HammerTap review: eBay market research revealed.
Compare HammerTap and TeraPeak
HammerTap is a data-mining service for eBay buyers and sellers, performing statistical analysis of the auction site’s closed auctions and categories. HammerTap helps eBay users sell more effectively by providing them the information they need to effectively understand and predict the performance of their auction listings by highlighting market trends and eliminating guesswork.
Did you know that by not doing market research you are losing money and if you are serious about your business you should not rely on guesswork. By failing to prepare we are preparing to fail. There are zillion factors involved in successful sale strategy.
You need:
-pick right product that will sell and will make you profit
-great sales copy and description
-right day and time when people spend most to start and end auction
-right category to get maximum amount of traffic
-most profitable price to start so you cut down your eBay fees, but not the profit
-power keywords and phrases buyers search with, because if they can't find your listings, they can't bid on them
-how many serious players in your market and how big is your market
-listing features are supposed to get your listings more attention
Watch HammerTap Tips and Techniques Video.
Most Profitable eBay auctions Ever. Part One.
You can Check HammerTap website here.
Most Profitable eBay auctions Ever. Part Two.
Get all the specs about HammerTap here.
Compare HammerTap vs TeraPeak
How to create best sales copy for your auction
I am personally use HammerTap for two main sale directions: first- when I am selling something from my closet and second when I am looking to sell product from a drop shipping company. So in a first case I have exact brand and model and I am looking for general market trend for this product – what is the listing success rate(LSR), this gives me general idea should I spend my money for eBay auction or not. If LSR is 45% or more I can sell my product. So now I need great descriptive, informative sales copy and since I usually don't know heck about technical details of products that I am selling, I use great feature in HammerTap- Listing Report(where you provided links to closed auctions) and pick 5-10 auctions with highest sale price, obvious winners, then research their sales copy, take the best, improve and I got the best sales copy than anybody, it works every time.
How to find best/profitable product to sell on eBay
When I am looking for a product to sell from drop shipping company, I need product that is in demand, that will make me profit. Usually I start pretty broad from pointing general direction for example: Consumer Electronics-->Portable Audio/Video-->Portable DVD Players. I don't know nothing about brand or model. I don't know nothing about portable DVD players(because I don't use them) except I see, the whole bunch of kids everywhere, watching movies and cartoons using those things. So I use this scheme to find best products to sell:
Search for portable DVD player(Listings With Sale- 61%)
Go to keywords report, sort it by Auction Success Rate(ASR) and find keywords with higher ASR:
WIDESCREEN -82,5%
INSIGNIA-89,93% comparing to TOSHIBA-54,05%, PANASONIC-64,03%
7''-96,52% comparing to 8''-86,55% ; 9''-57,14%; 10''-74,47%
So now it is pretty obvious for me that 7'' WIDESCREEN INSIGNIA PORTABLE DVD PLAYER has much more chances to sell comparing to 9'' TOSHIBA PORTABLE DVD PLAYER.(Actually 87,9% to 52,1%) so if your drop shipper has both which one you choose? If you choose INSIGNIA you will sell 9 out of 10, if you choose TOSHIBA you will sell 5 out 10 and closing auction without a sale means loosing money, less business. You can use this scheme to drill down to exact models and features. Just run another search for 7'' INSIGNIA PORTABLE DVD PLAYER and find most profitable models and features.
How to find best day/time to start/close your auction, duration, listing type and start price.
With HammerTap finding such complicated things as best day and time to close your auction, duration, listing type and start price are extremely easy, just put your keywords in search box and click a button. You done and have all the information in front of you.
To see HammerTap and TeraPeak compared click here.
How to create title that attracts customers
What you do when you want buy something on eBay. You type name of a product in a search field and then start looking for a good deal. What if your listing never came up in search results because you pick wrong title. It means no customers, no bids, no money even if you have best product in the world nobody will buy it because they not gonna be able to find it. But if you know what exactly buyer typing in a search field would you put these keywords in your title? Market research tools gives you all information to create winning title to get as much exposure as possible. Just use Keyword Report and sort it by Average Sale Price(ASP) and Listing Success Rate(LSR). Because the items with the highest ASP and LSR have the highest demand, meaning the highest number of bidders bidding on a shortage of items. One note here: when choosing best keywords for your title make sure they match the product you are selling.
How many serious players in your market and how big is your market
Sellers often think eBay is an unlimited market and if they simply post a product, buyers will come, your real market is the eBay category or categories where you sell. So to determine size of your market simply use HammerTap category research. I decide to find out how big is the market for Burton Snowboards. I picked Sporting Goods-->Skiing and Snowboarding-->Snowboarding-->Snowboards category and for the last three month it were 7550 auctions for total of 1,234 000$. That is the size of a market. To find out how many serious players I have to compete with use Seller Report and sort it by number of auctions with sale. In my case there are 6 serious players who sells more than 20 snowboards a month. You can also find you place in a market just use Sellers Search and put your eBay id.
If you looking for additional legitimate product sourcing solution for your dropshipping busines click here.
Conclusion
As you can see not doing market research can cost your business real money. There are two main sources of research data available: HammerTap and TeraPeak. Both are great tools, especially both recently release new versions HammerTap 3 and TeraPeak 5. I am personally use HammerTap because it is priced lower 19.95$/month, comparing to 24.19$/month for TeraPeak. And if you dealing with large volume of sales investing in right market research tool definitely worth it. You can check official HammerTap website here and TeraPeak here.