Increase in GUEST purchases?

[teenytrinkets]

Almost a third of my sales are from Guest buyers these days. That's high! These sales can be problematic because buyers (the ones that don't cancel) often appear unable to track or easily communicate with the seller. And, of course, they never leave feedback.

Does ebay ensure they provide a valid email address? And do they provide notifications and reminders about their purchases?

On more than one occasion I've had buyers message me from a different guest account asking where their purchase is, and it makes it seem that it's difficult for them to keep track.

What is everyone else's experience with guest buyers?

[femmefan1946]

A guest buyer is a usually a new buyer, new not only to you, but new to the site.

We should coddle them.

With the exception of new sellers, feedback is basically irrelevant.

EBay doesn't use it to assess member accounts, and most buyers look no further than the rating and believe 95% is an A+.

Remember that most of these new buyers are going to be ordering from their phones, and the entire page with its (not very)clear explanations won't easily be visible.

You could consider sending a Message to each guest buyer with the tracking number for their shipment. That will appear in their email, and is a common practice with other online retailers.

[pjcdn2005]

I get a lot of 0 feedback buyers but I'm never sure if 0 means that someone is a guest buyer or someone who just registered. How do you tell?   Either way I always send out a message once the item is mailed  and rarely get any inquiries after that so perhaps that message helps them to feel comfortable.

Guest buyers are supposed to receive an email that gives them a link to contact the seller if needed.  But I don't know if that email is sent out consistently. Guest buyers can't leave feedback so for some sellers that may be a good thing.

[flipistics]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

I get a lot of 0 feedback buyers but I'm never sure if 0 means that someone is a guest buyer or someone who just registered. How do you tell?   Either way I always send out a message once the item is mailed  and rarely get any inquiries after that so perhaps that message helps them to feel comfortable.

Guest buyers are supposed to receive an email that gives them a link to contact the seller if needed.  But I don't know if that email is sent out consistently. Guest buyers can't leave feedback so for some sellers that may be a good thing.

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Guest buyers usually have a huge amount of weird numbers after their name (and 0 feedback).  Also, if they purchase more than one item from you in separate transactions (ie, they don't add them all to the cart first), each one will have a different buyer username, differing by a few numbers) all going to the same address.

[msau4301]

I've never been aware of any guest buyers for my items (not sure what it looks like), though my mother in law years back once bought as a guest and then couldn't even find her purchase anywhere (don't worry I helped her out). I have had a number of zero or low feedback buyers and knock on wood they have always been legit, no issues. I even had someone with zero feedback leave me positive (they no longer have zero of course).

For me the ratio of new buyers is the same now as has always been.

Everyone has to make their first purchase sometime and I think with all the ways eBay has been trying to reach out more to people who wouldn't have typically just come here on their own, that makes up some of the newbies. Could be the "guest" is just someone who didn't want to make up their own account for what they think may be a one off buy (but hopefully they see the light and keep shopping!) 

[ricarmic]

Yes that is high!

For fun I looked my #s up and I've had 2% ie 2 zero feedback buyers in the last 100 buyers.

This might be because my store is in coasting mode as a result of a very ill intimate family member meaning I've only got time to fill orders, I haven't been listing hardly anything in the last couple months and can't run auctions until things stabilize here. This means my regulars are a larger chunk of my sales (running about 50%), "new" folks don't see me near as much because of the way the store is running at the moment.

[byto253]

lol.  I had no clue that there was such a thing as a guest buyer.  Can a seller leave feedback for guest buyers?  I have had a few zero feedback buyers and my feedback is the only one that shows up.  

[recped]

I wouldn't know, I rarely pay any attention to buyer feedback or even their user names.

[teenytrinkets]

Yeah the guest buyers have the weird numbers after their user name.

I'm thinking I get a lot of them because I promote most of my items and my sales are from web searches.

I leave feedback for all of them, but of course, never get any back. It's like the order goes into a black hole!