The vast majority of shoppers these days browse from their mobile devices, and eBay shoppers make up a strong portion of them.
It's common for eBay users to rely on their smartphone even more so than most online shoppers — eBay users who bid on auctions like to be able to check them frequently with a device they keep close at hand.
Even if you don't auction your items and sell only for a Buy it Now price, you still need to optimize your listings for mobile devices in order to appeal to the huge eBay user base browsing from their smartphones.
Here are 6 ways to make your eBay listings mobile-friendly.
1. Lay out your product description for easy scanning
When it comes to the information you provide, the completeness and readability matters much more than looks. It can be tempting to use huge fonts and multicolored text to try to catch the eye of your reader, but remember, in this case they're already looking at your eBay listing. A large block-letter headline will probably be split over multiple lines on a mobile screen and require an annoying amount of scrolling. For ultimate mobile readability, just use 16-point black text and split up the important points with a bulleted list. Don't overuse HTML formatting, either — just keep the design basic.
2. Don't overdo it on the information
Keep your descriptions as short as possible while still including all the important information. Long descriptions can be a pain to read on a small screen, especially when a lot of scrolling is involved. Go through your listing information and try to cut out any extraneous content. However, make sure you preserve all the important details!
3. Keep your photos in the photo gallery
You're trying to keep your listing simple and scannable by someone who won't see the full page at once. If you include images in your description, mobile users aren't likely to see them — if the images are at the bottom of your description the user may not scroll that far, and if they're in the middle of the description the user may stop reading early because they mistakenly believe that's the end of your information. Besides, there's no guarantee any images in your listing information are going to look right with your mobile formatting, so it's best to just keep them in the gallery. Customers will know to look there for them.
4. Use the View Item description summary feature
The View Item description summary feature exists specifically to allow sellers to customize their description summary's appearance on mobile. This comes in handy if your item descriptions are unavoidably long or if you need to include HTML. You can learn how to use this feature by referring to eBay's guide.
5. Include the viewport meta tag
The viewport meta tag helps browsers correctly scale the item description to match the device being used to display it. It's important that you don't use fixed-width values, as this defeats the purpose of scaling for mobile — your item description will look fine on some screen sizes, but not others. For more information on the viewport meta tag, take a look at eBay's Mobile-Friendly Guidelines.
6. Use eBay's Mobile-Friendly Test
eBay provides a quick method of testing your item description by entering the item's eBay ID on eBay's Mobile-Friendly Test. If you've pre-written your HTML into a file, you can upload it directly to test it before you post the listing. This helpful tool is a great way to check your own expertise at writing mobile-friendly eBay listings, and to see just what works and what doesn't.
Want to Do More with eBay?
Keeping these 6 tips in mind as you create your eBay listings will help you reach mobile customers and improve your sales. However, there's a lot more you can do to sell more on eBay, and a lot of tips and tricks used by eBay sellers who have become very successful. You can get started on the path of eBay mastery with our free ebook, available below. Happy selling!
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