eBay

art-in-the-making · ‎10-18-2013

Our sales have tanked over the past week especially.

Always hard to tell but always makes me wonder when we're supposed to be in a good month.

Is it -

- the US gov't shutdown (hopefully sales bounce back with the deal)?

- competitors advertising more on google etc for selling season?

- the final nail has been hammered in our eBay coffin?

- our listings not optimized well enough for mobile?

- just random ebb and flow?

- we don't use pinterest (or other flavour of the month)?

- some other combination of best match fails?

??? always keeps us guessing ???

rose-dee · ‎10-23-2013

Yes, and to answer 'pj's' comment, this was, as I recall, exactly the reason Raphael gave me to my question about seeing our listings as they would be on mobile.

He said that the majority of mobile shoppers will not see what you see on these links, but something much closer to the view on a PC.

So I suppose the bottom line is, that we shouldn't rely on these handy links anymore to judge what to do with our listings. They may have been accurate at one time, but apparently no more. It would probably be better to find someone with a fairly recent mobile device and ask them to let you have a look at your listings.

femmefan1946 · ‎10-23-2013

Would someone with a slightly stupid mobile see what I see with that link?

I did notice this:

Note: To view the full item listing, visit www.ebay.com using a computer before you bid or buy.

I wonder how many bidders will?

rose-dee · ‎10-24-2013

@femmefan1946 wrote:
Would someone with a slightly stupid mobile see what I see with that link?
I did notice this:
Note: To view the full item listing, visit www.ebay.com using a computer before you bid or buy.

I wonder how many bidders will?

Well, my understanding of Raphael's answer was that the technology is converging quickly from both ends -- old stupid mobiles are seeing listings better as time goes on because of eBay's improvements in interface for all levels of users, and smart mobiles are, well, smart enough.

Yes, I saw that reference to checking the listing on a PC too. I actually laughed when I read it. On the one hand, eBay has such a big push on to attract and appeal to mobile users; on the other they have to include this disclaimer. It's a CYA for eBay mainly because many sellers (like me) use 3rd party auction management sites with listing windows that don't always come through on mobiles exactly the way they look on PCs. Which is why I always include a maximum number of photos in the eBay gallery on each listing.

I think if you're not using a 3rd party listing frame (i.e. preparing all your listings from within eBay), you're probably up to speed whether you know it or not. Just borrow somebody's phone on the street on a pretext one day, and check a few of your listings.