How to Make Your Own eBay Daily Deals & Weekly Deals

This is a precursor to the full article on how to leverage eBay shop tags which I may finally complete for tomorrow (ok, may be Monday). However this is the most immediate application for your eBay shop and can be implemented in minutes. Plus I’m including code for you to copy/paste with! 73MAR2VX5JRS

What are eBay Shop Tags?

Before we start, you need to quickly learn that there are special tags, or keywords that can be used in the eBay shops. These tags that allow you to dynamically show your listings and other data on your eBay shop. I’ll be covering these fully in an article I’ll be releasing shortly, that describes each of them and includes a practical example of each.

The eBay Shop Tag – eBayStoresItemShowcase

Example ItemIn a few moments we’re going to be leveraging the eBay shop tag eBayStoresItemShowcase and using the attribute called ITEM to specify an eBay item ID to then bring this through on to our eBay shop.

This tag (or keyword) has several other attributes, I cover these in more depth later in the full article, but for now, rest assured you can have more control than this.

Create a Custom eBay Shop Page

For this to work, we need to create a custom eBay shop page, as long as you have an eBay shop, you can do this as the basic eBay shop has 5 pages included.

  1. Go to eBay and Sign in
  2. Go here: http://my.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MyeBay&CurrentPage=MyeBayManageStore
  3. On the left click on ‘Custom Pages’ (or go here)
  4. Now under ‘Active Pages’, hit ‘Create new page’ (its a little hidden, keep looking)
  5. Now there are a couple of formats, but we want the most control so go for the bottom one called ‘1 text Section/HTML’ along the bottom and hit continue
  6. Enter a Page Title. I suggest ‘Home’
  7. You now have a big text section, the HTML for this will follow in a few moments
  8. You can elect to show or hide the left bar at the bottom, this is a choice I’ll leave for you (leave it shown!!!!).
  9. On the next page, after pasting the HTML verify its as expected and hit save and publish

Notes: You may have already noticed that some of these templates include featured items, that’s really nice for simple users, I’ll be giving you some HTML in a moment that you can edit to your own liking and have maximum control.

If you would like this for your homepage, there is one extra step to do this, go back to the eBay shop custom pages page here and near the bottom there is a section called ‘ Shop Homepage’ and a drop-down box, you can use this to set the shops homepage. This is how people create custom pages and create some those superb landing pages you see.

Grab 6 Item Numbers

We’re going for the maximum control option, which is specifying the item numbers that are to be shown in our daily and weekly deals section. There are other options, but I’m pretty sure you’re going to be wanting to specify exact items.

We need 6 numbers, 2 are going to be our daily deals, the other four are going to be our weekly deals. So before we can do this, lets go and grab six items. If you do not know what item numbers are you can find these by looking at your listings, using this listing as an example.

I have put an arrow next to the eBay item number.

ebay-shops-item-number-1

Where you can find the eBay item Number of a Listing

The Keyword

We’re using two keywords, on that has two items specified for the daily deals and one that has four item numbers set for the weekly deals. In this example I’ve also set the attribute BACKFILL to on, so at least if you forget to update the listing or it ends, eBay will back fill for you.

Daily Deals Keyword:

{eBayStoresItemShowcase ITEM=”ItemNumber1,ItemNumber2″ DISPLAY=”1″ BACKFILL=”On”}

Weekly Deals Keyword:

{eBayStoresItemShowcase ITEM=”ItemNumber3,ItemNumber4,ItemNumber5,ItemNumber6″ DISPLAY=”1″ BACKFILL=”On”}

The HTML

Now this is clearly not going to be a one size fits all, but it’ll get you on the right track. It is s a single column format that has titles, descriptions and the eBay shop tags in and will point you in a the right direction.

I’ve added some comment tags to guide you to which sections you can edit and also remember to replace ItemNumber1, ItemNumber2, ItemNumber3, ItemNumber4, ItemNumber5, ItemNumber6 with the eBay item numbers you harvested before.

Code:

Our Daily Deals
Welcome to ebay shop XYZ we have two amaizing deals for you, these are Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam et rutrum lorem. Morbi eget mauris enim, ac interdum lacus. In non interdum est. Nulla facilisi. Donec vel nibh ac purus faucibus volutpat. Praesent nec neque dolor. Aliquam id lectus sit amet augue aliquam accumsan. Morbi lobortis eros lacinia erat facilisis suscipit. Donec eu urna nec elit vestibulum ornare ut ultrices arcu. Donec in nibh ante.
{eBayStoresItemShowcase ITEM="ItemNumber1,ItemNumber2" DISPLAY="1" BACKFILL="On"}
 
Our Weekly Deals
Take advanatge of our amazing weekly deals, thee only last for one week Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam et rutrum lorem. Morbi eget mauris enim, ac interdum lacus. In non interdum est. Nulla facilisi. Donec vel nibh ac purus faucibus volutpat. Praesent nec neque dolor. Aliquam id lectus sit amet augue aliquam accumsan. Morbi lobortis eros lacinia erat facilisis suscipit. Donec eu urna nec elit vestibulum ornare ut ultrices arcu. Donec in nibh ante.
{eBayStoresItemShowcase ITEM="ItemNumber3,ItemNumber4,ItemNumber5,ItemNumber6" DISPLAY="1" BACKFILL="On"}

Real Life Example

This is the example code live on eBay, as you can see, it only needs the descriptions and you’re ready to roll!

ebay-shops-daily-deals-example

The Example Code Output with Live eBay Items

Easy-Peasy

You’ve now got the keywords, the HTML and the instructions. Easy-Peasy. Enjoy.

Skip Google & Microsoft, Will eBay Buy Twitter?

twitter_whaleAfter reading an interesting article titled ‘Why Google Will Buy Twitter‘ where Douglas points out that it could be prime buying material for not only Google, but Microsoft too. But I’m wondering, what benefit could there be if eBay were to pick this up?

Google & Microsoft

Douglas rightly points out that Google Wave and Buzz are complete flops. Wave had its strategy wrong and Buzz was hammered due to privacy issues in the beginning. Where-as Balmer at Microsoft is really going for it with Bing and has pockets deep enough to pick up a few high profile businesses.

Capacity Issues

While Microsoft & Google might appear to be prime technology based companies to solve the whale issue (a big whale appears when its over capacity, annoyingly quite often too), eBay has immense practical knowledge itself with deploying its platform over some +35 countries, +80 million users and dealing with some insane amount of new listings each day.

There was a time when eBay was quite flaky, we used to dread Friday mornings and that was nearly always our morning off. Something was always being updated and something nearly always didn’t work that morning before 12. But thats long gone now.

So what could they do with Twitter?

Assuming that eBay can leverage their knowledge to solve the the whale issue, this does give them a standpoint that they’ve not had before. They have access to an huge audience of users that work on real-time data.

Maybe its a side entrance to Facebook, B2B users, a different way of communicating directly with buyers. I’m not sure why it feels right, but it does.

If…

If you were eBay, Google, Microsoft or someone else for that matter and knew that Twitter was up for grabs, what would you do with it?

TFM&A & Not-So Light Reading List x7

By the time this is released I’ll almost be in London, its TFM&A time (see t-f-m.co.uk/), I’m looking forward to the Keynotes from Google and Professor Malcolm McDonald. Although I do feel I need to divide myself between those and the other tasty sessions on offer. If you’re there, drop me an email to catch up during the breaks.

The WOM Factor

I’ve been chewing over the ‘The WOM Factor‘ I released on Friday, it received a lot of attention and I had an interesting conversation with a chap studying for his MBA over it.

We’re on to something with it, however as John inadvertently pointed out in the comments, it needs to take into account the sales volume also, because a business that is clearing a mere 400 items is no comparison for a business that clears ten times this in the same period.

Light Reading

I like to share what I’m reading, with the hope that others will share their experiences with their reading material. A recent example of this was from Sue Bailey and “The Tipping Point”, it was brilliant. If you have any suggestions, pop them in the comments section at the bottom

Book #1 – “The Tipping Point”

A stellar read, picked this up and literally did not put back down again. What makes an epidemic happen, why the little things count, why fixing a broken window or removing graffiti can change entire cities. More information on “The Tipping Point

Book #2 – “Smart Retail”

I’ve only just started reading this book, it was one of those books that were a suggested addon in Amazon and it was rated highly, so grabbed it. I’m only a few pages in but can already tell this is going to be a fab read. I’ll have most of this book covered by the time I get to London tomorrow. More information on “Smart Retail

Book #3 – Who Moved My Cheese

Wow, this was the kick up the arse I needed. Quite an amusing short read, put a lot of things in perspective. Wish I read it months ago. More information on “Who Moved My Cheese“.

Book #4 – MBA in a Day

Pfffft in a day, not likely. Part of the ground work I am carrying out, an interesting read and adds personal opinion/views to the MBA program.

Book #5 – Instant MBA

Another pffft, but still I felt was worth reading. I had paid £9 for this, but then was shown that it had gone to free on Amazon the next day. Quite a fast paced read and smoothed over most topics too much, again added a new dimension to the MBA program and only highlights I have sooooo much work in front of me.

Book #6 – Permission Marketing

The precursor to the “Purple Cow”, I’m sooooo much a Seth Godin fan, his view and take is so fresh compared to the stuffy writing and views that are about. This was definitely a pick up and read till the end.

Book #7 – Tribes

Another Seth Godin book. Understanding how tribes work, fits in well with the reading of “The Tipping Point” as they are both skirting the same idea, instead of 10 loyal parties, you need 10 groups of loyal parties and that’s when magical things happen. Not to make my role any harder or anything, just shed some possible light on the tasks in hand.

And More…

There are few others kicking around, I normally have four or so on the go and an audio book or two on the iPad/Shuffle while training. I have become quite a reading junkie as of late.

I seem to be going through one of those learning streaks (this is the third or fourth time I’ve been through one now), where all input of a certain kind is being taken in, but with anything, its the ALL in the application. Knowing is only one part, the application of knowledge is a completely different ball game.