DeepAnalysis Help
Copyright 2002 HammerTap
Overview
Requirements
Types of Searches
Choosing a Category for a Category Search
Composing a Keyword Search
Analyzing a Seller's Items
Starting & Stopping the Search
Status Box
Starting & Stopping the Search
Status Box
Viewing & Sorting Item Information
Viewing & Sorting Seller
Information
Viewing Statistics
Saving Reports
Opening Saved Reports
Exporting Reports
Contact HammerTap
DeepAnalysis is a powerful application that can extract detailed data from eBay auctions. DeepAnalysis can collect all the auctions associated with any eBay category, search result, or seller, and compile extensive sales data about the items and and sellers of the items. It can retrieve information for current and completed auctions and allow you to sort and view the data in a variety of ways. Most significantly, it allows you to sort all information about every item with bids, and it reveals the performance of sellers of the items, so you can see which sellers are doing well.
IMPORTANT: You must be connected to the Internet to retrieve data with DeepAnalysis.
IMPORTANT: You must be connected to the Internet to retrieve data with DeepAnalysis.
Version 1.5 of DeepAnalysis can perform three types of analyses on eBay.com and eBay Motors:
Choosing an Auction Site to Search
Version 1.5 of DeepAnalysis can analyze auctions on eBay.com and eBay Motors. In DeepAnalysis, these are considered to be two different auction sites. You must choose which site you want to analyze.
Choosing a site is easy. Simple click "Site" on the menu on the main window of DeepAnalysis.
eBay.com is chosen by default when you open the application.
Choosing a Category for a Category Search
DeepAnalysis can analyze all of the auctions in any eBay category.To perform a category analysis, make sure the "Category" button on the toolbar at the left side of the top of the DeepAnalysis window has been pressed. If it has, you will see the category analysis options at the top of the DeepAnalysis window.
The first step is to choose an eBay category.
To choose an eBay category to analyze, simply type the category number into the Category box.
To view a guide to all the eBay category numbers, press the "Category List" button. Your web browser will open to a section of the eBay site that lists all of the category numbers.
If you are not familiar with the category you are analyzing, press the "View Category" button to view the first page of the category in your web browser. This will allow you to make sure you are searching the correct listings.
Remember that you can only search a category that is low enough in the category hierarchy to have its own listings. In other words, if you go the first page of a category, and you can see actual auction listings on that page, you can analyze the category. If you see nothing but a listing of subcategories, you are still too high up in the category tree to perform analysis.
For example, you cannot perform analysis on the Consumer Electronics category (category #293), because it is too high up in the category hierarchy, and only displays its own subcategories:
http://listings.ebay.com/aw/plistings/list/all/category293/index.html
You can, however, click one level deeper, into the Camcorder category (category #11723), and see actual listings:
http://listings.ebay.com/aw/plistings/list/all/category11723/index.html
Because you can see listings on this page, you can perform analysis on it with DeepAnalysis.
After you have chosen a category, choose whether you want to analyze current or completed auctions in that category. If you search current auctions, all the data you retrieve will be from current active auctions, or very recently closed auctions. If you choose to search completed auctions, the application will scan all items in the category that have ended within the last 30 days.
It is best to start out with smaller categories to get a feel for the application.
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Composing a Keyword Search
DeepAnalysis can analyze all of the auctions that show up in any eBay keyword search.
Performing a keyword search analysis in DeepAnalysis is as easy as doing a search for items on eBay. Make sure the "Keyword Search" button on the toolbar at the left side of the top of the DeepAnalysis window has been pressed. If it has, you will see the keyword search options at the top of the DeepAnalysis window.
The first step is to choose your keywords. Enter words into the "Keywords" box that you would expect to appear in the auctions you wish to analyze, just as if you were searching eBay. For instance, if you wish to analyze auctions in which the Hewlett-Packard Jornada 568 Pocket PC are being sold, you might want to enter "Jornada 568" into the Keywords box.
You also need to choose what type of keyword search you want to perform. Choose the type of auction from the "Type:" drop-down box, which is right below the Keyword box. You may conduct three types of keyword searches in DeepAnalysis:
Once you have chosen a keyword search and a type of search to conduct, you may conduct an analysis.
There are also several optional ways to refine your searches. You may search for auctions only within a particular category, or choose a minimum and/or maximum price for the auctions you seek. To do a keyword search on auctions within a particular category, add an eBay category number to the "Category #" box. You may view a list of eBay category numbers by pressing the "Category List" button on the toolbar above the Keyword box. To limit your search results by minimum or maximum price, simply enter valid numbers in the minimum or maximum price boxes.
If you are doing a search that returns a large number of auctions, you may wish to limit the number of auctions that will be analyzed by the application, to save processing time. You may do this by choosing a maximum number of auctions in the "Analyze" drop-down box.
Remember that the maximum number of search results returned by eBay is 10,000, despite the number of search results that actually exist on eBay. If you search for a very common term, eBay's search tool will report the actual number of auction on eBay with that term. But eBay actually only returns the first 10,000 search results.
Before you begin a keyword search analysis, it is a good idea to view the results of the search on eBay, in a web browser, to make sure the search has been composed properly. To do this, press the "View Search" button on the toolbar above the Keyword box. A web browser window will open and show you the results of the keyword search on eBay.
When you are ready to begin the analysis, press "Start Analysis" on the toolbar at the top of the screen.
DeepAnalysis can analyze all of the auctions that have been posted by any eBay seller within the previous 30 days.
To perform a seller analysis, press the "eBay Seller" button on the Type of Analysis toolbar in the upper left corner of the main DeepAnalysis window. This will bring up the seller analysis options along the top of the DeepAnalysis window.
Enter the eBay user ID of the seller you want to analyze in the "User ID" box. Then choose whether you want to search completed auctions by this seller. The application analyzes a seller's current auctions by default. If you want to search completed auctions in addition to the seller's current active auctions, check the "Completed Auctions" box.
If the Completed Auctions box is checked, you will notice a drop down box to the right of it that allows you to choose how many days of completed auctions to analyze. You may choose to analyze from one to thirty days of completed auctions.
If you are researching a high-volume seller, you may wish to limit the number of auctions that will be analyzed by the application, to save processing time. You may do this by choosing a maximum number of auctions in the "Analyze" drop-down box.
Before you begin a seller analysis, you may want to view the seller's auctions on eBay, in a web browser, to make sure you are collecting data from the right seller and to get an idea of how many auctions will be scanned. To do this, press the "View Seller List" button on the toolbar above the Keyword box. A web browser window will open and show you the seller's auctions on eBay.
Starting & Stopping the Search
After you have composed a category or keyword analysis, simply press the Start Analysis button to begin retrieving data for the auctions that meet your criteria. The program will first retrieve the item numbers for all of the auctions and then scan each auction to obtain additional data.
Please be aware that large searches can take a long time to analyze, even with high-speed internet access. This is because the program must open and analyze hundreds, or even thousands, of web pages in order to analyze a large category or keyword search. Even though the program maintains 10 simultaneous connections to the internet and browses very quickly, it is time-consuming to open and analyze huge numbers of web pages.
To stop a search in progress, press the Cancel Analysis button. Please be aware that you will lose any data that you have collected in the search up to that point. The only way to view the results of a search is to let it run to completion.
The Status Box will show you the current status of your search. This will give you a rough idea of how much of a search has been completed.
Viewing & Sorting Item Information
After a search has been completed, information will be displayed in the grids on the items and sellers tabs.
Please note that it may take some time to display all of the data if you have performed analysis on a very large category. Please be patient as the data loads into the grids.
All the information in the different columns of the grid may be sorted. To sort the information in a grid based on the values of a certain column, click your mouse on the grey-colored top row of that column (the title row).
The items tab displays data about all the items in your analysis.
The items tab displays the following information
for each item:
1. Item number.
2. Item description. You can click any description and a browser will open to
that item page on eBay.
3. High Bid. This is the value of the high bid, regardless of whether the item sold
or whether there were multiple items offered in a Dutch auction.
4. Bids. Sort by number of bids to find the most popular items.
5. Reserve? Lets you know whether or not an auction had a reserve price on it.
6. Rsrv. Met? Shows whether an auction with a reserve had the reserve met.
7 Dutch? Shows whether or not an auction involved multiple items (Dutch format)
8 Dutch Sales. If an auction was Dutch, shows the results, e.g "4/10" (4 items
sold out of 10 offered).
9 Total Sale. This column shows the actual amount of sales of an auction. If an item
had a reserve that wasn't met, it will show $0, and if it involved multiple
items in a Dutch auction, it will multiply the values to show the actual "bottom
line" of a sale. This can show you which items really brought the most.
10. Seller. Shows the seller of the item. Click the seller name to view his or
her current auctions in your browser. Sort by seller to view all of a seller's
auctions grouped together.
Viewing & Sorting Seller Information
After a search has been completed, information will be displayed in the grids on the items and sellers tabs.
Please note that it may take some time to display all of the data if you have performed analysis on a very large category. Please be patient as the data loads into the grids.
All the information in the different columns of the grid may be sorted. To sort the information in a grid based on the values of a certain column, click your mouse on the grey-colored top row of that column (the title row).
The sellers tab displays data about all the sellers who have offered items that you chose to analyze. Each seller's statistics reveal data compiled about all of the auctions that seller hosted that appeared within the group of items you analyzed.
The sellers tab displays the following information for each seller:
1. Seller name. Click to view the seller's
current auctions in your browser.
2. Feedback. Sort to find which sellers in this category have the most feedback.
3. Auctions. Shows how many auctions this seller hosted among the items you
analyzed.
4. Auctions w/sale. Shows how many of the auctions resulted in a sale.
5. Percentage sold. Shows what percentage of the seller's auctions resulted in a
sale.
6. Items (incl. Dutch). Reveals how many actual *items* were offered by the
seller, taking into account multiple items offered in Dutch auctions.
7. Items sold. Shows how many actual items were sold, taking into account
multiple items offered in Dutch auctions.
8. Value offered. This is the total "value" of all items offered by the seller,
regardless of whether the items sold. This is calculated by totaling the value
of all high bids and, in the case of auctions with no bids, the value of open
prices. This takes into account multiple items offered in Dutch auctions. For
instance, if a seller hosted a single Dutch auction and offered 10 items at $10
apiece, the value of all items offered would be $100, regardless of whether any
of them actually sold.
9. High bids. This is similar to value offered, but it only includes those items
with bids.
10. Total sales. This column shows the value of all items that actually sold. It
leaves out items that had bids, but did not sell.
11. Avg. Sale. Shows the average price of an item that sold.
12. Avg. Bids. Shows the average number of bids per item, taking into account
only those items that actually have bids.
13. 30-day history. This column shows the seller name again, but if clicked, it
will open a browser window with the seller's 30-day sales history.
After a search has been completed, DeepAnalysis will aggregate statistics for all the auctions and sellers in the category that has been searched.
The statistics tab displays:
ITEM DATA:
1. Total number of auctions in the analysis you
performed.
2. Number of auctions that resulted in a sale. This figure excludes
auctions that had no bids or had a reserve that was not met. This row also
shows the sell-through rate by displaying the percentage of total auctions that
resulted in a sale.
3. Number of regular auctions. This figure excludes Dutch auctions.
4. Number of regular auctions with a sale. This shows the number of
auctions that resulted in an actual sale, by excluding those auctions that
received no bids or had a reserve price that was not met. It also shows
the sell-through rate of regular auctions by revealing the percentage of them
that resulted in a sale.
5. Number of Dutch auctions. This shows the number of "Dutch auctions",
which are auctions in which multiple identical items are offered at once.
6. Number of Dutch auctions that resulted in a sale. This shows the Dutch
auctions in which at least one of the offered items was sold. It also
reveals the success rate of this type of auction, expressed as a percentage of
the total number of Dutch auctions.
7. Number of Items sold per Dutch auction. Multiple items are offered in
each Dutch auction, and this shows the average number of items sold in the Dutch
auctions in this category.
8. Number of reserve auctions. This shows the auctions in which a hidden
reserve price was set.
9. Number of reserve auctions resulting in a sale. This reveals the number
of reserve auctions that received bids that were high enough to meet the reserve
prices, and thus result in a sale.
10. Number of no-reserve auctions. This shows all the auctions that did
not have a hidden reserve price set.
11. Number of no-reserve auctions resulting in a sale. This shows the
number of no-reserve auctions that received bids, and thus resulted in a sale.
It also shows the percentage of the total number of no-reserve auctions that
resulted in a sale.
12. Average high bid. This shows the average high bid for all items that
received bids, whether or not the items actually sold. It includes the
high bids on reserve auctions, whether or not the auctions actually resulted in
a sale. As such, this figure is typically somewhat higher than the average
sale price. For Dutch auctions, the high bid for a single item offered is
used. For instance, if multiple items sell for $10 in a Dutch auction, the
high bid is $10.
13. Average sales price. This shows the average price at which an item
sold in this category. It only includes auctions in which the items
offered actually sold, and does not include figures for reserve auctions in
which the reserve was not met. As such, this figure is typically somewhat higher
than the average sale price. For Dutch auctions, the sales price of a
single item is used. For instance, if multiple items sell for $10 in a
Dutch auction, the sales price is $10.
14. Total value of high bids: This shows the total value of all high bids
for all items that received bids, whether or not the items actually sold.
It includes the high bids on reserve auctions, whether or not the auctions
actually resulted in a sale. As such, this figure is typically somewhat
higher than the total sales for the category. The figure includes the
value of all the items sold in each Dutch auction. For instance, if 10
items sold for $10 each in a Dutch auction, the total sales for the auction
would be $100.
15. Total sales. This shows the total value of all actual sales for the
auctions you analyze. It only includes auctions in which the items offered actually
sold, and does not include figures for reserve auctions in which the reserve was
not met. The figure includes the value of all the items sold in each Dutch
auction. For instance, if 10 items sold for $10 each in a Dutch auction,
the total sales for the auction would be $100.
SELLER DATA:
1. Number of sellers. This
shows the number of unique sellers that have offered the items included in your
analysis.
2. Auctions per seller. This shows the average number of auctions each
seller hosted, of the items in the analysis. It does not include auctions
hosted by the sellers that were not included in the analysis.
3. Average seller feedback rating. This shows the mean feedback rating of
a seller of the items in the analysis.
4. Average sales per seller. This shows the sellers' average sales for
items in the analysis.
DeepAnalysis reports can be saved for later access. A report that has been saved may be reopened within the program at another time for viewing and manipulation.
Three types of reports can be saved: Item reports, Seller reports, and Statistics reports. You may save a report after you have finished a search and the data you want to save appears in the DeepAnalysis grids. If you wish to save all the data that shows up in a DeepAnalysis search, you must save it in three separate reports, each one corresponding to a separate tab of data: items, sellers, and statistics.
To save a report, choose File > Save Reports from the main menu.
Important: It is best to give your reports descriptive names so you can identify them later.
DeepAnalysis reports can be saved for later access. A report that has been saved may be reopened within the program at another time for viewing and manipulation.
Three types of reports can be opened: Item reports, Seller reports, and Statistics reports. If you open up one type of report, the data associated with that report will be displayed in the appropriate grid within DeepAnalysis.
To open a saved report, choose File > Open Saved Reports from the main menu.
DeepAnalysis reports can be exported in Comma Separated Value (CSV) format. Files in this format can be opened into Access, Excel, and many other programs.
Three types of reports can be exported: Item reports, Seller reports, and Statistics reports. Three types of reports can be exported: Item reports, Seller reports, and Statistics reports. You may export a report after you have finished a search and the data you want to save appears in the DeepAnalysis grids. If you wish to save all the data that shows up in a DeepAnalysis search, you must export it in three separate reports, each one corresponding to a separate tab of data: items, sellers, and statistics.
To export a report, choose File > Export Report from the main menu.
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