16 Seconds. 1.5 Billion. Here are some figures for thought:

Rev Up Your E-Commerce Sales: Six Things Every Powersports Retailer Needs to Know to Increase Revenue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....
Author: Jesse Poole
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Rev Up Your E-Commerce Sales: Six Things Every Powersports Retailer Needs to Know to Increase Revenue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Here are some figures for thought:

1.5 Billion.

16 Seconds.

That’s the amount of parts and accessory sales processed through eBay Motors in just three months.

That’s how often a snowmobile, ATV or personal watercraft part or accessory is sold on eBay Motors.

Whether it’s ATVs, motorcycles, dirt bikes or jet skis, the powersports industry has a strong e-commerce presence that is continuing to grow at a rapid pace. In fact, according to eBay, powersports sellers using fitment with their listings increased sales by 2X and may soon enjoy the 4X growth that auto parts and accessories sellers have experienced on eBay Motors. If you’re not actively participating in this billion-dollar online powersports market, you need to be. But don’t be fooled. The e-commerce world is extremely complex, and in order for you to be competitive you need to be able to manage this everevolving market. The following six tips can serve as a guide for your e-commerce strategy to ensure that you’re able to make the most of multiple online channels and capitalize on the e-commerce boom.

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Automating your product listings is the way to go Chances are you’re planning to hire someone to handle your e-commerce listings, or maybe you already have a group in place or are outsourcing your e-commerce efforts to an agency.

No matter what your process, automation is the way to go. Manual uploading is tedious and time-consuming, and can eat up an e-commerce budget quickly if you’re paying an individual to physically upload each product complete with all its details. Listing automation alleviates the tiresome, day-to-day tasks associated with selling online, especially for the powersports segment where providing year, make, model, sub-model and other detailed information is often required to list powersports vehicles, gear, parts and accessories. ChannelAdvisor’s software can list tens of thousands of products automatically and efficiently. The result is the ability to reach more channels (and more buyers) faster.

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Rev Up Your E-Commerce Sales: Six Things Every Powersports Retailer Needs to Know to Increase Revenue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Keeping track of channel updates directly impacts your bottom line E-Commerce is a moving target, and many retailers struggle to keep up with the endless changes online. Take for example the following changes:

✓ Comparison Shopping Engines change their rates every holiday season,

✓ Google recently sunset the free Google Product Search and

launched Google Shopping, a commercially based program,



✓ eBay recently announced a new program called Top Rated

Plus that will highlight listings from Top–rated sellers who offer prompt shipping, product tracking information and returns. Top Rated Plus sellers will receive discounts on fees and the new Top Rated Plus seal.

It’s hard to fully understand all of these changes and how they affect you, the retailer. If you’re not on top of changes within each channel, you risk wasting a lot of money and potentially jeopardizing your e-commerce presence. Automating your listing process will free up your time so you can research and stay on top of these changes. Or, you can count on the team of experts at ChannelAdvisor to stay informed, share the impact of changes with you and proactively work to ensure that you benefit from industry changes.

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Make the most of fitment for eBay Motors Imagine you’re a motorcycle parts retailer. You’ve just received a full shipment of clutches compatible with several different motorcycles. It’s peak selling season and you need to get these products listed on as many e-commerce channels as possible. No surprise in this industry, your competitors are right there with you. You need to get these listings front and center for shoppers—fast. EBay Motors has launched fitment for motorcyles, which will allow powersports retailers to decrease live listings while increasing search results. Within the next couple of quarters eBay Motors will provide fitment for ATVs as well. Now, with just a few mouse clicks, motorcycle parts retailers can have their products selling on multiple e-commerce channels with appropriate fitment, quantity and price. Since all this data is coming from the same catalog, descriptions, price and available inventory will be consistent across all your channels.

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Best shipping practices are crucial for a Top-rated sellers status Once an order is placed, only half the race is over; retailers still need to make sure that a product is picked, packed and shipped out in a timely manner. Good shipping practices are critical to a retailer maintaining a “Top-rated seller” status on both eBay and Amazon. This can impact your sales on eBay and also impact whether or not you secure the all-important Buy Box on Amazon. Automating a process as important as shipping is vital to maintaining and improving sales on all marketplaces. The ChannelAdvisor platform integrates with several shipping platform providers to ease fulfillment and help you get your products to your buyers quickly

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Long tail keywords are more profitable for search Chances are that most of the powersport enthusiasts out there know exactly what they are after when searching for a product online. They aren’t going to waste their time trolling through online listings; they are going to type in the exact product they want. This is called a long tail keyword or phrase. For example, a search term might be “2011 FX Nytro RTX tracks,” or “Shoei X-Twelve Kagayama 3 Helmet Size Large.” The customer searching for this isn’t just browsing around, but rather they are ready to purchase the exact item they’re after.

Not only are long tail keywords less expensive than broad-match search terms like “tracks” or “helmets,” they are also more likely to convert, saving retailers money on search fees while making them money in increased sales.

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Reporting tools make selling online more efficient Just how are your products performing, anyways? What are your best sellers? Are you well-stocked in inventory for those best-selling products? If you’re not able to answer these questions quickly, you’re not alone. Lots of sellers are unsure of some of the key data points that define their business. Reporting and analytics surface all the important details that retailers need to know, such as whether there are any unshipped items, what the top 10 selling products are and the quantity of each. So, if a certain kick starter is selling out on eBay, a retailer can pull stock from Amazon and transfer it to eBay to satisfy that demand.

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Conclusion A few final figures for thought:

✓ ChannelAdvisor powers thousands of top e-commerce brands. ✓ ChannelAdvisor powers the top powersports sellers in the US. ✓ Hundreds of new automotive and powersports sellers chose ChannelAdvisor to grow their business. Our powersports customers are earning their stripes for e-commerce success and affecting their bottom line through efficiency and precision—you can become one of them. What are you waiting for?

To learn more: Call 866.264.8594 • UK 0203 014 2700 • AU 1300 887 239 Visit www.channeladvisor.com Email [email protected]

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