eBay Listing Design Affects Sales and Conversion
Can changing your listing design really help sales that much? Isn’t it all about a seller’s feedback and pricing? Maybe you’re thinking, “It’s just a design… I don’t need one, or I could just use the same ones other people are using.” We don’t agree! The more you can stand out as unique, and the more you can leave a positive and memorable impression, the more likely you are to sell more. You’ll also generate repeat business from people who remember who you are and can find you again or tell a friend about you. That’s much better than your buyer telling her friend that she “got it from some guy on eBay.” We want her to say your name!
One of our clients ran some tests in 2008 to see how effective JUST changing the listing design would be. The results were tremendous. Fees went down, sales went up, sales were made faster, and items that hadn’t sold “in a coon’s age” suddenly were selling. Read the case study here.
Survey Says… Listing Design Matters
Years ago, we ran a survey asking eBayers to look at real screen shots of eBay listings. We gave them positive words, and asked them to rate those listings from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Respondents also rated 1 to 5 on how likely they’d be to buy from that seller if they were interested in the item for sale. We didn’t just ask people how the listing looked to them. We tried to get underneath that and ask emotional questions… like do you find this seller to be trustworthy? A buyer can’t really know how trustworthy or friendly a seller is just from the listing’s design, but as you will see from our results, they do make judgments based on how the listing looks.
Here are our results. Remember that an average score of 3 is neutral. Anything under 3 leans towards people disagreeing and anything over 3 leans towards people agreeing. The lower the number, the more negatively people felt, and the higher the number, the more positively people felt. Click on each listing to see the full screen shot the survey respondents saw. There was a special trick in the survey, which we’ll reveal in the 5th listing.
| Listing #1 | |||||||||||||||||
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This listing was literally just text with no design. Note the low scores, how unlikely the shopper is to become a buyer, and how low the scores are for “easy to read.” You thought text only might make it easy to read? Your shoppers disagree!
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| Listing #2 | |||||||||||||||||
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This listing had some HTML, but still no real design. A little HTML can be a dangerous thing!  Scores for this one are still low with none of the positive terms even getting a “neutral” response on average. You thought more HTML and some text color changes would make people like your listing more? “Attractive” is just below “slightly disagree.” Shoppers are still unlikely to buy.
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| Listing #3 | |||||||||||||||||
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This listing is for a seller who is evidently one of the biggest on eBay. They have a design, but it looks like many other designs around eBay. It has a small logo, but a cookie cutter layout with links across the top and down the left side. You may not be likely to remember who this seller is because it’s not strongly branded. It’s more memorable than the earlier listings, but isn’t terrifically unique. However, it is clean and organized without any of the “wacky” HTML seen in listing #2. Shoppers are more likely to buy from this listing than the above two.
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| Listing #4 | |||||||||||||||||
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This listing scored noticeably higher than the previous one. Everything is certainly above neutral with most of the average scores between between “slightly agree” and “strongly agree.” Shoppers are more likely to convert into buyers. We designed this listing.
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| Listing #5 | |||||||||||||||||
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This listing scored fantastically, and why shouldn’t it? It’s unique, it’s easy to read, it’s attractive and compelling. It’s memorable. We designed this listing too.
So what’s the trick? This listing is for the same item sold by the same seller as listing #1. You might say that listing #1 was their “before” and this listing is the “after.” That means that just from the difference in the design, layout, and special As Was elements that we put into a listing template, the potential for sales went way up. Shoppers felt more trust and thought the seller was friendlier, which shows that the design can affect how the shopper feels about you. They found the listing to be way more unique, attractive, memorable, compelling, and easy to read. They were much more likely to buy from this listing whereas they barely wanted to buy from the first listing. |
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That means that listing design does matter. It can make people trust you more and think that you are a friendlier and more experienced eBay seller. It can make your business stand out, lead to more sales, and lead to repeat customers who spread the word. How much is it worth to you for shoppers to become buyers and then come back again or tell friends about you? How much would you pay for a listing that not only sold your item but sold people on you?
Let’s say you are opening a pizza place in a town that already has 2 pizza places. Should you be the pizza place with folding chairs, plain tables, no decorations, and a cardboard sign that you made with a marker? Or will you buy a professional sign? Restaurant chairs and tables? Play music? Print decorated pizza boxes? You’d probably spend the time and money dressing up the place because ambience means something, and you need to stand out from those other two places in town. You won’t be competing on price and taste alone. The look helps create the feeling and experience, and that’s the same thing our templates do.
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