Terapeak Makes Changes to eBay Research Tool; a Q & A

Data mining tool Terapeak recently made changes to its Terapeak for eBay Research tool, which it says were a direct result of feedback from users. New features users will see (other than a whole new interface!) include more filters, such as more filters for Item Aspects and Condition (New, Used, NWOT/New Without Tags, etc.).

I use the Terapeak tool a lot to dig up historical eBay sales data for items I am selling, or thinking of selling. So I did a brief Q & A with Terapeak Director of Marketing & Communications Tim Dubroy, to see what was up with the new interface.

Q: What are the most significant changes Terapeak made to its eBay research interface, and how will it most benefit users?

A: The biggest change is the workflow model we have chosen. More simply, we have made it easier to access the features that are essential to getting fast, accurate results. For example, now as soon as you search for an item, we bring up relevant subcategories right under the search bar, helping users get to accurate results fast. Also all the filters such as "time of day" or "listing type" are now accessible in the same place as the subcategory so you can set every relevant parameter and get
your results quickly.

Also perhaps more interesting...we now have aspects and conditions data! What that means is we can now allow a user to filter on the condition ie. new vs. used or "aspect" such as brand. This is essential to getting the most narrow and accurate result when doing pricing research.

Q: Why did Terapeak decide to make these changes?

A: We made these changes almost 100% in reaction to user feedback. We call this "Terapeak 9.0: The eBay Research Tool that Sellers Made" because just about every noticeable change was made to answer our users' requests for new functionality or layout.

I asked Tim how far back the data could go. I was under the mistaken impression I could only get 90 days of data.

A: We have had 1 year of data available to our users for almost 2 years now. We allow users to search any time period going back 365 days in 90 day chunks. We have
updated our interface to make that longer search easier to do. Now you just click the date range bar, click custom, and a calendar pops up allowing you to easily chose the time period you'd like to research. And also, if you want to look at just trend data, you can go back 2 years!

Thanks for your time, Tim! I plan to be doing a lot of that.