Idealistics has been working with Frooition and Boost Analytics for 18 months, using a range of our eBay and Website services. In this case study we will take a look at their experience and results with Frooition, which led to a 70% sales growth and also their expansion into their own custom website.
Services:
eBay Design
We mainly sell within the eBay Home & Garden, which is such a large and competitive category. Some of the global brands selling within this category (Dyson, AO, Black + Decker) are looking very professional with their branding and presentation of their listings.
We wanted to present our eBay listings in a professional manner to be on the same level of these brands. But to also help improve buyer trust and confidence that they are dealing with a professional business and seller on eBay. Also to reaffirm to the buyer that the item they are looking at is exactly what they will get.
All of these brands we saw were using Frooition. After looking at the eBay Certified partner page, we reached out to Frooition (who are an eBay Gold Partner) and were able to schedule a meeting quickly with their team to discuss our requirements and how they can assist. We already knew our listings needed improvement in terms of the design and presentation. But we soon learned that there was more to Frooition than just design. (See more details on this in the process part below).
eBay Optimization
As part of our meeting with Frooition, they also reviewed and generated eBay listing optimization reports using the Boost Analytics for eBay tool, to also show where improvements can be made with our eBay listings for keywords, data, item specifics and much more! Also the positive impact this will have in increases in listing impressions, clicks and views on our listings, but also helping increase sales conversion rates.
eBay Ads
We have attempted several times to make good use of eBay Ads and promoted listings. We always found it difficult to understand, but also yet to see a good return on this. Frooition showed us where improvements could be made with our existing eBay ads. But also how optimising these Ad campaigns and ad groups as part of the Boost Analytics tool would be huge beneficial and see a much better return on ad spend (ROAS)
Ecommerce Website
(new to market) – Initially, we only sold on eBay. We knew we wanted to expand outside of eBay eventually, to help increase sales and revenue opportunities through other channels. We didn’t want all our eggs in one online basket (eBay). Owning and having our own website was part of our plans.
Frooition offers Multi-Channel branding which will allow us to expand into other areas outside of eBay, whilst remaining design and brand consistent. They also offer a data migration service for ease of use of expanding outside of eBay. We were pleased to know we were speaking with an agency which could handle all our marketplace and ecommerce website needs and requirements.
Process:
eBay Design
The design process was great! We worked with one of Frooition’s inhouse senior designers. Who came up with ideas, concepts, and design previews for our business and eBay design. As part of the process you receive unlimited design previews and revisions – nothing gets built, installed, tested, or implemented until you are 100% happy with the design previews and process.
They recommend several features and functionality for our custom eBay template design, to help not only showcase the products professionally. But to also improve search and navigation, leading to a much better buyer experience, but retaining customers and buyers better and for longer!
The design was pretty much perfect the first time. But we did tweak a few areas which were no problem for the Frooition design team. These were turned around quickly with updated design previews. Once the design was approved, they built and installed the new template into our Frooition account. From there, they updated all of our live listings and converted them all over to the new design in just a few seconds. Meaning all our live listings had the new design and features on, and brand consistent across the board.
The support team reached out shortly after to introduce themselves, along with providing support, assistance and guidance on the next steps and getting the most out of the Frooition eBay software suite. Their 24/7 365 support team has been an invaluable resource and peace of mind for us as an eBay seller.
eBay Optimisation & eBay Ads
Once the new template was live on our listings, they then turned their attention to our eBay optimisation. Using Boost Analytics for eBay, they analyzed all our live eBay listings and produced optimisation reports on where optimisation opportunities lie, or which of our eBay listings were missing import data and item specifics, which were harming their visibility within eBay search.
The Boost Analytics team were insightful, knowledgeable and extremely helpful when explaining these reports. Boost Analytics is easy to use, but provides a full insight into your eBay listings like nothing else we’ve seen. That coupled with the fact we can bulk optimise listings with accuracy and speed, is a real time saver. The results have been outstanding and I wish we had known about this sooner! (see results/growth section below).
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For eBay Ads and promoted listings, now our listings are optimised organically, since we re-started ebay promoted listings we’ve seen a much better Return on Ad Spend. This is mainly down to our listings and ad campaigns and groups being optimised by Frooition Boost Analytics Ad Manager.
Website
After seeing growth on eBay (see growth/results section below) we re-invested in a new website to expand our sales channels outside of just being on eBay. We opted for the BigCommerce website platform (although Shopify was also a contender). Once again, the design process was brilliant! This comes with unlimited design previews and revisions. Detailing the customer journey from the homepage, into the category page, and then into the product page. Also mobile responsive previews of these pages too). The design team ensured we were brand consistent.
With it being a website there was more flexibility and freedom with the functionality available. Meaning we were able to add in more features to further improve the search, navigation and the overall customer experience on the site.
Once we had approved the design previews for the new website, the Frooition Ecom Dev team walked us through the next steps. That being the development, build, testing and implementation process.
As they were building the new site, we were able to keep checking in on the live progress of the site build. They explained step by step updates, queries, and answers to our questions quickly and thoroughly. Nothing was ever too much trouble. Our inventory from eBay was exported and migrated across into our new website – which was ideal and saved us days/weeks of work instead of having to recreate each product on our new website.
The Go-Live process was excellent. Frooition helped with every step from repointing the domain, adding in Google Analytics and Tag Manager, to SSL certificates. Post going live with the new website, they were always available for support, assistance and guidance, and still to this day support us!
Growth/Results:
eBay
Since using Frooition and Boost Analytics for our eBay business and listings, we have seen a 70% increase in sales! We truly believe this is down to the fact we look professional. Stand out from the competition, install buyer confidence and trust, but we also retain buyers better.
We utilized their eBay cross-promotion tools to help up-selling our other items we sell on eBay onto our other listings, which is a must in the category we mainly sell into on eBay. The dynamic navigation and categories they build into the template help us retain customers better. Keeping them within our eBay store and just browsing our listings. Rather than them searching the whole of eBay again and potentially losing the sale to one of our competitors.
eBay Optimisation (Boost Analytics)
Boost Analytics has helped us stay one step ahead of the competition on eBay. Keyword data, item specific data, tracking etc. The data, reports and insights into why some listings aren’t ranking organically well within eBay search. But most importantly how to optimise them for better performance. For impressions, click through rates and sales conversion rates. This has been a real game changer!
The fact we can track listing performance post-optimisation and see reports, data and metrics on how listings are now performing, shows the optimisation we have done using Boost Analytics has worked and we’re seeing better sales and revenue from our eBay channel.
Website
We knew the new website would take a will to build growth, we it was new to market but, we were wrong!
Within 6 months we equalled what we were doing on eBay in sales and revenue!! We were gobsmacked that we had essentially doubled our company’s revenue in such a short space of time. Not only has it doubled our revenue, but by having our own website has meant more freedom, more control. But also better margins, as there are lower overheads/fees compared to the marketplace fees.
Growth here has seen us invest further into marketing. For every £1 we now spend on marketing for our website, we are seeing £3 in return in sales.
Feedback:
We were slightly reluctant to do this case study. We didn’t want to give away that Frooition & Boost Analytics is our secret weapon to our success on eBay and our Website. I can’t speak highly enough about them!
Dealing with one company for all areas eBay and website was ideal and helped speed up the process.
It’s one of the best decisions we have ever made, and has changed our online business for the better! Without it, I’d be still just selling on eBay. Scratching my head as to why we aren’t getting any traction, sales, or growth.
