In a post on Mashable, eBay explains how it looks at the seasonal selling rush in the run up to Christmas. Do you agree?
As they say in the article: “We at eBay see four distinct phases during the newly defined holiday season, each of which requires a unique strategy for maximizing sales:
Pre-Holiday Inspiration and Discovery: November 2-15 – Consumers are browsing and getting ideas for gifts but are more focused on holiday decorations and holiday party fashion.
Peak Phase: November 16-December 17 – Consumers are more deal-conscious, interested in starting to lock down the presents on their shopping list, and are more flexible with shipping.
Last Chance Phase: December 18-24 – Consumers want instant gratification, more immediate delivery and are willing to pay a little bit more to ensure their gifts arrive before the holidays.
Post-Holiday Phase: December 25-January 10 – Consumers are thinking about returns/exchanges, looking for deals and after-season sales, setting New Year’s resolutions and looking for quick ways to make extra cash to help pay those holiday-fueled credit card bills.”
8 Responses
Not really a significant insight is it?
I hope they didn’t commit too many of their MBA people to understand this …. or maybe they did, hence the PR!
Not certain that I totally agree with Post-Holiday Phase. I always do well after Christmas and I think it is caused by men(I sell mainly Transport Books and similar) checking what they have received and there are a few items that they wanted/expected that they did not receive. One of these is Calendars. So between Christmas Day and New Year I tend to get quite a few orders for Railway Calendars.
Also because probably the majority of men are on holiday into the New Year they can all sit down and browse and one area that they browse is Books and they see something that they want and hopefully it is a Book that I have listed and they buy it.
I get very few returns/exchanges and so this part of the definition above I do not get.
in other breaking news, ebay reveals that the sky may be blue.
with their big brand power and revealing insights wrought via expert knowledge in this industry, they conclude that on 24th december, buyers are willing to pay more for their items to arrive before the holidays.
– how much should one charge for time-travel assisted delivery? i assume a cut-off point for this service would be irrelevent.
No offense to them, but this looks like the sort of job an intern would be given on their first day before there’s any real work to give them
Pathetic patronising and pointless.-
Post holiday customers looking for “returns and exchanges”.
Or looking for money off more like so as the seller “can maintain their feedback”
Get your head around this- I need to drill a large hole in the wall for my tumble drier outlet. I buy the tool off eBay- free postage of course. I use the tool to do the job- brilliant. Then the best part- I can return it free of charge for a full refund including shipping by stating it doesn’t work. Simples. Never any need to go to the hire station again- and ITS FREE !!!
That’s just how it works on eBay now- and the poor seller cops for the lot including bad dsr- it’s all a bad joke
Peak sales? eBay’s sales throttling have kept our orders exactly the same as they were back in March and even with ten times the sku count currently (irrelevant). All channels have shown 200%+ increases over the last two weeks except eBay.
eBay is the grinch that stole Christmas and without any growth or rise in 1.5 yrs and 99.7%+ positive feedback, we’re on the way out … gone are even the memories of the golden era.
We’ve been removing 1000s and 1000s of skus and guess what? Same exact sales … eBay has become a complete waster of time and venue of chumps.
– Mick