Usedcarsalesman has had an eBay account forever, but he’s always been a buyer, never a seller. However, a couple of weeks ago, ‘Used’ was going through the gear at his place and realized that there were three personal items that he didn’t need and that were taking up space. Since ‘Used’ had some extra cardboard Amazon boxes sitting around, he thought, “why not use the boxes and sell the gear he wasn’t using on Ebay? “ (Note: Usedcarsalesman has recently been informed that Craigslist is a free, no-auction alternative to Ebay and is actually a pretty effective way to move merchandise, too :).
So Usedcarsalesman went through the process of cleaning up the three items, taking photos, setting prices, and writing the “sales copy” for each. The “sales copy” or the eBay Seller’s “Description” category was all important for the sale of each item. There 'Used' would pitch the merits of the product, its advantages vs. the competition’s product, and its value for the money, thus hopefully helping to win the buyer to purchase his items. And, since he couldn’t really "qualify" the buyers on eBay, 'Used' had to resort to covering every angle in writin, as simply as possible, in the Description category.
However, after adding the Description and photos to each of the three items that he listed, Usedcarsalesman felt like there was something missing from his "sales presentation" for his three listings . Yes, there was impressive sales-oriented wording, convincing arguments, pictures of the item from all angles. But, there was no video with a person shown in action with the item, no person communicating its merits, and none of the smiles, reassurance, personality that you typically get from…well…people selling stuff at your local retail store. Basically, it was just all words and still photos.
So Usedcarsalesman went through the process of cleaning up the three items, taking photos, setting prices, and writing the “sales copy” for each. The “sales copy” or the eBay Seller’s “Description” category was all important for the sale of each item. There 'Used' would pitch the merits of the product, its advantages vs. the competition’s product, and its value for the money, thus hopefully helping to win the buyer to purchase his items. And, since he couldn’t really "qualify" the buyers on eBay, 'Used' had to resort to covering every angle in writin, as simply as possible, in the Description category.
However, after adding the Description and photos to each of the three items that he listed, Usedcarsalesman felt like there was something missing from his "sales presentation" for his three listings . Yes, there was impressive sales-oriented wording, convincing arguments, pictures of the item from all angles. But, there was no video with a person shown in action with the item, no person communicating its merits, and none of the smiles, reassurance, personality that you typically get from…well…people selling stuff at your local retail store. Basically, it was just all words and still photos.
Usedcarsalesman did, ultimately, sell his three items on Ebay with words and photos alone, but he kind of felt a little empty afterward. Ebay seemed like a sales venue that really couldn't make use of 'Used's' old-school, retail, face-to-face presentational skills. Would Usedcarsalesman’s skills have any future in the on-line world? He was worried.
So after the items were sold, Usedcarsalesman looked at the eBay Policy regarding the inclusion of video links to an item up for Auction -- video being a way for 'Used' to employ his retail sales skills to win buyers on eBay. Nothing was mentioned in the "eBay Policy about links to video, only to photos. Basically, it appeared to 'Used' that if one were to put an item up for auction and place a video link in its Description, this video link would pass eBay scrutiny. Of course this was only if the video link, say of the item in use by 'Used' or the item’s merits being discussed by 'Used,' fell within the basic boundaries of eBay’s policy on photos:
“Sellers may include links to photos of the item for sale. The photo pages may also contain discrete links to other pages that offer items for sale outside-of-eBay, but may not contain descriptions of or links to specific items on other sites.”
Usedcarsalesman interpreted this as meaning that you could likely shoot video of a person using your item, selling your item, handling your item, etc. But, when you got into including video of specific items that you might have for sale on say, Craig’sList, then you’d probably encounter a gripe/delist from EBay. Bottom line was that it looked like that, if he sold on eBay and employed video links, Usedcarsalesman might have a place for his old-school, retail presentational sales skills in the on-line world after-all – they would just be in the flashier, TV-born QVC, HSN style.
But, had the video link thing been done on eBay, yet? Usedcarsalesman thought that it probably had to by now, especially since free Video-hosting services like YouTube.com and GoogleVideo really started to grab attention this year. But, “Was anybody using YouTube or GoogleVideo to host video involving items being sold on EBay,” Usedcarsalesman wondered.
So after the items were sold, Usedcarsalesman looked at the eBay Policy regarding the inclusion of video links to an item up for Auction -- video being a way for 'Used' to employ his retail sales skills to win buyers on eBay. Nothing was mentioned in the "eBay Policy about links to video, only to photos. Basically, it appeared to 'Used' that if one were to put an item up for auction and place a video link in its Description, this video link would pass eBay scrutiny. Of course this was only if the video link, say of the item in use by 'Used' or the item’s merits being discussed by 'Used,' fell within the basic boundaries of eBay’s policy on photos:
“Sellers may include links to photos of the item for sale. The photo pages may also contain discrete links to other pages that offer items for sale outside-of-eBay, but may not contain descriptions of or links to specific items on other sites.”
Usedcarsalesman interpreted this as meaning that you could likely shoot video of a person using your item, selling your item, handling your item, etc. But, when you got into including video of specific items that you might have for sale on say, Craig’sList, then you’d probably encounter a gripe/delist from EBay. Bottom line was that it looked like that, if he sold on eBay and employed video links, Usedcarsalesman might have a place for his old-school, retail presentational sales skills in the on-line world after-all – they would just be in the flashier, TV-born QVC, HSN style.
But, had the video link thing been done on eBay, yet? Usedcarsalesman thought that it probably had to by now, especially since free Video-hosting services like YouTube.com and GoogleVideo really started to grab attention this year. But, “Was anybody using YouTube or GoogleVideo to host video involving items being sold on EBay,” Usedcarsalesman wondered.
Sure enough, another blogger, marketingheadhunter.com, had already noticed that there were and this was in April, 2006, about 5 months ago. Marketing Headhunter’s YouTube link in the above URL only showed somebody using a finger to rotate a watch seated in its case – no salesmanship, no QVC style demos, etc. But, the video gave ‘Used’ an idea of what was likely to be, in some circles, a fast growing trend on EBay – QVC-styled video salesmanship. In fact, ‘Used’ even began to see the potential for the best of the Sell-It-On-Ebay stores to start evolving in to micro-QVC’s, each with its own squad of video sales professionals and video production team. Interesting stuff!
