Firstly, I must declare my interest: I work for vzaar.com, a company that offers a video service for eBay sellers. The reason why? I reckon that video is the next big thing coming eBay’s way.
Videos are becoming ubiquitous online and the unstoppable rise of YouTube shows how at ease most net users are with moving pictures. But it seems like eBay and eBay sellers have been slow to adopt video with eBay UK only implementing a video policy on the site .
Videos are an efficient way of communicating and an effective way of selling. Not only can a moving image communicate more than even a dozen pics, but you can also talk directly to viewers. It’s a very easy way to differentiate yourself from the competition.
Tricky and Time-consuming?
Not necessarily. Most digi cameras, and even your mobile phone, can shoot a video. People don’t necessarily expect Spielberg-esque films. Online video can be a bit rough round the edges so the filming and upload need not take any longer than a clutch of images.
eBay Video Ideas
There are lots of different ways you could use a video to sell on eBay and there’s huge scope to be creative and produce material that suits your business.
Item Videos
The most obvious use of video is to film and describe the item you’re selling. Just like with a picture, you need to give buyers a fair impression of the item. Don’t forget to talk. Connect with your buyers and tell them about what you’re selling.
Merchandising Videos
If you’re selling a number of complementary items or have regular lines that go well together how about creating a merchandising video? Say, if you’re selling cameras, tripods and other photographic goods, make a video that tells buyers about the other goods you sell. The benefit of this is that you can make a video that can be inserted into multiple listings and used multiple times, thus saving time.
About your Business
A video about you and your business can be a really good way of inspiring confidence and reassuring buyers. How about creating a video that features you talking about your business and what you sell? As with all videos online, brevity wins prizes. Even just a minute of footage can be beneficial.
For help and more information about vzaar, click here.
15 Responses
vzaar = ebay uk old boys club LOL,
great idea
though not time effective for us yet . a few too many clicks / uploads/ crops etc to justify it for unique items
oh Dan…. I was CERTAIN it would be a Saturday morning picture show…..:D
(without the western I suppose….)
Can vzaar do the merchandising videos, last time I tried it kept linking to the original auction that I had placed the video in
Norf: I think the impact of video will be much more than single vids about individual items. Trust videos saying “Hullo, buy from me” (and these vids will be usable across many auctions/listings) will be stock in trade before long.
Lynne: Saturday morning picture show? Happy days. ;O)
Dave: happy to see what we can do for any seller that’s keen: [email protected]. Improved powerseller packages from vzaar are on their way.
yes in theory Dan I too can see many uses for videos,
though
it will be in danger of becoming like the x factor auditions, and turn into an unintentional comedy show
even if vazaar or other third parties provided a commercial television advert type service with actors etc
it would be a me page, web site thing ,rather than individual auctions
and even then only for the big boys
OK I know I’m in the wrong age group for this sort of thing, I only own a mobile phone under protest and it’s rarely switched on (although I love the internet). I also rarely have the speakers switched on on my PC, and get annoyed when news items are only available as video – it’s a time thing I suppose. I want to cast a quick eye over something and see if it’s worth my time looking further. I don’t want to waste time watching videos. U-Tube is really not my thing. I’m not sure a video would help me with most of the things I purchase on ebay – CDs, beads, maybe small electronic gadgets and accessories, clothes…And selling mainly CDs and jewellery I’m not sure it would help me sell either. Yes I know jewellery looks better on a “model” but then people pay more attention to the model that what you are trying to sell and that’s not good.
Sorry but I think in the main it’s just gimmicky.
Kate: now we know what yout you think.
What do your potential customers think?
But Dan, I’m not just a seller, I’m a buyer as well.
What I would like is to be able to position the video module somewhere other than at the top – I used a video on one item to show the sound from a musical box, but I couldn’t work out how to put it further down in the listing – I really wanted my static pictures at the top and the video to one side further down.
And to be able to put it in in the first place via Turbolister…but I suppose with no item no allocated at that time, it would still need to be edited afterwards…. ❓
Lynne, you can position the video where you like, *and* you can put a placeholder tag in to add your video correctly later: have a look at Adrian’s blog post:
https://blog.vzaar.com/2007/11/using-vzaar-in-your-templates
oh excellente! 😛
I don’t pretend to understand TOTALLY how the placeholder will work, but it is certainly worth a try!
p.s. many thankingyous! 😳
I still can’t really see how a video would help to sell CDs or jewellery.
Hi Kate
Take a look at this auction, I think the video shows just what the ring looks like so much better than a simply photo – the video shows how the stone sparkles which is something you only get from movement. It gives a totally new dimension to the ring compared with the still pictures 🙂