Covering auctions, collectibles and marketplace selling.

Mon July 30 2012 10:26:31 |
The Color Red, a Sales Booster? And Other Tricks of the TradeBy: Julia Wilkinson |
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We're in the traditional "summer slump" season for online sellers, where we wait out lackluster sales for the ramping up of back-to-school-meets-the-holidays-starting-with-Halloween, so anything about boosting sales catches my eye. So when I saw the story about a study showing that using the color red in your online listings can boost your sales, I was intrigued but also skeptical.The bold color makes eBay shoppers bid higher when they’re competing with other bidders, according to the study from the Journal of Consumer Research. Why? A red background color "induces aggression through a feeling of arousal and it increases aggression relative to blue or gray backgrounds,” the study says, which."causes individuals to make higher bids in auctions." It "signals vigor and dominance." However, if the eBay shopper is negotiating with the seller, presumably as in a "Make Offer" scenario, red can have an opposite effect, making shoppers actually lower their offers. The article goes on to cite other "tricks of the trade" some sellers use to increase sales, such as listings that end on a Sunday night. I know some use professional light boxes for their photos; some pack their titles with every conceivable word, including likely misspellings; and some start auctions at $0.99 to incite the bidding (whether that last strategy still works these days is a matter of debate). Those strategies make sense to me, but what about this less-believable color red thing? Do you buy it? Will you try it in your listings? Whether or not you go with a red background in your listings, I can tell you what my "pet peeves" are when I shop online: photos of an item taken on the floor, fuzzy photos, not enough photos, and those minimalist descriptions that tell you virtually nothing about the item itself, but are all about the seller's policies. What do you think of this "color red" strategy, and do you use any "listing tricks" you care to share? What are your own pet peeves when shopping other people's listings? Post a comment here! |
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Comments (18) | Permalink |
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by: Digmen1 |
Mon Jul 30 20:54:53 2012 |
I used to design clothes. |
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by: Digmen1 |
Mon Jul 30 20:56:53 2012 |
Yes I often wonder if a fancy, long listing sells more than a short plain listing. |
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Mon Jul 30 22:42:22 2012 |
Google is your friend! |
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