February 17, 2026 12:56 am (IST)
Follow us:
eBay language study reveals words to use and avoid when selling products
Birmingham, Apr 29 (IBNS): A 'gent' can expect to pay twice as much as a 'man' and 'authentic' products fetch up to 50 per cent more than 'genuine' ones, according to unique academic analysis of the language used on eBay.
Researchers at Birmingham City University (UK) trawled more than 68,000 items listed and sold on the auction giants’ UK site, to find out how online sellers choose to describe their products.
The studies, which spanned more than 15 million words, revealed patterns in language which significantly changed the price buyers could expect to pay for similar goods.
Among the results it was shown that ‘men’s’ watches sold for an average of £30 while ‘gents’’ went for £70, and fragrances labelled ‘genuine’ fetched £21 but ‘authentic’ ones set buyers back £34.
Similarly, users paid nearly three times as much for ‘on-ear’ headphones as ‘in-ear’ headphones (£25 to £71) while a watch with ‘resistance’ can expect to attract nearly 50 per cent more than a ‘resistant’ watch (£85 to £59).
Grammatical errors such as missing apostrophes and internet speak were also found to have a negative impact on the price products sold for.
Researchers Andrew Kehoe and Matt Gee from Birmingham City University’s School of English were behind the study.
Kehoe said: "People often think of eBay as a way of getting rid of household junk and unwanted gifts but it actually contains a wide range of products in 35 different categories. The variation between those categories is really interesting from a linguistic perspective. What's also interesting is that on eBay, unlike other online stores, sellers write their own descriptions, so we find a lot of language variation between sellers too."
The words were analysed using the team’s WebCorp software, which has been used extensively in research and teaching worldwide since launching over 15 years ago.
For this project, product listings were downloaded from eBay over a 70 day period before being analysed using WebCorp’s specialist tools.
Research also found that antique sellers were the most likely to use a personal connection to sell products with words like ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘my’, appearing more frequently than in any other category and making up 20 per cent of the most popular words used.
Elsewhere used car sellers were found to shy away from the term ‘second-hand’ with only nine instances of the phrase found among nearly 1,000 sold.
Instead traditional car sales speak was found, with phrases like ‘honest’, ‘reliable’, ‘clean’ and ‘reluctant’ all among the top terms.
Kehoe added: "The term ‘second-hand’ seems to have a stigma attached when it comes to cars, but people will happily use it to sell smaller items like books or DVDs. We've found that the language used in eBay descriptions really does have an impact on whether items sell and for how much."
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
Latest Headlines
Croma’s summer sale is here — Up to 71 pct off on ACs, premium TVs!
Mon, Feb 16 2026
‘Success can’t be measured by clean roads or good salaries’: Why an NRI left Canada for India
Tue, Feb 10 2026
‘My savings rate hit 90%’: Former Microsoft techie on why moving back to India was a life upgrade
Tue, Feb 10 2026
Top Window Accessories for Winter Protection
Fri, Feb 06 2026
Vintage automobiles steal the show at The Lake Club, Kolkata
Tue, Feb 03 2026
Heritage walk traces Medical College Kolkata’s 192-year journey of medicine, reform and nation-building
Mon, Feb 02 2026
Mahindra turns up style quotient with Thar ROXX STAR EDN—all-black, bold and award-winning
Sat, Jan 24 2026
No booze, no DJ, just bhajans: How Gen Z is redefining clubbing
Fri, Jan 23 2026