No Sales

[ggsgems57]

I’d like to know why there are no sales happening on eBay? I have not had a sale since April of this year!  I have over 130 items selling right now with no sales!  I am really not sure if my account is blocked or there’s something totally wrong with eBay.  I realize that we have COVID-19 but I should have had at least one sale since April.  If anybody can fill me in so that I can understand what is going on, that would be great.  Thank you

[reallynicestamps]

The pandemic has led to a surge in sales with people self-isolating and comfort shopping.

Have you actually looked at your listings lately?

Is there a real reason why you have a $22 watch with $1800.00 Standard Shipping?

You use a lot of useless words in your titles like RARE! and Huge. You have 82 free keystrokes , but it is claimed that the first four, which show most easily on a phone, are the most important

What isn't important is grammar and punctuation in titles-- just use words that are Searched.

New - Lot of 5 Handmade (Semi Precious Stones and a few SilverChains) Bracelets

Better might be "5 Bracelets handmade garnet carnelian amythest NEW "

Don't mention silver if they are plated.

You might want to give the lengths too.

 FB is undated these days, but you have left FB over the past six months. Are you sure you have had no sales at all? A drop from ~50 sales a month to only ~10 in six months is concerning, to say the least.

Are you adding new material?  Are you using Promoted Listings? What are you getting in the way of Views?

[ggsgems57]

Thank you for your sight and I will check my listings again.

[marnotom!]

I checked a few of your listings and you don't seem to state shipping methods and rates to any country other than Canada and the United States.  This is likely having a negative affect on the search engine picking up your items, possibly even for sales to Canada and the United States.  (The eBay search engine can be weird that way.)  I did an unlogged-in keyword search for one of your items on two different browsers and it was pushed pretty far down the results list.

By the way, did you forget that you asked this question a couple of months ago?

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/What-has-happened-to-the-buying-traffic-on-eBay/m-p/4430...

[ggsgems57]

I only sell to Canada and US due to the expensive shipping rates.  Other countries will not pay for tracking and without tracking I’m screwed.  I have had to refund international buyers because they said they didn’t receive their packages.  I can’t afford to loss money like that.  As for asking this question before, I don’t think it’s a problem do you?  Thanks for your input.

[reallynicestamps]

I have a different take on that argument.

First- buyers not sellers pay for postage (and for tracking).

If the buyer won't pay for tracking, the seller doesn't ship. This is in our control.

Second- if the high cost of overseas tracking means no overseas sales, but having overseas shipping in your listings means better placement in Search, why  NOT offer overseas shipping.

No sales but higher placement for the cost of a line of typing?  Cheap !

I have an actual Block on very few countries, and don't give a shipping cost to most. In addition, on a few items I have stupid high shipping costs (some were accidents). 

This means if I do get an overseas customer, either her shipping cost is available (eg to France) and she can pay immediately, or she has to enquire before she can pay.

In the latter case, I can quickly give a price . If this were a perfect world, she would ask before buying, and everything would be smooth. More likely, like the South African customer I had last week, she disappeared after purchasing and didn't even wait to learn the shipping cost. (Yes she ended up with a UPI Strike.)

But you are right about one thing.

Especially in your category, never ship overseas without tracking.

If the customer won't pay for tracked service, she can't afford the gems.

[esclyons]

according to your sold  listings, you did sell 2 items in July.. I realize that doesn't make things better, but without knowing your market, perhaps there are too many people selling the same items as you...at a better price, would be my first guess..

[travis7s]

Keep listing daily if you can, eBay search engine really seems to like people who list. If you don't have any new inventory you can "End" a bunch of items and use "Sell Similar" to relist them to refresh your inventory.  eBay gives everyone 200 free listings now so you should be able to do that.

Consider switching your Tracked Packet USA to Small Packet USA. This can help you drop your price and eBay will still often give you tracking/delivery scans if you upload the "URxxxxxxxxx" tracking number.

Promoted Items at 1% rate and running markdown sales can help too but you need a store for that.

[marnotom!]

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@ggsgems57 wrote:

I only sell to Canada and US due to the expensive shipping rates.  Other countries will not pay for tracking and without tracking I’m screwed.  I have had to refund international buyers because they said they didn’t receive their packages. 

---

Actually, many of your listings state that you do sell to those countries.  You just don't have shipping rates and methods specified for most countries.  I was able to change my shipping location to "Liechtenstein" and I got this for some of your listings (sorry about the image size):

I do agree with @reallynicestamps that it can't hurt to provide international shipping methods and prices in your listings.  Most international buyers worth their salt will know that a halfways decent shipping method from North America isn't going to come cheap.

By the way, you didn't have to issue refunds on your non-tracked items because your buyers said they didn't receive their packages; you had to issue refunds because you didn't have proof that they received their items.  This may seem like nit-picking, but there's quite a difference between the two scenarios, as even with tracking, you'd still owe your buyers their money back if the tracking showed that the items weren't successfully delivered to their buyers.

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@ggsgems57 wrote:

As for asking this question before, I don’t think it’s a problem do you?  Thanks for your input.

---

Nothing wrong with asking the same question again or following up on your original thread (as long as it isn't ancient) as long as you're upfront about it, as it gives us posters some context and you may get better responses as a result instead of a rehash of the ones you got the first time.

[teenytrinkets]

Interesting... listing more frequently bumps up your listings in the Search Engine?! Cool!

Question though: does it also do that for items that are re-listed? Or just when there's new item#s?

I tend to like the auto re-listing for items that have watchers, and I end and relist the others, really just to make them look like new listings. I'm wondering if it's worth it to end and relist everything from now on in order to take advantage of the Search Engine benefits?

[ricarmic]

My belief is that  activity of any kind is good for you in search results

-sales

-items being listed

-lots of views

As far as I know if you relist something the watchers etc get a notification that it has been relisted, and since I relist almost everything, yes relisting stuff regularly does help (as far as I know).

[pjcdn2005]

If  I have a gtc listing that hasn’t sold in 3 Or 4 months, I usually end it, make a few changes and then list it again. It’s always been my impression (though I don’t know if I’m correct) that it is more likely to be higher in search if there are changes versus relisting it exactly as is. 

I do think that letting a listing run for a while makes it more likely for other search engines(Google etc)  to show it so I don’t recommend ending and relisting each month but every seller has their own theories.

[needsmorerobots]

I have to agree with @reallynicestamps, your shipping costs are inflated at least on the first listing I viewed.

For instance, being in Canada, you have a DVD for $4.50 and $10.00 shipping to the US. That's fine and it covers small packet air down to the US with pocket change left over. But then you come to shipping to Canada and you charge the same $10.00. You list it under Canada Post regular parcel when it should appear as letter mail for about $3.50.

This could be one of the issues. As a buyer and someone who has a rough idea on shipping costs, I avoid sellers who have low prices on products and inflated shipping. I look for someone with real shipping costs or someone who merged part of the S&H into the product. I can decide then if it's worth my buy.

And do you have more items to list? I know it's a struggle. For me I have a F/T job and I take care of 3 elderly relatives during Covid so finding the time to add new listings has long pauses. But whenever I do add listings, I notice movement or a slight increase in my sales.

[travis7s]

Well, nobody really knows what the search engine likes but its highly speculated that listing new items helps with your rankings. Another speculation is your sell through rate. If you have a tons of items that don't sell for months/years then the search engine considers them undesirable and hides them more. This is why people like to "refresh" old listings by Selling Similar. If you have unused free listings it doesn't relaly hurt to try it out and see what happens.

[watermelonmemories2005]

I definitely find that I get a sale or sales after I have listed something new.

[ricarmic]

I have noticed lately that whilst I am "selling similar" I almost always have sale(s) during the time I'm listing new items, no matter when it is. Putting 10 items in takes me half an hour or so.

I'm going to start keeping track to see if it really is the case or it just seems that way......

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@ricarmic 

Most of my sales are now beginning and towards the end of month. Small random bunches in the middle. Usually overnight, which on the brighter side is nice to wake up to. Making several new listings can be a trigger but again, very random. As of late they flip back and forth between USA and Canada in bunches. International has been crickets. Middle of the pandemic 80 % Canada. 20 % USA/Intl per month. Pre-Pandemic larger orders were 3 to 4 per month. Now few and far between. As soon as I see an actual pattern, it usually poofs. I had a definite drop off in sales #'s/$'s after  MP was implemented. FVF's for shipping continues to increase ummmm "well". To that I add, no comment!!!!

-Lotz

[ricarmic]

I have also noticed that some days most sales are $C to Canadians, the next day most are US$ to US folks.....

[mrdutch1001]

I don't believe only shipping to USA and Canada has that much negative affect on listings since Covid has created such a mess with worldwide postal systems, it's more likely to be a change of buyer habits that is influencing sales...

Supply and demand for some products/items will have lost traction while others will have gained traction...

I haven't promoted shipping to outside North America in years for either eBay or my other selling venues and sales keep truckin' along, sometimes good, sometimes not so good...

It's all about the product, its uniqueness, price points, supply and demand, target market,etc,etc...

[ricarmic]

I have been surprised in the last couple weeks, items going to Israel, India (!!!!) have been arriving quickly and safely!