AuctionCut

1n 1999 Dan Wilson was part of the team that founded eBay in the UK & worked with eBay until last year. Now a freelance consultant, Dan has also established himself as a successful eBay author with his best selling book "Making Serious Money on eBay UK". AuctionCUT are pleased to interview Dan Wilson as part of the 6 Question Interview series.

1) What is the best single thing you can do, to ensure you succeed on eBay when selling?

Dan Wilson: Your Item Title is the most important aspect of your listing and ensuring it’s crammed with relevant keywords to attract searchers is critical. It boils down to the simple fact: if someone searches for a word and that word isn’t in your title, you probably won’t be found. So taking the time to craft your title, understand what people are looking for and optimising your titles over time is critical.


2) What would you describe as the best hidden feature of eBay?

Dan Wilson: Boring, but true: the reports and marketplace intelligence tools eBay provides are underuse but can transform a seller’s success. Whether it’s understanding which of your Item Titles work best, what time of day works best for you or your best performing lines, the Shops reporting tool should be the centre of an eBay seller’s world. The Marketplace Research tool is also a vital tool to help you understand the trends and developments on eBay.


3) If you was in charge of eBay for one day, what changes would you make?

Dan Wilson: I don’t think one day would be enough. ;o) But, two things I’d look at would be the finding experience and making eBay more fun. eBay has lagged in making it easy for buyers to find what they want to buy and that’s a problem when you have so many listings. An overhaul of search, browse and other ways of finding are critical. I also feel that the fun aspect of shopping has been neglected on eBay. I constantly talk to people who use eBay and they always say they like eBay because it’s different, fun or that you can find things on eBay that you can’t find anywhere else. Yet eBay itself, has a rather fusty, dull and mechanical approach onsite and with it’s marketing. I’d bring more of crazy stuff to the fore, be more fun, encourage serendipity and be a place to shop unlike anywhere else rather than trying to be just another ecommerce destination.


4) What do you predict is next for eBay? Will they get bigger. or do you see any genuine competitors emerging?

Dan Wilson: eBay continues to grow at a good pace. I’d look to two areas of development. I think eBay realizes that more intuitive, tailored shopping experiences are necessary to keep the momentum up. These could include better discoverability, ways of shopping as well as a continued focus on auction. eBay has also been slow on the uptake when it comes to social media and networking we’re seeing them start to embrace it.

I don’t think we’ll see a single behemoth challenger to eBay (unless Google really takes eBay on) but we are seeing niche markets emerge such as http://www.etsy.com/. You can’t out-eBay eBay but eBay’s one-size fits all approach doesn’t necessarily suit everyone.

5) What's next for Dan Wilson?

Dan Wilson: I left eBay almost exactly a year ago and have never been busier. I’m currently working on a number of projects. I’m working with a company called vzaar.com that makes adding video to your eBay sales very easy. I think video on eBay will be the buzz on eBay in 2008. I’m writing another book and also finding time to chill out after a very busy and stressful year.

6 Any other advice for AuctionCUT users getting the most out of eBay?

Dan Wilson: Be inventive and take risks. You have to stand out from the crowd on eBay so taking the time to build an eBay personality is worth it. Being personal on eBay means building trust with buyers and trust is the foundation of eBay.

You can find Dan Wilsons blog at: http://www.wilsondan.co.uk/ & his eBay video service at: http://www.vzaar.com/

Just bumping this this thread up again, as Dan has recently published an extensive series of very useful articles on his blog. Each day covered a different aspect of using eBay, and threw a lot of new ideas into a lot of melting pots.

It's well worth spending an hour or so digesting.

http://www.wilsondan.co.uk/category/ebay-tips-2008/

Hi Mark,
Nice post about eBay. Thanks for posting