Prabhat Shah at DaytodayeBay is, as the name suggests, an eBay expert and today he takes a look at the recent changes to Terapeak and how you can use the new Sellers Tab for eBay research:
Terapeak recently introduced Product Research 2.0 function which is another way to learn more about competition. Before recent changes we used to be able to see top seller’s ID which was a powerful too for many sellers and you will find some of my observations below this new function.
The *New* Sellers Tab
I searched for “organic coffee beans” using Product Research 2.0 and below are the information I get that matched my search:
Anonymous sellers
With new policy sellers are hidden which used be powerful tool for competitive analysis before.
Here’s a comment on recent Tamebay article:
“After 6 years of a terapeak subscription, I have just cancelled because of this. It was all I used it for. Is another company going to fill void? Could someone post a link?”
Number of items sold
Historical number of items sold helps to decide whether my product in mind is actually worth investing.
Average transaction price
Average price helps me decide a price point and perhaps helps making that sourcing decision.
Average shipping cost
Shipping is cost is going towards “0” and it is now acceptable practices to include postage on item price. In this particular example there are some sellers shipping an and it is £4.00 on average.
% of Listings with free shipping
Over 90% of listings with free delivery, this is telling me to list with free shipping. Thought free shipping is very common with the rise of “Amazon prime”, there are few exceptions on branded and heavy /bulky products.
Total Transaction value
This gives me total value of sales to help me decide if my venture is worth any penny.
All in all, this is certainly a helpful tool for new sellers to measure competition. The sortable list allows to correlate item sold, average price, shipping and total sales. E.g. sorting by number of total item sales shows how many items were sold corresponding to the average price.
Other interesting results
Many sellers I work with like to keep track of few of their competitors. E.g. If you are in a “Small Kitchen Appliance” category, you’d like to keep track on Andrew James brand. They are one of the top sellers and they sell on most marketplaces including Tesco. We can track their performance with new sellers tab.
The screenshot below shows all we discussed above just based on my search query “Andrew James”. I can see their sales, item sold and price on a particular product category
To see a good result you use filters like below to avoid auctions or private resellers.
Another interesting addition to the recent changes is the ability to search EAN. The screen shot below shows how to use filter to get result.
This screenshot below shows information we already discussed with the time frame but only based on EAN. Given that EAN is correctly entered on listings, the results will tell me information on exact product I am looking for. This is fantastic !
Lots of times we do have to make most of what’s available and I think above some useful things we could with the recent changes in Terapeak.
Here at DaytodayeBay, we use research tools like Terapeak to provide marketplace consultancy on eBay. Here’s a sort case study of what how we have made improvements on one of the eBay accounts.
We have worked with sellers on various categories and helped them develop and optimise their business. I’d love to help out, to discuss more please get in touch on 0751 8839629
