My experience US sales level and promoted listings sale level

[ricarmic]

I decided it might be worthwhile for me to understand these numbers and I thought others might find them of use so I'll post them for a bit, or until I forget.

Remember: I sell postage stamps, they have worldwide customer base. I sell everywhere. The variances of Canada vs US especially might be affected by the proportion of stuff I'm listing that would be more of interest to Canadians vs US folks, can't say how much of an effect that might have.

In the olden days US sales were running 40-50% of sales, that's for sure not the case anymore.

October 21 results:

18 packages out the door

3 to USA (17%), 10 to Canada (56%), 5 other countries (27%)

4 included at least one promoted items sale (22%)

Total so far:

18 packages out the door

3 to USA (17%), 10 to Canada (56%), 5 other countries (27%)

4 included at least one promoted items sale (22%)

[ricarmic]

October 23 results:

6 packages out the door

1 to USA (17%), 3 to Canada (50%), 2 other countries (33%)

2 included at least one promoted items sale (33%)

Total so far:

24 packages out the door

4 to USA (17%), 13 to Canada (54%), 7 other countries (29%)

6 included at least one promoted items sale (25%)

[ricarmic]

October 25 results:

10 packages out the door

6 to USA (60%), 4 to Canada (40%), 0 other countries (0%)

2 included at least one promoted items sale (20%)

Total so far:

34 packages out the door

10 to USA (29%), 17 to Canada (50%), 7 other countries (21%)

8 included at least one promoted items sale (24%)

[ricarmic]

October 28 results:

9 packages out the door (this is a very low number compared to normal about half)

0 to USA (0%), 8 to Canada (89%), 1 other countries (11%)

0 included at least one promoted items sale (0%)

Total so far:

43 packages out the door

10 to USA (23%), 25 to Canada (58%), 7 other countries (19%)

8 included at least one promoted items sale (19%)

[ricarmic]

October 30 results:

9 packages out the door 

2 to USA (22%), 4 to Canada (44%), 3 other countries (34%)

2 included at least one promoted items sale (22%)

Total so far:

52 packages out the door

12 to USA (23%), 29 to Canada (56%), 11 other countries (21%)

10 included at least one promoted items sale (19%)

[kawartha-ephemera]

If you can reply without divulging any trade secrets, how do your click through and sales conversion rates for promoted compare with non promoted listings? Higher, lower or about the same. 

I'm starting to pay more attention to the promoted stats chart found in the marketing section.

[ricarmic]

Well whatever I divulge isn't probably a trade secret because I pay very little attention to those kind of stats.

What I do know is that I have 181 promoted items running right now.

Of those 8 are producing 80% of the promoted sales.

All 8 of these are multi item listings that have been running for a long time, as in 9 years, with somewhat steady sales over that time.  When I began promoting them, the number of sales via promoted items and non-promoted increased for them (the non-promoted because items were selling due to the promotion, which increased the sell rate etc which made them more visible in a non-promoted way too).

[ricarmic]

November 1 results:

8 packages out the door 

3 to USA (38%), 4 to Canada (50%), 1 other countries (12%)

1 included at least one promoted items sale (12%)

Total so far:

60 packages out the door

15 to USA (25%), 33 to Canada (55%), 12 other countries (20%)

11 included at least one promoted items sale (18%)

[ricarmic]

November 4 results:

17 packages out the door 

9 to USA (53%), 6 to Canada (35%), 2 other countries (12%)

3 included at least one promoted items sale (18%)

Total so far:

77 packages out the door

24 to USA (31%), 39 to Canada (51%), 14 other countries (18%)

14 included at least one promoted items sale (18%)

[ricarmic]

November 6 results:

11 packages out the door 

1 to USA (9%), 6 to Canada (55%), 4 other countries (36%)

3 included at least one promoted items sale (27%)

Total so far:

88 packages out the door

25 to USA (28%), 45 to Canada (51%), 18 other countries (21%)

17 included at least one promoted items sale (19%)

Observations, thoughts:

-generally my Canadian centric material is listed on .CA

-generally I'm listing about half of my new items on .COM the other half on .CA

-so the actual sales distributions might be more a matter of what I'm listing. Some US folks and UK folks are buying from .CA and some Canadians are buying from .COM but the % above are quite consistent with what I'm listing where (if one takes .COM as being US and International which is about right for me).

-I didn't realize how much my sales "volume" depends on about 8 promoted listings 

[hlmacdon]

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@ricarmic wrote:

).

-I didn't realize how much my sales "volume" depends on about 8 promoted listings 

---

From other sellers I've spoken to and my own results we see about 20% uplift coming from PL with a higher than average attach rate to those sales. If you haven't opened up all your listings to PL I would certainly look at running a test for a few weeks at a minimum. The effectiveness can vary depending on how relevant the current item specifics are in your category, but from my own results they are essential for getting relevant impressions. I finished October up 90% over last year, of that the vast majority were to the US, and many of those to states with taxes.

[ricarmic]

Hi Hlmac! At the moment I have 181 promoted items running. Most are in the 10% range and at or above the trending rates.

The 8 that are the "high performers" are multi item listings that have been running for 10 years or longer with a decent sell through rate. About 160 have never had a sale (over 100 of them are single items though).

I most certainly have to make sure I continue to acquire enough of the right stuff to keep those top 8 going!

I do plan to try a 1% experiment on everything else in my store at some point, I simply need enough hours in the day to try it!

[hlmacdon]

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@ricarmic wrote:

I do plan to try a 1% experiment on everything else in my store at some point, I simply need enough hours in the day to try it!

---

Definitely give the 1% a try. That is primarily what I use other than a few that were at a slightly higher rate. In past tries I have not found the rate to appreciably effect things, although that may vary in the higher margin categories where there is more room for sellers to play with %s. The rate is less important than actually leveraging them as there is a knock on effect for non-PL as well.

[ricarmic]

Yes I for sure have seen the knock on effect both for these items (more of these sell non-promoted than did before I promoted them) and other material in the store.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

For anyone trying out Promoted Listings and is still learning the process, it's a good idea to take one's time. See ECommerceBytes Blog below:

https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2019/11/1572883582.html

Almost missed some of the automagic defaults the first few times through. Overly high % for a campaign could be a major shock when something does sell.

-Lotz

[ricarmic]

Yes I noticed the sneaky thing PAYPAL did as well, moving the "pay for instant" transfer to the top as the first one instead of the 1 day delayed free one which was on top before.........

[ricarmic]

November 8 results:

14 packages out the door* 

3 to USA (21%), 7 to Canada (50%), 4 other countries (29%)

1 included at least one promoted items sale (7%)

*(this is significantly higher than a normal Thrs/Fri no idea why but I'm not complaining! )

Total so far:

102 packages out the door

28 to USA (27%), 52 to Canada (51%), 22 other countries (22%)

18 included at least one promoted items sale (18%)

[teenytrinkets]

I sold my first promoted listing yesterday. That felt good!

[ricarmic]

November 12 results:

20 packages out the door* 

7 to USA (35%), 11 to Canada (55%), 2 other countries (10%)

5 included at least one promoted items sale (25%)**

*(this is a "low normal" for a 3 day weekend )

**(it is a bit worrisome how much I'm depending on the 8 popular promoted items, volume wise!)

Total so far:

122 packages out the door

35 to USA (29%), 63 to Canada (52%), 24 other countries (19%)

23 included at least one promoted items sale (19%)

I'm running an experiment with 1% promoted listings, I'll put info about that in the other thread.

[musicyouneed]

Thanks so much for sharing your stats.  Really an eye opener.  I would love your sales.  I think I am selling in the wrong field.  I should pull out my stamp collection from 60 years ago, lol.