Relist vs Sell Similar vs New Listing

[jt-libra]

I read the following post on eCommerce Bytes this morning:

"I want all my fellow small sellers to do well on eBay so I ran an experiment that I wanted you to share with your readers, but do not share my name, as always.

I noticed that each time I re-listed unsolds or used the sell similar that items were being shown to fewer and fewer potential buyers each time so I scrapped my unsold list and wrote all my ads from scratch - even taking new photos - and my SALES HAVE TAKEN OFF. This is the only true way to Re-index an item.

I have bids all over the place and record watchers. Normally I have been averaging 7-900 per week but I am going to hit 2000 this week.

I know its a lot of extra work, but this works folks- I will NEVER relist an unsold or use the "sell similar" ever again.

Please Ina share this with your readers as THEY NEED TO KNOW THIS!

Never do the straight re-list on unsold ads. The only time I would ever re-list is if an item had like 4-5 watchers that I didn't want to lose. "

Has this been your experience?  This might be something most sellers know ... I didn't.

What I do know is that I listed a couple of dozen new items recently and the sell-through was really high compared to my re-listed items.  Starting each one from scratch is a lot of work if every item has a different description.

I'd be interested in knowing your opinion.

[jt-libra]

I have about 50 items I was going to re-list today (or at least those I could afford to) so I want to maximize their exposure.

[inuk_the_polar_bear]

I think that is simplistic and sounds like a "BUY NOW" infomercial.

Considering that a relist may be getting the same viewers that did not buy before, yes, an update might help. Listing out of season and then in season will make a difference.

I believe in keywords and pictures. Use all 80 characters, repeat the title in the description. I put my pictures in the descrition because that makes them larger with better detail.

I was told a couple years ago that, very soon, the majority of sales would take place over mobile devices. eBay listings are very different on these. The first 3-5 words of the title are critical. The gallery picture must be the best. Those are the only things you get to set the hook.

Read the first five words of your title and look at your picture. Does that make you continue or pass it by?

[jt-libra]

Considering that a relist may be getting the same viewers that did not buy before, yes, an update might help.

That makes a lot of sense and may explain why my new listings get a lot more views.

Most people searching for cosmetics will look for the Brand Name first so I make sure I put that first.  In general, I think my titles and pictures are pretty good.  I know a lot of people who do their eBaying on their phones so, yes, the first few words are very important.

I just thought it was an interesting post.  I recall other threads about relist vs sell similar but not for a long time.  So I was just interested in other people's opinions on this.

[doumb21]

I would not imagine recreating all my listings day after day.  I have always been doing "Relist Similar" and my listings get sold enventually.

This could be a valid option for someone with 1 to 20 listings.. but how could I redo hundreds of listings everyday.  I would have to quit my day job.

What really works for me is to list "1-day".

A lot of buyers just look at "Ending soonest" listing and being on top of that list is really what works.

[pocomocomputing]

Here is the old relist versus sell similar theory I have read in these forums for years. I do believe it is true to some extent. How much I do not know.

If an item is one of a kind and you use Relist, the poor sales history (no sales) will be kept and used as a factor in a lower  listing search placement.

If you use Sell Similar to relist, the listing is considered new with no history and gets a new listing normal start in visibility. Supposedly all new listing gets an extra boost in search visibility. So this is better than the Relist scenario above.

So using Fixed Price GTC on OAAK (One of a Kind - to you, other sellers may have the item eBay) item and auto relisting may be a bad thing to do over time. The visibility may drop significantly after 6 months of relisting because of no sales. You may want to end such listings every 6 months and use Sell Similar using GTC or switch over to Fixed Price 30 days and manually use Relist using Sell Similar to give a fresh start each month. Or even go to auction to mix it up a bit to stimulate sales. This is labor intensive compared to GTC.

If an item has sold (ended) and you have another, then use Relist from Sold to retain the sales history visibility factor and get better placement. I may have experienced this using auctions with BIN. An item will sell quickly after the first one. This may not be a boost but just that someone else was following the item and decided to buy quickly because they did not buy the first one. Hard to tell. I do not use Fixed Price any more, just my 50 free on my non-store account.

Now completely starting over from scratch is a new twist on the Relist/Sell Similar topic.  It is certainly a new listings so would get a new listing normal start in visibility. Supposedly all new listing gets a boost in search visibility.

So trying starting from scratch might actually do something. If you have the time to do this, then I would say go for it. I do not think it would hurt.

It would be nice if you report back on your results but then again, if you have found an eBay secret formula to success, keep it to yourself ... 🙂

[femmefan1946]

I've been making a spreadsheet of my titles with procurement information, and I've noticed that when I do this, even the deadest titles seem more likely to sell, although no changes are made to the listings (FP/GTC) at all.

----------------------------------------------------

Wash: It's like science fiction!

Zoe: We live in a space ship, dear.

Wsh: So?

[jt-libra]

If an item is one of a kind and you use Relist, the poor sales history (no sales) will be kept and used as a factor in a lower  listing search placement.

If you use Sell Similar to relist, the listing is considered new with no history and gets a new listing normal start in visibility. Supposedly all new listing gets an extra boost in search visibility. So this is better than the Relist scenario above.

Thanks, pocomo, for your very useful information.  I didn't know either of the above two things.   I have a lot of unsold and was hoping for an invite to the last promo but didn't get one.  I'm going to use the "Sell Similar" for some of them and new listings for the others.

I'll report back with my findings ... unfortunately I have no secret to success.  If I did, I could probably be on a sunny beach somewhere and not in chilly Winnipeg 🙂

[westernstargifts]

I read that article earlier today too.  I agree with pocomo's post and do the same things myself with relist and sell similar.  I also periodically end some of the GTC listings to make them new although I haven't done it recently.  I don't really track whether or not this helps sales but I know eBay uses recent history for search placement so I think it does help.

I have also noticed lately that most of my sales are in 2 main lines of jewellery that I sell and other lines of products are not moving.  They are all GTC listings.  I don't have the time either to make brand new listings but I may start ending and using the sell similar on them again.

[Anonymous]

I am totally shocked to think eBay is doing that.  For some many reasons I always think eBay has many things in conspiracy for the purpose to get more $$$$ from us.  And to think that eBay would put us in lower search capability if we use "relist" or "similar item".

How the heck do we have time to start them from scratch.  I wold think by using "relist" or "similair item" would be sufficient but it is a conspiracy on eBay's part to encourage without telling us that it would put us in lower search capability, making us to pay insertion fees over and over to no avail?  I consider it as eBay "stealing" us that way. 

It is a very dirty business on eBay's part and I read somewhere that since the CEO John took over, the quality of eBay took a nosedive and the stock went a deep nosedive.  Say should we contact the eBay shareholders and tell them to fire John??

I knew when a football team lose the Grey Cup, normally the coach would be fired, so why not the same with this idiot CEO John to be fired if the stock went deep nosedive since he joined or are the shareholder that blind and stupid??

[pjcdn2005]

I am totally shocked to think eBay is doing that.  For some many reasons I always think eBay has many things in conspiracy for the purpose to get more $$$$ from us.  And to think that eBay would put us in lower search capability if we use "relist" or "similar item".

As mentioned...that is only a theory, not a fact. But think about it...someone has to be first in search and someone has to be last. If there has been an item that has been relisted over and over again and hasn't sold, should ebay  put that listing ahead of the brand new listings and ahead of the ones that are consistently selling? Shouldn't they want the buyers to see the newer listings and the more popular listings before the ones that haven't been selling?

btw I don't think that their stock price has gone down.

[pjcdn2005]

I don't know what works for sure but if I do have an item that hasn't been selling, I will sometimes change the title slightly and switch the gallery pic. I think that a lot of ebay's recognition software is based on the picture so just changing that might make ebay think that the listing is fresh and new.

[jt-libra]

Today is the 16th of January, and already I have had more sales than I usually have in any given month.  Virtually all of the items I've sold on my two accounts have been new listings.  Coincidence or something to do with re-list's.  I don't know.  I'm going to keep analyzing.

[pocomocomputing]

One thing to watch out for is duplicates.  When you use Relist to relist an item from sold, the relist flag turns blue so you know it was relisted. Easy to delete after relisting. When you use Sell Similar, the relist flag does not go blue.

So you have to be careful to keep track of what you relisted from UnSold or you may get a duplicate and a policy violation. This happened to me last month. I forgot to check my active listings for duplicates.

After listing items or relisting or Sell Similar to relist, always go to your active listings and sort by title to see if there are duplicates. If you delete within the first few minutes, you may not get a duplicate violation. This has worked for me in the past when I did a duplicate a couple of times.

An auction with BIN is considered a duplicate if two are listed. Many times it is caught before you list but sometimes not. A straight auction is not generally (the 30% sell through rate rule which does not seem to be applied much with all these promos).

[jt-libra]

I did get a policy violation for a duplicate not too long ago.  I don't want another one so I try to be extra careful.

[solano-deals]

I was testing this too (1 day listings) and thought it was a brilliant idea --- until I realized that an item that didn't sell in 30 days would be counted for 30 insertion fees. Have 100 items? That's 3000 listings. The fees would rack up quick.