Business strategies: using ebay to detect sales trends

By searching ebay you can detect sales trends and seasonal patterns for your small or home based business for free.
Detecting sales trends is an important part of any business whether large or small. Large corporations have entire departments devoted to gathering sales trend data and spend thousands of dollars per year on this function. Most small and home based businesses have precious few dollars for gathering this data. One very effective way for small businesses to track sales trends is through E-bay. Even if you do not intend on selling your products or services on E-bay this data can be applied to your business. By searching and browsing on E-bay you can gather sales trend data at absolutely no cost.

Almost any product or service that your business markets has been put up for auction on E-bay. Thousands of different items are sold every day on E-bay creating a large database for you to access. Much can be learned about current sales trends by examining the data in completed auctions. It is better to study completed auctions versus current ones. Auctions that have ended tell you exactly which items sold and which did not, as well as the final price paid. You do not have to be a registered E-bay user to look at current auctions. However to view completed auctions you have to register with E-bay, which is free.

To search for your items of interest in completed auctions go to the E-bay web site (www.ebay.com). Click on the search button at the top of the page, then click on the "more search options" button. Here you will be able to search completed auctions by using keywords that pertain to your business. To get the best results from a search think carefully of all the words that could describe your type of merchandise or service. Add and remove the letter s from your items to get the most hits. Browsing current auctions by the categories where your merchandise would most likely be listed can assist you in choosing keywords. This can be done from E-bay's home page. Additional keywords that you may not have considered can be found in this manner. Using the right keywords will give you the most beneficial data when you search the completed auctions. All auctions that have ended in the last two weeks can be viewed.

There are several ways to collect sales trend data from a search of completed auctions. Look through the list of the search results to see which items actually sold and which did not. This can be done quickly by checking to see which items had bids and therefore sold. This is an excellent source for what items are popular and selling, and which are not. Compare items from these two groups to find patterns indicating what makes an item sell. If you click on a sold auction item you will see the final sale price and number of bids. The higher the number of bids, generally the more popular the item and the higher the final price. The final sale prices give an indication of what people are willing to pay for a particular item. Compare similar items that have sold to look for ideas and patterns of what brings a higher price for the merchandise you are studying. However keep in mind E-bay is considered a place for bargains and people expect to pay below retail in general.

E-bay can also indicate what general styles are currently popular. Checking several categories of merchandise different from your own can reveal trends. Viewing home décor items or even printed T-shirts will tell you what styles and designs are currently selling. For example grapes and Italian landscapes were very popular for awhile. These types of designs appeared on many home décor items such as paintings, kitchen accessories, plates, glasses, note cards, etc. By checking the completed auctions regularly you can detect these trends as they become popular and when they begin to fall off. Seasonal trends can be tracked in this manner also. An example is winter holiday items do not sell well in June, but by September their sales pick up. This type of information will help you plan for slow and busy periods with your own business.

E-bay can offer your business good indicators of sales trends and seasonal patterns without cost. Monitoring the completed auctions on a monthly basis will allow you to apply this information to your business regardless of where you sell, or your type of products and services.