Traffic Very Low,

[dsfinegoodsemporium]

Hi all,

I am a new seller and am finding that traffic to my listings is very low, thus resulting in slow sales. I was wondering if I could get some advice on how to increase traffic.

Thanks in advance for any info provided.

[amethyst1415]

I did the same as you. I asked for advice. Every time I took their advice someone else would be critical of how I was listing after implementing the changes...so good luck. I no longer sell on eBay. Traffic is low because eBay is **bleep**. Find somewhere else to sell your stuff.

[dsfinegoodsemporium]

Not exactly the kind of advice I was looking for.

Anyone else with "helpful advice".

Thanks

[bb_cool_stuff]

I wouldn't send the shirts tracked at 16.85 Stateside, try & send them for a Standard Shipping Price of 10.00 & if possible drop two dollars off your Canadian shipping & include the loss in your item price.

Pre-Loved Shirts are a very tough sell & have been for the last two years, there is just so much competition.

I am not trying to discourage you from listing pre-loved shirts, but to make any money you will have to acquire some very unique items.

To give you an idea, in 2012 pre-loved was 46% of my business, 2013 just less than 4%.

Luckily I could see the trend shifting & have few pre-loved shirts left in inventory.

[pierrelebel]

"Anyone else with "helpful advice"."

Unfortunately, you picked the worst possible time in fifteen years to start selling on eBay.

In mid/late May two things happened which have resulted in much slower traffic for many sellers:

1) breach of users data at eBay making many buyers uneasy about using the site.

2) change in relationship between Google and eBay resulting in fewer eBay listings making the first page of a Google search.

For more information, please take a look at:

http://recode.net/2014/05/23/yes-google-punished-ebay-for-bad-seo-practices-but-it-wasnt-part-of-pan...

...and similar articles available on the Internet.

Some sellers have indicated they have not been affected and their sales are doing OK.

Like many others, my traffic has been affected and sales have dropped to next to nothing in the last four weeks.

======================================================================================

Now, looking at your listings specifically, Mary was impressed how you presented and photographed the shirts.  Job well done! 

While your starting bids are not "cheap", the value of the transaction becomes very high once a buyer factors the shipping charge.  I would think most of these shirts could be sent within Canada using lettermail service in a large envelope (under 20mm thickness) for a few dollars.

Asking Canadian buyers to pay Cdn$27 - Cdn$30 for a used shirt (even a good quality name) may be at the very high end of what Canadian shoppers are willing to pay for such items. A used shirt is still a used shirt and the market command only a fraction of the original price.

Unfortunately, most of your items are competing with stores such as Value Village offering them with a sticker price of $10 to $15 - and they offer 50% discount from time to time (today is 50% off in their local store) -  free shipping.and easy return privileges if you find your item does not fit perfectly once you get home.

Not easy to compete with.

Also, as I often mention on these threads, the description of the listings should be used for only one purpose: sell your item.  Every aspect of the message should be positive.

"Invoice will be sent after 24 hours if not paid. Unpaid Item case will be filed with eBay after 5 days of no payment."

will not bring the potential buyer to hit the "Bid" or "Buy-it-Now" button.

"Please read descriptions carefully before clicking "

will not bring the potential buyer to hit the "Bid" or "Buy-it-Now" button.

"Items are sold as is. Returns are accepted only if the item was not as described"

Why even suggest you may ship something not as described?

"Item must be returned within 14 days of the date it was received. Buyer is responsible for return shipping charges."

That "stuff" is already covered in your return policy where it belongs.  It does not need to be included in the description.

KISS

Good Luck.

[bb_cool_stuff]

Beat me to it Pierre,

A little minor tweaking, some savvy buying practises & hopefully things work out for them.

They seem to be on the right track & I wish them the best also.

[mr.elmwood]

Trust BB, he knows shirts. Pierre knows selling.

Clothing is tough. Very tough. Friend of mine did it for years and just got tired of all the work vs low returns. She was in cheap enough that she listed everything with "best offer". She received a lot of reasonable offers and had regular customers.

It takes quite a while to get to that stage.

$16.85 to ship a shirt to the US? Sounds like Tracked Packet or Expedited. That is too expensive. Tracking is not worth the money and is really not needed. Do not drink from the tracking number pitcher of kool-aid.

Ship as cheap as possible and pass the savings on to your customers.

TOS. Every new seller gets hung-up on that. My Terms Of Sale are as follows:

Refund: Money back.

I would pretty much eliminate everything after measurements as the buyer isn't going to read that anyway.

Keywords draw eyes to your listings. Everyone finds different words that work. I often do not realize what words I have left out until I go looking. Think like a buyer, not like a seller.

I just noticed, you do not have gender in your titles.

Try to use all twelve pictures. Show the buyer that the high wear spots are perfect. Corners where threads come loose, collar corners that fray or curl.

Americans are rapidly getting hooked on "free" shipping. Femme should be along with her free shipping tutorial. I like to use flat rate shipping in round dollars. I use price pointing with easy math. Looking at one shirt, 22.49 + 16.85 = um, er, ah.

Can it go under 500 grams? All of a sudden shipping becomes $8.03. Then you can look at price points such as 21.99 + 8 = $29.99, or, $29.99 free shipping.

For a newbie, I think your listings are pretty good. You have started at a relatively high level. I have seen a lot worse from sellers with far more experience.

[dsfinegoodsemporium]

All points make sense

Will take a look at the listings, review pricing and shipping, and tweak the language up.

Thanks folks,

[triber]

I thought your listings looked good. Like Pierre, I don't like the comment "Unpaid Item case will be filed with eBay after 5 days of no payment." It sounds like a threat. I give buyers at least 10 days before I file, people are sometimes busy or other genuine reasons for late payment. A polite reminder works much better.

[bb_cool_stuff]

Obviously you have done your research beforehand.

Wish my listings were that attractive when I started selling.

Nothing but upside my friend.

[mr.elmwood]

Do not try to do too much change at one time, it becomes frustrating. I like to roll in changes.

Like BB, I think you have a very good starting point.

[rose-dee]

I agree with the other comments above, and give you top rating for the way you're presenting your items, especially as a new seller. 

Used clothing is a hard sell because of all the competition (both from within and outside eBay), but you've had a very good start, judging by your sold items so far.  That is especially true since I think many of us long-term sellers are suffering right now from severely reduced traffic/sales, likely for the reasons Pierre mentioned. 

In my view, reducing the visible shipping costs in some manner would be the best way to attract more attention to your listings.  Here are my suggestions:

- If most of your sales are to the U.S., I would drastically lower the Canadian shipping (or offer free shipping within Canada for the lighter items that you can fit in a bubble envelope that will be under 2.0cm thick), and try to reduce the U.S./int'l shipping significantly.  That 2.0cm restriction can be a tough one within Canada -- but with something soft like a shirt that can be folded flat, use the largest envelope you can in order to keep the thickness minimized -- #5 bubble envelope is the upper limit for Cdn. letter mail shipping. 

- It appears the shipping costs you're listing are for tracked services - is that right?  If so, I'd use Light Packet Air (or Small Packet Air for items over 500gms) to the U.S. instead, and forget the tracking except possibly for very valuable items.  There is really no good reason to use tracking on items selling for ca. $20-30. 

- Using Light Packet Air to the U.S., you should be able to get your shipping costs down to around $10 or less.  If you're selling a shirt for $17 with $10 shipping shown, you have to ask how the prospective buyer will perceive the price.  If you can somehow reduce the shipping cost and/or roll some of that cost into the item price, it may work to your advantage.  Which would you choose as a buyer: $17 + 10 shipping = $27 total, or $27 with free shipping?  Now if you can reduce your pricing somewhat, to get the total under $25 with free shipping, you'll make your items that much more competitive, and will likely increase your visibility in searches, which in the huge used clothing category is a big factor.

- One additional note about something that I think should be removed from your descriptions is the comment (highlighted in yellow on your listings): "We cannot take returns for items that don't fit".  I would delete this, it's sufficient to point out that buyers should rely on the measurements given.  I'd say the same with regard to your statement that "returns are accepted only if the item is not as described".  In effect, eBay will force a return/refund in just about any situation anyway, so I'd delete that line.  In fact, I agree with Mr. E. that your terms of sale could probably be summed up in one brief sentence.

Otherwise, you appear to be doing a lot of the right things in your listings.  Make a few changes and hopefully traffic will improve.  Best of luck, but be patient right now -- things are very, very slow for a lot of us. 

[pjcdn2005]

Post edited....I neglected to ready all of the posts before I wrote this so I realize that most or all of these suggestions have already been made.

As mentioned, is is very slow for many eBay sellers right now but hopefully it will pick up in the near future. I agree with BB that using small packet to the U.S. would make those shipping prices more attractive. For Canada, if you use expedited parcel and print your labels through Paypal, you receive up to18% off of Canada Post counter prices so it works out less expensive than regular parcel.  That discount is not reflected in the calculated shipping price in your listings but if you do want to pass on part of the discount, you can set up a discount in Account, Site Preferences.  It is a good idea to experiment with that though to see what percentage works best for you.

In your shipping/return field you have a 14 day return policy

You also state:

All items sold AS IS. Returns are accepted ONLY if the item was not as described (measurements/colour incorrect, flaw unmentioned). Please contact me within a week of receiving your item. Item must be returned within 14 days of the date it was received. Buyer is responsible for return shipping charges.

You are telling a buyer that if YOU make a mistake, they will still have to pay for return shipping so they will have no item and will be out money. That could be a turn off for the buyer...why should they pay for your mistake?

I realize that clothing probably has the highest rate of return but I would still suggest that you try a 14 day return policy without your disclaimer of the item having to be not as described. Even if you do not have a return policy, ebay can require you to accept a return for an item not as described anyway, so putting that in your listing is detrimental in my opinion.

Some info from ebay about returns...

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/return-policy.html

[pjcdn2005]

One more comment..

If a buyer is looking at your listing on mobile, they may only see your description field if they click on a certain area so it is best to put as much information as you can (such as measurements) in the item specifics.  That isn't going to help your views but it can help to make sure that the buyer knows exactly what they are buying.

[dsfinegoodsemporium]

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions, they are greatly appreciated and I will put the advice to good use.

[reallynicestamps]

Sorry to be late to the party. I was gardening.
Which is cheapest"
$5 item with $10 shipping?
$10 item with $5 shipping?
$15 item with Free Shipping?
Which is most likely to get a complaint about gouging on shipping cost?
Remember that if you use Free Shipping as your domestic shipping fee, you will have NO FVF on any shipping, even when you charge a fee to buyers in the USA and Belarus.

[reallynicestamps]

Take a look at your titles on a mobile device.

The crocodile purse has several words which may not show up to a mobile shopper. (Search will work okay).

[rose-dee]

---

@reallynicestamps wrote:
Sorry to be late to the party. I was gardening.

---

That's OK -- it was the first day of summer, after all. 

I think we're on the same page -- you put in a capsulized form a lot of what I said in Post #12 up there. 

The only thing I'd mention to the OP is that we sellers don't have to worry about shipping cost DSRs anymore in terms of seller performance ratings (although complaints about shipping cost can still come via neutral/negative feedback if those costs are egregious, which does equal defects). 

With the kind of competition the OP faces in the used clothing category, overall price needs to be kept as low as possible, even if it includes free shipping, which may mean giving up some portion of profit in order to "subsidize" US shipping and attract more sales, i.e. hope that volume makes up for the shipping cost gaps.  

Now if we could just get the buyers back here...

[bb_cool_stuff]

Saw a Twenty Something Guy at the VV Sale today who had an overflowing cart of pre-loved dress shirts.

Obviously he has been watching How To Make Money on eBay You Tube Videos.

Wanted to say something, but I'm sure he probably wasn't open to unsolicited advice.

Have this week off so its time to get a little more creative.

[mr.elmwood]

Since eBay has graciously been giving me promos, I have been listing stuff I can't sell, at auction, for the minimum I will accept. I'm selling AND getting paid.