We’re often asked how to start selling jewelry on the major marketplace. How to penetrate marketplaces with thousands of successful, experienced sellers? There are many techniques for this, and now I want to talk about one specific technique which we often use and which proves itself very well. We’re talking about quick-sellers, the items that run your business forward. What are quick-sellers? Simply, these are products that will be sold quickly.
The mechanics of marketplace search algorithms
What is the importance of these quick-sellers in your online store? It’s important to remember that every marketplace has some search algorithm behind it. So when the potential buyer searches for items on eBay, the search results will be sorted by eBay in some way. Which means the eBay’s “Best match” algorithm decides which items should be shown first. It’s the same evaluation approach like in every search engine algorithm, in every marketplace. Once we think about it, it’s clear that that these search algorithms need some measurable parameters. And what can be the measurable parameters? Of course, if we have some item on the marketplace, if we have exactly the same item, and one is cheaper than another, it’s easy. The marketplace will try to push this cheaper item because there is more chance that this item will be sold. But things are much more complicate in the reality. The items are measured by two main parameters. First, by the item’s quality ( which is not so easy to define, especially in jewelry because there are no standardized items). Second, by the seller or the store quality. What can be the measurable parameter for the store quality? Of course there are many, so let’s discuss one of them. If we have two stores, both have the same percentage of positive feedbacks, CS standards compliance and all other parameters, but one selling five items and the other selling 500 items per month, it’s a very simple assumption that the store selling 500 items is better. If people buy items from the this store, it’s a better store… This is why in all marketplaces, in this way or another, it’s important to show large quantity of orders. And this ia doe with quick-sellers – items that will be sold quickly, in high quantity. They will help your store look better in the eyes of the search algorithm. Think of your potential buyer. The crucial thing for selling online (external marketplaces, your own website or social networks, wherever it is) is to create trust by the client. How do quick-sellers help here? When your potential buyer gets into your store, he wants to know your history. Are you experienced on this marketplace? So when he reaches your store and finds out that you have sold 3 items til today, it looks a bit unprofessional. But if he sees that you already sold 5000 items, it adds trust to your store and improves the conversion rate (chance of buying) of your store. So on one side we try to understand how search algorithms work (and naturally they prefer stores who sell a lot because these sellers understand what to sell). On the other side, once your potential buyer reaches your store, he wants to know that you know your work, that you’re a professional. This is how quick-sellers create and increase the traffic, and improve the conversion of the visitors into paying customers. We do it by setting some simple goals. For example, one sale a day. If we have one sale a day in our web store, the traffic continues to arrive because every search algorithm will actually prefer showing your store. It doesn’t matter if it’s on eBay, Etsy, Amazon, Sears, or Bonanza, or wherever it is, or Rakuten or it’s your website, as the same will happen in Google. Your store will rank better, because there is a lot of transactions. So the Quick-sellers are products that create this traffic.Use cases for jewelry quick-sellers
Servicing many business cases, quick-sellers play an important role during all life time of your business, not just at the beginning. Here are some examples- Starting with a new shop. The easiest case. Boost your traffic to get seen and established.
- Working with your reputation. Imagine you have received some negative feedback on a marketplace. To improve your statistics on the marketplace, the quick-sellers will do the work. If we have 1 negative feedback, we will sell 20 quick-sellers, have 10 positive feedbacks, and restore our statistics.
- Use quick-sellers as gifts. F.i. if we have an issue to resolve quickly with an unsatisfied buyer . Quick-sellers are small items that we can give as a gift and we don’t have to think twice. Offer a nice gift to the client, make him happy. From the customer service side, it is much better when we have a structured solution for every case.
- Reaching some specific qualification levels. If we have a requirement to sell 100 items to reach “Top Rated Seller” status or some other level on the marketplace, we can use quick-seller items to get there quickly.
Characteristics of quick-sellers
First of all, quick-sellers will be different on different stages of your work. The quick-sellers will depend on your business needs, on the marketplace requirements and specialty, and other factors.- Quick-sellers should be relevant to your category. If you start selling jewelry online, do not use iPhone cases as a quick-seller, both from the marketplace aspect and also from the buyer aspects. You want to show that you are specializing in some specific clear niche, exactly as every store in this world. It positions you as a professional and less questions arise.
- Normally, quick-sellers retail price varies between $5 and, $50. On the later stage of your store’s life, also $150-$250 items are normal. Higher is better in this case, but at the beginning (remember the goal to sell one item a day?) the price will probably be $10-$50.
- Simple items -Choose items where your buyers can make less mistakes. This is why we do not recommend rings as a quick-seller. For a ring, you can provide the best ring in the world but it came out the guy who bought for his girlfriend didn’t know exactly the size. So a much better item would be a necklace or a bracelet, or earrings.
- The quick-sellers have to be repeatable items. Meaning you should be always able to create the item, with no limitation. We want to create a good history of the item. On every marketplace there are same items that are positioned first because they were sold for hundreds, and sometimes thousands times. These items are bestsellers and have this good sales history so that the marketplace positions them first in the search result. So we want to have the same result.
- Variativity – one side a quick-seller should have several variations to increase the conversion rate. On the other side, it shouldn’t be too complicated. Just a few variations – white gold, yellow gold, and the rose gold; sterling silver or gold plated; onyx and quartz. Point the client to the very specific items, without creating too many variations of an item.