Lesson 1

It's Research Time!

Ready to take you eBay sales to a whole new level? Well, hold on tight! You now have the most comprehensive eBay research tool available, with thousands of your competitors’ mistakes and successes at your fingertips, and this 10-lesson course will teach you how to power up your listings!

Hi, I’m Amy Kendall, and as a Research Education Specialist and an eBay Certified Consultant, I’m really excited to teach you how you can use your research tool to increase the success of your eBay business. My goal is to help you succeed using market research.

When you see this symbol throughout the course, it means I have a nifty research tip or important insight for you. So pay attention to the light bulbs—they’ll save you time and headaches!

Now, let's get started!

This Course

During this 10-lesson course, you’ll get up close and personal with your research tool, and by the end, you’ll be an expert at using your competitors’ wins and losses to identify specific ways to make more money on every listing. The best way to learn how to get the most out of your research tool is to complete this course, and don’t worry, we’ll have a lot of fun along the way!

Market Research to the Rescue!

Remember those old movies where a beautiful woman would be in some dire situation, and at the very last minute, just when you thought she was doomed for sure this time, a dashing hero would show up and save the day? Well, I’d like to introduce the new hero in town—your research tool!

Now, I know you’re thinking this is a little far-fetched, but give me a minute to explain. Think about it—eBay listings can get you in some pretty dire situations. For example, have you ever guessed wrong, and invested in a product that didn’t sell for enough to make you a profit? Imagine losing hundreds of dollars because you picked a product that eBay buyers weren’t looking for. And how do you decide which days and times are best to end your listings? Do you have to resort to guessing when buyers are online looking for your product? Each eBay listing requires dozens of decisions, and without the right information, those decisions can cut into your profits. But there’s no need to despair! Market research is here!

Your research tool allows you to quickly and easily look at a specific group of closed eBay listings to discover:

• Whether a product will sell and for how much
• Ways to increase a listing's chances of selling
• Ways to boost your profits on each and every listing
• Market trends for your specific product
• The size of hte market and your specific competition

Sound too good to be true? Well, this hero’s real. Your research tool uses data licensed directly from eBay to provide you with market information on your specific product, category or seller ID. It takes out all of the guesswork as you create your listings.

Let’s take a brief tour, before you think I’m just making stuff up.

Meet Your Research Tool

When you first open your research tool, you’ll see a welcome screen that offers you a host of education and support resources.

The top navigation bar allows you to select which type of search you wish to perform: Product, Category, or Seller, all of which we’ll cover.

Once you perform a search, five result windows open, which we’ll also discuss in greater detail.

Within each of these windows, you’ll find information that will take the guesswork out of your product listing decisions. The Findings Window in particular, has a few reports that make your job much quicker and easier. We’ll explore each of these reports in later lessons.

Within your research tool’s windows and reports, you’ll discover everything you need to decide what to sell, to increase your selling success, and to maximize your profits. It’s just a matter of understanding which questions you need to ask and where to find the answers.

Over the next 30 days, you’ll learn how to answer these questions, and more, for your eBay listings:

• What listing type should I use?
• Which ending day will bring me the greatest success and profit?
• How long should my listing duration be?
• What starting price will create a bidding frenzy?
• Which keywords should I use in my titles to hook high-paying buyers?
• Which listing features will work, and which ones can I live without?
• Which category will give my listing the greatest amount of exposure?
• And much more!

I’ll see you soon for our next lesson when we’ll start answering some of these questions! Until then, please complete the following quick assignment.

Assignment #1: Check out your resources

For this assignment, please install the Auction PI Research software and check out its features.

CONGRATULATIONS! You've completed Lesson 1!