A standard Marketplace listing consists of 2 main parts: product information and offer information.

The full listing is displayed on the marketplace as a Product Detail Page (PDP). Partial listing information is also displayed on other pages, such as Category pages, or Search Engine Results Pages (SERP).

To create a listing, you need to create the product in the Marketplace catalog. In some cases, the product already exists in the catalog. Once this step has been completed, you can upload the offer information.

So what is the difference between the product and the offer information?

Product information includes:

  • Title of the product
  • Images
  • Description
  • Bullet points (key features)
  • Product attributes (e.g. color, size, shape etc.)
  • Product identifiers, such as the EAN
  • Other product details

Offer information includes:

  • Price (including selling price and base price, such as the RRP)
  • Availability
  • Stock
  • Product condition (new, used, refurbished etc.)
  • Delivery time
  • Delivery cost
  • Applicable discounts
  • Other offer attributes

On most marketplaces a product is associated to a single Product Detail Page (PDP), which may contain many offers from different sellers. The default offer is called the Buy Box offer. It usually offers the best price, but other factors, such as delivery time, can also determine the Buy Box offer.

Let’s talk about the key elements of a good listing.

How to build a good title

In competitive marketplaces having a good title is critical to your listings’ visibility. Depending on the platform, your titles can be anywhere between 20 and 250 characters in length, which gives you a lot of opportunities. However, most marketplaces will demand that you use a particular title structure. Here is an example:

Brand – Product type – Model – Main attributes – Product Features

Some marketplaces, such as Otto, will force you into more strict rules. Otto will automatically add the brand, as well as the product type at the beginning of the title, so it’s pointless to add those yourself (you might have seen listings on Otto with duplicated product types in the title – now you know the reason).

Product titles on marketplaces are usually much longer than on conventional online shops. The reason for that is competition – on the marketplace you are fighting for visibility with many other sellers. The more information you have in your title, the better your chances of appearing in search results, and attracting the click. Titles (along with images) play a key role in the “Consideration” stage of the marketing funnel.

Here are some good practices:

  • Be well aware of the title length limitations and structure requirements. You want to take full advantage of what the marketplace allows you, so building a title of 20 characters while you can make it 200, is a waste of potential. Remember that sometimes limitations can vary by product category
  • Do not forget to add the “Product type” to your title, if it’s not automatically included there. If you are selling a table, “Table” should be part of your title, and it should definitely be in the beginning to make it clear to the visitor what they are looking at. Up to this day I get amazed how many sellers actually ignore this.
  • Add important features and attributes to your title. If you are selling a solid wood table, this is critical to be mentioned in the title. If your product is water-proof, it should be in the title as well. Think from a real-life perspective: which features will be attractive to the potential buyer?
  • Use high search volume keywords in your title. If the Marketplace gives you search volume data (e.g. Amazon, Bol.com), use this to enhance your title.
  • If your product has multiple use cases (e.g. Writing Desk, Computer Desk), add them to the title as much as possible

Images

In some categories, such as Fashion, the main image is more important than anything else. But in all categories images play a significant role in attracting visitors to your listing, and helping to convert them to buyers.

The Main Image is usually the first thing a visitor will see and pay attention to, sometimes even before looking at the title. Almost all marketplaces will have a formal requirement that your main image is on pure white background, without shadows, and only showing the unpacked product. However, this rule is not enforced that strictly. You have probably seen many main images on marketplaces which include multiple variations of the product, text, logos, accessories etc. Truth is that if those images contribute to a good Click-Through-Rate (CTR), the marketplace itself is not interested in suppressing that.

Your main image should be an “attention grabber” – clearly demonstrating what you are selling, with the product occupying minimum 80% of the available frame. Ideally, you want a high-resolution image (2000×2000 px or higher), especially on marketplaces which support the zoom function (Amazon is a good example). If you are selling different variants of the same product, e.g. multiple colors or sizes, it’s important to showcase this on the main image.

Secondary images should not be ignored either. A standard image set should include:

  • The Main Image
  • Lifestyle images showing the product in use
  • A dimensions image, demonstrating the size (especially in categories such as Furniture and Large Appliances)
  • An infographic image with text
  • Images showing the product from different angles

Description

This is the section in which you probably have the most freedom. Descriptions can be long and include various elements. Make sure you are aware of the possibilities:

  • What is your description length limitation
  • Is HTML supported? If yes, which tags?
  • Can you embed images in the description?
  • Is there a possibility for an enhanced description, such as Amazon’s “A+ content”?

In any case, make sure your description is full of keywords related to the product. Give it a good structure – use paragraphing and section titles. Avoid the “wall of text” – especially if you are creating content in bulk, this is a common risk, which results in the visitor looking at hundreds of words without any formatting, and sometimes with merged words. Take advantage of HTML, if it’s supported – on marketplaces like eBay this allows you to build a good description template which will also promote other products in your portfolio for cross-selling.

Bullet Points (Key Features / Unique Selling Points)

This is supported by a limited number of marketplaces, such as Amazon. This space should be utilized for the most important features and practical applications of your product. So, for example, if you are selling a Coffee Machine, it’s important to mention the types of coffee you can make with it. If your product has a feature which distinguishes it from the competition, place it in the bullet points.

Adding keywords to the bullet points is a must – sometimes you might want to capitalize some of them to make them more visible.

If the marketplace does not support bullet points, you can include them at the top of your description to keep the visitor reading.

Product attributes

Although these might seem less important, they have their role too. Every marketplace has a set of mandatory attributes, varying by category. Common examples are: color, size, material, power, capacity.

Along with the mandatory attributes (without which you cannot create a listing), there is usually a set of Recommended, and a set of Optional attributes. In some categories, like Electronics, there might be more than 100 attributes available, which makes it a tough decision on what to fill in and what to ignore.

If you have the data at hand, it’s a good idea to fill in everything, especially if your product catalog is small. But if you have more than just a few SKUs, this can become a very time-consuming process. So how do you decide what to fill in?

There is one key thing to help you make a decision – is the marketplace using the attribute as a filter in its site navigation? For example, in the Tables category, is there a filter allowing to select “Number of seats”? If yes, you should fill in this attribute, even if it’s not mandatory. Otherwise your listing will disappear from the screen every time this filter is used. Do your homework in the category before deciding which attributes to fill in.

Need help creating and optimizing your listings? Contact Marketplace Agents.