A competitor seller appears a dozen times in the BEST MATCH search before I appear once.

[cr.love]

We have been the largest in our market for a year and have worked on expanding. The expanding of range has not equated to sales. Same prices more items available...we are thinking "how can we not sell more" its a no brainer.

Sales are currently particularly low, not even getting lookers/watchers/followers like we normally would.

Upon searching the main brand we sell, and sorting it as a "best match" (or whatever the term is) we do not appear until page three (200 listings per page) and in total we appear three times in eight pages. Our nearest competitor that does not have as much listed appears 12 times before our listing on page three.

They are getting the sales/followers/feedback (some of ours is cheaper, some of theirs is - but we are talking 5% either way). The only difference I can pick up is that they list all sizes in one listing, therefore more people are watching and looking at that particular item as all the sizes are rolled into one. Is this enough to make such a dramatic difference? Happy to hear thoughts!

[twyngwyn · Accepted solution]

see this thread:

http://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Selling/Throttling-sucks/m-p/2036309#M149898

[cr.love]

Thank you twyngwyn so so much! This answers so many questions and theories. I am clearly marked and there is nothing I can do about it. Frustrating to say the least. Thinking I have to stop my store and just be a regular seller. Like I mentioned in a comment on the other thread....I had 200 items listed. When I got to 900-1000 listings (from seriously doing nothing else for the best part of a year) my sales only increased by 30%...should have been by 500%.

[cr.love]

...am I wasting my time phoning ebay?

Also last month they offered me free promoted lisitngs, sales certainly did increase. Then when that all ended a few days later I did not sell anything for three/four days. That has NEVER happened. I feel like I am being punished for taking them up on the offer. I cant afford to add more fees to my current fees. I feel as I should not have taken them up on the offer and I would be in a better position.

[twyngwyn]

yes, waste of time - they don't acknowledge it

unfortunately we're all in the same boat, and we either wait it out or move 😞

[fixnwear]

Hi jambarley, 

when you say you have been largest in your market - what market is that?

I am a buyer, and when I look for items to buy - for me - clothing is all one market. Didn't know there were other merkets within that market - apart from new & used, of course.

Just had a look at your listings.

There is virtually no description, and the prices are high when compared to what one can get from other sellers - and don't forget, you are competing with thousands of them, also, what one can get these days from the  real stores as well.

I have read here that many sellers are saying that increase in number of listings has very little to do with increase in sales, that is across the board in different categories.

If you expected 500% increase no wander you are disapointed.

From a buyers perspective - just work on the existing listings, add proper descriptions , reduce the prices even a bit (I have heard that boosts your Best Match standing) - and also remove the bit where you tell customers not to ask for discount. 

Asking for a discount seems to be the "norm" these days, we see it and hear it in the news, current affairs,  they keep drumming it into us "to not be shy in asking for a better price".

You'll find that not many will ask for discount anyway, and you can surely cope with those who do!

[cr.love]

Thank you for your message fixnwear. It is probably hard to explain my market etc 1. without going into my business plan and 2. if you are not my typical customer. A bit like explaining a collectable item.

I didn't expect 500% in sales but would have certainly expected the increase to reflect closer to 1:1.

I spend more time replying to people asking for a discount than anything else.

[lyndal1838]

I am not surprised that you get requests for discounts....your prices are rather high for what you are selling.  And you are selling in a saturated market.   Clothing and jewellery would have to be the 2 hardest things to sell here.

[digital*ghost]

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@jambarley wrote:

The only difference I can pick up is that they list all sizes in one listing, therefore more people are watching and looking at that particular item as all the sizes are rolled into one. Is this enough to make such a dramatic difference? Happy to hear thoughts!

---

Yes.

Best Match (the default sort order, unless the buyer changes it themselves), favours popular listings. How many items are available in a listing doesn't seem to be taken into account when working out rankings.

Sales / impressions matter, so that means if your competitor has one listing and 5 sizes available, they are likely to have a higher slaes to impression ratio, and each sale from that listing will give it a little boost.

Whereas if you have 5 listings, you'll have a lower sales to impression ratio for each listing, and even if you get 10 sales between the 5 listings at 2 sales per listing, those listings wil get a smaller boost from the sales. 

Many buyers will change the sort order from best match, many will not, but I like to use mult-quantity variation listings whenever I can, because they don't hurt where you turn up in other sort orders, and can only help where you turn up in Best Match. 

[cr.love]

Awesome - that is so helpful. I am happy to share the market but I guess I favour fairness for all as opposed to a system which favours one over the other....thanks so much 🙂