Did you know that eBay has been ranked the most favorite marketplace among online sellers? In this article, you will find out all the benefits of being a seller on eBay and how an eBay chrome extension can boost your online sales and beat the competition.
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Air that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie breathed sold for $530 on eBay….
Umm.. if you’re running out of good e-commerce business ideas then you can also take inspiration from our legends on eBay who are selling the most inconceivable things in the world like “a ‘ghost’ in a jar” to “the ‘meaning’ of life” on the platform!
Okay jokes apart, the point I’m trying to make here is that eBay is one of the best platforms for online sellers to conduct business. In fact, eBay is often preferred over Amazon by many marketplace sellers. This is because eBay does not restrict its sellers and provides them the freedom of selling virtually anything on the platform (with better profits!) According to a research, eBay was found to be the most popular online marketplace among sellers who ranked it on the following factors:
(i) Profitability
(ii) Customer Service
(iii) Communication
(iv) Ease of use
eBay is a site that started as a casual online auction platform in the 90s has grown into an e-marketplace giant today with almost 160 million active buyers worldwide! Still, when we think about eBay we might mistake it as a simple auction site that’s best for selling second-hand goods, but that’s just a fraction of what this site has to offer. In fact, 80% of goods listed on eBay are classified as “New” and with over 1.7 Billion active listings there’s clearly some serious business happening on the platform!
However, the above mentioned reasons clubbed with ease of entry and diversified offerings makes eBay a competitive platform for sellers. Beating the competition and managing your listings can seem overwhelming but not impossible, especially if you use a custom chrome extension to make your life easier! So in this blog I’ll tell you everything you need to know about eBay Chrome extensions and why it’s the best decision for your business!
Source - Statista
Benefits An eBay Extension Can Provide Your Business :
From collecting vintage vinyl records from that favorite seller
To
Buying the first electric guitar with our pocket-money from eBay
We as buyers already have a pretty good idea about the various benefits of the site which cannot be expressed monetarily. We have formed our own opinions and memories based on our personal experiences. However, thinking more practically in the business context, eBay can be the gold-mine for online marketplace sellers with the platform reporting a massive revenue of $2.6 billion last year! Advantages like hassle-free listing, a giant market, greater profits and ease of selling to international buyers are some of the most amazing benefits of selling on eBay. And you know what will complement these benefits like the cherry on top? A custom eBay Chrome extension that can fulfill your unique business requirements and save up your precious resources! So without further ado, let’s check out some of the benefits of using an eBay Chrome extension:
1. Monitor Your Listing Efficiently
If you operate an online store then I’m sure you can understand the pain of adding, updating and managing product listings on any platform. I mean just think about the hundreds of SKUs and associated product details that need to be maintained and updated regularly. And despite spending a significant amount of time and efforts on managing your listings properly, the scope of error still remains high. This is where an eBay Chrome extension can act as your savior in disguise! It can help you :
(i) Maintain all the details of your listings from a single point custom dashboard
(ii) Track the sales progress
(iii) Incorporate the information with your personal inventory
(iv) Integrate your dropshipping operations
(v) Allow real-time updation of all the data and more!
As a result, you will have greater control over your online store operations, manage it more strategically and save your time and valuable resources, and of course, minimize errors in the process! Thus you’ll not only save money but also increase your revenue by making better informed decisions!
For example, wouldn’t it be awesome if your eBay Chrome extension would be able to send you alerts when the stocks of your bestselling items are running low so that you can restock them before it leads to losing potent customers at “Out Of Stock” pop-up.?
2. Automate Your eBay Store
Did you know that your eBay Chrome extension can not only help you manage your online product listings efficiently, but also help you save your workforce’s time & effort by reducing repetitive manual tasks?
You can automate the monotonous and time-consuming tasks from your day-to-day operations like :
(i) Uploading bulk listings
(ii) Generating product descriptions
(iii) Editing and uploading images
(iv) Listing products under right categories
(v) Updating stock levels
(vi) Adjusting the prices and much more!
This can be made possible with impeccable logic and smart algorithms that will enable your custom eBay extension of tracking market demand & supply, and accordingly update product details regularly. But of course, these modifications will always stay within the limits you’ve input in the program. As a result, you’ll be able to save your time & resources and direct them towards more productive tasks.
For instance, imagine how convenient it would be if your warehouse stock levels would be integrated with your eBay store listings.. so whenever there’s any change in your inventory it would reflect in your product listings automatically!
3. Stay Ahead Of Your Competition
You’re not the only one aware of the several benefits of selling your products on eBay. Thousands of sellers are trying to compete for the buyer’s attention and as a result, there are more than 940,000 sellers using the “Promoted Listings” feature on eBay! Although this feature might get you some returns, but, it’s not nearly as effective as offering better deals than the rest to win over today’s smart consumers. So, just like the wise folks used to say, “Keep your friends close; but keep your enemies closer” - you need to keep close tabs on your competitors and strive to one-up them! But that does not mean you’ll keep scanning through their seller profile and all the listings manually, that’s impractical and nearly impossible. Instead, go for a eBay Chrome extension that will help you :
(i) Monitor all the details and significant activities of your competitors
(ii) Scrape and report essential data
(iii) Make automatic adjustments in your product listings to stay ahead of the competition
You can specify the data that you want to extract and even set the limits and conditions for any automatic adjustments, allowing you to monitor your profit margins and making sure your offerings are at par with the competition.
To give you an example, assume that you are an electronics seller on eBay and the prices of the products you sell keep fluctuating based on the market demand. So, would you stay glued to eBay all day to adjust your offerings? Well, don’t worry your eBay Chrome extension can be the loyal watch guard that will keep eyes on any fluctuations, notify you and automate required changes as well.
4. Successful Trend Analysis
By now we know that your eBay Chrome extension is capable of tracking and scraping data on both you and your competitor’s entire product portfolio. However, that’s not it, your extension is also capable of taking it forward by :
(i) Collecting and analyzing data from eBay to produce constructive reports for store managers.
(ii) You’ll be able to look at the bigger picture, analyze your own performance over a period of time against your competitors on various key performance metrics.
(iii) And you can always edit and customize the KPIs you want to target and streamline your operations accordingly to see measurable results.
This way you can get a clear idea of the popular products that are selling on the platform, get an estimate of the price the items are actually selling for and how much should you be charging for them by taking the average prices of similar products that have been sold successfully in the past. This puts you in an offensive position rather than playing in the defense!
For example, if you’re an international clothing seller shipping products worldwide then it would be extremely helpful to know what styles of clothing are most popular in your target markets so that you can maintain complementary stocks in the respective warehouses. Like in winters, you might find that puffed parkas are more popular among Canadians whereas woolen camel coats are preferred by New Yorkers!
So take your time and find a well experienced software development company that can deliver tailored solutions suited to your unique requirements.
‘Must-have’ Features To Include In Your eBay Chrome Extension :
Next, let's take a quick look at the 'must-have' features for your eBay Chrome extension since you've reviewed all the justifications and supporting information for choosing it, shall we?
(a) Price Tracking
The ability to track the prices offered by your competitors and being receptive to any changes should be a priority for your eBay Chrome extension. As we all know that competitive pricing is one of the biggest factors behind gaining a larger customer base.
(b) Automating Store Management
Automating important yet time-consuming tasks related to maintaining your eBay product listings definitely makes it a ‘must-have’ feature for your eBay Chrome extension. This way you can always maintain healthy stock levels and eliminate any scope of error.
(c) Scraping Data
One of the most sought after features for any online business these days is the ability to scrape data on your competitors' performance. This will enable you to extract specific data on the KPIs you wish to measure and optimize your operations for best results.
(d) Export Your Performance Data
Your eBay Chrome extension should also have the feature to extract and export data from your own product portfolio on the website and allow you to download it in an easily processable format like CSV or XLSX. You can analyze this data to draw strategic conclusions and optimize your product portfolio.
(e) Drawing Comparisons
When you measure your own store’s extracted information against the scraped data from your competitors, you’ll be able to gain some extremely valuable insights and fine-tune your offerings. This will help you gain more customers and also generate more revenue!
(f) Integrating Your Dropshipping Store
Next, if you are running a dropshipping operation on eBay then your Chrome extension should have the ability to integrate your eBay store with your supplier’s website or inventory management system. This will allow you to keep your inventory revised and share real-time updates with your partner.
(g) Tracking Customer Activities
Simply tracking your competitor’s performance on eBay is not sufficient, your eBay extension should also be able to monitor your customer’s behavior like keeping track of the items they are purchasing or bidding on, sellers they like and their demographics as well. This way you can improve your offerings based on your consumer’s preferences.
(h) A Comprehensive Dashboard
All the store-related operations and information collected by your eBay Chrome extension should be made available to you in an easy-to-use and intuitive dashboard. With a quick look you’ll be able to keep track of all the daily sales, activities, and your KPIs.
(i) eBay Profile Analysis
Sellers with stronger profiles are always preferred and usually do well on eBay and you shouldn’t ignore this component. It’s important to keep an eye on you and your competitor’s profile metrics like ratings, number of reviews, blue star status, number of items sold, product portfolio etc. Studying and improving your profile standards will prove to be extremely beneficial in the long run.
(j) Integration With Your Central Inventory
Integrating your eBay store with your central warehouse inventory will ensure seamless operations and updated stock levels at all times along with saving significant amounts of time and manual labor, thus rendering it as a ‘must-have’ feature for your eBay Chrome extension.
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How Much Does It Cost To Build An eBay Chrome Extension?
It’s important to make it clear that the cost of developing an eBay Chrome extension can vary significantly depending on your particular needs and the functionalities you wish to include in it. I've already discussed these features and components that could be included in your eBay extension that have a big impact on the price of development. And here are some of the major variables that affect the cost of developing your eBay Chrome extension:
- The number and type of features you want to include in your software
- The software framework and logical complexity
- The timeline of the project
There are several more factors that will affect the cost of development, however, to give you a ballpark figure of developing an eBay Chrome extension would be around $10 to $30K and can go higher if you want a more sophisticated and feature-rich product. The best way to get the most accurate estimate would be to sit with your development team and chalk out the entire framework and components to be included in your extension, remember to be very specific and address all your pain points and business requirements in great detail.
Here's a generic guide on how to find developers that may ease the process for you and help you find the right team!
Why Is Developing Your eBay Extension With BinaryFolks A Good Idea?
If you are in search of an experienced eBay extension development team to pace up your business, BinaryFolks can help you out. Our skilled & experienced software developers have hands-on expertise in delivering a wide range of projects for clients from various industries. Unleash every inch of potential your eBay Chrome extension could possibly have and let BinaryFolks uplift the growth graph for your business. Here's what to expect if developing your eBay Chrome extension with BinaryFolks :
Driven by ex-engineers from Google, Amazon & Salesforce
101% Value For Money (+1 for Our Complimentary Consultation before You Spend Your 1st Dollar!)
Reviews That You Can Verify!
Safeguarded Business With An NDA
Out-Of-The-Box Innovations
Eye For Details
Questions Galore (Until Your Requirement & Our Understanding are mirror copies!)
Insight-Rich Scope Enhancement
Intense Domain Expertise
Close-knit feedback loop
Conclusion
I hope you’ve got a better understanding about eBay extensions and the various benefits they can impart to your business. So, what do you think? Is it the right decision for your business?
Or, do you have more questions?
Talk to our software experts who have built multiple cutting-edge eBay Chrome extensions and start planning now!
Let’s Plan Your eBay Chrome Extension!
