eBay Stores Linking Strategies
by Jerry
eBay Staff Member

It's been said that an island with a bridge to the mainland gets lots of traffic. The same can be said of those eBay Store owners that make a concerted effort to drive traffic from their auctions to their Stores through active links.

Since the eBay Stores discussion board was launched in June, 2001, we have found that successful Store owners share one common trait - they all drive traffic using links, thus providing compelling reasons for buyers to visit their stores. Successful Store owners will attest that a well-planned linking strategy is the surest way to cut costs, and improve your eBay business's bottom line.

There are several linking strategies that you may wish to investigate and deploy for your own use, allowing you to draw greater attention to the items you wish to sell.

Many of the strategies presented here were developed and refined by people like you, and discussed on the eBay Stores board. Please also be sure to understand the eBay Links policy as you craft your links. Each linking strategy includes a Link Structure sub-section that explains how to build the primary URL, and a detailed example.

Link to a specific Store Inventory item

Use this linking structure to draw attention to a duplicate item in your Store. This is most effective if you sell multiples of the same item, and use the auction-style format to generate excitement. When linking to a specific Store item, be sure that you do not violate the Key Word Spamming policy.

Link Structure:

1. Go to the desired Store listing page.
2. Copy the URL found in the browser Address field.

Listing Strategy Example: Imagine that you have 12 copies of the latest Star Wars DVD. Create a regular auction-style listing starting at $0.01 with no reserve for ten days. This listing is intended to generate as much excitement as possible. Your Store would have a Store Inventory listing containing the remaining 11 DVDs with a reasonable Buy It Now price. In your item description, create a link to your store listing with compelling message like: "Why wait until the auction ends? Buy this DVD now."

Link to a customized Store category landing page

This link is perfect for marketing groups of similar items. It's probably the most versatile and effective of all the link strategies since it's based on your Store category structure. A Store owner must first think carefully about how they want to cluster their items, and give their custom category a good name. These custom categories, or "clusters", can be based upon many different factors: genre, size, brand name and maker to name a few. This strategy makes it easier for shoppers and collectors to buy from you by saving them time, and directing their attention to custom categories where they can find items that are very similar to the one in the present listing.

Link Structure:

1. Go to your eBay Store, and click on the desired custom store category.
2. Copy the URL found in the browser Address field.

Listing Strategy Example: Imagine that you sell a large variety of women's clothing and accessories, and one of your specialties is designer handbags. Also imagine that a woman is shopping for a nice handbag on eBay, and comes across one of your listings for a Kate Spade handbag, but, it's not the right style. If you provide a general link to your Store home page where many other types of items are displayed, they might lose interest. By providing a link to your designer handbag Store category from your auction-style listing, the buyer may get excited about another handbag, and make a purchase.

This strategy should be applied to all your auction-style listings that fall within a particular cluster.

Link to a Store home page

eBay automatically provides two links on every item description page to the seller's Store home page. One appears at the very top, and the other at the very bottom, of the listing. Often combined with a Store logo, you can strategically place this link within all of your item descriptions. This is a good general-purpose link that exposes buyers to all of your Store custom categories (clusters).

Link Structure:

1. Go to your eBay Store.
2. Copy the URL found in the browser Address field.

Listing Strategy Example: Many Store owners don't place enough emphasis on their Store home page links. They often say something like, "Visit my eBay Store", using the same font size and color as the rest of the item description. You can improve the effectiveness of this link by increasing the font size, or changing the color of the text. You could also insert your Store logo into the description, and link it to your Store home page.

Link to an "About the Store" (aka About Me) page

If you develop an exceptional About Me page that surpasses the form and functionality of your Store home page, link to it in all of your item descriptions.

Link Structure:

1. Click on the "me" icon next to your UserID.
2. Copy the URL found in the browser Address field.

Listing Strategy Example: Some Store owners have developed exceptional About Me pages. With a good understanding of HTML code, and with the help of an HTML-editor program, a seller can replicate all the primary features found on the store landing page in their About Me page. They can also control the look and feel of the page much better than the default Store home page style. At this level of sophistication, it makes more sense to use the About the Store link in item descriptions.

Link to a "View Seller's Other Items" page

If a Store owner were to do nothing special, the majority of traffic to their Store would come through the "view seller's other items" link. Since buyers routinely click on this link to see what else a seller has to offer, you can promote all your listings by duplicating this link in your item descriptions. This is another general-purpose link comparable to a Stores home page link, because it shows the same list of items with Gallery images. The "view seller's other items" page also includes the Auctions and Buy It Now tabs to separate the different selling formats; and adjustable Time and Price columns. It does not contain the other Store landing page features such as the internal search box, logo, and custom categories. It can be thought of as a simplified version of your Store home page.

Link Structure:

1. Go to any of your listing pages, and click on the "view seller's other items" link.
2. Click on either the All Items or Buy It Now tab depending on your preference.
3. Click on either the Price or Time column header links if you would like to change the sorting view.
4. Copy the URL found in the browser Address field.

Listing Strategy Example: Many Store owners don't apply enough emphasis to this link; and that could convey an incomplete message. The old-style messaging that is often used says something like, "See My Other Auctions". A more accurate message would omit the word "auctions", and say something like, "See All My Other eBay Listings". Since a seller could pre-select the Auctions or Buy It Now tabs, they could focus their message by saying, "See All My Other Fixed Price Listings". A seller can also give more emphasis to this link by increasing the font size, and changing the color of the text. A special graphic could also be used to draw people's attention.

Link to a pre-canned title & description key word search page

This is a very precise and extremely powerful link. It combines the advantages of the specific item (#1), the custom category (#2), and "view seller's other items" (#5) links. This link type can be used to direct shoppers to any cluster of items (not just Store categories) that share an identical set of key words. The link is built using the internal Store search engine. By using this function, the seller can a.) search for specific key words, and b.) include all regular auction and store inventory items.

Link Structure:

1. Go to your Store home page.
2. Enter the key words in the Search field at the top of the page.
3. Click the Search button.
4. Copy the URL found in the browser Address field on the resulting page.

Listing Strategy Example: Extend the scenario used in #2, and image that in addition to handbags and scarves, you also specialize in blouses. Your inventory includes a wide variety of styles and sizes. In your store you could have a custom category called "Blouses - Size 8, 10 & 12". Now image that a woman is shopping on eBay for a blouse, size 12, and comes across one of your auction-style listings. You could assist this shopper by providing them with a link to a pre-canned title & description search for "blouse, size 12". By connecting a shopper to a cluster of items that share the same key words, you may be able to generate multiple orders.

Encourage adoption of "Add To My Favorite Stores" links

You can develop repeat business through your item description pages by encouraging buyers to add your Store to their Favorites list in My eBay. Since some buyers may not be aware of this particular feature, it could pay off in the long run to present them with the option. While the "Add to My Favorite Stores in My eBay" link can be found at the top of every Store page, there's no reason why you can't add this link to each of your regular auction-style listing pages too.

Link Structure:

1. In this case, place your eBay UserID after the "=" sign. http://my.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?AcceptSavedSeller&sellerid=UserID

What now?

The next step to take is to develop a plan of action that unfolds in distinct intervals. Build an auction-style listing page template that incorporates some of the linking strategies, and then take it for a limited test drive. You'll probably find that you need to adjust your strategy over time. The key is to try many different template designs, and make small changes each time.

If you need help building a link or with the HTML, please check with other members on the Stores and Photos/HTML board, and see the following tutorials -- Introduction to HTML & How To Make A Link. Turbo Lister users can now build these links without any knowledge of HTML by using the Insert Hyperlink button in the Design View toolbar.

Talk back: Click here to discuss this article