Der Business-Booster: Das eBay Pro-Trader-Programm
If you’re still at the start of your career, the eBay Starter program will support you. If your business is already really successful and you still want to take it up another level, Account Management is perfect for you. But what if your business is somewhere in between? Are you ready for the Pro-Trader Business Boost – the eBay program for sellers with experience on the eBay marketplace and growth potential?
Host Lisa gives an insight into the program and its many benefits in conversation with Pro-Trader graduate Christoph Buck, Head of E-Commerce Operations at Added Value GmbH, and Oliver Mirring, Team Lead Customer Value Creation at eBay. Together, they look back on Christoph’s participation in the program and discuss tips that helped him successfully expand his business.
We hope you enjoy listening!
**Important links**
- Christoph’s eBay Shop
- Information on the eBay Pro-Trader program incl. application formr
- Third-party providers on eBay
- eBay Community
- eBay for Business on Facebook
- More info on the eBay podcast “All good. Gladly again!” and our podcast hosts
- Information on the eBay Awards 2024 incl. application form
**Mentioned podcast episodes**
- eBay Starter: The program for successful selling on our marketplace
- Together to success – Account Management at eBay
** Chapter markers **
- 00:00:00 to 00:04:44: Intro
- 00:04:44 to 00:05:41: Looking back at Christoph’s start in the eBay Pro-Trader program.
- 00:05:41 to 00:23:35 : Tips for your business from the eBay Pro-Trader program.
- 00:23:35 to 00:26:41: Requirements and application for participation in the eBay Pro-Trader program.
- 00:26:41 to 00:31:38: Scope and benefits of the eBay Pro-Trader program.
- 00:31:38 to 00:35:01: Outro
Lisa: Are you still at the beginning of your career? Then the eBay Starter program will help you. Your business is already really successful, but you need support to take you to the next level? Then Account Management is the solution. But what if you’re right in between? You’ve already set up your shop and gained some initial experience. But the big breakthrough is somehow nowhere in sight, or sales are simply too low. Then it’s time for a Business Booster. And we’re going to tell you how to get one now.
Christoph: I think you always go into it believing that you’re doing everything right, and then it’s really helpful when someone from the outside has that overview and explicitly points out the shortcomings again. So that was a big help at that point.
Lisa: Welcome to “All good! Gladly again!” - The eBay podcast all about retail and e-commerce. I’m Lisa Haak and today we want to take your business to the next level. This episode is especially interesting for those who are no longer at the very beginning of their eBay journey, but who, when looking at their sales figures, wonder how they can actually increase them significantly. This is where the Pro-Trader program and my two guests come in. Joining me in the studio is Christoph Buck. He is Head of E-Commerce Operations at Added Value Unlimited GmbH. There he mainly looks after the marketplace presence of the automotive parts retailer, i.e. the eBay shop called “Moto100 KFZ-Teile”. They launched on our eBay marketplace in November 2017, and by mid-2023 he and his team were facing the same challenge as probably many of you out there. Sales of spare parts were good, but Christoph knew there was more potential. He’ll tell us what he then did to achieve a threefold increase in revenue himself: Hi Christoph!
Christoph: Hi Lisa, hello dear listeners!
Lisa: We’re glad you’re here, and next to Christoph is my colleague Oliver Mirring. Olli is Team Lead Customer Value Creation at eBay. And with his team, he looks after the eBay Pro-Trader program. Internally at eBay, this is also known as the Business Booster. Why? Because it gives you targeted advice and boosts your business. And Olli knows all the challenges and tries to find suitable solutions for them. And Christoph and Olli are going to tell us what that solution looks like today: Hi Oliver!
Oliver: Hi Lisa, hi Christoph, thanks for the invitation.
Lisa: And before we get started: Isabell, Vincent and I will be taking a short summer break after this episode. But don’t worry, we’ll be back on August 14 with an exciting episode. So you can look forward to it, and until then we wish you a lovely and successful summer. And if you get bored without us, just listen to a few old episodes you don’t know yet. But now to today’s episode: Christoph, can you tell us a little more about the situation in 2023 when you thought: Okay, we somehow need to generate more revenue, and what was it like before you joined the eBay Pro-Trader program?
Christoph: Yes, we’ve been on eBay as a seller since 2017, so we were still relatively new on the eBay channel and had actually seen very steady growth until 2023, but then we found ourselves in a situation where we could no longer achieve really big increases. Overall, we were very happy with the channel, eBay was one of the strongest sales channels for us as an online retailer, but at that point we were, you could say, treading water a bit.
Lisa: Olli, you deal with sellers like Christoph every day. Does your experience match this, that the people involved are active for a few years and then simply want more or hit a kind of stagnation?
Oliver: Yes, exactly! In general, the sellers who come to us have had their shop for about one to two years or are at least represented with us during that period. And often sales then stagnate, and that’s when you think as a businessperson: “Okay, how do we move forward, what can I do?”. And that’s where we come in and say: “Okay, we offer options here to give sales a little boost through various tricks and ultimately drive the Business Booster.”. And yes, I think that what Christoph describes here illustrates it very well.
Lisa: Christoph, tell us how it came about specifically that you took part in the Pro-Trader program.
Christoph: Yes, actually one morning I got a call from an eBay employee and he recommended that we take part in this Pro-Trader program, and at that point, as I said, there were no major sales increases. And I found it exciting to be able to take advantage of this one-to-one support with eBay and also get tips and tricks on how we could grow out of this stagnation.
Lisa: So you basically learned which screws to turn, what you had to do to get sales moving again, or what options there were that you didn’t know about before?
Christoph: Exactly, you can actually imagine it like this: from every conversation you had with eBay, you came away with new project specifications or new measures that you could implement.
Lisa: So you got homework, basically?
Christoph: Yes, you could definitely put it that way, yes.
Lisa: What had the biggest impact for you? Or what were the first things you tackled?
Christoph: What initially brought us the biggest effect was keeping the listings up to date, meaning we regularly relisted all listings that hadn’t sold within a period of 30 days. We solved this with an in-house automation. In other words, we track exactly how long a listing has been online, whether sales are being generated, and if not, the listing is ended and automatically relisted.
Oliver: Yes, I’d like to jump in right there because that fits in very well with our Pro-Trader consulting. On the one hand, we naturally also provide lists to sellers, where it’s made very clear which listings are older than 30 days, that’s always our guideline, and haven’t sold in that period. And we provide these to the sellers so they can still make adjustments. Of course, there are other ways too. For example, there’s the Terapek tool, which we show in the seller cockpit. You can pull a lot of information from that. The much more important question, of course, is: what, why hasn’t the product sold for 30 days? So if you relist the product, you should definitely also think about what the causes are. And of course, these can be, for example, images, or the title, or the listing description, or the listing specifics. Those are just some of many possibilities. But that’s what needs to be looked at when you see, okay, I’ve got a product here that hasn’t sold for 30 days, what was the reason?
Lisa: Christoph, and in your specific case, in working with the Pro-Trader team, what did you notice as to why the items may not have sold during that period?
Christoph: Yes, of course there are various causes. Especially in the automotive spare parts market, sellers usually have an extremely large number of listings, meaning we have an incredible variety of items in the assortment, and you can’t specifically check every item to see why that was the case. In this case, it’s simply important to relist the items and hope that the item then gets another chance to sell next time. Other reasons are of course the title, for example if it’s not optimally tailored to the end customer, or if the description in the listing isn’t ideal, meaning important item specifics are missing. That can happen from time to time, but images, for example, also play a very important role in listings.
Lisa: Olli, you probably have sellers from all different categories. How are you set up there? So that you can then give the appropriate tips based on the different categories?
Oliver: Yes, very good question. As just described, Christoph is not an isolated case. We always have around one to two employees who can really give valuable tips related to the category, and in this case it’s auto parts, for example, or the Home and Garden area, electronics, etc. And of course we also generally look at item hygiene, because as Christoph just mentioned, it’s an interplay of several factors. Often it may just be one image that isn’t really informative, sometimes the title is wrong. And what is perhaps also a very concrete example, enormously important for Christoph’s company, is the vehicle compatibility list, because without well-maintained item specifics, this vehicle compatibility list can’t be used well, and then there’s again a lack of visibility, which we were just talking about. So that can also be a reason for not being found if simple basic specifics are missing.
Lisa: For our listeners who maybe don’t sell in the category, can you briefly explain what the vehicle compatibility list is?
Oliver: Of course. With this vehicle compatibility list, you can enter your car there, VW Golf, year of manufacture, etc. pp, and then search for spare parts, and we then promise that if this spare part doesn’t fit, even though all the criteria match, it can be returned free of charge at eBay’s expense. And this does not put the seller at any disadvantage. So, to sum it up “in a nutshell,” the vehicle compatibility list is a great tool that definitely sets us apart from the competition.
Lisa: Great, thank you very much, and Christoph. Where do you get the information about the items you sell?
Christoph: Exactly, the industry standard is actually TecDoc. This is an external program in which all item specifics and vehicle compatibility lists are maintained by the manufacturers of the individual items. This tool is actually used across the entire spare parts market, and because we also have our own IT in the background, we process this data again in our own PIM, so we have our own product information management tool, and this allows us to provide customers with even more detailed information on eBay.
Lisa: Perhaps at this point a note that of course there is also the option to sell on eBay without your own IT in the background. You’re set up very professionally, but many of our sellers use third-party tools, meaning tools that help them sell on marketplaces like eBay. There are some that are also specialized in the respective vertical. We’d be very happy to link you to a page in our seller portal in the show notes, where we explain all our third-party providers. We’ve talked a lot about visibility, photos and item specifics, and the listing title, but somehow we keep emphasizing this and saying how important it is. But maybe you can just explain again what impact that actually has.
Oliver: Yes, Lisa, I absolutely agree with you. In the Pro-Trader program, we see that many sellers who come into the program really have difficulty recognizing this as well. And we simply give hints and say: “Okay, look, you haven’t exhausted your potential yet!”. What was it like for you, Christoph, how did you approach it?
Christoph: Well, I think you always go into it believing that you’re doing everything right, and then it’s really helpful when someone from the outside has the overview and explicitly points out the shortcomings again. So that was a big help at that point.
Oliver: Yes, that’s exactly what we do, also before we go into the first welcome call. We really prepare specifically for the sellers and their shops and listings, and we go into it saying: “Okay, where does it hurt?”. And often the issue isn’t even the title or description, specifics, but maybe we’ll come back to marketing later. But that’s exactly why it’s so important to start with the basics first, and basics are something we’ve talked about very often already and heard in many of our other podcast episodes. But reality shows us that we all definitely still have homework to do, as you said earlier, Lisa.
Lisa: And Christoph, the homework you had to do. Was that unfamiliar to you or had you heard of it before? Or what made you decide to actually implement it?
Christoph: Yes, actually usually you’re only given a general direction. In the end, you definitely have to walk the path yourself. But the topics that were introduced to us weren’t completely unfamiliar, but we tackled them much more specifically and were really able to achieve major increases in sales.
Lisa: And we always talk about how a title, for example, should use up 80 characters, that the first five words matter. Was it really the case that you had items before that only used 30 characters and then you had this “aha moment”? Okay, or were there really, really many missing? Or did we need to optimize?
Christoph: So, we actually never had titles that were too short. What we did have, though, and we were a bit blind to it, was that we communicated a lot with end customers using catalog names. As mentioned earlier, this comes from the industry standard TecDoc, where items sometimes have very cryptic names for the end customer that they would never use in that form to search for the part. And we were able to specify that much more clearly and generate much greater visibility for end customers.
Oliver: Christoph is absolutely right about that, and we definitely see this kind of blind spot with other sellers too. Maybe to look at it more generally: yes, of course we should make use of the 80 characters. But what’s also very important are the first words in the title, for example naming the brand first, because often we search for a brand first. A negative example we’ve also seen often is: “Cheap sneakers here now!”, or “Original brake disc”. If I were buying a brake disc as an end customer, I think I’d assume it was original. I wouldn’t put that in the title. And that’s a conglomerate of information that we also include in a homework sheet and discuss again.
Lisa: Yes, and I think, as Christoph said, you go into the call assuming you’re already doing everything right and your expertise allows you to find the right steps. For the first impression of listings, the image is often also very, very relevant. Did you do anything about that, Christoph?
Christoph: Yes, the topic of images has actually occupied us since day one. As already mentioned, we have a very extensive product range and of course we have to work a lot with sample images or standard images, but for our core range we even try to produce our own images, meaning we have an in-house photographer who takes product photos for us. And that’s how we gradually try to equip our most important items with our own images.
Lisa Haak: We’ve now talked a lot about your listing optimization with the Pro-Trader program. Olli, you hinted earlier that there are other topics. In your analysis, do you also look at the shop of the respective seller?
Oliver Mirring: Yes, you’re practically reading my mind. This is a topic that is often neglected, namely general shop improvement. Why am I saying this explicitly? Because we found in the support that the shop lacked freshness, so overall, how is the shop structured? How are the categories set up? Are there listings? But we also see that seasonality isn’t taken into account, so maybe not in Christoph’s shop now, but if we look at fashion, for example, we see bikinis being sold on the homepage in the middle of winter. These are all topics we tackle. That includes shop banners, logos, top listings and, above all, newsletters. That’s also something that creates a big aha effect for sellers: when we say, “Okay, you already seem to have two, three, four hundred followers for your shop. Are you actually using those followers?”. And often we hear: “No, we’re not, what can you specifically suggest?”. And that’s where we see that this newsletter gives a real sales boost, because it simply increases visibility, which was topic number one earlier.
Lisa: And Christoph, when you think back to your journey with the Pro-Trader program, what was another aha moment? What to-dos did you encounter that you hadn’t paid much attention to before?
Christoph: Taking part in the Pro-Trader program also meant taking part in the growth portal for us, meaning we also had the opportunity to take part in voucher and coupon campaigns, and these regularly generated good sales for us.
Oliver Mirring: Exactly, that’s also part of our Pro-Trader consulting, that we look at what other levers there are to drive sales here. And, as Christoph already said, taking part in coupons gave us a very big boost. Of course, there are other levers too, such as checking how I can expand my inventory. What kind of demand is there on the market right now? And we work very, very closely with the category managers too, getting feedback from them. Where is there a lot of demand right now? We have lists created, such as how the Google search results are currently, and of course we also communicate that to our sellers, just as a small example.
Lisa: Those are of course great insights that the participants in the program somehow benefit from and wouldn’t otherwise have had.
Oliver: Absolutely right! And of course all of this for free, that must be emphasized very clearly too. We’re a program where the seller doesn’t have to pay anything, and our payment, so to speak, is simply the overall increase in sales.
Lisa: The Business Boost behind it!
Oliver: Exactly, very good!
Lisa: Very nice! And Olli, because you’re so close to all the horizontal topics: You just mentioned inventory, that’s something you advise on. Do you also look at seller standards or shipping solutions that are used? So how deep do you go horizontally in the analysis?
Oliver: Exactly, over the three months, so in the quarter, we usually manage to discuss ten core topics and, as you just said, that includes seller standards, shipping, among other things. But of course we also want to address the needs of the sellers and ask very specifically where the pain points are. And if it’s simply about wanting to increase sales, wanting visibility, then we draw from our portfolio. And if we maybe go back briefly to the point of seller standards education, some of you may have seen it: top-rated or above average rated. Here it’s of course clearly about visibility, but also about trust. And it’s very, very important that such seller standards are regularly checked by the seller in the seller portal. Christoph, in my opinion you must also have worked on that regularly, right?
Christoph: So absolutely, for us criteria like those that directly affect customer satisfaction are extremely important. In other words, our clear goal is always to be ranked as a top seller on eBay, and we make no compromises on that. So that’s always our goal.
Oliver: Very good, yes, we naturally point that out a lot in the conversation too, right at the beginning, but also in between of course. How is that seller standard developing right now? Where do we need to intervene? And then we essentially go hand in hand so that we aim exactly for a top rating and thus create trust and visibility.
Lisa: Probably also translates for sellers what all that actually means, what stands there on the eBay platform and how it is perceived by the potential customer and why it is so important. #00:21:25-4# Oliver: Exactly, so maybe just looking at it broadly, we basically have three different statuses. One is below average, one is above average, and one is top-rated. And this status can be found for the seller in the seller portal. And what is very, very important is that these different assessments of course also come with advantages or disadvantages. I think that would go beyond the scope now, though. The important thing is that the sellers’ intrinsic motivation should really be to always achieve top ratings. And that’s what we’re working on specifically, and we also look at why there was a downgrade and then give tips on how to get out of it and, above all, how not to slip back in.
Lisa: And before we get into the details of the Pro-Trader program in a moment, a small request on our own behalf: We’re always curious about your own experiences and your feedback. Feel free to write to us via the eBay Community or via our Facebook page “eBay for Business Deutschland” and tell us what challenges you’re currently dealing with. Or maybe you have tips that we haven’t mentioned today that could be interesting for our community? In any case, we’d be very happy to receive your feedback. Olli, we briefly mentioned shipping earlier. Besides shipping, are there other topics you discuss in the Pro-Trader program?
Oliver: So, at the beginning of the Pro-Trader consultation, we definitely talk about standards like free shipping. Especially in Germany, that’s pretty much standard these days. But over time we also look at shipping-related issues from time to time, especially international shipping. What other levers are there? Of course, we only have limited options to intervene there. That’s why it makes sense here, and we do this too, to point out Account Management again at the end of the consultation. There was also a special podcast episode about this, because the dear colleagues there are also ready, or have the opportunity, to take international selling to another level based on this.
Lisa: If I’m feeling inspired by the episode now and want to take part in the Pro-Trader program too, how do I do that?
Oliver: Exactly, many roads lead to Rome! And, as Christoph explained, in this case it came about because a colleague called him, simply because it was noticed that the potential was there. It was seen, okay, the seller is not completely new to eBay, sales are stagnating, and that’s why we proactively approached the seller and said: “Okay, does it make sense? Would you like to take part?”. But there is also the option to register via the seller portal. We’ll put the link in the show notes. And above all, when this episode is aired, a very clear note: now is a very, very good time to apply for the Pro-Trader program. Why am I saying this so specifically again? Because we always work quarterly and because we obviously want to advise sellers as well as possible, we can only accept a limited number of sellers for the period. And if the portfolio is full and we unfortunately can’t take any more, then we can no longer provide consultation for that quarter either. But as of now, at the end of June, the new application process is starting, and that is exactly one way. Either we call ourselves or the applications come in via the landing page.
Lisa: And when you talk about applications, it sounds very much like there are requirements. So what requirements do I need to meet in order to apply?
Oliver: Yes, absolutely right, and I definitely want to take away any fear here: this is not like an application process where you have several interviews, not at all. As mentioned earlier, the program is free of charge. Also very important, it’s not a subscription, and I definitely want to emphasize that again here. So after the quarter, the Pro-Trader program ends automatically. You don’t have to actively unsubscribe. Yes, in the past we’ve actually had very different sellers in the program. We’ve had sellers who had only been selling on eBay for six months, we have sellers who have been selling for years, but sales are stagnating. And that’s exactly where we come in. So anyone who wants to can apply with us, and even if you have doubts about whether this is the right program right now, that’s no problem at all. Of course, we also look at each application individually and give helpful tips. If, for example, we find that the sellers’ product or portfolio is still too small, then we point them to the Starter program or to Account Management, and we also point that out. The only requirements are really that you already have some know-how in the eBay cosmos and have already made some initial sales, and we then look at everything else in the so-called welcome call.
Lisa: And you said it, it’s free. You get an enormous amount of insights into the eBay business, but above all into your own business. Christoph, that all sounds too good to be true. So where’s the catch in your view?
Christoph: I wouldn’t call it a catch, but you’re simply given only a rough direction, and in the end you still have to walk the path yourself. And, as already mentioned, you actually come away from every conversation with the advisor and have your whole homework sheet again that you have to tick off. And it’s definitely associated with a huge amount of time, and of course as a result IT capacities are tied up too. You really have to invest time and effort.
Lisa: I can see that the program really sounds extensive. Olli, can you give us a quick overview here of what all is included?
Oliver: Yes, at first glance it really does sound very, very extensive. However, you can really see very nicely from Christoph’s company the direction things develop when you’re willing to implement the steps together with us. First there’s the welcome, a short phone call where, I’d say, you sort of get to know each other a bit. There we go through the sellers’ points, which we then include in the program in a very individual way. We have so-called scaling calls, usually two to three of them. That’s where we really go into subject-specific topics like improving item specifics and all the topics we’ve already mentioned. And at the end there’s another call as a wrap-up, where we simply go through and review what was implemented in the last three months, and then we close that homework sheet again and say, these are the activities we’ve implemented. That’s how far the journey can still go. But as I said, I think if you implement it just as we suggest, like Christoph did, then you definitely only stand to gain from it.
Lisa: Christoph, what was the biggest benefit for you? Or what do you think is the biggest benefit for sellers taking part in the program?
Christoph: I think, personally for me, the one-to-one support from an eBay advisor was very beneficial for us. It gave us another hint about one or two levers that weren’t really very extensive, but achieved extreme effects. So I really liked that. And at this point perhaps another real piece of advice from the advisors: focus on the essential things. I think it’s really good to have someone who looks at things from the outside and points out these small things again.
Oliver: And in this context I’d also like to emphasize again, because Christoph said that with our one-to-one support, sellers are not just a number, we always work on equal footing. And if there are any questions, even outside this timeline I just described, a short email is enough and we’ll get in touch with the sellers immediately and really try to implement everything as best and as quickly as possible.
Lisa: That’s of course a great service. In the intro we explained that the Pro-Trader program builds on eBay Starter and after that it could basically transition seamlessly into Account Management. Olli, are these models designed so that you should go through all three at once?
Oliver: Yes, if you will, you could speak of an eBay cycle. I’d say the ideal path, if you will, is of course to start with Starter, then move seamlessly into the Pro-Trader program and from there book the Account Manager. In practice, of course, gaps do arise in between, simply because the things we provide first need to be implemented. And that’s why we usually see a break of about three to four months in support between the individual programs. But yes, it makes total sense to go through this cycle, because it allows us to work really closely with the seller, so that after around a year of support, when it comes to Account Management, you’re really well equipped for the future in e-commerce, especially on our marketplace.
Lisa: Then I’m curious to see how things continue for you. Christoph, what’s the next step? Are you already in Account Management?
Christoph: So far we haven’t booked an Account Manager yet. In fact, we still have a fully packed backpack of homework to work through. So, we actually still have a few IT projects coming up that also need to be implemented. But eBay is and remains an important sales channel for us, of course, and we are absolutely committed to taking future growth steps.
Isabell: Do you already know the eBay Awards? Every year we celebrate the most committed and creative sellers on our marketplace. And now it’s that time again: in the fall, we’ll be presenting the eBay Awards for the seventh time. If you want to be part of it this time, you can still apply until July 9.
Lisa: We’re really looking forward to hearing more about your stories and eBay shops. No matter whether you sell locally, have been active on our marketplace forever, or are just getting your eBay shop off the ground, you’re in the right place with our Awards.
Isabell: Curious now? You’ll find the link to the website with all the important info and the application form in the show notes.
Lisa: Thank you so much to both of you for the exciting insights. If you out there would like to read all of this in more detail again, of course we’ll link all the information in the show notes. There you’ll also find the application form for the Pro-Trader program mentioned earlier, if you want to get started right away. I heard there are only limited spots, so don’t wait too long! If, as the episode went on, you realized you’re not far enough along yet for the Pro-Trader program, feel free to listen to our episode on the Starter program as well. But if you’re further along than you thought and already know a lot of what we discussed here, then Account Management could make sense for you. You’ll also find that episode in the show notes. Christoph, since you obviously know our podcast, you know what our very last closing question is: what was the last thing you bought or sold on eBay?
Christoph: Well, apart from the odd test order I make from time to time, it was actually just a simple MS Office license.
Lisa: Olli, and you?
Oliver: Yes, now it gets awkward, maybe to start with: I’m a very price-sensitive person and always pay close attention to how expensive each product is. And I noticed that the Pikachu Pokémon is by far the cheapest thing we offer, and I gave it to my son for… for Easter, so that was the last one.
Lisa: Not awkward at all, you always learn something new about your colleagues! Very nice! And that brings us to the end of our episode. If you enjoyed the episode, as always we’d be happy if you’d leave us a like or subscribe wherever you listen to us. Many, many thanks to Christoph and Oliver for this overview. I’m sure there was a lot in there that helped our listeners.
Christoph: Yes, I wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you. Especially to my team. We’re a small, capable group, and only that made it possible to implement all these topics here. And I just wanted to say “thank you” explicitly again, and also many thanks to the management, who give us the room to implement such topics as well.
Oliver: And I’d like to add my thanks to that. Thank you, Christoph. It was very, very enjoyable working with you. I think your company will also be very, very successful in the future if you keep going as you have been. So a very big thank you from the team as well, and of course thank you, Lisa, for having us here today.
Lisa: Those are super nice closing words. Thank you very much, and have a wonderful summer break everyone!
Christoph: I think you always go into it believing that you’re doing everything right, and then it’s really helpful when someone from the outside has that overview and explicitly points out the shortcomings again. So that was a big help at that point.
Lisa: Welcome to “All good! Gladly again!” - The eBay podcast all about retail and e-commerce. I’m Lisa Haak and today we want to take your business to the next level. This episode is especially interesting for those who are no longer at the very beginning of their eBay journey, but who, when looking at their sales figures, wonder how they can actually increase them significantly. This is where the Pro-Trader program and my two guests come in. Joining me in the studio is Christoph Buck. He is Head of E-Commerce Operations at Added Value Unlimited GmbH. There he mainly looks after the marketplace presence of the automotive parts retailer, i.e. the eBay shop called “Moto100 KFZ-Teile”. They launched on our eBay marketplace in November 2017, and by mid-2023 he and his team were facing the same challenge as probably many of you out there. Sales of spare parts were good, but Christoph knew there was more potential. He’ll tell us what he then did to achieve a threefold increase in revenue himself: Hi Christoph!
Christoph: Hi Lisa, hello dear listeners!
Lisa: We’re glad you’re here, and next to Christoph is my colleague Oliver Mirring. Olli is Team Lead Customer Value Creation at eBay. And with his team, he looks after the eBay Pro-Trader program. Internally at eBay, this is also known as the Business Booster. Why? Because it gives you targeted advice and boosts your business. And Olli knows all the challenges and tries to find suitable solutions for them. And Christoph and Olli are going to tell us what that solution looks like today: Hi Oliver!
Oliver: Hi Lisa, hi Christoph, thanks for the invitation.
Lisa: And before we get started: Isabell, Vincent and I will be taking a short summer break after this episode. But don’t worry, we’ll be back on August 14 with an exciting episode. So you can look forward to it, and until then we wish you a lovely and successful summer. And if you get bored without us, just listen to a few old episodes you don’t know yet. But now to today’s episode: Christoph, can you tell us a little more about the situation in 2023 when you thought: Okay, we somehow need to generate more revenue, and what was it like before you joined the eBay Pro-Trader program?
Christoph: Yes, we’ve been on eBay as a seller since 2017, so we were still relatively new on the eBay channel and had actually seen very steady growth until 2023, but then we found ourselves in a situation where we could no longer achieve really big increases. Overall, we were very happy with the channel, eBay was one of the strongest sales channels for us as an online retailer, but at that point we were, you could say, treading water a bit.
Lisa: Olli, you deal with sellers like Christoph every day. Does your experience match this, that the people involved are active for a few years and then simply want more or hit a kind of stagnation?
Oliver: Yes, exactly! In general, the sellers who come to us have had their shop for about one to two years or are at least represented with us during that period. And often sales then stagnate, and that’s when you think as a businessperson: “Okay, how do we move forward, what can I do?”. And that’s where we come in and say: “Okay, we offer options here to give sales a little boost through various tricks and ultimately drive the Business Booster.”. And yes, I think that what Christoph describes here illustrates it very well.
Lisa: Christoph, tell us how it came about specifically that you took part in the Pro-Trader program.
Christoph: Yes, actually one morning I got a call from an eBay employee and he recommended that we take part in this Pro-Trader program, and at that point, as I said, there were no major sales increases. And I found it exciting to be able to take advantage of this one-to-one support with eBay and also get tips and tricks on how we could grow out of this stagnation.
Lisa: So you basically learned which screws to turn, what you had to do to get sales moving again, or what options there were that you didn’t know about before?
Christoph: Exactly, you can actually imagine it like this: from every conversation you had with eBay, you came away with new project specifications or new measures that you could implement.
Lisa: So you got homework, basically?
Christoph: Yes, you could definitely put it that way, yes.
Lisa: What had the biggest impact for you? Or what were the first things you tackled?
Christoph: What initially brought us the biggest effect was keeping the listings up to date, meaning we regularly relisted all listings that hadn’t sold within a period of 30 days. We solved this with an in-house automation. In other words, we track exactly how long a listing has been online, whether sales are being generated, and if not, the listing is ended and automatically relisted.
Oliver: Yes, I’d like to jump in right there because that fits in very well with our Pro-Trader consulting. On the one hand, we naturally also provide lists to sellers, where it’s made very clear which listings are older than 30 days, that’s always our guideline, and haven’t sold in that period. And we provide these to the sellers so they can still make adjustments. Of course, there are other ways too. For example, there’s the Terapek tool, which we show in the seller cockpit. You can pull a lot of information from that. The much more important question, of course, is: what, why hasn’t the product sold for 30 days? So if you relist the product, you should definitely also think about what the causes are. And of course, these can be, for example, images, or the title, or the listing description, or the listing specifics. Those are just some of many possibilities. But that’s what needs to be looked at when you see, okay, I’ve got a product here that hasn’t sold for 30 days, what was the reason?
Lisa: Christoph, and in your specific case, in working with the Pro-Trader team, what did you notice as to why the items may not have sold during that period?
Christoph: Yes, of course there are various causes. Especially in the automotive spare parts market, sellers usually have an extremely large number of listings, meaning we have an incredible variety of items in the assortment, and you can’t specifically check every item to see why that was the case. In this case, it’s simply important to relist the items and hope that the item then gets another chance to sell next time. Other reasons are of course the title, for example if it’s not optimally tailored to the end customer, or if the description in the listing isn’t ideal, meaning important item specifics are missing. That can happen from time to time, but images, for example, also play a very important role in listings.
Lisa: Olli, you probably have sellers from all different categories. How are you set up there? So that you can then give the appropriate tips based on the different categories?
Oliver: Yes, very good question. As just described, Christoph is not an isolated case. We always have around one to two employees who can really give valuable tips related to the category, and in this case it’s auto parts, for example, or the Home and Garden area, electronics, etc. And of course we also generally look at item hygiene, because as Christoph just mentioned, it’s an interplay of several factors. Often it may just be one image that isn’t really informative, sometimes the title is wrong. And what is perhaps also a very concrete example, enormously important for Christoph’s company, is the vehicle compatibility list, because without well-maintained item specifics, this vehicle compatibility list can’t be used well, and then there’s again a lack of visibility, which we were just talking about. So that can also be a reason for not being found if simple basic specifics are missing.
Lisa: For our listeners who maybe don’t sell in the category, can you briefly explain what the vehicle compatibility list is?
Oliver: Of course. With this vehicle compatibility list, you can enter your car there, VW Golf, year of manufacture, etc. pp, and then search for spare parts, and we then promise that if this spare part doesn’t fit, even though all the criteria match, it can be returned free of charge at eBay’s expense. And this does not put the seller at any disadvantage. So, to sum it up “in a nutshell,” the vehicle compatibility list is a great tool that definitely sets us apart from the competition.
Lisa: Great, thank you very much, and Christoph. Where do you get the information about the items you sell?
Christoph: Exactly, the industry standard is actually TecDoc. This is an external program in which all item specifics and vehicle compatibility lists are maintained by the manufacturers of the individual items. This tool is actually used across the entire spare parts market, and because we also have our own IT in the background, we process this data again in our own PIM, so we have our own product information management tool, and this allows us to provide customers with even more detailed information on eBay.
Lisa: Perhaps at this point a note that of course there is also the option to sell on eBay without your own IT in the background. You’re set up very professionally, but many of our sellers use third-party tools, meaning tools that help them sell on marketplaces like eBay. There are some that are also specialized in the respective vertical. We’d be very happy to link you to a page in our seller portal in the show notes, where we explain all our third-party providers. We’ve talked a lot about visibility, photos and item specifics, and the listing title, but somehow we keep emphasizing this and saying how important it is. But maybe you can just explain again what impact that actually has.
Oliver: Yes, Lisa, I absolutely agree with you. In the Pro-Trader program, we see that many sellers who come into the program really have difficulty recognizing this as well. And we simply give hints and say: “Okay, look, you haven’t exhausted your potential yet!”. What was it like for you, Christoph, how did you approach it?
Christoph: Well, I think you always go into it believing that you’re doing everything right, and then it’s really helpful when someone from the outside has the overview and explicitly points out the shortcomings again. So that was a big help at that point.
Oliver: Yes, that’s exactly what we do, also before we go into the first welcome call. We really prepare specifically for the sellers and their shops and listings, and we go into it saying: “Okay, where does it hurt?”. And often the issue isn’t even the title or description, specifics, but maybe we’ll come back to marketing later. But that’s exactly why it’s so important to start with the basics first, and basics are something we’ve talked about very often already and heard in many of our other podcast episodes. But reality shows us that we all definitely still have homework to do, as you said earlier, Lisa.
Lisa: And Christoph, the homework you had to do. Was that unfamiliar to you or had you heard of it before? Or what made you decide to actually implement it?
Christoph: Yes, actually usually you’re only given a general direction. In the end, you definitely have to walk the path yourself. But the topics that were introduced to us weren’t completely unfamiliar, but we tackled them much more specifically and were really able to achieve major increases in sales.
Lisa: And we always talk about how a title, for example, should use up 80 characters, that the first five words matter. Was it really the case that you had items before that only used 30 characters and then you had this “aha moment”? Okay, or were there really, really many missing? Or did we need to optimize?
Christoph: So, we actually never had titles that were too short. What we did have, though, and we were a bit blind to it, was that we communicated a lot with end customers using catalog names. As mentioned earlier, this comes from the industry standard TecDoc, where items sometimes have very cryptic names for the end customer that they would never use in that form to search for the part. And we were able to specify that much more clearly and generate much greater visibility for end customers.
Oliver: Christoph is absolutely right about that, and we definitely see this kind of blind spot with other sellers too. Maybe to look at it more generally: yes, of course we should make use of the 80 characters. But what’s also very important are the first words in the title, for example naming the brand first, because often we search for a brand first. A negative example we’ve also seen often is: “Cheap sneakers here now!”, or “Original brake disc”. If I were buying a brake disc as an end customer, I think I’d assume it was original. I wouldn’t put that in the title. And that’s a conglomerate of information that we also include in a homework sheet and discuss again.
Lisa: Yes, and I think, as Christoph said, you go into the call assuming you’re already doing everything right and your expertise allows you to find the right steps. For the first impression of listings, the image is often also very, very relevant. Did you do anything about that, Christoph?
Christoph: Yes, the topic of images has actually occupied us since day one. As already mentioned, we have a very extensive product range and of course we have to work a lot with sample images or standard images, but for our core range we even try to produce our own images, meaning we have an in-house photographer who takes product photos for us. And that’s how we gradually try to equip our most important items with our own images.
Lisa Haak: We’ve now talked a lot about your listing optimization with the Pro-Trader program. Olli, you hinted earlier that there are other topics. In your analysis, do you also look at the shop of the respective seller?
Oliver Mirring: Yes, you’re practically reading my mind. This is a topic that is often neglected, namely general shop improvement. Why am I saying this explicitly? Because we found in the support that the shop lacked freshness, so overall, how is the shop structured? How are the categories set up? Are there listings? But we also see that seasonality isn’t taken into account, so maybe not in Christoph’s shop now, but if we look at fashion, for example, we see bikinis being sold on the homepage in the middle of winter. These are all topics we tackle. That includes shop banners, logos, top listings and, above all, newsletters. That’s also something that creates a big aha effect for sellers: when we say, “Okay, you already seem to have two, three, four hundred followers for your shop. Are you actually using those followers?”. And often we hear: “No, we’re not, what can you specifically suggest?”. And that’s where we see that this newsletter gives a real sales boost, because it simply increases visibility, which was topic number one earlier.
Lisa: And Christoph, when you think back to your journey with the Pro-Trader program, what was another aha moment? What to-dos did you encounter that you hadn’t paid much attention to before?
Christoph: Taking part in the Pro-Trader program also meant taking part in the growth portal for us, meaning we also had the opportunity to take part in voucher and coupon campaigns, and these regularly generated good sales for us.
Oliver Mirring: Exactly, that’s also part of our Pro-Trader consulting, that we look at what other levers there are to drive sales here. And, as Christoph already said, taking part in coupons gave us a very big boost. Of course, there are other levers too, such as checking how I can expand my inventory. What kind of demand is there on the market right now? And we work very, very closely with the category managers too, getting feedback from them. Where is there a lot of demand right now? We have lists created, such as how the Google search results are currently, and of course we also communicate that to our sellers, just as a small example.
Lisa: Those are of course great insights that the participants in the program somehow benefit from and wouldn’t otherwise have had.
Oliver: Absolutely right! And of course all of this for free, that must be emphasized very clearly too. We’re a program where the seller doesn’t have to pay anything, and our payment, so to speak, is simply the overall increase in sales.
Lisa: The Business Boost behind it!
Oliver: Exactly, very good!
Lisa: Very nice! And Olli, because you’re so close to all the horizontal topics: You just mentioned inventory, that’s something you advise on. Do you also look at seller standards or shipping solutions that are used? So how deep do you go horizontally in the analysis?
Oliver: Exactly, over the three months, so in the quarter, we usually manage to discuss ten core topics and, as you just said, that includes seller standards, shipping, among other things. But of course we also want to address the needs of the sellers and ask very specifically where the pain points are. And if it’s simply about wanting to increase sales, wanting visibility, then we draw from our portfolio. And if we maybe go back briefly to the point of seller standards education, some of you may have seen it: top-rated or above average rated. Here it’s of course clearly about visibility, but also about trust. And it’s very, very important that such seller standards are regularly checked by the seller in the seller portal. Christoph, in my opinion you must also have worked on that regularly, right?
Christoph: So absolutely, for us criteria like those that directly affect customer satisfaction are extremely important. In other words, our clear goal is always to be ranked as a top seller on eBay, and we make no compromises on that. So that’s always our goal.
Oliver: Very good, yes, we naturally point that out a lot in the conversation too, right at the beginning, but also in between of course. How is that seller standard developing right now? Where do we need to intervene? And then we essentially go hand in hand so that we aim exactly for a top rating and thus create trust and visibility.
Lisa: Probably also translates for sellers what all that actually means, what stands there on the eBay platform and how it is perceived by the potential customer and why it is so important. #00:21:25-4# Oliver: Exactly, so maybe just looking at it broadly, we basically have three different statuses. One is below average, one is above average, and one is top-rated. And this status can be found for the seller in the seller portal. And what is very, very important is that these different assessments of course also come with advantages or disadvantages. I think that would go beyond the scope now, though. The important thing is that the sellers’ intrinsic motivation should really be to always achieve top ratings. And that’s what we’re working on specifically, and we also look at why there was a downgrade and then give tips on how to get out of it and, above all, how not to slip back in.
Lisa: And before we get into the details of the Pro-Trader program in a moment, a small request on our own behalf: We’re always curious about your own experiences and your feedback. Feel free to write to us via the eBay Community or via our Facebook page “eBay for Business Deutschland” and tell us what challenges you’re currently dealing with. Or maybe you have tips that we haven’t mentioned today that could be interesting for our community? In any case, we’d be very happy to receive your feedback. Olli, we briefly mentioned shipping earlier. Besides shipping, are there other topics you discuss in the Pro-Trader program?
Oliver: So, at the beginning of the Pro-Trader consultation, we definitely talk about standards like free shipping. Especially in Germany, that’s pretty much standard these days. But over time we also look at shipping-related issues from time to time, especially international shipping. What other levers are there? Of course, we only have limited options to intervene there. That’s why it makes sense here, and we do this too, to point out Account Management again at the end of the consultation. There was also a special podcast episode about this, because the dear colleagues there are also ready, or have the opportunity, to take international selling to another level based on this.
Lisa: If I’m feeling inspired by the episode now and want to take part in the Pro-Trader program too, how do I do that?
Oliver: Exactly, many roads lead to Rome! And, as Christoph explained, in this case it came about because a colleague called him, simply because it was noticed that the potential was there. It was seen, okay, the seller is not completely new to eBay, sales are stagnating, and that’s why we proactively approached the seller and said: “Okay, does it make sense? Would you like to take part?”. But there is also the option to register via the seller portal. We’ll put the link in the show notes. And above all, when this episode is aired, a very clear note: now is a very, very good time to apply for the Pro-Trader program. Why am I saying this so specifically again? Because we always work quarterly and because we obviously want to advise sellers as well as possible, we can only accept a limited number of sellers for the period. And if the portfolio is full and we unfortunately can’t take any more, then we can no longer provide consultation for that quarter either. But as of now, at the end of June, the new application process is starting, and that is exactly one way. Either we call ourselves or the applications come in via the landing page.
Lisa: And when you talk about applications, it sounds very much like there are requirements. So what requirements do I need to meet in order to apply?
Oliver: Yes, absolutely right, and I definitely want to take away any fear here: this is not like an application process where you have several interviews, not at all. As mentioned earlier, the program is free of charge. Also very important, it’s not a subscription, and I definitely want to emphasize that again here. So after the quarter, the Pro-Trader program ends automatically. You don’t have to actively unsubscribe. Yes, in the past we’ve actually had very different sellers in the program. We’ve had sellers who had only been selling on eBay for six months, we have sellers who have been selling for years, but sales are stagnating. And that’s exactly where we come in. So anyone who wants to can apply with us, and even if you have doubts about whether this is the right program right now, that’s no problem at all. Of course, we also look at each application individually and give helpful tips. If, for example, we find that the sellers’ product or portfolio is still too small, then we point them to the Starter program or to Account Management, and we also point that out. The only requirements are really that you already have some know-how in the eBay cosmos and have already made some initial sales, and we then look at everything else in the so-called welcome call.
Lisa: And you said it, it’s free. You get an enormous amount of insights into the eBay business, but above all into your own business. Christoph, that all sounds too good to be true. So where’s the catch in your view?
Christoph: I wouldn’t call it a catch, but you’re simply given only a rough direction, and in the end you still have to walk the path yourself. And, as already mentioned, you actually come away from every conversation with the advisor and have your whole homework sheet again that you have to tick off. And it’s definitely associated with a huge amount of time, and of course as a result IT capacities are tied up too. You really have to invest time and effort.
Lisa: I can see that the program really sounds extensive. Olli, can you give us a quick overview here of what all is included?
Oliver: Yes, at first glance it really does sound very, very extensive. However, you can really see very nicely from Christoph’s company the direction things develop when you’re willing to implement the steps together with us. First there’s the welcome, a short phone call where, I’d say, you sort of get to know each other a bit. There we go through the sellers’ points, which we then include in the program in a very individual way. We have so-called scaling calls, usually two to three of them. That’s where we really go into subject-specific topics like improving item specifics and all the topics we’ve already mentioned. And at the end there’s another call as a wrap-up, where we simply go through and review what was implemented in the last three months, and then we close that homework sheet again and say, these are the activities we’ve implemented. That’s how far the journey can still go. But as I said, I think if you implement it just as we suggest, like Christoph did, then you definitely only stand to gain from it.
Lisa: Christoph, what was the biggest benefit for you? Or what do you think is the biggest benefit for sellers taking part in the program?
Christoph: I think, personally for me, the one-to-one support from an eBay advisor was very beneficial for us. It gave us another hint about one or two levers that weren’t really very extensive, but achieved extreme effects. So I really liked that. And at this point perhaps another real piece of advice from the advisors: focus on the essential things. I think it’s really good to have someone who looks at things from the outside and points out these small things again.
Oliver: And in this context I’d also like to emphasize again, because Christoph said that with our one-to-one support, sellers are not just a number, we always work on equal footing. And if there are any questions, even outside this timeline I just described, a short email is enough and we’ll get in touch with the sellers immediately and really try to implement everything as best and as quickly as possible.
Lisa: That’s of course a great service. In the intro we explained that the Pro-Trader program builds on eBay Starter and after that it could basically transition seamlessly into Account Management. Olli, are these models designed so that you should go through all three at once?
Oliver: Yes, if you will, you could speak of an eBay cycle. I’d say the ideal path, if you will, is of course to start with Starter, then move seamlessly into the Pro-Trader program and from there book the Account Manager. In practice, of course, gaps do arise in between, simply because the things we provide first need to be implemented. And that’s why we usually see a break of about three to four months in support between the individual programs. But yes, it makes total sense to go through this cycle, because it allows us to work really closely with the seller, so that after around a year of support, when it comes to Account Management, you’re really well equipped for the future in e-commerce, especially on our marketplace.
Lisa: Then I’m curious to see how things continue for you. Christoph, what’s the next step? Are you already in Account Management?
Christoph: So far we haven’t booked an Account Manager yet. In fact, we still have a fully packed backpack of homework to work through. So, we actually still have a few IT projects coming up that also need to be implemented. But eBay is and remains an important sales channel for us, of course, and we are absolutely committed to taking future growth steps.
Isabell: Do you already know the eBay Awards? Every year we celebrate the most committed and creative sellers on our marketplace. And now it’s that time again: in the fall, we’ll be presenting the eBay Awards for the seventh time. If you want to be part of it this time, you can still apply until July 9.
Lisa: We’re really looking forward to hearing more about your stories and eBay shops. No matter whether you sell locally, have been active on our marketplace forever, or are just getting your eBay shop off the ground, you’re in the right place with our Awards.
Isabell: Curious now? You’ll find the link to the website with all the important info and the application form in the show notes.
Lisa: Thank you so much to both of you for the exciting insights. If you out there would like to read all of this in more detail again, of course we’ll link all the information in the show notes. There you’ll also find the application form for the Pro-Trader program mentioned earlier, if you want to get started right away. I heard there are only limited spots, so don’t wait too long! If, as the episode went on, you realized you’re not far enough along yet for the Pro-Trader program, feel free to listen to our episode on the Starter program as well. But if you’re further along than you thought and already know a lot of what we discussed here, then Account Management could make sense for you. You’ll also find that episode in the show notes. Christoph, since you obviously know our podcast, you know what our very last closing question is: what was the last thing you bought or sold on eBay?
Christoph: Well, apart from the odd test order I make from time to time, it was actually just a simple MS Office license.
Lisa: Olli, and you?
Oliver: Yes, now it gets awkward, maybe to start with: I’m a very price-sensitive person and always pay close attention to how expensive each product is. And I noticed that the Pikachu Pokémon is by far the cheapest thing we offer, and I gave it to my son for… for Easter, so that was the last one.
Lisa: Not awkward at all, you always learn something new about your colleagues! Very nice! And that brings us to the end of our episode. If you enjoyed the episode, as always we’d be happy if you’d leave us a like or subscribe wherever you listen to us. Many, many thanks to Christoph and Oliver for this overview. I’m sure there was a lot in there that helped our listeners.
Christoph: Yes, I wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you. Especially to my team. We’re a small, capable group, and only that made it possible to implement all these topics here. And I just wanted to say “thank you” explicitly again, and also many thanks to the management, who give us the room to implement such topics as well.
Oliver: And I’d like to add my thanks to that. Thank you, Christoph. It was very, very enjoyable working with you. I think your company will also be very, very successful in the future if you keep going as you have been. So a very big thank you from the team as well, and of course thank you, Lisa, for having us here today.
Lisa: Those are super nice closing words. Thank you very much, and have a wonderful summer break everyone!
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