Why should you use an eBay Listing Template?
This is a question I answer every day and have done for nearly 10 years. Interestingly though as time has passed the answer has actually changed and become much more complex.
If we wind back the clock 5 years selling on eBay was a much simpler affair. You simply needed to throw a listing up with a title, a picture you grabbed off Google and a one line description. Those were the days!
Back then the motivation to use a template on your description boiled down to three logical reasons:
- Credibility – A template makes you stand out and look credible, gone is the one line description replaced with a structured layout which emphasises your branding an identity. If someone is choosing between a similarly priced item, one with a great looking template and one with a one line description, which do they choose?
- Clarity – As well as presenting your description in a more visually pleasing manor the template includes the standard information you normally write into a description. This can include information about shipping, returns, maybe even a section about your business. Being built into the template ensures this remains consistent across all listings.
- Capture – This is perhaps the key reason to use a template, the main reason why it will help generate more sales. If someone clicks through from a search to your listing you have done the hardest part, you have been found. At this point you don’t want the person to click the dreaded “back” button if the item is not what they want. A sea of ten thousand search results is waiting for them and it’s highly unlikely they’ll click through to another of your listings. The template helps stop that, by emphasising your brand, by showing you have a shop and are maybe a specialist in a sector you hugely increase the chance that instead of clicking “back” the customer will stay with you.
But fast forwarding to present day how have the motivations changed? Well, all of the above is still true, but there is now one more vital piece of reasoning:
- Compliance – Due to the fact it was previously so easy to create a listing, eBay has ended up a bit of a mess. The freedom allowed you to build descriptions that contained practically anything and as technology has advanced some things have had to change. New rules have been introduced in recent years requiring sellers to remove “Active content” or make descriptions “mobile friendly” and also make their listings “HTTPS secure”. All of these rules touch on technological issues which the majority of sellers will know nothing about and really don’t want to know about. Not complying with these requirements can result in listings being penalised in the ebay search results and even lead to listings being removed. Implementing a Jarilo Design listing template is the easy way to ensure you do not have to concern yourself with these problems.
These four reasons form the main motivations for using a template. There are more, such as getting branding consistency across ecommerce markets, you want your ebay to match your website look and feel. However, it’s the above which will provide the all-important return on investment.
If you’d like to discuss building a template drop us an email or give us a call on 0151 601 4695.
