SALES are Down. Cause: Recession? Suggestions welcome.

Sales have been down for 6 months. The number of Buyers and Dollar average has been decreasing. Defect count has gone UP due to fewer Buyers over the months. Hmmm. Better pictures, accurate description, currency, percentage discount, combined ship discount. Can not Control Sales must Manage Expenses. Suggestions Welcome....

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SALES are Down. Cause: Recession? Suggestions welcome.

"I want my listings to be shown in all the areas I am willing to sell to.  I am not expecting it to be done at the expense of my competitors.  Just list them in the order they end and list them all"

 

Historically it never was like that on ebay.   Until 2010 the fixed price listings were store inventory and not in the main search result at all.  Auctions only got listed by date .  Auctions still largely get listed by date (they didnt for awhile when best match first appeared).  Once the stores went into core "ending date" ceased to have any meaning with so much stuff permanently listed.

 

If everything just rolled though search result by date, buyers would be faced with pages and pages of poorly priced items that have no chance of ever selling.    That is one of the big differences with amzn,  amzn does an even better job of making sure buyers are likely to buy,    Ebay needs to further improve on making sure only items that are potential sales are directed to buyers

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SALES are Down. Cause: Recession? Suggestions welcome.


@gifts_of_elegance wrote:

Pierre, I always did ONE DAY handling.  I actually ship  the same day.

 

Its only in the past few months that I do  not take returns.  My return policy was always "returns accepted without any conditions".  I changed it because eBay no longer refunds FVF,  seller has to pay for return shipping and end up with a defect in the bargain.

 

As for "Free Shipping", I did that too for 14 months, both to Canada and USA.  It did not make a bit of difference except cut into my profits.

It cost me $8,000 last year.  I still subsidize part of the shipping cost.


eBay does give fvf back on buyers remorse returns and nad returns so I'm not sure why you say that they don't.  I know that in some cases if you do a partial refund you might have to phone to get fvf back but for a nad return a partial refund isn't an option.

 

I had one buyers remorse return and when I refunded I had the option of refunding the whole amount or the total less the original shipping cost. I did refund in full  but I did get the impression that if I hadn't, I would have still received fvf back on the amount refunded.   I state in my return policy that original shipping may not be returned and I believe that you have to have something like that in your return policy in order to have that option. Also,  I am fairly sure that you can't withhold anything if the original shipping was 'free'.

 

I've seen a lot of sellers suggest that the 'no return' sellers will get more nad claims because the buyer thinks the have to make up a reason for making a return. I don't know if that is true or not but  considering that you don't have to pay return shipping for buyers remorse and you do for a nad, I don't see any advantage to having a no return policy.

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SALES are Down. Cause: Recession? Suggestions welcome.

Why do you perceive that your items are not being seen? I did a search for Christian Dior. I then narrowed the search for items in Canada only. 1730 items came up. 351 of yours. How are your items not being shown?

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SALES are Down. Cause: Recession? Suggestions welcome.


@73rhc wrote:

Why do you perceive that your items are not being seen? I did a search for Christian Dior. I then narrowed the search for items in Canada only. 1730 items came up. 351 of yours. How are your items not being shown?


I believe gifts sells Christian Dior jewellery -- not handbags and fragrances. 

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SALES are Down. Cause: Recession? Suggestions welcome.

There have always been a lot of rumours  floating around about blackouts and now 'throttling' which suggests that a seller has some sort of hidden sales limit and once they reach it, there listings aren't shown but I don't see any purpose for ebay to limit any one particular seller unless they are new.

 

I do think that the search system now doesn't work as well as it should. I find that it can be confusing and if other buyers feel the same way, that could account for less buyers being around.

 

 

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SALES are Down. Cause: Recession? Suggestions welcome.


@pjcdn2005 wrote:

There have always been a lot of rumours  floating around about blackouts and now 'throttling' which suggests that a seller has some sort of hidden sales limit and once they reach it, there listings aren't shown but I don't see any purpose for ebay to limit any one particular seller unless they are new.

 

I do think that the search system now doesn't work as well as it should. I find that it can be confusing and if other buyers feel the same way, that could account for less buyers being around.

 

 


I don't know about a hidden sales limit, but I agree that the search system can be confusing, particularly for the occasional buyer trying to navigate their way through a search to find a specific item. 

 

Say, a person is looking for Calvin Klein "Euphoria" fragrance, they might just type Calvin Klein and select Health and Beauty.  There are going to be almost 10,000 listings (.ca) or 14,000 (.com).  If they check the categories, they can click on Fragrances and find 6,000 to 8,000 listings.  They might be able to channel through until they find Euphoria and there will be eau de toilette, eau de parfum, gift sets, sample sizes, 30 mL, 50 mL, etc. But I think this is more a result of the buyer's inexperience than the search system itself.  They might not know to search for Calvin Klein "Euphoria" Eau de Parfum 50 mL - Price + Shipping, Lowest First, from Canada or North America (which likely will still bring up some irrelevant results).  Short of showing a Search Example at the top of each page, I don't know how it could be made easier for buyers.  Experienced buyers will have little problem; many of them have Saved Sellers whose listings they look at first.

 

With respect to Search, there have been many posts related to the eBay/Google issue which reduced seller visibility in Google Search.  I do a lot of research before listing my items, and I find that, no matter what I'm searching for, the first page of search results show many eBay listings -- however, almost all are .com listings.  I believe that Google has some sort of``memory` associated with the computer doing the searching  -- I don`t know if that`s true, but if it is, that may account for all the eBay results I see when searching.

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SALES are Down. Cause: Recession? Suggestions welcome.


@sylviebee wrote:

@gifts_of_elegance wrote:

Check the "sold" sales under Swarovski Lovebirds here on eBay.  Also check "Completed Sales" and you will see how many were not bid on at all.

I did not say that there was an "over-supply" but you can bet there were many pieces stored in warehouses that were now cleared out.

I have several books on Swarovski Collections and the "Lovebirds" are shown as $150 original retail.


Gifts,  It was a long time ago, but as I recall it the memberships cost $33 and the Limited Editions cost $300 for total of $333.  I can't recall if that was before of after taxes.  It's possible that the LoveBirds were $150 and they jumped the price to $300 the next year.

 

To buy the Limited Edition you had to buy the membership and they destroyed the cast at the end of the year and dismantled or destroyed the remaining pieces.

 

Since the collectors market didn't exist yet, where did al the pieces in the warehouses come from?

 

I do see that there seem to be a lot of LoveBirds, but the only way to make sense of that is that everyone is dumping them because the later pieces are so much prettier and the collector's market no longer exists.


It might have been  $300 in Canada (and probably was) but it was $150 in USA.  Yes,  you had to buy a membership  to buy it and yes, they said they destroyed the cast at the end of the year but that does not mean that they did not manufacture more than sold in that year.  The Lovebirds were not numbered pieces nor were they made to order.

 

 

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SALES are Down. Cause: Recession? Suggestions welcome.

Thank You Silvie, I might just try it again, I have done so  before.

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SALES are Down. Cause: Recession? Suggestions welcome.

You brought up every item  in Christian Dior.  I just sell the jewelry.  Try "Christian Dior Jewelry" only.  There are only 1958 listings and 356 are mine.  I am adding another 17 today.  That makes about 20% of the listings mine, not taking into consideration that I have quantities.

 

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SALES are Down. Cause: Recession? Suggestions welcome.


@toby**bleep**zu wrote:

"I want my listings to be shown in all the areas I am willing to sell to.  I am not expecting it to be done at the expense of my competitors.  Just list them in the order they end and list them all"

 

Historically it never was like that on ebay.   Until 2010 the fixed price listings were store inventory and not in the main search result at all.  Auctions only got listed by date .  Auctions still largely get listed by date (they didnt for awhile when best match first appeared).  Once the stores went into core "ending date" ceased to have any meaning with so much stuff permanently listed.

 

If everything just rolled though search result by date, buyers would be faced with pages and pages of poorly priced items that have no chance of ever selling.    That is one of the big differences with amzn,  amzn does an even better job of making sure buyers are likely to buy,    Ebay needs to further improve on making sure only items that are potential sales are directed to buyers


There has always  been fixed priced listings as well as auction listings.  Store listings were cheaper to list and were shown only  if requested and they were shown separately.

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SALES are Down. Cause: Recession? Suggestions welcome.


@pjcdn2005 wrote:

@gifts_of_elegance wrote:

Pierre, I always did ONE DAY handling.  I actually ship  the same day.

 

Its only in the past few months that I do  not take returns.  My return policy was always "returns accepted without any conditions".  I changed it because eBay no longer refunds FVF,  seller has to pay for return shipping and end up with a defect in the bargain.

 

As for "Free Shipping", I did that too for 14 months, both to Canada and USA.  It did not make a bit of difference except cut into my profits.

It cost me $8,000 last year.  I still subsidize part of the shipping cost.


eBay does give fvf back on buyers remorse returns and nad returns so I'm not sure why you say that they don't.  I know that in some cases if you do a partial refund you might have to phone to get fvf back but for a nad return a partial refund isn't an option.

 

I had one buyers remorse return and when I refunded I had the option of refunding the whole amount or the total less the original shipping cost. I did refund in full  but I did get the impression that if I hadn't, I would have still received fvf back on the amount refunded.   I state in my return policy that original shipping may not be returned and I believe that you have to have something like that in your return policy in order to have that option. Also,  I am fairly sure that you can't withhold anything if the original shipping was 'free'.

 

I've seen a lot of sellers suggest that the 'no return' sellers will get more nad claims because the buyer thinks the have to make up a reason for making a return. I don't know if that is true or not but  considering that you don't have to pay return shipping for buyers remorse and you do for a nad, I don't see any advantage to having a no return policy.


Yes, it used to be that FVF were refunded but no more.  Buyer remorse?  I only had one asking if she could return and gave me positive feedback saying that the item was very nice but that did not stop eBay  from posting a "defect" on my account.  I spoke to them about it but they would not remove it.

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SALES are Down. Cause: Recession? Suggestions welcome.

I noticed that lately I do see more Google results than I did 3 months ago although it does seem that often those listings have ended. It does take me to ebay but the results aren't always helpful.

 

There was a post on the .com board about some specific search results in July so I tried the same searches today on .com and got similar results for 4 searches with the same wording but in a different order each time.

 

apple ipod touch generation 4th - 7544 results

apple ipod touch 4th generation  - 1507 listings

apple ipod 4th generation touch - 39 listings

4th generation apple ipod touch - 7242 listings

 

I don't know if other searches would show such a dramatic difference in results based on word order but I know that when I originally saw this one, I was really surprised. The searches with the highest results include accessories, not just the player and if the buyer narrows the search down by clicking on MP3 Players the results are around 1400 so the buyer should be able to find what they are looking for.

 

But what if the buyer types in the words in the 3rd order...they would think that there are very few of those ipods on the site.  Search seems to assume that words will be typed in a certain order and I wonder how they came to that conclusion. I tend to think that someone my age might use search differently than someone in their 20's so I do wonder what criteria they used. 

 

Perhaps the way search works is part of the problem for some sellers so we may each need to do some research on how it is working in our categories and how best to use listing titles.

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SALES are Down. Cause: Recession? Suggestions welcome.


@pjcdn2005 wrote:

 

apple ipod touch generation 4th - 7544 results

apple ipod touch 4th generation  - 1507 listings

apple ipod 4th generation touch - 39 listings

4th generation apple ipod touch - 7242 listings

 

Perhaps the way search works is part of the problem for some sellers so we may each need to do some research on how it is working in our categories and how best to use listing titles.


That's an interesting result.  I think I'll do some comparison searching on my own listings, using various titles.

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SALES are Down. Cause: Recession? Suggestions welcome.

It does seem odd when I search gift's items.

 

I was curious to see what Swarovski was offering by way of jewelry these days and did a search for Swarovski bracelet only for gift's items.

 

Why do I get 6 items and they're not even Swarovski?

 

That doesn't make sense, does it?

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SALES are Down. Cause: Recession? Suggestions welcome.

Yes, it used to be that FVF were refunded but no more

 

That's not true.  If the seller fights the claim and ebay has to step in I don't know if fvf would be refunded but when the seller accepts the return and ebay doesn't need to make a decision, fvf will be refunded.

 

Buyer remorse?  I only had one asking if she could return and gave me positive feedback saying that the item was very nice but that did not stop eBay  from posting a "defect" on my account.  I spoke to them about it but they would not remove it.

 

The defect depends on what the buyer used as a reason for the return so your buyer must of used a nad reason or else gave you a 1 on shipping time or description DSR. Buyers do make mistakes and if you are persistent, have evidence to show customer service (such as messages from a buyer) and have policy at hand that you can show to ebay, some defects will be removed.

 

If a seller wants to know if they have a chance of getting a defect removed and how to do so, they might want to post on the .com sellers board as there are a number of sellers there who have had them removed and who can make suggestions on how to go about it.

 

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SALES are Down. Cause: Recession? Suggestions welcome.

The results I got for that search show  Swarvoski crystals in the title as that is the type of crystals used in those bracelets. It makes sense to me that they are included in search.

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SALES are Down. Cause: Recession? Suggestions welcome.

Except that the actual Swarovski signed bracelets don't show up at all.

Only Dior.

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SALES are Down. Cause: Recession? Suggestions welcome.

Sorry....you're right, that is odd. I didn't realize until I did a search in her store that she also has Swarovski bracelets that should also have shown in the original search.

 

hmmm... they do show up if I click on decorative collectibles but not in a general all category search.

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SALES are Down. Cause: Recession? Suggestions welcome.

This is also true when I search for Swarovski Bracelet in general and don't limit to gift's item.

 

Her Dior pieces show up but not Swarovski.

 

(I wasn't limiting to a category.  Just a general search.)

 

P.S.  I can search Swarovski bracelet signed and they come up but not Swarovski bracelet alone.

I'm able to search her items because she lives close to me so I just select for that.

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SALES are Down. Cause: Recession? Suggestions welcome.

It seems that some or perhaps all of the jewelry that is under collectibles is not showing correctly in search when I view her items.

 

For example, if I search for Swarovski earrings in her store there are 133 results. If I do the same search in her 'view my items' there are 9 results.

 

 

But when I search for Swarovski, there are 606 results in view items and 607 in the store so the jewelry shows up when I search like that...very odd.

 

Gifts, you might want to either write to Raphael@ebay.com and give him some examples of the results (assuming the results are the same tomorrow) and ask him to look into it or else change your Swarovski jewelry to the jewelry category rather than collectibles. There definitely seems to be something odd going on here.

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