Most people who sell on eBay would like to be in the position of selling highly sought after items. But how do you know which products are the ones that are in high demand?
You might not have realised it, but eBay itself has several ways for you to determine exactly what these items are! In fact eBay gives you four ways to do this.
Whilst this data is only available on ebay.com, depending on the categories in which you operate, the information may well be of interest no matter which eBay country site you use.
Items In Demand
In this part of Seller Central, you will find each of the main categories is listed. If you scroll down, you will see within each category area there is a heading of In Demand. If you click on this, you will see what are the most popular items currently within that particular category. To see the In Demand page, go to
http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/sellbycategory.html
Hot Items by Category Report
eBay produces a monthly report called the "Hot Items by Category" report. This report lists the fastest growing categories on eBay for the previous month. The explanation for what eBay considers "hot" can be hard to understand on first reading. The important matter is that the categories listed are ones where buyer demand for the items under those categories are growing fastest. This report is a PDF file. You can view it on your browser, or download it and open it with Adobe Reader. Go to
http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/whatshot.html and select "Hot Items by Category" from the menu on the left.
eBay Pulse
This is an area on eBay where you can find "a daily snapshot of current trends, hot picks, and cool stuff on eBay". With eBay Pulse you can get this information by category, or across eBay.com as a whole. Go to
http://pulse.ebay.com/ to see eBay Pulse in action.
Merchandising Calendar
eBay promotes specific categories on its home page each month. Savvy eBayers know that this home page exposure results in more interest in such categories. Fortunately, thanks to eBay's Merchandising Calendar, you can know in advance which categories are going to be featured in each month. Thus you can be prepared with appropriate auction items, ready to take advantage of the increased traffic in these categories. Go to
http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/calendar.html to view the current Merchandising Calendar.
I hope this insight into eBay's services helps in your selling.
About the author:
Brian McGregor is an internet entrepreneur specializing in leveraging the power of eBay. He is author of 'The eBay Formula' on how to sell successfully on eBay time after time. He is also publisher of the eBay Auction Newsletter - Subscribe free at
http://www.workwinners.com/Newsletter_archive.htm
