBay, call us at 888 723-4630 or email us at sellingonebay@ebay.com.

Selling On eBay - Episode 31 – Refining Marketing Strategies with The Style Lister, eBay CMO Suzy Deering, The Buzz and Your Questions

Our theme this week is Refining Marketing Strategies. In our Main Story The Style Lister joins us for an in-depth look at how she runs her business on eBay. On Inside eBay Chief Marketing Officer Suzy Deering shares what eBay sellers should know about eBay marketing programs. We’ve also got The Buzz and your questions! To have your questions answered on Selling on eBay, call us at 888 723-4630 or email us at sellingonebay@ebay.com.

Links

ebay.com/sellingonebay
ebay.com/meetups
ebay.com/community
ebay.com/IWD
thestylelister.com
vogue.com
nastygal.com
whowhatwear.com

Hosts

Griff, Audrey Tracy, Doug Smith

Guests

Maria The Style Lister (eBay Seller), Suzy Deering (eBay Staff)

Transcript

I'm Audrey Tracy.

And I'm Griff and this is Selling On eBay. Your weekly source for the information and inspiration you need to start run and grow a business on the world's most powerful marketplace. So Audrey, what's the theme for this week's episode?

Our theme for this week is refining your marketing strategies in 2019.

Wait a minute. Wasn't that our theme last week as well?

Yes it was. That was part one. This is part two.

Ooh, like a serial.

I suppose.

Is there a part three?

No, part three. Just one and two.

So it's refining your strategies redux. And who do you have for us this week?

We have two guests this week. First Up, Maria aka the Style Lister on eBay joins us for an in depth look at how she runs her business on eBay. And then our Chief Marketing Officer's Suzy Daring will come in to share some tips on how sellers can market themselves.

Ooh, and of course we're going to have The Buzz with Doug Smith.

And I hear you have a seller call. Is that true?

I do. We do have a seller call. So it's going to be a big show this week. Shall we begin?

Let's do it. Absolutely. Coming up first. The Main Story,

Joining us now via Skype live from beautiful downtown Temecula, California with The Buzz is our very own Doug Smith. Welcome Doug.

Hey Griff. It's great to be here.

I's great to be anywhere. Any big news this week?

Well we had an update last week, the 2019 Early Seller Update went out.

And it was late or it was early?

It was early. A sort of extra surprise this time.

And of course you work on the Community Team and Community is always a big part of the Seller Update.

Exactly Griff. We direct sellers to a dedicated board in the Community. Each Seller Update, we gather subject matter experts in a big room. They answer questions for one or two days depending upon the volume.

And I think you went for at least two days, right?

Actually we went longer. There was a weigh in by a Vice President that we'll talk about in a little bit, but yeah, we went longer than usual.

We also had a podcast episode dedicated to the 2019 Early Seller Update. On that we had Jesse Kiefer, our Senior Director of Seller Engagement and Kristi Diemoz is a regular on the show and she's a Senior Manager of Seller Operations.

And our weekly community chat was also dedicated to the seller update and some of those experts from the Situation Room participated.

Is that what we are calling it now? The Situation Room.

It was internally called a War Room but that was not a good name.

Very bad, Yeah.

And it's not Situation Room either. It's, I forget what it is.

Command Center.

Command Center.

I like Situation Room cause it reminds me of Wolf Blitzer.

We've got a situation here.

Yes.

Well we even had an eBay Exec chime in I hear, with some clarification based on early feedback from sellers. And I guess we'll talk about that in a minute. But uh, what else do you have for us?

As part of the Seller Update are Good Till Cancelled Update was definitely a top volume driver in the community. Sellers are urging us to consider a 31 day renewal time frame or an alternative and provide data to support that this change will increase conversion.

After seeing some of the questions I hear Harry Temkin, he's our VP of Seller Experience also commented. What did he say?

Yes, so Harry was the VP that weighed in and Harry explained we're making quote, "We're making this change because we have seen that GTC listings offer more sales opportunities than any other fixed price duration. Over time, GTC listings keep and grow watchers sales history in SEO Authority as they maintain the same item ID and URL for the life of the listing. We believe all of the above improves the ability for buyers to discover items on eBay, which thereby improves the likelihood of a sale."

Did he have more to say?

Yes. A bit more.

Okay.

“We're aware of concerns some of you may have around managing GTC listings today. In the Seller Hub active listings page, you can see the start date of each of your listings. You can also sort by the start date to see, for example, your oldest listing at the top. With the start date, you can determine how long the listing has been active, but currently this requires you to do some math”. Nobody wants to do math.

I love doing the maths.

That's true.

By the end of March, we'll do the math for you and we'll show you the number of days each listing has been active. Today's sellers can also sort active listings by end date or time left. For GTC listings, end date indicates the next date of renewal and time left indicates the time left until renewal. Just as you do today. You can start and or relist your items at any time you choose.

Good.

Yes, I think that's important.

And did Harry go on?

Yes. Yes. He goes on for about another paragraph and a half.

Oh Dear.

So yes, all sellers might also take advantage of the out-of-stock feature which allows you to effectively pause the availability of the item to buyers by setting the listing quantity to zero. This comes in handy if you want to keep all the benefits mentioned above. Same item ID and URL. Watch your sales history and SEO benefits while either your item is out of stock or you need a vacation. When you're ready to sell the item again, simply update the quantity back to a positive number. You can also use our bulk editing tools to update multiple listings at once. And then this is important, Griff. We are also aware of concerns about the 30 day auto renewal period, not sinking with monthly billing cycles. And we're looking into this.

Yeah, I talked to someone from that team this morning and they're actively considering a few options. So the big takeaway here is that we're looking into that timeframe, the 31 day timeframe. I think I'd add something else. I did hear from some long time sellers on eBay who tend to sell like in antiques and collectibles, who've gotten into a rhythm or a habit about listing items over and over like at 10 day durations. And they seem to believe that that gives them some sort of benefit. It's more work than you need to do and it doesn't give you any search benefit at all. Years ago it might have, it doesn't anymore.

Yeah. And we've seen a lot of that same reaction on the boards.

Along with that in the Update, we also talked about this new thing about sending offers to buyers who have been watching your item. Any reaction to that?

Yes. So reaction to the send offers to buyers update was mixed with many sellers looking forward to the release and others unclear about the full potential it offers. So it seems that sellers are worried that this would result in upset buyers due to receiving unwanted emails and others feel maybe it's an unnecessary tool. So what we did is we just, we've recommended some content with more information for sellers. We think we need to get more information out there.

Boy, I've always wanted to be able to send a message to my watchers. I don't understand the hesitancy, but I think it's just probably, maybe they're not quite sure how it's going to work. It's gotta be great. Anyway. Anything else in the news?

We've got a nice tie in with International Women's Day and the #YourHourHerPower Campaign. And I saw some great posts on Instagram about this from eBay this morning. Basically eBay is celebrating International Women's Day by teaming up with Dress For Success and Fashion Entrepreneur and Businesswoman, Olivia Palermo to launch a curated charity sale.

Oh!

So yeah, a collection of fashion and beauty items straight from Palermo's closet as well as pieces donated directly by her brand supporters.

May I ask what her size is?

I am not sure. She looks slight.

Oh Damn.

Is that a size?

Well it's a size I can't fit into, but go on.

Me Too. Me Too. They don't, I don't think she's a husky like me.

Ever since, what's his name wore that tuxedo gown to the Oscars I've been rethinking my entire wardrobe.

I liked that. I thought that was a good bold move and I...

It was gorgeous.

Well, I'll be up at eBay next week, so maybe I can get one and just wear it around.

Hard to get into an Uber with that gown. But go ahead.

That's true. So back to Olivia Palermo and her closet. Through March 13th shoppers can visit ebay.com/iwd for International Women's Day with 100% of the proceeds benefiting Dress for Success and their mission to advance economic independence for women everywhere. And Olivia Palermo's wardrobe refresh will include more than 30 of her favorite fashion finds and help empower women in the workplace. Some of the special and luxurious items shoppers can bid on include... Many of these, I will probably say incorrectly a Charlotte Tilbury makeup bundle.

Good work.

A Dior, we all know who Dior book tote.

Absolutely right on.

Hermes fragrance.

No, no, no, no. Not Hermes. Hermes. (pronounced like Air-maze).

The god of war.

No, not the god of war. The messenger of the gods in the Greek mythology.

It's Hermes. (pronounced like Air-maze).

Hermes. There's many fragrances, but go on.

Hermes. Smells like sweat. A Jimmy Choo logo mini bag. Can't get that wrong. All right. This is the one I'm scared of. Manolo Blahnik shoes.

You got it.

I did?

Yeah. Yeah.

I remember those from Sex And The City.

That's right. That show made those shoes famous.

Ah, there we go. A Piaget bracelet.

You got it.

Yes! Roger Vivier shoes.

Pretty good.

And a Tiffany and Company bracelet.

Ooh and more.

Yes. And more. Wait, but wait, there's more!

There's always. You said most of that correctly. So...

That's, well, there we go.

High marks to you.

Olivia Palermo has quite the closet that she's offering up with her friends for charity. Good for her. I think you did, you did fine.

Thank you Griff. And that's all the news that fits this week.

Isn’t Alan back next week?

You won't have me to push around anymore! (deep voice)

I don't think anyone's going to get that, but okay. Tricky Dick. Tricky Doug.

Yes. Only in California.

Well, we'll have you back on it. It's not like you just were a temporary intern. You're a part of the team.

I hope so.

Yeah, we'll have you back.

And I'll be up next week so I bet we'll be in the studio together at some point.

You definitely will.

All right, thank you Griff.

Thank you. Coming up next. It's The Main Story. Don't go away.

And welcome back to The Main Story. The theme of today's show is Marketing and joining us now is Maria from the Style Lister. Maria sells vintage, high end trendy and classic fashion items that are new and gently used. She's been selling on eBay for 12 years.

Welcome to the show, Maria.

Oh, I am very honored to be here. I'm very honored to be in a room with you Griff, so I mean honestly.

Oh, now the pressure's on me. Thanks. It's our pleasure. We're glad you can join us. Now, before we get into your marketing and branding tips, let's talk about how you sell on eBay. For example, what selling formats do you use? A lot of people, you know, some people use auctions, some people use fixed price, some use a mixture. What's your return policy? All these things, tell us. Say I'm a man on the street and you want to tell me how you sell on eBay. Go!

All right. You got it. No, I'm excited. First off, I actually use good till cancelled listings. I started using good till cancelled about summer 2018 and I actually never looked back. It's been really easy for me. I really like the data that I get from it and the best part is, you can really go in and tweak and you can see the numbers and what works when you change keywords, when you don't. You're talking about longevity. I'll give you a really good example.

Sure.

Nordstrom's doesn't have 30 day listings.

Yeah. I know.

I used to be 30 day listings and then I did change over to good till cancelled because I am lazy.

Lazy?

I am lazy. I'm inherently lazy.

Well wait a minute cause it says here that you're the Style lister not the Style Lazy Lister. I know. I've been thinking about changing it but it's just again, too much work.

It is a lot of work because they end and then you have to relist them. You use the good until canceled.

And not only that, when something's in a transitional point in a season, it can stay and it can gather and you can get a watcher, for example, on a summer coat, on a coat in August, somebody will see it. Maybe they're just shopping and if they like it, they might watch it. It's a fur coat for example, and when October rolls around, they'll see it in their listing. They'll say, oh yeah, I remember that. And then they'll buy it at that point. So it's, it's that kind of longevity. I'll get messages from people, I've been watching your item for three months and I now have the money. This is my Christmas gift to myself. For example, I actually got a message from someone that said they were watching it for a couple months and this is their holiday gift to themselves.

And of course if you use a shorter duration, which soon won't be possible with fixed price, that person doesn't see it as watched anymore. It's shows as ended or it's, it's no longer available. So using good until canceled avoids that. You're a person after my own heart by the way, cause as a buyer that's exactly what I do with my watched items. If I'm not going to purchase them right away, I'll put them aside and I'm going to purchase them later.

I actually do the same thing. And I never realized it until I actually started the good till cancelled process and I said, well, I do this myself. Why don't I just try it? It was an experiment and it went so well that as my listings ended, I converted them all little by little to good till cancelled and it took me a couple months, but I got it all down.

We know a little bit about the format that you use, but what about things like your return policy?

I offer 30 day free returns.

That means you'll pay the shipping back no matter what.

No, actually I don't pay the shipping.

Oh, oh free returns, sorry.

I do have free returns but I don't pay for the shipping.

How do you do that, Maria? You've piqued my interest.

I hope I peeked your interest. For example, let's say I sell 100 items a year and the average return rate policy for in general in the fashion industry is anywhere between 10 and 12%. So let's just use easy numbers. I sell a hundred items a year, a hundred fashion items. 10% of my items get returned. So we can say that's 10 items. So 100, 10 percent, 10 items. Now let's say the average cost for a buyer to return an item to me, a label is $5. So now I know annually it costs me $50 for returns to me.

Based on your previous years.

Based on my previous years' experience. And you can actually see your annual returns on eBay when you go look at your returns metrics. It's in there. So I take that 50 and I divide it by 100 so I get the number 0.5 which is actually 50 cents. So now I know it costs me 50 cents. So I take that 50 cents and I put it into the cost of every listing of mine. So guess what? It is free returns for everybody...

Because every buyer is paying a little bit incrementally to cover that.

Exactly. It's like Socialism or something like that. (laughter)

So what about free shipping? How do you figure that? You have to add that cost into the item in some amount.

I do. I factor that cost into my listing. Now. For a lot of fashion items, they do weigh under a pound. And because we do get those commercial rates for eBay where we can send up to 16 ounces via First Class. Generally speaking, most of my items way 16 ounces and under. I'm able to calculate the First Class shipping and I'm able to put that into all of my listings.

And that works?

And that works. Yeah.

It's harder I think if you're using the auction format because you have to at least make sure you're starting bid is going to cover so much and then you might as well just make it a fixed price listing.

The problem with auctions and fashion is, a lot of buyers, they're shopping for something specific. I noticed, especially if they're on eBay. So if they see a dress and it's got a nine day auction but they need the dress within a week for an event, they're not going to bid.

Yeah. So if you're thinking as a buyer, which I assume you do, what steps do you take when you're listing or putting a listing together to make sure your best practices so to speak, to make sure your buyers are going to be happy and everything you do appeals to them?

Yeah, absolutely. Well you have to look at it from your buyer's perspective. You have to understand that your buyer is buying something that they haven't touched, they haven't seen, they haven't smelled and they haven't tried on. So if a buyer is going to invest in this item, you want to make sure that you fully describe everything. As many measurements as possible. I have a template of about 10 measurements. It basically covers everything from head to toe and I apply the ones that are for the item I'm selling.

How many photos do you usually put up?

I try and do twelve.

All twelve.

I try if the item is able to, but generally speaking I do get twelve. And the thing is, I actually keep my extra photos too because once in a while you get an eBayer that says do you have any extra photos? And then I just shoot those off to them as well.

Previous conversation you mentioned to me that after you list an item up on the site, you package it so it's ready to go. Why?

I think you and I both know that time is evil.

Evil. Yeah. It rips your youth right out from under you.

Time is evil! Yes. But I mostly do it. Again, it goes back to the part that I'm, I'm a little lazy or I'm efficient.

Efficient.

Nothing is more annoying than getting a sale at 11:30 at night and having to package it and getting it ready to go as a one day handling seller to ship it out the next day. So if it's 11:30 at night and I'm watching TV and then it says I get the money and I'm like, yes! And then I'm like, no! Cause I then...

Have to stop watching TV and go do some work at 11:30 at night.

At 11:30 at night.

You are dedicated.

I'm a dedicated person.

You don't wait till the next morning? You can.

I am not a morning person. I'm a night owl.

I'm fast asleep at 11:30. If I get ca-ching it's going to have to wait.

No. I'm up late unfortunately.

So I understand that if it's all packed, all you have to do is just put a label on it.

I keep the package open. So I just in a packing slip and the label, and the nicest part about this is it keeps a lot of your items intact. If you have a sequined item in with a bunch of more delicates, things get snagged, items fall out. If you package it immediately, it keeps your items safe and sound. I do this with everything except for heavy coats and gowns because I don't want them to get wrinkled.

I'm sure you have multiple packages the same size. So how do you identify which one to ship?

I have an organized system. What I do is I package it, I weigh it. It put the ounces on the package itself.

Sure.

And because I do, I already have my pricing figured out. But what I do is I'm like, oh, it's eight ounces. I see eight ounces and it says Alice and Olivia sequin top, for example, eight ounces. So I know at that point, this is the Alice and Olivia top. I have, it costs me eight ounces. So I print out the label eight ounces and I'm not worried, I'm not looking in, I'm not peeking in. I'm very meticulous about about packaging up my items.

Now you have a lot of followers on social media.

Guess I do. I didn't realize I did until people told me I did.

Wait, you didn't know how many you have?

I mean I did, but ignorance is bliss. I think when you're in it so much, you don't realize like the 1200 followers I have on Twitter or something like that, it's solid. Or I'm about 400 followers right now, almost on Instagram.

That's pretty good.

It is pretty good. It's, it's growing. It's just a learning experience. So far so, so yeah, and my Facebook, I've got over 200. Two Hundred Likes, which is Kinda cool too.

So I hear that a lot of your followers, they like to ask you a lot of questions but a really popular one is how you source fashion. And when they ask you that question, how much do you reveal? What do you tell them?

I like helping out other fashion sellers. I think this is a really great community and I think the best way that we can learn from each other is by working together. So I give the honest answer and that's good old fashioned research. I go to certain websites, I check out Vogue for example. Vogue, it is style. And so I follow them and I see what's going on and then I can pick up on trends. And once you pick up on trends you can see them when you're sourcing and it's easier to buy things. On top of that, you'll start to see what's also out and what's no longer on trend. For example, bell sleeves. Were really in about two seasons ago.

Bell sleeves? Like bell bottoms?

But on the sleeves. Exactly.

I'm not liking this.

Well, it's a good thing you weren't like some 20 something millennial two years ago.

Yeah, it's a good thing.

But in all honesty, it was an on trend moment and now it's not. For example, if you look in second hand stores, you might actually like see a lot of them.

There's a reason why they are there.

There's a reason why they're there. One thing that I noticed that a lot of people that source, one of the biggest mistakes I see is people see a label and they buy it. And the problem with that is, it's no longer trendy.

Even with the label?

Even with the label. So no one's going to buy a Stella McCartney bell sleeve top for $159 for example, because no one's going to wear it. And she probably has a stupid bell sleeve top in her closet any way. A really good trendy website to check out Asos.com It's huge with millennials. It's huge with the young people. They have free shipping, free returns actually.

Of course.

Yeah. And when you go on there, you can see what's trending and you can see what's in style. Their analytics are much better than yours and mine would ever be. So you should also pay attention to what these websites are also selling.

Right. And when you're researching on eBay, look at the sold items. Don't look at just what's listed cause that's aspirational. But when there's something sold, you can see that's the value that someone just recently paid for it.

Absolutely. Now you attribute much of your success, Maria on eBay to good branding. How do I brand on eBay? What does good branding mean to you? How do you define it?

Good branding is letting the public know your story about your business and what its message is. You can create a brand the way I did or you can be the brand, which is something that a lot of resellers have done as of late and it's great. So you see their journey in their social media. So if you don't want to have a brand, you can actually be the brand, which is awesome. Does that make sense?

It does and we see a lot of fashion oriented, usually young women. I haven't seen many young men doing this, although I know they're out there, but young women who make big names for themselves with hundreds of thousands of followers on social media just by doing a daily, this is my ensemble for today. Do you like it? It's very conversational, very personable, and people eat it up. The majority of people in the world, it's not that they're clueless, they're just looking for some advice, some suggestions at how to be more stylish, for example.

Exactly, and if you follow their Instagrams, if you follow their Facebooks, a lot of times it's very personal. So they'll show pictures of their family that show pictures of them having breakfast, and that's the type of engagements because it's personal. So then you feel like you're following your friend.

As long as they're looking good while they're having breakfast.

Exactly. Exactly.

They have to be dressed appropriately.

I do not look like that when I'm having breakfast.

Yeah. I'm a frump in the morning. You do a lot of social media to promote your business and I know you're establishing that brand. Tell us a little bit about the strategy behind that, operational and aspirational.

When I really decided to elevate my business and work on the Style Lister as a brand, I took a step back and I thought to myself, well, what are other boutiques doing? And I took it from a large scale. So I looked at other stores, other businesses that were doing what I wanted to do ideally. And instead of having my own website, I realized logically that selling on eBay is a much smarter method of doing it. My best friend does graphic designs from college. She actually helped me out with that. So my tip to anybody is if you know somebody that does graphic designs, you can actually have them create your brand. So she created my logo, she created my fav icon. She created all my color scheme.

I know that a lot of people I talk to say, well, I had a logo made and that's the extent of it, but it's not really, there's more to it. You have a website or you have an eBay store. That's the look of the store. I love the fact that you have your own color palette.

Yeah, I do. I have my own color palette. I have my own image, I have colors that are friendly to the eye. And everything that I've created and designed, I looked at, again, I looked at websites that I like to shop on and then I said, okay, this is what they're doing. This is what they have. All these incredible websites online, they have measurements, they have size. They actually even have, for example, if it's a top, you have the model and she's wearing the top. She's wearing the shoes, she's wearing everything and below actually they will link the other items and they'll style it and it says in the description styled with this, that you know, Valentino styled with Chloe shoes, whatever it might be. I really started to look at how they were branding themselves. So I just took from there and I'll give you a couple of examples when you talk about color scheme and color palette, how important it is.

Sure.

Tiffany's has the Robin's egg blue. So when you see it in the mall and you see that handbag, you know it's Tiffany's. It looks phenomenal with sterling silver. Another really great company that looks at branding is actually Home Depot. What is their color?

Orange.

Orange. Construction orange. So this is something that you need to look at.

It establishes a look that people start to associate with your business, with your fashion sense.

Exactly.

How many social media channels do you manage right now for your business?

As of right now, I'm on Facebook, I'm on Instagram, I'm on Twitter, I have a Pinterest for business page, I'm on Linkedin.

Where do you find the time to manage these?

I'll be honest with you. So it's, I'm too busy to effectively tweet or post, so I use an app called Smarter Cue. It's an automated posting app. It's less than $20 a month and it posts on my Facebook, my Twitter, my Pinterest, and even my Facebook group. For $19.99 a month, It actually posts for you the hours you want, where you want and how you want as well.

Well, that's amazing. So it can free up a little time for you.

I spent about an afternoon ever so often and I organized, clean up everything, post the links, post the images that I want. And with good till cancelled, so we can go throw back to the earlier conversation, you can put listings up on your platforms that you know that work well or have get a lot of feedback because you can see from your analytics.

I'm always amazed that people who have been using the shorter formats and fixed price and have a social media, especially something like Pinterest. So once you've pinned a listing, if it's no longer available, you go, you get a broken link.

Absolutely.

Whereas with a good until cancelled, as long as it's available people can still see it. So I think that's important.

Yeah, absolutely. It's critical. And I know we've brought in Pinterest as a subject that it's social media, but the fact of the matter is it's actually a search engine. It's like Google, if you will, but for images. It's a visual search engine is probably the best way to describe it.

And one of the most insidious rabbit holes in the world.

Absolutely. As of September, 2018 250 million monthly active users and wait, wait for it. 175 billion items have been pinned.

Oh my. How will I see them all?

Just a lot of work, a lot of work. The cool part about Pinterest is because it's a search engine, the demographics and seeing who is pinning, who is going to your store is much more detailed than any other social media platform. I'll give you an example. It gives you their gender, their age group, their location, specific cities. I'm talking about categories that they follow, interests they have, and finally what device they're actually using.

And this is Pinterest for Business?

This is Pinterest for Business. Once you get those graphics, you're able to advertise appropriately on what social media platform you want to use and where you want to use it. Here's a really fun stat about Pinterest and I think eBay sellers are really going to flip when you hear this. 61% of Pinners have made a purchase after seeing a product on Pinterest.

Oh That is amazing.

It is amazing.

Maria, before we go, do you have any final tips for eBay sellers, especially fashion sellers?

Yeah, absolutely. Put yourself in the buyer's shoes. Remember, they're buying something, like I said earlier, that they haven't seen, touched, smelled, or tried on.

Maria, I can't thank you enough. This has been a wonderful conversation. I've learned something.

Awesome.

I'm sure that our audience has as well. We've been speaking with Maria from the Style Lister about how she markets her eBay business. We'll continue the discussion about marketing strategies for sellers in 2019 with our very own Suzy Deering. She's eBay's Chief Marketing Officer.

And this Inside eBay segment we're thrilled to welcome Suzy Deering, eBay's Chief Marketing Officer. Welcome Suzy.

Hello.

We're so glad you're here.

Thanks for having me.

So we're going to talk about marketing tips for sellers, but before we get into that, can you give us a little preview of some upcoming marketing efforts by eBay to drive buyers to the site?

Absolutely. This year, going into the year, we really took a look at our efforts from last year. And so one of the things that you're going to see is even now that we've started is a more consistent presence with our marketing efforts. And as you know, we spend a lot of money in search and in display across digital properties. But what we're also doing is we have radio that is currently running and we'll continue to run off and on, but consistently throughout the year. And in addition to that, you're going to see us come back on to TV in the next week and a half or so.

Excellent.

So lots of good stuff coming. And again, it's all about just making sure that we're being top of mind for our customers and that we're driving traffic to the site so that our buyers can match up to that great inventory our sellers are bringing to the site to.

That's great. Okay, so sellers, we're going to talk about marketing efforts and the idea here is, as Suzy mentioned, we are driving buyers to the site. These tips that Suzy's about to share are really around capturing those buyers. So I hear you've got four tips for us. Let's start with number one.

Perfect. Well first of all, it's all about optimizing. Making sure your listing is optimized, not just for eBay, but Google. Again, it's super important, these best practices, you've got to make sure that your listings not only for on eBay that are attracting our hundred and seventy nine million buyers, but also that you're thinking about the larger audience off of eBay. And again, spend a lot of money as you know, every year in Google and in search and so forth. And so being sure that we're optimizing again so those listings are optimized for Google is super important. In fact, one little thing that people may not know is that 13% of the items that actually are submitted into the Google search is not meeting requirements by Google. The good things about that is there's some really simple, easy, best practices that you can follow to make sure that you're driving the most clicks with Google and ensure that your listings are not rejected. That's a really important piece.

Yes, and in some sellers don't know this, but every night eBay sends all of our listings to Google so that that can show up on Google search and Google shopping.

Correct.

And 13 percent aren't making it.

That's exactly right, and you know what the one of the number one things is that gets rejected? Photography.

Bad photos.

So making sure, and I know that you hear it from us often, photos matter. A picture's worth a thousand words. A picture's worth a thousand clicks in this case. Because you're really in making sure that that clarity and that it's on those white backgrounds. There's no watermarks. Super important because the industry standard, Google will reject it if it's not a clear, simple photo.

There's one more tip around optimizing for Google.

Yes, so the second thing is product identifiers. So making sure that you're accurately including the global trade item number in your listing. That is a very unique numerical identifier, like a UPC or an ISPN code, that allows Google to really understand what you're selling. So it's picking it up, it notifies and identifies the item, and then that way it makes it more relevant for search inquiries.

That number tells Google exactly what you're searching for and can match it up to relevant searches that buyers are using to search for it.

That's exactly right. So just think of a common language.

Yep, Exactly. So that's tip number one. You really want to make sure that Google can pick up and display your items. What's tip number two?

So I think number two is, I'm going to talk about more on social, right? So how we're thinking about social media. Super important because it's a really cost effective way to get your brand, your items, and again, obviously your listings out there. And there's a lot that you can do with social and I think there's a couple pieces of information or tips that I would give you specifically. One is something super easy but can also get a little complicated for some folks because they think of their social channels as, "it's all about me!" And it's my holistic me. Whereas in reality, you need to separate the two things. Because if you have a business to run and you're selling on eBay, you want to make sure that you're keeping a professional tone and that you're keeping that separate from your vacations and what you're eating and all of the other wonderful personal information. So no buyer really wants to understand kind of the political thoughts you have or what you had for breakfast or where your next family vacation is. Making sure that those two things are definitely separated is important. The other key thing about that is not just because you don't want to give away all your great family, wonderful family secrets, but it's also what you get back in return. Between business accounts on Facebook, on Twitter, on Pinterest, what they come with is analytic. Super important because now you get to actually understand how am I doing? Who's seeing it? What kind of activity am I getting? Establish a business account and again, know, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest all offer incredible insights if you set up those accounts.

Keep the personal and business separate.

Yeah, it's a good quality for a lot of things.

It's good advice for just about anything.

Yeah, I agree.

Okay. What's your second tip around social media?

The second tip is there is a, what they refer to as kind of an 80/20 rule. And this is actually really interesting because you'll see this if you start just noticing even in your Instagram feeds and so forth, that you know those things that become fun stoppers. The things that you're paying attention to very often, the 80% of the time is trends. So for example, if you're selling in fashion, people are more likely to stop. So that finger stopping action is, I want to pay attention is because I'm going to learn something. It Is either a fashion trend or maybe a hot color or there's a really new cool item that's coming out, whatever the case may be. So the 80% of the time is, make it so that it's an engaging piece of content or information. That 20% is where the money is. So 20% of the time is, sell your item. If you get that nice balance of entertain and engage your customer or entertain and engage and get those eyes and get the thumb to stop. The other 20% of the time is where you want to make sure your listing that item so that then you can click through and get all the way to the purchase. So 80/20 just think about that as far as how you're thinking of using social.

I think about it as like a friend at a party. If you have a friend at a party and all they talk about is what they're selling, you don't really want to hang out with that friend. You can stand 20% of it.

That's right.

And then the 80% is really the relationship, the connection that you have with that friend at that party.

That's exactly right. Great. I liked the party.

The party analogy.

And you wouldn't have listed it back or you wouldn't have posted that party on your Facebook post with an item. Remember back to the personal thing?

Exactly. Exactly.

All good.

And then the third tip on social media?

Social media is not the only thing. And so this is something that I think, again, I always love to go, people need to think about your own behavior. When you're making decisions on things, It's not typically one thing that made you, made you take an action. So in the case of like social for example, you're telling part of the story. You're taking somebody on a journey with you, but you need to ensure that you're telling your customer and engaging with them across that entire journey. Kind of back to the 80/20 rule. You want to make sure that you engage. Then you want to make sure that you're also getting and looking at your listing and how that's also showing up on eBay. So take that full journey with your customer and ensuring you're optimizing along the way. Very often we think we post it and forget it. No. Post it, watch it, run it. Go through the whole process and ensure that it's connecting exactly the way you want it to.

You might even like borrow a friend's phone and click on your own post.

That's a great way to do it.

And see how you're showing up in their feed and then if you have a link perhaps to your item in your post, click through and see, does what I put on Facebook really match up with the experience that they're going to get from me on eBay?

That's exactly right. We would call that QAing. Quality assurance.

Quality assurance.

The woman that spoke in the segment prior to this, Maria, the Style Lister, she is someone to kind of emulate in this space. She's got all of her social media channels with the same name, consistent. It looks the same across all of her channels. When you land on her eBay experience, it matches up with everything you saw upstream. It's beautiful. Really well.

You know what that also does? It builds trust with your buyers.

True.

So that's another key thing because you're now you're representing your personal brand.

Well, there's so much to say about social media. That could be an entire podcast and by the way, we definitely plan on exploring social media further at this year's eBay Open. So go sign up for that because there's going to be some great content around social media. Okay, Suzy what's your third tip?

The third thing is, did you know that 61% of transactions on eBay are touched by mobile? And when we say touched by mobile, that means somewhere along the process mobile played a part. Whether that's searching for an item or looking and researching for something. Comparison shopping. So we know 61% that is quite impressive. And so that means that in 61% of those transactions, someone either searched, bought an item, again they're comparison shopping using that mobile device that's with them pretty much 24/7. So that means that you've got to make sure, you hear me say this so often, got to be mobile friendly. In fact, I would tell you start the process, start the listing, think of it first for mobile and then let everything else run after that. If over half of the interactions are taking place on that fantastic device, use that as your friend and make sure that's place where you start first.

So the tip here is really assume that your listing will be seen on mobile first.

Absolutely.

And then the last tip.

The last tip. Promoted listings. So important, and what I love about promoted listings is two things. Number one, it is such an incredible opportunity to get the highlight of your item, to make sure that spotlight is put on your inventory. The other piece is, is that guess what? You don't pay until it sells. Which is super important because from a marketing perspective, very often we pay for impressions or we pay for clicks. In this particular case you're only paying when it sells. So it feels like the perfect win-win. You get a spotlight on in your item, you ensure that you actually sell through and get that purchase. And at the same time, that's when you pay. To me, that is an absolute must win for all of our sellers to take advantage of.

And it's so important because a lot of other advertising models are pay per click or pay per impression, which is not the case here. This is a much smarter way to spend your advertising budget.

It absolutely is and you're 100% right because that's how we buy most of our ads off of eBay is paid by either by impression or paid by that click. I love it that we're taking advantage of this incredibly dynamic market place and giving this opportunity to our sellers to have that spotlight and then pay only when they sell.

That's right. Okay, you heard it here folks. Great marketing tips from eBay's lead marketer. Thank you so much Suzy. We really appreciate your time being with us.

Thank you so much. I love the opportunity and thanks so much for inviting me back.

We've been speaking with Suzy Deering, eBay's Chief Marketing Officer.

As we do every week we like to answer your questions. Sometimes we take emails and sometimes we get calls and this week we got a call and we're going to play a part of that call and hopefully answer the question or at least I'm not going to be the only one answering it because joining us now is Bryan Burke.

Hello Griff.

He manages our Community Team and he's a big part of the podcast.

Really glad to be here.

I want to play you the question that came in. There's actually two questions. We'll play the first half now. Here it is.

It's Daniel VanWatchenover 22antique. I have two quesitons. One concerns the sales tax. I presently collect sales tax for items sold in Michigan since I reside in Michigan and I remit that to the state myself. How will that change when Michigan is added to the list of states that you are collecting from?

That's our first part of the question. Brian?

Well Daniel, Thank you so much for the question. Today we dont collect and remit on behalf of sellers for the state of Michigan so you would need to continue to do that. When we do collect and remit on your behalf, you would no longer need to do that. eBay will do that and I would encourage you to either subscribe to or look at the Seller News within the community area for updates on the internet sales tax. There's currently a list of states for this year that we will begin to collect and remit on behalf of sellers. That's updated through, I think the end of July and Michigan is not on the list yet. It might be a state that's coming in the second half of the year, but until that point, please make sure you keep good records. Once Michigan's on, we will do the collection and remittance.

So keep an eye on that list over time as more states are added to that list.

Exactly, and this applies for any of our listeners, please check that list. If you're in a state where we begin to collect and remit, then you no longer are required to do that. We're doing it on your behalf.

Does that mean, I wonder, that if I'm set up in my state to collect sales tax by using the sales tax table on eBay, do I have to go in and uncheck that?

No, I mean you can if you wish. It just won't. It won't apply anymore.

All right, that makes sense.

Now Brian, here's Daniel's second question

And number two concerns fixed price good till cancelled. I do not really want good till cancelled. I like to relist my own items. Is there anyway that to opt out of it? is there any way to change it? Thank you . Bye.

Well Daniel, thank you for that question and it's one we've heard from a number of other sellers. The ability to opt out of a good till cancel for our fixed price format will not be an option beginning in the middle of March. There are a number of reasons for it and we've described most of those reasons in the Seller Update, but some of them include making sure that your inventory is on the site and visible at all times. It's the only way it can get purchased by a buyer. It also enhances SEO on platforms like Google or Bing and those types of sites. So it's important for us to make sure that we have the best SEO possible because buyers do find your items through those types of platforms as well, so you won't be able to opt out.

If you want to continue this sort of behavior. You can, but you'd have to do it manually.

You can. I would encourage you, if you're not on Seller Hub to use Seller Hub to manage your inventory. You can go in there and manage. If you choose to, you could end a listing at any time during the the 30 days that it's listed through, good till cancelled and then relist. I also know there are some sellers who have inventory that sometime is seasonal and they like to end that seasonal listing and list other stuff. You can do that if you wish to. It won't automatically end. And the benefit there is if it's not automatically ending, it's available for a buyer to purchase and that's ultimately beneficial to you.

Some of our conversation with sellers who have become over time I think habituated to this practice of short term fixed price durations and then having them relist over and over is they believe they're getting some sort of benefit or boost and eBay search engine. Is that true?

Whenever an item is listed as new, we do provide some, I don't want to say boost but we want to make sure buyers are able to see something, but it's not the main reason that an item is identified or results in search. The most important thing for search results is the relevance of the item to the item that the buyer is searching for. And that trumps any other component of our algorithm including trust factors and the service level that the seller is providing. Is The item relevant to the buyer?

And looking at the data, we didn't see any benefit to the seller or the marketplace and having people list and relist and relist and relist over and over and short duration.

Correct. There's a higher conversion rate actually with good till cancelled listings compared to the short duration listings. And I think part of that is because the items never off the site.

So before we go, I'm going to thank Daniel for his questions and I would encourage you to call us if you have a question at (888) 723-4630 that's (888) 723-4630 and of course if you have a question that you don't want to call in with, you'd rather email. Our email address is sellingonebay@ebay.com.

So Brian, where would you send people like Daniel and other listeners who may have questions both about the internet sales tax and how it relates to eBay and also about good until cancelled listings and everything else that was in the early seller update that we announced last week?

Any of those types of announcements, I encourage sellers to go to community.eBay.com and then look for the tab that says Seller News and then in there there's announcements. And you can subscribe to announcements and we will send you an email any time we announce anything on that. So you don't have to go out and look daily at it. Just subscribe. We'll push an email to you.

So you can always stay up to date. Brian, thank you so much.

My pleasure.

Now don't go away. It's sign off time and Audrey has a little bit of news to share with us, so you might find this interesting. Stay tuned.

And that's our show for this week. It's time to refine those strategies. Audrey.

Yes, indeed. It's an ongoing never ending process.

As is running any business. The biggest enemy of any successful enterprise is stásus.

Stásus? I know it as stasus. What's that?

Oh, stasus, stásus. It means doing nothing.

Tomato. Tomáto.

Well kind of, but in this instance it means doing nothing. The world of ecommerce is an ever changing world and the only way to navigate and thrive in it is to expect and prepare for the inevitable change that's coming.

Exactly. You have to be willing to try new business practices even if that means abandoning some old ones, especially if they have stopped working. You must be ready to adjust to new changes.

That's so true. Hey Audrey, what's coming up for next week?

Our theme for next week, will be refine your SEO best practices in 2019.

Oh good.

Speaking of ever changing and always learning.

Yeah, because what was good for SEO this week, won't be good next week necessarily.

That's right, and if you want to join the fun here on the Selling On eBay podcast, you can be part of the show when you call us at (888) 723-4630.

That's right. Call us. (888) 723-4630, you can call that hotline anytime of the day, by the way, any day of the week. In fact. You can leave a question or a comment and if it's appropriate we just might put it on the air.

And if the very thought of hearing your own voice on the podcast makes you rush for the exits, not to worry. We have our very own email address where you can send your questions if you prefer that. It's sellingonebay@ebay.com that's sellingonebay@ebay.com.

And if you're itching to get out of the house for some social time, you should be attending a local seller meetup in your area. At eBay seller meetups, sellers share their tips and their stories, what they've learned from selling on eBay and what they want you to avoid. So it's, it's great fun and usually they're held in venues where there's beverage and nosh and even some special guests that come by. Who knows? It could be Brian Burke from our own team. You can see meetups that are scheduled on our special eBay community page for meetups at www.ebay.com/meetups.

And don't forget to tune into our weekly live video stream on the eBay for business Facebook page. That happens every Wednesday at 12:30 Pacific time. You're going to want to go to facebook.com/ebayforbusiness.

And that's our show for this week. But before we sign off, Audrey, I hear you have some news of a personal nature.

I'm pregnant.

No, no, please. No.

I'm kidding. I'm not, but I do have some news. I have a new role here at eBay and I will be joining a new team.

Well, congratulations. What's the role?

I am going to be a Content Strategist. Very fancy.

Hmm. Sounds very impressive. Couldn't happen to a more deserving person.

Oh, thank you. But there's more. After this week, I'm going to have to leave the podcast team.

Oh, that is bad news.

Do you need a tissue?

No, I'm a little shocked, but I'm okay for now. We'll certainly miss you here as a regular. I hope you will have time in your new role to come and visit us now and then.

No, sorry. I won't.

I'm kidding. Of course. I will. Of course.

That's a relief from all of us here at the podcast team. We will certainly miss you and we wish you the greatest success in your new position, which I have no doubt you will achieve. Now. Will you roll the credits one last time? I think I'm getting a little verklempt.

Yes, of course. The selling on eBay podcast team. Director of Community, Brian Burke, Community Manager, Alan Aisbitt, oh don't cry. Community Manager and Technology and News Editor, Doug Smith. Marketing Strategist Liz Austin.

Editor in Chief and Cohost. That's you Griff.

Script Writer and Cohost and Flat Lever. Audrey Tracy.

Flat Lever?

Yes. That's what we used to call people that would leave you. Like friends who would suddenly abandon you.

That's called ghosting these days.

It's called ghosting?

Yeah. I am ghosting this place.

So Script Writer and Cohost and Resident Ghoster Audrey Tracy.

Selling On eBay is produced and distributed by Libsyn and podCast411.

I think you should keep all of that last bit. It's terrible, but good.

Yeah, I know. I won't edit it out.

Just let it roll.

I don't know if I can go on. I love being, I love doing drama.

I love doing drama too.

Yeah. We could do a podcast novella.

Where we just cry and complain about things?

Well, it's all just high drama all the time.

You ate my cereal.

You slept with my husband. (laughter)