ebay descriptions: There’s no argument whether eBay is a worthwhile online sales platform or not. According to Small Biz Trends, eBay averages 1.6 billion listings at any moment, with 80% of items sold being new and 20% being used before.
With so many listings posted daily, it can be difficult to make your own items stand out and sell more quickly. However, with smart formatting, you can make use of your own eBay template and effectively skyrocket the sales of your items. Let’s discuss how you can write content for your eBay as well as the obstacles you should be aware of while doing so.
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Keep the Description Short and to the Point
The volume of listings present on eBay cannot be overstated. According to eBay itself, there are over 250 million searches made each day, or 3,000 per second, with 20% of them being cross-border or international.
You want to make sure that your potential customers are able to read through your item descriptions quickly and easily to keep them engaged. Thus, it’s good practice to keep your item description to around 200 words and break that down into several points or paragraphs. Additional data on your items can be provided through good quality images as well as personal contact information.
Emphasize Benefits over Features
Customers looking for goods on platforms such as eBay will do so with certain expectations in mind. For example, people looking for microwave will look for keywords and phrases associated with microwaves and forgo other products entirely.
The secret to good digital marketing is to meet those expectations by writing about the benefits your items can provide the customers with. What are the practical applications of your items in everyday life? Once you list several, you should outline the technical details of your item, such as its dimensions, weight and electronic specs (if there are any).
Personalize your Writing
The upside of selling your items on eBay is that you can personalize your descriptions as much as you want to make them more attractive. This is easily done through personal pronouns such as “I”, “we”, “you” and “us” throughout the description. Write your description as you would send a message about your item to an old friend or acquaintance via email or social media.
Let your personality and character shine through the writing and potential customers will be much more prone to getting in touch with you. Estelle Liotard, Editor, Writing expert and Proofreader at the thesis writing service Get Good Grade spoke on the topic: “Writing product descriptions in a personalized manner will let customers know that you are a person with thoughts and feelings just as they are. Compliment that with scannable formatting, decent level of English, and keywords related to your item’s characteristics and your writing will help skyrocket your sales.”
Context First, SEO Second
Including the right keywords in your eBay item descriptions is essential for search algorithm visibility. The platform itself has published several SEO tips which you can follow to ensure that your listings rank as highly as possible. However, eCommerce product descriptions should always combine smart SEO with creative writing to appeal to the right customers.
You should never start writing item descriptions with SEO keywords in mind and without any thought given to the actual readers of your listings. Only approach SEO optimization after you are satisfied with how your item description looks like. Adding the right SEO keywords should be treated as a final touch that will appease the eBay search algorithm and present your items to customers.
Format your Description to Allow for Scanning
People who use eBay to look for items to buy will tend to skim through item descriptions in order to find the right listing quickly. You can meet your customers halfway by formatting each listing with bullet points, numbers and other special characters to break the text into digestible pieces.
Using a specialized platform to hire writers for your editing and formatting needs will make the writing process easier, allowing for faster item turnaround. Once you establish a writing system that suits you, you can repeat the same description structure and formatting throughout your other item listings.
Stock or Misleading Multimedia
While not directly related to writing itself, the photos you attach to eBay item listings matter just as much as the item descriptions themselves. In order to maintain transparency with your buyers, you should only use original, quality images that are representative of your items’ current condition.
Never use stock photographs taken from original manufacturers or other sellers on eBay. If discovered, this can lead to irreversible damage to your reputation as a seller and effectively halt your sales going forward.
Mistake to Keep in Mind When Writing Descriptions
There are certain things that you can do to your eBay item descriptions that will have adverse effects on their performance. In order to ensure that your sales skyrocket, the following points should be avoided or otherwise fixed before your listings go live.
Copy/Paste of Other People’s Item Descriptions
Using item descriptions of other eBay sellers or official manufacturers of your products is a big mistake. Google, Yahoo and similar search engines will quickly spot the copied product descriptions and flag your items as suspicious or pending further review. Write your own eBay descriptions to avoid legal or moral issues with others.
Poor Description Spelling and Grammar
The wording and writing style you use in the item description will be indicative of how professional and trustworthy you are as a seller. Use tools such as Grammarly before you publish your item description to make sure no proofreading mistakes have crept by. This is a quick and easy fix that should become second nature to you.
Overpromising on the Quality of your Items
In order to build trust and a reputation of a good seller on eBay, you should always be objective about the items you sell. Don’t use hyperbole, all-caps and special characters in your item descriptions. Keep your writing focused on factual information about the items, their quality and the sales conditions.
Writing for the Sake of Writing More
Finally, there is nothing wrong with writing short eBay item descriptions. However, you should avoid long descriptions which devolve into short essays about your items, how you acquired them and what they mean to you. Your potential customers will be interested in hard facts about the items, their performance and terms of exchange – keep the writing on point.
Getting a Handle on Skyrocketing your eBay Sales (Conclusion)
Learning how to write eBay item descriptions quickly and efficiently will take some trial and error on your part. Don’t be afraid to look through some of the top sellers on the platform and take notice of how they write and format item descriptions.
Be transparent about your goods, format them for easy scanning and add the right keywords based on your item’s category and manufacturer. Before you know it, you will have found a writing system that suits your needs and affinities as a seller, helping you skyrocket your sales.
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