eBay’s new global “Shop The World” campaign

eBay’s first ever world wide global brand campaign is kicking off this Autumn, with the theme “Shop The World”.

The aim is to show how moments of inspiration can become instantly shoppable on eBay using the device which has become ubiquitous – the mobile phone. Bringing together eBay’s 800 million items and multiscreen technology which means you can begin browsing on your mobile, tablet, laptop or desktop, you really can shop around the world at any moment in time.

Buyers can make instant purchases, add items to their watch list or browse and be inspired by collections and that, along with why eBay is unique, is what the campaign aims to show.

The campaign is launching in the US (hence the American voice over), but will launch across multiple digital and social channels in the UK and Europe later this month, followed by a more Christmassy campaign focussing on gifts and highlighting Click & Collect at Argos.

What can you do to make sure you benefit from the campaign?

List your stock!

Make sure that your inventory is all on eBay and make sure it’s optimised for search e.g. with great pictures, clear descriptions. It sounds obvious, but if it’s in stock and not listed on eBay you can’t sell it!

Prepare for mobile

eBay say that 40% eBay transactions are touched by a mobile device. We think it’s closer to 50% and in the run up to Christmas it will be much higher, so ensure your listings look good on mobile with item specific entries (size, colour etc completed).

Remember that on mobile devices Item Specifics are much more prominent than on a desktop device and easier for buyers to use! Even on mundane items such as Christmas Trees, if you don’t fill them out then when buyers narrow their search using them, your items will be excluded from search results if Item Specifics aren’t completed!

Offer retail options

Offer the options to shoppers on eBay the retail options that they really want. Earlier today we published a piece showing the difference between what retailers offer compared to what consumers actually want. Even though you might not be in favour of options such as Click & Collect or tracked deliveries your buyers do want them!

I always think of it as similar to my friends Cake Pop business. She offers flavours such as Salted Caramel and Coconut which quite frankly are both flavours I detest… but it’s amazing how many of her customers love them! Forget about your personal preferences and expand your offerings where you can and let your customers decide how they want to buy.

Promote your products!

Every retailer on the high street runs promotions and dresses their shop window, why don’t you? You can increase your basket-size by running attractive promotions (get close up and personal with Promotions Manager and figure out which products are genuine add on sales and which aren’t!)

I recently purchased a new laptop on eBay and the promoted items were…. more laptops! Just how many laptops can one guy need? Why not show my blue tooth mice, laptop bags, screen wipes and other accessories that I might actually want to buy? If your promotions are rubbish don’t expect your basket size to increase, but get it right and you’ll find you’re selling more items per order.

Inspire shoppers by creating Collections of your products which you can then share on your eBay shop pages and off eBay on blogs, Facebook, Pinterest and other social Media sites. Collections can drive additional traffic and it doesn’t matter whether you specialise in toys, clothes, remote control helicoptors or car accessories to pimp your VW bug, you can create a collection for people interested in your products.

Let people buy from you

Do you ship world wide? If not why not? We know only too well the difficulties of shipping internationally, the cost of tracking internationally and the difficulties of trading with certain countries (Italy anyone?). Signing up to eBay’s Global Shipping Program solves all these woes and enables shoppers from around the world to purchase your goods with no effort on your part.

Unless you’ve a really good reason not to, are your products included for global shipping and if not why not? There’s no point eBay attracting global buyers if you refuse to ship to them so fix this one today.

Get to know your tools

Think adding a tracked delivery option or revising your returns policy is too difficult? Use the tools available to you such as eBay’s bulk editing and selling manager tools or the third party tools you subscribe to. Whilst you may be busy, currently it’s the lull before the storm and when Christmas sales kick in you’ll be even busier so get prepared now.

Make use of your eBay shop

If you have a shop, remember to use your full free listing allocation, upgrade to eBay’s new shop format if you haven’t already done so, explore the features such as mark down manager and organise your shop categories ready for the peak season.

Have you got an email marketing list for your eBay shop? When was the last time you sent out an email to your shop subscribers? Why not take the time this weekend to create a couple of fantastic curated collections of your top selling products and get some email marketing done. It is a free tool that comes with your shop you know!

Christmas is coming

eBay hasn’t had a great year, in fact I’d go so far as to say it’s been one of their worst ever with the password reset and site outages. However they are the biggest ecommerce marketplace out there and with the new “Shop The World” campaign it’s going to be difficult for anyone on the Internet not to see their advertising. Making sure your listings and shop are ready to welcome customers is no different to the High Street shops with their Halloween displays which will inevitably change to Christmas displays as soon as Halloween is out of the way.