experiment with almost give away listing pondering problem

[dobo5250]

need to increase number of sales before the 20 th of month to get back to good glaces  with ebay and lower charging rate 6% lower that is -- tried selling all my listings at 45% to 50 to 65 % off my already low prices  -- don't increase sales  still about one sale every other day -- so i tired give away sales -- pricing portable bidets at 1.99 each  -- these sell in hardware stores from anywhere from$39.99 to $49.99 each - just to see if i could move some product - i have a couple hundred units so i can afford to lose on a few to see if that will increase sales numbers need to get to about two sales a day   -- but no!!!- nope nothing -- not a single sale on this listing  over three weeks  on these listings--  then i tried auction starting at .99 cents -- heard starting at 1 cent is not a good idea -- so i didn't - three-five day  auctions - -- nope nothing - -- then i put it back at my full price and bang one sale - so i am confounded as to what to do next -- i would try free if i could -- but it won't let put if 00 per unit or free in the listing -- ideas would be greatly appreciated in how to get sales numbers  up ---not profits-- gave up on those a while ago -- just enough to get back to 1.99% defect rate  and lower selling fees - so i can on my regular items make enough to make it worth while again 

does anyone have good ideas on sales ?? or anyway to increase number of sales even at a loss 

by the way - bidets are big sellers in brick and mortar stores -- when i was in retail many many years ago -- we sold about 5/6 a day of these  units at full retail --  and when they where on sale they flew out the door -

so any ideas from sellers who maybe sell plumbing items electrical etc might be very helpful 

thank -you 

[recped]

FYI - Any sales you make in February will not change your Status until March 20th at the earliest.

[reallynicestamps]

Sometimes when the price is TOO LOW buyers will stay away because they suspect a problem, either with the buyer or with the item.

And any item that sells too low is going to attract difficult buyers, who suspect every sort of scenario, because that is how they would act.

@ricarmic  has been trying an experiment on some listings where similar listings have discounted prices or a Promoted Listing instead.

The idea, as I understand it,is to see which works better.

No results yet, but ricarmic does like this kind of thing and does report on results.

Personally, I think, and this is only an opinion, that the PL will win out over targetted discounts, because being found in Search (the PL promise) is likely to be more useful than sending even a larger discount to a Viewer or even a Watcher who has already seen the listing and has not purchased.

The minimum PL is 2% and giving up 10% in PL fees to eBay is considered an outrageous ripoff by most sellers.

Meanwhile most buyers won't even respond to a 10% discount, even on items already well below MSRP.

But that's just my idea.

EBay is after all our landlord,not our friend.

[flipistics]

The only thing I can probably suggest is to NOT try to generate the sales with plumbing and electrical. Maybe head to some local thrift stores or browse marketplace and see if you can snag some high demand toys or clothing items that you can auction off.

[reallynicestamps]

Bidets.

Who is your target audience?

Plumbers? Are your prices close to the wholesale?

The homeowner ? Most of your listings seem to be for multiple bidets.

I'm thinking about redoing the bathroom (this year has been the kitchen and dear friends Stay the H E double hockey sticks away from bloody Lowes!) and one of those bidets interests me.

Your description doesn't say it is designed for DIY installation. It probably should.

It doesn'tsay if there is any temperature control which is important, whether I'm using it personally or swilling down a poopy baby bum.

And it looks like the wash water comes from the tank, which has an ick factor even though that water is as clean as the sink.

Also ALL CAPS. Don't.

And since this is not a "brand name" appliance, is there a warranty? Is it made in Canada? Mexico? China? Kenya?

Is it metal or plastic? Actually you did answer that one.

And I would re-think all of this:

BETTER THAN MOST IN QUALITY THEY SELL ON THE SHELF FOR $49.99 TO $69.99 EACH  IN MOST CANADA HARDWARE STORES

DUE TO HIGH COST OF EXPEDITED SHIPPING IN CANADA 

WE HELP OFFERING PARTIAL COVERED EXPEDITED INSURED  SHIPPING AT $22.22 FOR ALL OF CANADA 

 WE ALSO ACCEPT WHOLE UNUSED/UNOPENED IN ORIGINAL PACKAGING RETURNS

RETURNS ARE ON YOUR DIME

Not all caps, as discussed.

Don't discuss postage costs. If you are highlighting the comparitively low cost of your bidet at $41.99, the additional $22  just put it at a disadvantage against going to the local Canadian Tire and getting a brand name item with a real warranty today, instead of waiting a week or three.

And we don't mention returns because the customer will be delighted.

In passing.

I wonder if you could make an offer where the customer buys one, then his next two or more (because most homes nowadays do have multiple toilets) would have a discount. I guess that's the coupon system eBay promotes.

And.

Some of my family are Philippino. Many use a "tabo" rather than paper- which is a very very basic bidet (you have this little pot beside the commode which is filled from the sink-- use your imagination) . They strike me as a target audience.  Still culturally appropriate but more modern/Canadian.

[ricarmic]

I've updated my 1c/99c auctions, with my final assessment.

OPs problem is that until they get their status back they're prevented from using promoted listings. My experience is that a 10% PL rate far far outperforms a 10% discount. It is a sad truth but at least in my world that's how it currently is.

I agree with not dumping stuff, IMO all it does is sells stuff either to folks you don't want as customers or for far less to someone you would have sold to in the first place.

I see others have suggested selling other stuff to get your numbers up, but to do that you'll need to understand what you're selling, and what is a good price. As an example, me selling currency would maybe be dicey as I am not conversent in condition etc compared to my stamp world. You don't want to bring other problems into your situation with problems selling material you aren't familiar with.

Addendum, I see you're now selling currency, a way to boost your sales is to break some of your lots down in size for example the 13 notes lot could be made into 13 smaller individual lots, that increases your offerings and sales by 13 instead of 1. You'd have to know the relative value of each and there's all the overhead work of each being sold individually, but that's a way to increase sales volume.

[dinomitesales]

You have 96 listings that show up with the keyword "Pokemon", most of which are Pokemon cards - a very desirable category.

Choose a bunch of cards and start them at 99 cents with free shipping. Individual listings. One card per listing. They will sell. Probably at market value if your pictures are good (if you have access to a flat-bed scanner, use it). I would recommend just sending them via Lettermail for a couple of bucks each if they sell for under $50.

[femmefan1946]

@dinomitesales  Would you use Auction for those 99c cards hoping for an auction frenzy or are you suggesting Fixed Price as a loss leader?

[pjcdn2005]

You could separate some of the groups coins and coin sets that you are listing and  use lettermail within Canada for the ones that can be sent that way. (2cm or less in depth). They would probably sell much faster with $1-  $5 shipping for one item or 2 related items rather than $22 for 3 or 4 unrelated items.

High shipping can be a turn off as some people have no idea of the cost. Rather than slashing the item price, you might want to  experiment by putting some of the shipping cost into the  item cost.  The end result is the same price wise but the shipping cost might be more appealing.  

3 items. 

[dinomitesales]

---

@femmefan1946 wrote:

@dinomitesales  Would you use Auction for those 99c cards hoping for an auction frenzy or are you suggesting Fixed Price as a loss leader?

---

For someone in his position, auction definitely. He has a lot of cards that are worth money, they're just not being found because they're lotted up with other cards that no one is really interested in buying, and his listing titles aren't great for search optimization.

The auctions will bring views to the listing, get people to watch them, which will bring acitivity to his store. People might even be like "hey, this guy has Pokemon cards, let's see what else he has" and may then view his other listings (listings that they might have never seen in an organic search). Ricarmic's experiments with auctions have shown that they bring lots of views in a short amount of time.

Most of the cards will likely be bid up to roughly their market value, but even if they sell at the initial 99 cent price point I would consider that an acceptable loss to try and get his defect percentage down. If he's willing to sell bidets at a loss, then he should do the same with his Pokemon cards.

[pjcdn2005]

I have to agree with @dinomitesales that changing your listing titles could result in more buyers finding your listings.  It's usually better to have the main search keywords st the beginning of the title. For example:

PKG#1071-FAR EAST MADE #42743-3INCH-BRASS RECESS CLEAN OUT PLUG FOR ALL PIPES

I doubt that anyone is going to be searching for the package number or Far East made so if they must be in the title put them on the end. If someone searches for a 3 inch clean out plug, this one may not come up as it says 3inch...one word instead of 2.  If Far East means made in China why put that at all?

When I was looking at your listings in list view I found it difficult to see what each listing was for because the item name was buried behind a bunch of other info.  So changing the titles would help for search as well as when people are already looking at your listings.

I realize that you were probably using the same listing practices before your sales slowed down but some tweaks to your titles may help now as well as when things are back to normal. 

Just a few suggestions . 🙂