I Know What´s Hot on eBay -- Part 1

I have another 2-part article for you from eBay consultant Jen Cano. I’ll post part 2 this afternoon. Enjoy.

I Know What´s Hot on eBay
by Jen Cano, eBay Certified Consultant
Some would have you believe that there´s a simple answer to what’s hot on eBay. Well, I´d agree—to a point. That simple answer is a starting point. But, to find out what works on a practical level, you have to delve a little deeper to find the answer for specific product offerings.

Last week, I promised you an article that would tell you how to use eBay´s list of super-hot items, together with DeepAnalysis, to discover new hot-selling items.

eBay´s Hot Categories List
We´ll start with the Hot Categories report eBay publishes. You can find the report at http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/hotitems.pdf. eBay keeps this report up to date and organizes their findings into categories.

The report shows the "hotness rating for categories all the way down to level 4 categories. They´re rated Super Hot, Very Hot, or Hot. I, of course, looked for a Super Hot level four category, and found it in Clothing > Girls > Shoes > Boots. I chose this category because, as a mom, I have some interest in children´s clothing.

To create a winning auction, though, I really need to know which brand, which style, and maybe even which size will give me the most successful sales rate and the highest price. For that, I turn to DeepAnalysis.

Getting Specific with DeepAnalysis
For my initial research, I entered just the category (57976), selected 1000 auctions, and hit the Start button. The research came back with all 1000 auctions, averaging a 62% success rate and an average sales price of $15.90 for the last thirty days.

62% is fine, but I was on a hunt for a hot-selling item. I needed to find out what kinds of boots were selling most often and for the best price. To begin finding this out, I went to the Keywords tab.

About the Author
Jennifer Cano is a certified eBay consultant and Senior Editor for Bright Builders, the makers of HammerTap. She is also an editor for eBay Radio.

© Bright Builders, 2006.

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