eBay Image Search Helps Shoppers Find Gifts
Just a few months back, eBay released its Image Search feature after two years of development to the public. We were pretty impressed with this feature, as out of the box it worked very well and one could easily see the potential.
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Image Search was also a new feature that moved the goal post for small businesses. Before eBay, there were a few trials by individual websites, including Amazon, but none even came close to matching eBay’s Image Search abilities.
eBay brought a usable version to everyday sellers and small businesses.
All a seller had to do is make sure the listing images were crisp and clean and basic item specifics information was included to help filter searches.
Simple best practices and guidelines should allow any seller to improve conversions on their eBay listings for Image Search searches.
Holiday Season Image Searches
How well did image search do over the holidays? Let’s look at some fun facts the company provided:
1. Top Items Searched – The most searched items, and it should come at no real surprise, were fashion items. Trendy sneakers, women’s strappy sandals, and women’s boots were at the top of the list. eBay also saw a lot of jewelry searches, including searches for diamond rings and hard-to-describe statement necklaces.
2. Comparison Shopping – eBay found that many shoppers used the app inside of stores and tried to comparison shop products found at a retail store with items that are online. In a store, shoppers used the app to instantly take an image and upload it to the site to check pricing and features.
3. Using Screenshots to Image Search – Browsing on fashion and lifestyle blogs provided shoppers inspiration for holiday gifts and the easiest way to shop on eBay was to take a screenshot and upload it to eBay. Maybe this should be a hint that more blogs should use Find It On eBay and even collect some referral income for their sites.
4. Saturday the Highest Day for Image Searches – Small Business Saturday, or the Saturday after Thanksgiving, saw the highest volume of image searches. Presumably, with so many people out shopping, the instant comparison shopping in point #2 came into play.
5. Top Platform – iOS was the most popular platform for using Image Search. Despite the fact there are more Android devices in circulation, it seems iOS users more likely adapt innovative ideas.
Clean images are a crucial element for sellers to experience high conversion rates with Image Search. Did you do anything to improve the quality of your images? Drop us a line in the comments section below.
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Richard Meldner
Richard is co-founder of eSeller365. He has over 17 years of experience on eBay which includes tens of thousands of sales to buyers in over 100 countries and even has experience with eBay’s VeRO program enforcing intellectual property rights for a former employer. And for about two years Richard sold products on Amazon using Amazon FBA in the US.
To “relax” from the daily business grind, for a few weekends a year, he also works for IMSA as a professional race official.