With 132 million active buyers (as of 2023), eBay stands as one of the largest online marketplaces for both B2C and C2C transactions. In such a competitive eCommerce environment, a peculiar brand image becomes imperative. But how does one establish a reputation that embodies their brand’s ethos and speaks directly to their target audience? This post will assist in crafting a unique brand image, enabling small businesses to attract more customers amidst the vast array of eBay listings.
Strategies to position your brand on eBay
By strategizing correctly for your branding on eCommerce platforms like eBay, you can witness your business grow. So, we are sharing some ways to help position your brand better:
Define your brand
Identify what your brand stands for and the actions you’re taking to abide by those principles. This understanding goes beyond merely selling a product or service and enables you to cultivate more meaningful connections with your target audience. It is only through clarity of thought, your target market, and what you offer that you can define values and forge a distinctive brand image.
Customize your eBay store
eBay offers a highly customizable storefront homepage with various elements that can be tailored to align with your brand’s message and aesthetics. This includes
- Selecting a relevant theme for your store (fashion, academic, sports, etc.): The chosen theme must accurately reflect your business. So, opt for a theme that effectively communicates it.
- Customizing store categories (such as men’s clothing, women’s fashion, etc.): eBay provides the flexibility to tailor shop categories (in the bottom left-hand menu) to ensure conformity with your brand.
- Using featured listings: By selecting the highest-grade items for your featured list, you can create a positive brand perception, positioning it as a trusted and sought-after brand in the marketplace. Additionally, being featured exposes your products to larger audiences, thereby increasing brand awareness.
- Tailoring design elements: Tailor the design elements, such as the shop logo, description, search box, buttons, etc., to reflect your brand’s visual identity. Maintain consistency with the chosen color theme, typography, tone, etc. This ensures visual cohesiveness in your storefront’s appeal, bolstering brand image.
Optimize your product photos to align with your brand’s image
As per eBay’s research, listings with superior and consistently high-quality photographs are 5% more likely to result in sales. Clear, decluttered, and sharp product photos make it easier for potential customers to discern your listing. Therefore, maintain a consistent eBay photo editing style to ensure visual cohesiveness across all your listings by
- Using a plain or neutral background to convey a professional appearance.
- Standardizing lighting adjustments (shadows, reflections, and hot spots) for each product category.
- Using high-resolution images to enable eBay’s Gallery Plus option for more enhanced image hosting, supporting files up to 7MB.
- Ensuring the product takes center stage, occupying up to 80-90% of the entire frame.
- Addressing perspective distortions, eliminating blemishes, and capturing product details from multiple angles.
Consider the Bvlgari store on eBay. It has a specific style of hosting photos – neutral yet contrasting backgrounds and near-similar lighting adjustments for visual consistency.
Source: eBay
Engaging a reputed eBay photo editing service provider can help you create a visually consistent storefront. They can also streamline all the above-mentioned editing tasks and enhance your existing product photos to improve rankings within eBay listings.
Use custom packaging
Design and tailor your packaging to reflect your brand’s visual identity. An effective approach is to incorporate brand logos. Such visual markers serve as identifiers and reinforce brand recognition. Furthermore, using certain symbols, colors, shapes, typography, brand messaging, etc., fosters a long-lasting first impression and a visual appeal that draws attention. For instance, if you have an eco-friendly brand, relevant package markings can accentuate your commitment to sustainability. This enables you to convey a distinctive value proposition even before the customer uses the product.
Add product identifiers – brand, GTIN, and MPN (if provided)
If your listed items are associated with Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) or Manufacturer Part Numbers (MPNs), incorporate them as product identifiers wherever feasible. Additionally, if you are the manufacturer, it’s imperative to allocate GTINs for all your products. These identifiers help distinguish your eBay listings and facilitate mapping with user search queries, ensuring brand protection and establishing credibility. Moreover, they enable your products to feature on external product comparison websites and are instrumental in sourcing customer reviews.
Source: KalDrop
Optimize your eBay listings
Optimize your listings for higher ranking and enhanced visibility. eBay’s Best Match algorithm ensures that all user search queries yield the most relevant listings based on factors such as search terms, popularity, listing description, your track record as a seller, presence of product identifiers, etc.
Enhanced visibility increases the chances of your product reaching more potential customers.
However, maintaining this visibility and achieving higher ranks is an extensive and ongoing process. Consider opting for eBay listing optimization services to get effective outcomes. These service providers offer comprehensive assistance in managing all aspects of your eBay listings, including listing optimization, auction management, and image hosting.
Communicate intentionally and utilize feedback
Communicate efficiently and appropriately, ensuring that messages or emails are only sent when necessary. Further, tailor your responses to each inquiry. Whether addressing order status, shipping details, or any other relevant information, proactive communication makes your customers feel at ease, enhancing your credibility. Moreover, cultivate a practice of collecting and utilizing consumer feedback. This information facilitates continuous improvement, ultimately enhancing service quality.
The takeaway
Establishing an identity that reflects your ethos and resonates with your target audience can pose challenges on a vast business platform such as eBay. However, incorporating the strategies mentioned above enables you to distinguish yourself from competitors and establish a distinctive brand identity that appeals to a larger audience. If you need assistance with this, consider collaborating with an eBay listing company for comprehensive listing management services.
Author Bio- Sophie Hayes is an eCommerce consultant and a keen blogger, currently working at Team4eCom. With over 11 years of experience in the industry, she specializes in topics revolving around the eCommerce domain, such as online marketing, eCommerce PPC, store optimization, listing optimization, and product listing. Moreover, she has a great knowledge of the leading eCommerce platforms and marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Target, and others. She incorporates this understanding in her write-ups to help online retailers and businesses follow the best practices, take their business to new heights, and gain a grounded footing in the market.
