eBay

jt-libra · ‎02-25-2018

As I was relisting some items tonight, I noticed that about 50 to 60% of my items had 0 views in the last 30 days. I find this shocking. These are popular brands that usually receive a lot of views in any given month .... of course, only a few result in sales. On the other hand, some of my items received 100+ views.

My sales have been poor during the last two months, so I expect that my listings would drop in search, but not become totally invisible. But maybe I have so few sales because they hadn't shown up in search for some time. I usually check to see how many views an item has received when I re-list and I'm sure I would have noticed 0 views on so many items.

Anyone else experiencing this?

momcqueen · ‎02-25-2018

My sales were strong through January but dropped sharply about ten days ago. I’m running the usual Markdowns and Promoted Listings so I’m unsure where the problem lay. Are you doing Promoted Listings? That usually boosts views and ultimately sales a bit....?

momcqueen · ‎02-25-2018

My fear, however, is this is the result of the new ‘grouped’ and product-based Search. Canadian UPCs often don’t match American ones so I believe we’ll be left out of those groupings.

11canadianchick · ‎02-25-2018

@momcqueenwrote:
My fear, however, is this is the result of the new ‘grouped’ and product-based Search. Canadian UPCs often don’t match American ones so I believe we’ll be left out of those groupings.

Oh no! I didn't think of that, simply because I don't know how that works.

In the past, I got a lot of views from people searching for specific brands, e.g. Clinique, Lancome, Estee Lauder. So am I to understand that my popular brands might not show up, even if searched by name, if the UPC is different than the U.S. one? This situation is looking worse all the time!

I've stopped buying any new inventory, both on this, my H&B account, and my media account. I bought some cosmetic items in preparation for Christmas sales, but nothing since. I'm so discouraged with eBay that I just want to sell off everything I have.

jt-libra · ‎02-25-2018

I sent from the wrong account:

Oh no! I didn't think of that, simply because I don't know how that works.

In the past, I got a lot of views from people searching for specific brands, e.g. Clinique, Lancome, Estee Lauder. So am I to understand that my popular brands might not show up, even if searched by name, if the UPC is different than the U.S. one? This situation is looking worse all the time!

I've stopped buying any new inventory, both on this, my H&B account, and my media account. I bought some cosmetic items in preparation for Christmas sales, but nothing since. I'm so discouraged with eBay that I just want to sell off everything I have.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎02-25-2018

Wonder how this treatment is going to affect sellers who sell vintage or used items without a UPC? Starting to get tired of hitting the "Does not apply" button as of late.

-CM

reallynicestamps · ‎02-26-2018

It's apparently aimed at replaceable goods.

DVDs and screwdrivers and current books.

Vinyl and tomahawks and vintage paperbacks -- we just hit that Does Not Apply.

Not clear on whether it applies to 'used'.

It does get tedious.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎02-26-2018

More concerned on how this is going to affect traffic/actual views and where and if our items will show up in search results!!

-CM

momcqueen · ‎02-26-2018

I Went back to dotcom today and their groupings appear to be done differently than the last time. My items still appear outside those groupings. I don’t know what to make of my almost-zero sales in th past ten days, it’s unusual for me to have such a massive dry spell.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎02-26-2018

Seems like from time to time on here it can be like an on/off switch. My last sale was on the 20th. Prior to that was 1 or 2 a day, fairly steady. And my past experience, it usually happens during a time when I do have one of those promotions activated.

-CM

jt-libra · ‎02-26-2018

@lotzofuniquegoodieswrote:
Seems like from time to time on here it can be like an on/off switch. My last sale was on the 20th. Prior to that was 1 or 2 a day, fairly steady. And my past experience, it usually happens during a time when I do have one of those promotions activated.

-CM

Over the years, I have experienced many high and low periods --- two months of absolutely terrific sales (October/November 2017 my best sales in 12 years). Slower December and then almost nothing in January and February. I think all of us have been through that. However, the 0 views speak to something else, I'm convinced.

jt-libra · ‎02-26-2018

@momcqueenwrote:
I Went back to dotcom today and their groupings appear to be done differently than the last time. My items still appear outside those groupings. I don’t know what to make of my almost-zero sales in th past ten days, it’s unusual for me to have such a massive dry spell.

@momcqueen, how were you able to determine that your items appeared outside the .com groupings? I don't want you to think that I'm too lazy to read eBay's policy bulletins, because I do read them .... I just don't understand the product-based search.

BTW, you had asked previously if I used Promoted Listings -- I don't.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎02-26-2018

I have a feeling it has something to do with how they keep changing the matrix's for item visibility along with the recent postage calculator issues. Had some contact with several US sellers and they have told me there have been issues with their calculator not working to points in the USA also. Still working on determining specific details and how long this has been going on for. These problems can be possibly blamed on some sellers having the wrong settings, but not for all and could definitely cause slow sales!!!

-CM

lady.stark · ‎02-26-2018

My sales have been really, really low for over a year now. For January, my total fees were representing 39.6% of my total sales. Ouch! February was a little bit better (25.67%), but still very high. I don't know what's going on really. I do use promoted listings and all the similar tools. But it does not really improve sales.

I noticed that I seem to have a few sales just before my invoice time, and then nothing for the rest of the month. Zero, Niet. It's very depressing to say the least, because I have 3 times the number of items I had 2 years ago, and my sales were much more steady then. I don't understand that.

momcqueen · ‎02-26-2018

"How were you able to determine that your items appeared outside the .com groupings?"

I went back to re-create the manner in which ebay is displaying search results and I cannot. The first time I saw evidence of the beginnings of a Product-Based search, there was a slider-box on the top right-hand corner of the page that said [group/ungroup] results. The next time, that slider was gone and there was text within the search results next to the top there items that said something like, 'Find more like this' and now when I go to re-create this search on ebay.com for the purposes of making a screenshot for this reply, neither exist. It's just listings being shown the way they always have.

In all of the above examples, the grouped/matched one showed at the top and my items appeared somewhere down the list of search results even though they would be an exact match.

Again, I can't show you that of which I speak because it looks like ebay is live-testing it. No two days are the same.

I know ebay believes this is the way of the future, but I have serious reservations about it. Every time my item is matched with something in the Product Catalogue, the catalogue is wrong, and not just a little. By fall, sellers won't be able to publish listings without matches to the Product Catalogue if ebay thinks one is available. So, we won't be allowed to opt out of being included with a heavily-flawed catalogue card.

This post of mine from last night explains more, as part of a non-ebay-insider analysis. https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/eBay-Playbook-Reveals-Phased-Rollout-of-New-Search/m-p/3...

jt-libra · ‎02-26-2018

Thanks @momcqueen. Each time I visit .com I'll watch to see if that slider shows up.

Thanks also for the link to your post last night. Just before bed, I checked Seller Central and I found so many new threads that I still haven't had time to read. I was watching so much of the Olympics, especially the late night hockey games, that I got behind with everything .... including sleep.

As well, the electrician was here on Friday and turned off all the brakers before I had time to shut down my computer. I have a surge protector but something went wrong this time. It took me most of the weekend to get my programs back and functioning properly. I can't get Chrome back unfortunately; every time I try, it freezes everything. So I'm short one browser. Anyway, I'm off topic. I have a lot of reading to do tonight.

momcqueen · ‎02-26-2018

On second thought, it may not be live testing but related to the search.

Not the slider I was describing but maybe I was confusing it with the three-day delivery option

momcqueen · ‎02-26-2018

Okay, so here is a perfect example. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=disney+cars+frank&_prodsch=1&_dmd=1

Group Similar listings excludes me completely. That is the Product-Based search.

Ungroup and I'm eight down.

jt-libra · ‎02-26-2018

@momcqueenwrote:
Okay, so here is a perfect example. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=disney+cars+frank&_prodsch=1&_dmd=1

Group Similar listings excludes me completely. That is the Product-Based search.

Ungroup and I'm eight down.

I see what you mean. BTW, you're actually Nos. 3 and 8 down after ungrouping.

I can't believe this. How many potential buyers are going to see that box "Ungroup Similar Items" and understand what it means? I'm pretty sure most buyers, particularly casual ones, will look no further than the first screen presented to them.

I thought I would test this out on one of my own items. I picked out a popular item that I knew would have a lot of listings, namely "Lancome bi-facil eye makeup remover". The first search revealed 9 items .... mine was not among them. When I selected "Ungroup Similar Listings", 293 items showed up .... again mine was not among them. Not so oddly enough, this is one of the items with 0 views. How can you view something that isn't there?

I checked a few to see if they all had the same UPC .... they varied and some had no UPC at all.

Go figure!

These are free listings. If I was paying for each listing and found that 50% of them didn't show up at all, you would hear me screaming to eBay CSR all over this country.

I'm sure it's going to feel good when I stop beating my head against the wall!!!

momcqueen · ‎02-26-2018

I think I found one by doing a search! But I only found it by searching your full title so there were precisely two listings and yours was one, therefore no search results to Group or Ungroup. It doesn't apply when there are not enough listings to collect into groups. Don't ask me how ebay decides that.