One week = 0 Sales? 0 Offers? eBay Please add "I PAY YOU" to [Buy It Now], [Auction] & [Best Offer]

[intimewithmusic]

   I'm consistently listing and extra careful with pricing and shipping costs. I've doubled my listings in the last 6 months. I'm using promoted listings.  Others have reported huge gaps in sales. For the 1st time since 2013 I just put my entire store on sale. 7 days and no sales.

   What's up eBay?

[teenytrinkets]

I think ebay is changing search results again. Ending and relisting helps most of the time.

[needsmorerobots]

Yes.

I figure relisting them will have them looked at by eBay as a current listing rather than a pre-patch one. I guess it could have an effect with the search engine crawlers.

Lotz suggested to me something he was told. It's to have eBay refresh your store. I had no clue what this was but a quick look found this thread started by Shoe City Champions on eBay.com back in 2017:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Refresh-eBay-store/td-p/27062401

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@teenytrinkets wrote:
I think ebay is changing search results again. Ending and relisting helps most of the time.

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Ending/sell similar used to help bring back traffic. As of late, not so much.

-Lotz

[intimewithmusic]

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@intimewithmusic wrote:

   I'm consistently listing and extra careful with pricing and shipping costs. I've doubled my listings in the last 6 months. I'm using promoted listings.  Others have reported huge gaps in sales. For the 1st time since 2013 I just put my entire store on sale. 7 days and no sales.

   What's up eBay?

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Finally on day 11 I broke the shutout and  sold a KISS shirt. That figures with summer here. On the positive side it has given me time to vacuum. My sale goes until Sunday.

It's a good time for me to look at some of my heavier stuff. It's hard to compete online.  I'll test Facebook Market place a little more seriously. It may help me move items that exceed the criteria for Tracked Packet.  

I see Canada Post is advertising a lot about buying online but not offering incentives. It would be nice to see domestic sales increase and keep the dough in Canada!

[dobo5250]

yes i am the same way over 2500 items listed --and i have been selling for about year-- learning as i go ---on average i only get about 4/5 items sold a week but this was consistant---  but this week not one sale  my items are all below wholesale cost and always one of the lowest goods to found on ebay.ca ----i list about 5/6  new items every day and spend about an hour updating old listings when i can when i  find things that need to improve-- just recently it has got so bad that ebay took money from visa account to cover costs they said----it was  small amount about 13.00 dollars  but that never happened before in the one year i have been doing this 

does anyone have any advise to help ????sales don't seem to work - my items are all brand new hardware store items-  and like i said heavly discounted-- below wholesale costs in most cases

[dobo5250]

week two -- starting now with this monday and no sales yet- last week 7 days without any sales on almost 2800 listings  started to reduce prices 10/15 % on all items and as of tuesday will offer free shipping which will bring it to about 25/30 % off already below wholesale prices - and now have had two claw backs from ebay of $21 and $24 dollars in those 7 days -- with shipping costs at cp going up again with  1% to 2 % last week something  has got to give--  some else mentioned here-that with all the discounts on listings and shipping maybe there are too many sellers and not enough customers- i don't use ebay shipping labels - iam a old guy (way past retirement and getting ready to be put in a nurs ing home)- iam afraid  and just got way to frustred  just to get signed up  not very friendly to me anyways----i just go to the post office bring a coffee for the girl behind the counter and send them the old fashion way with tracking and good packaging-- but that's on me    old dog new tricks thing - i always in the past  seemed to get one sale every other day  sometimes two but now completly dried up even with 5 new listings every day i put in  seeking any answer out there -- i tried auction didn't work at all tried for 2 months --then i tried promoted listings but that chewed up alot of my sale profit 1/2 % didn't work only when i got to 15/20 % did it seem to make a difference  but then at that point that sales where there but profit was non existant -so here iam lowering my prices -- i will try lowering them again another 5% maybe at the end if the week if that doesn't work then -- well then i guess i will try selling to usa but iam really afraid of all the scammers there i have tried that in the past with one or two items in a week just to see -- but everyone of them was trying all the methods i have learned here to watch for  where tried-- hope is fadling -- i can wait a little longer  pension is still  enough to live on-- but then at some point i have cut my loses and move on and sell my  all new inventory to bulk sellers at a major loss --  hope for the light at end of the tunnel--- before i meet my real light at end of the tunnel 

doker bohm

[esclyons]

it's the middle of the summer, a lot of people are outdoors, and not buying anything, sales come and sales go..

there is no measureable way to gauge it or to count on it.. For every item for sale, there is a buyer.. it just sometimes takes that buyer longer to find your item..

Keep chugging along, said the little engine that could..

[reallynicestamps]

@dobo5250 

I won't say your pricing is the entire problem-- but it will be difficult to sell an item (like 373502395947)

 for 99 cents and charge $22.22 shipping.

Buyers don't like paying shipping at all, and are even less happy when the shipping cost is higher than the asking price.

Some products are not a good fit with mail order selling.

You might consider how many of those you can ship for $22.22 and make a bundle lot of them.

It's the kind of thing that most people would drop into Home Hardware for but if you could ship ten for $35 with Free Shipping, there might be a buyer.

[mr.special-editions]

@dobo5250 

Refer to @reallynicestamps and @esclyons  (Shipping costs, time of year)

My suggestions is first get to top rated status, choose some items offer a really good deal and draw in some customers.  You need more item specifics on your listings.  Your listing descriptions are not buyer friendly.  Get rid of all the information about how you handle returns and how you have been 'scamed' (spell check as well)  instead describe the items in more detail, present yourself as a professional and friendly.

All sellers get targeted by various scams, new sellers more frequently it's a cost of doing business and eBay expects you to resolve those issues quickly and politely.  As you build a solid track record and develop your own unique positive buying experience for your customers you will reap the rewards in due time.

[intimewithmusic]

Which listing title gets to the top ?

a. "Poor Richard's Vtg Hamburger" 

b. "Hamburger from McDonalds Vtg"

I never thought to try that. I just listed some tye die pants from the 90s and I couldn't get them to appear in search no matter what. I usually start with the brand, the style, size color etc.

 Hundreds of other tye die jeans appeared but not mine. The problem ended up being the brand name "Denver Hayes". They're a house brand for Mark's Work Warehouse. I pushed their name to the middle of the title and started with "Tie Dyed" . Bingo! It went near the top.

I think the brand was a lower value key word then "Tie Dye". It doesn't get the hits "Levis" would.  I use templates and tend to stick with the same order of key words but now I think I should consider not their placement but there "Hit potiential." 

ANSWER: B of course. 175 Million Google hits in serach results for McD's.  Poor Richard's went out of business in Kamloops in the 1970's.  Too bad. Good cheap hamburgers with car hops. 12.5 Million hits. 

That said, ya just can't beat a Teenburger with Alberta beef! (Not a vintage one of course)

[mr.special-editions]

In my experience when we had power selling levels, whenever I maintained a gold status which I believe required $120,000 USD gross per year or a heck of a lot of items. Anything I listed would get massive amounts of views and always be at the top, no need to promote except for items that just struggle regardless.

I still believe that to be the same even though powerseller is gone.  Also if you have top-rated Global and USA that used to help a lot.  I'll see what happens in the next month or two when I get my USA T-R back.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Oh where oh where has the traffic gone?

-Lotz

[mrdutch1001]

Top-rated seller status means nothing anymore...completely useless. The expectations are so high & the rewards so few. Top-rated seller status means nothing if the product is not in demand.Best to concentrate on the product- that's what matters. Successful online selling is about the product-supply & demand, uniqueness,quality,target market,price points....

Trends come, trends go....buyer habits change...sellers need to work out their selling plan accordingly.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@mr.special-editions 

That sudden cliff was right around the time that I lost my USA TSR's. Hoping you will get an influx of USA orders is nice. Limited as to what you can do to personally control that from actually happening.

"Have you thought about becoming a Top Rated Seller?"

-Lotz

[ricarmic]

@lotzofuniquegoodies  I may be misreading the chart, but what I see at cliff time:

-organic impressions are remaining relatively consistant

-promoted listing impressions have plumeted

If the TRS loss was to blame, I would have expected it to have more of an effect on the Organic impressions.

The promoted listings impressions cliff, would say to me that something happened with respect to your placement, ie more people are willing to spend more than you to be promoted. That is a very dramatic drop so something signficant must have happened, I can't imagine a bunch of people all raised their promoted % above you at the same time the alternative would be someone blanketing your category(s).

I don't know what "bad" things we can do that will affect our promoted listings placement aside from the % adjustments, if late shipments or defects happened I don't know what they do to promoted placement, but again if that was the case, the organics should have dropped too.

If I had to put my money somewhere, I'd say someone blanketed the category(s)??  

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@ricarmic 

The only changes I have made as of late have been reducing to a basic store, MP and attempting to create new high value listings more consistently.  I've only had very very infrequent blips with TSR's during my history of selling. (Situations out of my control). The majoritiy of my traffic/views has ALWAYS been within eBay vs Google etc. OOAK items are my base. <Google impressions have dropped by approx 500 during the displayed window.>

-Lotz

[ricarmic]

@lotzofuniquegoodies 

Did you change your store on July 13th?

Did you move to MP on July 13th?

Organic (as far as I know this is both within ebay not via promoted, and google etc) did drop but it wasn't out of line too much.

The promoted listings droped something like 70% from one day to the next. Something happened on the 13th. 

I didn't think before to mention, you don't have any promotions that ended on July 13th? I remember this happened to someone before the end date snuck up on them....

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

I may have tinkered with a promotion around that time but it was for a very small grouping. 30 listings approx. Store was changed May 1. USA TSR's were lost July 15/16. I've routinely seen substantial upward blips in traffic around 13th of each month. To put another wya they basically they stick out like a gas prices going up before a long weekend in Alberta.

MP was end of April.  As mentioned in other posts pre MP  I averaged(consistently) 90 + transactions per 90 days. (Dollar amounts vary but number of transactions has always been steady.) During first peak of Covid was approx. 140. Currently sitting at 40. This month up to 4. (Ummm woohoo??)

-Lotz

[ricarmic]

@lotzofuniquegoodies 

If you look at each of the promotions you can see their relative impressions rate, it is possible those wee 30 listings were drawing a large promoted audience?  

The significant and enduring drop "only" in promoted listings has to be a result of something, it might be worth keeping digging to understand what it was.

I know that the last time I checked, 50% of my sales were from promoted listings (but I have over 2,000 promoted items now), but that means that organically speaking I wouldn't have had those 50% otherwise.....

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@intimewithmusic wrote:

   I'm consistently listing and extra careful with pricing and shipping costs. I've doubled my listings in the last 6 months. I'm using promoted listings.  Others have reported huge gaps in sales. For the 1st time since 2013 I just put my entire store on sale. 7 days and no sales.

   What's up eBay?

---

Something else that could be contributing factor and  having an affect on buyers hesitancy to buy (as of late) is the cost of postage.(PS2*) Shipping anything to the other side of Canada has become very cost prohibitive.  That includes anyone selling items either heavy or bulky. Same goes for anything internationally.  They will pay what they are asking if they really need your whatzit but do so in many cases begrudgingly.  And we all know how much it costs to purchase anything from US/intl. sellers. (US sellers are reporting similar major drops in business). High volume sellers "may" be able to offer discounted options but that's at their discretion. No guarantees they will pass on those savings. Throw in the additional taxes most buyers are now having to pay/risks of double VAT and what they may think is expensive shipping may be enough to sway a buyer to go elsewhere. Either closer online or locally. Going forward along with any future postage increases as more people are able to shop locally this will definitely affect many sellers ability to sell.

-Lotz

PS1. The current level 3 limited time only promotional discounts really only kick in on the express services. Pennies on standard common services. Anyone that has been selling for any length of time knows how willing buyers are when it comes to the premium services.

PS2*. Not including in that mix high volume offshore sellers especially if you need something quickly. You can have it slow and cheap or fasterish and expensive with a side order of duties,taxes and processing. (No pepzee) 🙂

PS3. Recently I have seen an uptick on slow payments if shipping was substantially higher than the item purchased. I routinely check shipping before attempting a purchase. Not everyone does, especially newer buyers. I've also had a few buyers when making offers think that I could willy nilly magically reduce postage. Sorry. NO!! The postage is what it is.