eBay

ricarmic · ‎02-07-2016

Just to show how reading these boards can be informative and helpful, femme made a comment a while ago about theoretically higher view rates of "sell similar" listings.

A year or so ago I transitioned to using "relist" for all items selling that had replacements on the premise that the "watchers" got notified that it was relisted and were therefore prompted to buy it before someone else got it (again). At first it seemed as though that worked but in the last 6 months or so no real results seemed apparent.

So when femme made that comment it prompted yet another experiment, I changed to using "sell similar" for all new lots, whether they had replacements or not. (Before this about half were relisted and the other half listed via turbolister).

Results so far are quite positive, I'm running about 10% sell rate in the first day or two from listing sell similar batches (normally I limit myself to listing 10 new items max a day). This is demonstrably higher than any initial sell rate I've seen in the past.

A reminder that I'm selling in the postage stamps category.

As has been discussed here many times who knows if this truly has made a difference or if it is just coincidence but I thought I'd share it anyway... experiments are good things to do in a continual form!

katlover1952 · ‎02-07-2016

That is very interesting. I usually always relist items - especially ones that still have watchers on the same premise that you mention. With sell similar there is a bit more to remember - changing currencies if necessary & remembering to fill in weight but if sales prove better would be well worth it. Thanks for sharing your experience.

hlmacdon · ‎02-07-2016

@ricarmic wrote:

Results so far are quite positive, I'm running about 10% sell rate in the first day or two from listing sell similar batches (normally I limit myself to listing 10 new items max a day). This is demonstrably higher than any initial sell rate I've seen in the past.

A reminder that I'm selling in the postage stamps category.

As has been discussed here many times who knows if this truly has made a difference or if it is just coincidence but I thought I'd share it anyway... experiments are good things to do in a continual form!

If your items are likely to be found via the best match system then the sell similar ranks better than an aging relist as the algorithm will have penalized the relist.

cumos55 · ‎02-07-2016

With relist one ends a listing and then uploads the same listing to eBay.

With Sell Similar, a seller revises the listing to present an item... that is similar to what was ended... such as a sold item

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Revision of a listing has an effect on exposure in search..

I get a boost after postage is adjusted in January... after Canada Post does its annual thing...

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I have close to 3600 -3700 listings on eBay... with 120 ending at about the same time each day of a 30 day cycle.

I also work to spread listings in each store category over each day of a 30 day cycle.

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What I do

(1) End and relist an item every 12 months... Relist tells watchers what was done.... Something that Sell Similar does not do

This was started when eBay announced that an extra fee will be charged if a listing was left longer than 16-18 months on eBay UK.

A;ll of my listings end at about the same time each day..... 5:30 PM Central Standard time... CST...... 6:30 PM CDT

(2) All listing were revised ... a bulk edit of 500 items at once.... Delete the postal code and add the same code as if it were new... Have not done this in a while... usually do it sometime... if not several times over the summer....

I sell in US dollars... Postage and price were revised several times over 2015.... my revision option

(3) All listings have been set up ... a customized view... under ... Active... in My eBay ..... I was able to include ... views... watchers, start date for a listing.... as well as other important factors

I have been surprised as to how fast views start to appear ... sometimes with moderately high number....on a listing

Start date helps me track which listings end on a day.... and which listings are at or close to 12 months on eBay....

(4) Adding new listings on a regular basis... 5 new listings to put my daily count over 120 listings each day... New listings... as well as relisted items ... get a boost in search

Adding views for Active must be something new.... in part a replacement for daily traffic reports.

Over the past 12 to 15 months there has been a major reduction in in listings some categories and a boost in other categories..... Some listings were deemed to be ...dead....

There are a lot of things done over 2015.... the end result... sales... dollar-wise... were the same for 2015 as 2014

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If a listing is ended and immediately relisted .... and then revised immediately ... such as I do with the postal code....would that be the same as what happens with Sell Similar?

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Just the beginning of what happens with my listings.....

hlmacdon · ‎02-07-2016

If a listing is ended and immediately relisted .... and then revised immediately ... such as I do with the postal code....would that be the same as what happens with Sell Similar?

Based on my understanding, unless your relisted item is an item with a high conversion rate (views versus sales), you will be penalized by the algorithm for relisting it as compared to a fresh listing via sell similar. A fresh listing via sell similar resets some of the key metrics that the algorithm looks at when deranking your listing.

Views and watches are less important than how fresh your listing is in the category listings (being at the beginning of the list or end of the list is usually more advantageous than the middle) and how it ranks in best match if you happen to sell in a crowded category with many competing like items. In that respect as a GTC 30 day renewal, you are often penalized. A high number of views with limited (multi quantity listings) or no sales is not a good thing in this case.

If you think about it, they are going to look at key metrics that will increase the likelihood of buyer conversion, ie price, shipping costs, how well that item converts for you (views to sales ratio), etc.

ricarmic · ‎02-12-2016

Hmmm just when you think you've got something figured out....

Repeating the same process over the last many days, has not yielded any noticeable difference from before the sell similar experiment.

Looks like it was maybe coincidence, however I am going to continue selling similar instead of relisting unless I notice something has a lot of watchers.

There are so many "moving parts" in selling and things that can theoretically be used to impact placement, knowing something is working might just be an illusion at the best of times! (I've always postulated that there is a "randomizing" factor in the search algorithm to prevent buyers from seeing the exact same items day after day - if I wrote the algorithm, I would include a randomizing factor)

Last night I started some experimental auctions, had more than usual overnight sales, so does running auctions help increase visibility of fixed price items?

As long as things are still selling that's the important part I guess!

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-12-2016

Both Raphael and Griff (.com) have denied that sell similar makes a difference but I almost always use sell similar rather than relist. But Raphael also said a couple of weeks ago that no one really knows exactly how cassini works.

Everything that I've read or heard about cassini mentions that it does take into account the number of impressions versus sales and if you don't have sales but have a lot of impressions (don't ask me to define impressions) then cassini may rate the listing lower. Raphael also mentioned that is only true for multi listings because a single listing obviously ends when there is a sale but I've always thought that if it rated multi listings, why wouldn't it rate a listing that had been up for month after month. But that's just my thoughts.

If an item hasn't sold in 3 or 4 months I often try to change the listing title and one or two things in the item specifics and/or description. I don't know if cassini then recognizes it as a 'new' listing but it often does seem to help. Even if I have a multi gtc listing and nothing has sold in 3 or 4 months I sometimes end it..redo it a bit and list again as sell similar. Of course I don't have as many listings as some do so it's easier for me to do things like that.

Anyways..that's my 2 cents. It 'seems' to work for me but obviously different things work for different sellers.

ricarmic · ‎02-12-2016

Hi Pjc!

My way of dealing with older stuff is that I'm running a multi-level sale:

(remember I sell on .COM in US$)

Oldest 50 items 30% off (these are 5 to 8 or so years old)

2nd oldest 50 items 25% off

Next 200 oldest items 20% off

Next about 1,600 items 10% off

Newest 1,000 items not on sale, as I don't want to train people to expect "new" stuff to be on sale.

I've been running this style sale for a while now, it seems to be working.

Given the strength of the US$ it has allowed me to improve the discounts I give on the sale items. If/when our $$ strengthens I'll make adjustments to the percentages, but I like what's happened so far......