LISTINGS ARE UP BUT WHAT ABOUT SALES?

[gifts_of_elegance]

I have 60% more listings and my sales are down 25% from lowest sales for a three month period in 2007. Actually, my three month sales are the same as my sales were for the month of January 2008 alone.

Best Match? Could that be a factor?

[recped]

Best Match might be a factor but I'm pretty certain that the current economic situation is the primary reason. Although there are plenty of people who at this point are not directly affected by the downturn in financial terms they are strongly influenced by the psychological factors.

There are not many people tossing money around on non-essentials these days which is why Wal-Mart is one of the few retailers who's sales are holding up. Even Target which is only just a slight step up the ladder from Wal-Mart is seeing a sizable decline in sales.

You say your sales are down by 25%, is that in raw Dollar terms? If so take some consolation that in terms of the Canadian Dollar you are still ahead compared to last year when the CA$ was at (and over) par.

[ampurtle]

"It's the economy stupid" ?

My sales are up, but it's xmas gift buying...

[gifts_of_elegance]

recped: In dollars. The increase in exchange puts a smile on my face, especially at a time when people are loosing money on the stock market but I hardly ever exchange my funds.

[pierrelebel]

The problem is clearly the weak economy.

The drop in my eBay sales mirrors the drop in my wholesale business and from my website. :-( .

[canadabeltbuckles]

Well, the way I interpret the drop in sales is two-fold...

The economic situation in the U.S., and the problem with the default search format 'Best Match'.

In order to sell a product, the consumer needs to know you have that item for sale. You can have the best product on the market for sale, but if you do not market that product, nobody gets to see it, nobody knows you have it for sale, and it sits on the shelf collecting dust. The end result is you have money tied up in an item that is not selling. Why? Because nobody knows you have it for sale...

With the default Best Match search criteria, only the Auction type formats show up first, and then the BIN items are thrown in here and there. If you are selling common items that are not Unique in nature, you are lucky to see your items on page 4 or 5 after initiating a search with the Best Match search results. Buyers do not have a tendancy to scroll through pages and pages of listings unless they are looking for a specific unique product, not a common product for sure...

eBay gave us a break with the 35¢ listing with BIN items, but then took it away with the Best Match search criteria...

The only way to get good exposure is to list your items with the Auction format, and doing so costs you extra above and beyond the 35¢ BIN listings...

Pierre showed us the graph which indicates the listings on eBay have increased exponentially, but again, with more listings, comes more search results, and depending on the item, in the thousands! Just because there are increased listings in the BIN format because of the listing fee break we received from eBay, does not mean you will be selling more of your products.

I think it may have been better for me to leave the listings in my store, and put my money towards Auction format listings, and entice people to visit my store in my auction listings. That way my listings would get better exposure with the Best Match search criteria...

[pierrelebel]

"and the problem with the default search format 'Best Match'."

That is an irrelevant factor for me.

Best Match does not change the number of listings offered for sale, it simply favours some at the expense of others, as would any sorting system.

Best Match does not change how much money buyers will spend on eBay. It may change which sellers/listings are chosen. .

[canadabeltbuckles]

Which affects the number of sales for perspective buyers...

What is the algorithm utilized by the 'Best Match' search?

Why/how does it favour some sellers/listings at the expense of others?

[pierrelebel]

"Why/how does it favour some sellers/listings at the expense of others?"

The number of items offered for sale is exactly the same - it do not change - whether a potential buyer looks at search results through Best Match or any other criteria (highest, lowest, new listing, ending soonest, etc...)

Some buyers may be affected by the order in which the listings appear while others will not.

"Best Match" works on the theory the listings offered on top of the page have a better chance of resulting in a sale.

But, when you look at the big picture, it does not really change anything, except some sellers whose listings find themselves on top of the list will have an advantage over those who find themselves at the bottom of the list (or next page for long search results).

Overall, the millions of potential buyers shopping on eBay will NOT spend more or less money.

On eBay.ca, "Best Match" generally advantages Canadian sellers at the expense of American sellers. Is it fair? I do not think so but those who run the system think it is best to have protectionism policies. These same protectionism policies may backfire on Canadian sellers elsewhere. .

[craftycatsattic]

I honestly need to do an in-depth analysis of my figures but just in a quick look:

Sales are slightly up
Listings are up about 30%
Average item price is down 35%

Consolation Prize: US dollar is yielding approx 15%-20% more than last year

I've been analyzing the retail roller coaster since the late 80's. IMHO, this is not going to be the best of years. The economy has people thinking twice about pulling out their wallets. Big ticket items are going to hurt the most. For smaller ticket items, I don't think people will necessarily buy less but they will be looking for bargains and therefore will be spending less which means profit margins will go down. Auctions are going to have a difficult time this year.

[ampurtle]

That's not protectionism, it's marketting 😉

eBay.com has heavier weighting for Amurikans. Thank ya very much...

It only makes sense to have slight home advantage, as that is going to be the perered option rather than move something accross an international border, especially with the loonie back to 80 cents. My purchase searches now specify the product be in Canada because it's pointless to buy in the USA now.

I have a new hobby, watching Canadians that list in US dollars adjust their price to the current exchange rate at least 2 twice a week, but thats for big ticket items where you pretty much have too.

[jewelry_quest]

In my opinion I'd say it's the declining economy first and far most. My sales are way down compared to last year at this time. Due to this fact I haven't listed much because why bother paying for listing fees when most of my items aren't going to sell. My as save where I can due to the decline in the economy. Also best match is another factor. It's a joke if you ask me. They shouldn't even have a best match because I feel it's not fair to all sellers. When I do sell I make sure to put some of my listings with free shipping so I do show up in the best match near the top and that way it gets buyers into my site where as if I didn't put any with free shipping good luck finding my items if searching best match. Ebay has gone and changed everything it was so much easier before why don't they just go back to the good ole days when Ebay wasn't as complicated and was alot more fun!

[pierrelebel]

"It only makes sense to have slight home advantage"

NO, it does NOT.

If everyone in the world starts thinking that way, Canadian sellers could kiss goodbye to exports.

Americans would give preference to Americans, British to British, etc... Is this the world we want to do business in?

High shipping costs make it difficult enough for Canadians to compete selling outside our borders, we do not need foreign protectionism to make it impossible to do so.

In fairness, we can't have it both ways. .

[gifts_of_elegance]

ampurtle: You call it marketing, eBay might call it marketing but its neither. Marketing is a skill designed to get the buyers' attention and get the sale. When an item that has 29 days to go is prioritized on top, the purchaser's first reaction is: "I have lots of time to look around before I decide." Listings ending in less than 24 hours are buried on the last page where the purchaser can't see it and we all know that most selling activity used to take place (before the introduction of Best Match) in the last few minutes/hours because then the purchaser is forced to make a decision before the item disappears off the market.

For some sellers being on last page might mean page 3 or 4. There are 72,912 items listed under Swarovski (which is my main product) and 9,930 in the catagory I list under. Can you guess which page I end up on?

As for Canadians adjusting their price to the current exchange rate, how do you know they are? I know I don't. I did not increase my price when the exchange went down and I sure won't decrease it because now its going up.

You must have a lot of time to waste to engage in such frivolous activity.

[pierrelebel]

""I have lots of time to look around before I decide.""

Maybe not. Buyers have learned that "Buy-it-Now" listings may go away in seconds while seven day auction have a fixed ending time. .