Auctioneers of the modern era are posed with multimedia challenges they’ve never been forced to deal with in the past. A poorly laid-out website or confusing product image can be the difference between making the sale and losing business. In this quick tutorial you’ll learn the basics for writing effective product titles and descriptions, and how to take quality photos of the items you are selling.

Product Titles and Descriptions

The descriptions you put forth of your products play a major role in the bidder’s purchasing decision when they are unable to physically see or touch a product for themselves. If they inquire via email about the product, not only should you be sure to email them back promptly, but you should go above and beyond what is required of you based on their question. If they need clarity on something, do not leave your description lacking. Your extra attention to detail will be remembered by the bidder and, as such, leave open the possibility of spreading good word about your business.

Titles should be as descriptive but short and snappy as possible, leaving nothing desired on the part of the bidder. Additionally, your initial product description should show clarity in shipping and various extra charges – don’t leave anything open-ended. You want your readers to trust you as a professional; your credibility will come along with how well the overall description is written, as well as the quality of the information provided.

Photographs

No, as an auctioneer you are not required to be a professional photographer or own an elaborate camera (a simple digital camera should do just fine). You are, however, expected to be able to take quality and visually appealing photographs of your products. When taking your pictures, consider what you would look for in a photograph as a consumer. Pictures should not be blurry, should be (ideally) taken in natural lighting and should be taken from a close enough distance so that viewers can assess the intricacies of a product. Do not use the zoom feature if it is not necessary, as it tends to distort or blur the image quality.

When finally uploading the images, make your site’s layout is conducive to your users. Do not upload large image files or small thumbnail images; these will only frustrate users who do not have the Internet connections to quickly open these files or, in the case of a thumbnail, who just want a bigger view of the product. Also, take into consideration what is included in the background of your photo. None of the photos you take should look like they were “home taken” pictures; these should be photos with plain backdrops or specifically setup to a fit a theme.

Following these simple tips can help make sure you’re appealing to your potential online customer base as much as possible.

Photo Credit: Stéfan

The number one reason, is that consumers who search tend to convert at a higher rate. So if you get more people to search, you can get more people to buy…

Here is a snapshot from Google Analytics, where you can measure the difference in conversion rate by visitors who search and those who don’t.

You can find this report under: Content –> Site Search –> Usage. Note: This section will only be visible if you set up your Google Analytics account to track site search.

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A great opportunity for revenue growth and an easy way to extract the highest return on ad spend is by increasing the value of each order by a small percentage. This can be accomplished by promoting cross sells and up sells during checkout.

There are a couple of ways to do this, you can either manually set up cross sells in your ecommerce system or you can outsource personalized recommendations to a company like MyBuys or Certona.

In-House/Manual Recommendations

Most shopping cart/ecommerce systems will allow you to add related items to each product. Promoting cross sells manually can also be great if you have the product knowledge and know exactly what to recommend. Although this is a manual process, it is great for offering recommendations for smaller ecommerce sites that can’t afford to outsource recommendations.

Third-Party Recommendations

If you have a large ecommerce site with thousands of SKUs, it is very hard to manually recommend related products on a per product basis. By using a third party partner to generate recommendations from your aggregate customer purchase history, you can make this process much easier and more intelligent.

Most third party recommendation providers work off of a percentage based commission model. You would pay a commission on all items purchased specifically from their recommendation engine.

Help your customers trust you by displaying logos and badges of third part services that you work with.
If your site is relatively new, chances are people are not familiar with your brand and have no reason to trust you. If you deal with or are certified by brands that people know and trust, display their logo prominently on your site.

Most shopping engines offer their logo for use on retail sites. Anyone who uses these sites regularly will feel slightly more comfortable with placing an order on your site when they see it. If you accept PayPal, Google Checkout, BillMeLater or accept payments through any other trusted channel, display that logo too.

Consumers need to feel like they can trust you. Tell them why they can trust you.

Landing Pages

If your landing page is selling products from a specific brand, you will want to include the brand name in a large typeface, and specific reasons to shop by you (i.e. Authorized Dealer, 110% Low Price Guarantee, Quick Shipping, Free Shipping etc…).

If your landing page is selling a specific product you should display the product name and the price prominently. The product image should be large and clear with the ability to zoom in for bonus points. The add to cart button should be very big and above the fold. Colors make a big difference as well, generally green and yellow work well but feel free to test different colors.

Good vs Bad

Good: B&H Photo Video Product Landing Page

Bad: Where Is The 'Add To Cart' Button?

One of the many ways to boost your conversion rate is by simplifying your checkout process. Here are some ideas.

Guest Checkout

If you don’t have the ability for a consumer to checkout without registering for your site, you’ll want to think about setting it up. Some consumers are more likely to make a purchase if they don’t have to sign up and register. If gives the feeling of being in the express checkout lane. Zoom Zoom.

One Page Checkout

Consolidate pages, try to fit your complete checkout flow into one or two pages. The fewer clicks, the fewer people drop out of the flow.

Vital Information

Try to remove all unnecessary questions from your checkout process. Only ask for information pertaining to the purchase (i.e. billing and shipping address), skip all the “where did you come from” and “where are you going” type of questions.

With any ecommerce site there are a lot of variables that can contribute to the conversion rate. Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your site.

Speed

Page load times are very important. We live in a very fast paced world. If your pages take too long to load people will leave before the page is even done.

Landing Page

Ensure that your landing pages are highly relevant to your visitors. Make sure that your site is easy to navigate with as few clicks as possible. Always try to show pertinent information above the fold.

Call To Action

Always make sure that your call to action (i.e. Add To Cart, Buy Now buttons) are high enough on the page that it can be seen as soon as the page loads without scrolling down.

Trust

People need to be able to trust you. Display your approval seals where they will be visible right away. You can display your SSL seal, your Hacker Safe seal, your seal from customer review sites. Extend the trust from these brand names to your site.

Easy Checkout

Simplify your checkout process by consolidating it in to as few pages as possible. Only ask pertinent information and offer multiple payment types such as Google Checkout, PayPal Checkout Express, BillMeLater etc…