The Future of eBay Search Nick Freedman eSellerPro Webinar Series

Overview Introduction eBay Marketplace fast facts About eBay Search eBay Best Practices for 2014 Conclusion

The eBay Marketplace Global GMV USD$75bn GBP£47.5bn >400m live listings globally >60m live listings UK alone

eBay Search Search visibility is the most important factor in your eBay success Understand the keys to search visibility Get optimised for search and sales will follow

A little background eBay currently runs on Voyager search engine 10 year old technology, now creaking Will be replaced over next year with Cassini engine. Entirely new technology. Biggest change to search since 2008 – Time ending soonest to Best Match Change is planned to be seamless Change will result in both Winners and Losers

eBay Voyager Capabilities Indexes only selective items Item title (80 characters) Variation text (Red, Blue, Green) Item specifics NOT Subtitle NOT item description

CASSINI

Cassini Deployment Currently serving ebay.com (US) results UK rollout from Q Progressive, cautious rollout through 2014 Already powering low and null recovery search results / completed items

Cassini Key Changes (1) Cassini is a work in progress Cassini will search Descriptions as well as Titles and Item Specifics This happens automatically without buyers having to perform an advanced search Ensuring Descriptions are accurate and relevant will become more important

Cassini Key Changes (2)

Cassini Principles Cassini is data-driven Cassini is values-driven Trust Value Relevance Convenience Cassini is shopper-oriented Designed to generate and rank search results in whatever way is most likely to generate an immediate sale and a happy transaction for the buyer

Cassini Probable Factors Sell-through-style data Complete listing data, including Titles - Use popular, relevant keyword combinations Item specifics A clear, structured, and comprehensive item description. Stay "on topic" and describe your item accurately. Be generous Catalogue Image quality Category appropriateness

Cassini Probable Factors Seller Performance and Buyer Satisfaction Overall feedback Detailed Seller Ratings Customer service history Dispute resolution history Past buyer protection cases Responses to eBay’s message communication system Timely payment of eBay fees

Cassini Best Practices Make accessible, interesting, attention-grabbing listings List stock gradually, as you actually expect to sell it Focus on performance and being customer-oriented, not just on listing tactics Maintain consistency Use both Terapeak and eBay Listing Analytics

Cassini – What not to do… Don’t: Try to game the system. Exploits will be progressively closed off Don’t: Keyword stuffing Don’t: Category stuffing Don’t: Terse listings Don’t: Poor images and lazy listings Don’t: Poor customer service

Cassini Implications eBay will make you more accountable as a seller Good sellers should increasingly be advantaged over bad Impact on different verticals Media Anything involving compatibility Rich descriptions may make measurable difference Cost and effort to improve image quality Consider ROI of changes you make

To conclude… eBay is becoming ever more “Amazon” like Cassini is a key part of this process Start planning now for Cassini Follow best practices and sales will follow Leverage eSellerPro to manage and store rich product data for eBay