Drop in sales and listing visiblity

[daniellebradydesigns]

I've read that a few people have had issues with a drop in sales, traffic and listing visibilitly, possibly due to the new TRS structure and premium services.

To quote eBay on their news regarding the new Premium Services and Top Rated Seller changes:

"It is important to remember that although there will no longer be a Top Rated Seller badge visible to buyers, you will continue to receive increased visibility for being a Top Rated Seller." This seems incredibly inaccurate.

I have had a significant drop in sales in the last couple of weeks. Have only been a part of TRS for a little over a month. Sales were going really well. Then almost instantly came to a halt. I adjusted all my listings to meet the Premium Service criteria. While traffic has picked up, sales haven't increased much. I do have seasonal slumps, but not to this extent. I've been selling for over a year and never had these issues before.

My listings used to come up pretty high in Best Match search. Now they don't. Sometimes I can't even find my listings via search function.

I was under the impression that being a TRS and offereing the Premium Services, that my listings would be easy to find for buyers.

I am very curious as to how many people have come across this issue. What are your experiences with the TRS and premium services program. Is it worth it??

[davewil1964]

I got TRS last month, same as you, although I would have got it under the old rules, probably, next month. I have not noted any drop in sales. Although I should, being a bookseller, as subjects have been outlawed for both 'fiction' and 'non-fiction'. Presumably to cater to the mega dropshippers, who contribute less to eBay's coffers than the equivalent number of real sellers.

I have no idea where my books show up in 'best' match, especially now, as I work on the theory that the vast majority of book buyers will be looking for specific titles, or at least authors. And won't use BM to search by. And I don't waste my time searching my books.

[lil.missy.boutique.australia]

Yes, we have certainly noticed a big difference.  We also adjusted our listings to comply with the ebay premium service requirements and now our listings have disappeared from the first few pages, and it appears that those sellers that did not make the changes are still appearing in the same positions, if not better.  We used to have at least 16 items appear in the top 100 when searching but we now have 1 item in top 100 and the rest of our items are nowhere to be seen...  We have contacted ebay numerous times over the past few days but just keep receiving automated messages saying that there are no site issues and that we should think about improving our listings.  Our listings have been performing perfectly for the last 3 years and no changes have been made to them, ebay are the only ones who have made changes but will not acknowledge that there is obviously a flaw in their system.  SO OVER EBAY RIGHT NOW!!!

[bsal6160]

I know its no consulation to sellers but, not ALL sellers can be on the first few pages, someone HAS to be bumped off. If yours was on there, then some other seller would be whinging about the same thing. Like Dave said, most buyers use their own search criteria which by the way may not be the same as your best match.

[daniellebradydesigns]

We are all aware that not ALL sellers can be on the first few pages, obviously.

The issue is that sellers with no TRS, that aren't offering the premium services, seem to come up before other sellers that offer these things. The whole idea of the TRS and premium services is to give sellers who meet the criteria a chance at a little more visibility in best match search function. Now the majority of my listings are most likely searched for via, lowest price etc. And some of my listings I don't ship internationally and I don't have competition with others in Australia so it is of no concern to me. However, the sudden drop in sales, and traffic for that matter is. My eBay store is my livelihood. 

But if the TRS and Premium Services, are going to cost us traffic rather than increase it, it seems a little pointless. 

I had no issues with sales before I received TRS status. I had no issues immediately after. The issues started when they changed the program. 

And searching my own listings isn't something I've really spent any time on. But while trying to figure out why sales and dropped, I noticed the limited visibility in listings.

I'm simply curious as to how many people are experiencing this, if it is just the odd few, or a wide spread issue, and if there was perhaps some sort of glitch during the roll out of the new TRS.

Thanks for the replies and input.

[davewil1964]

No, I have not experienced your issues.

[crazy-technology]

all of the sellers suffer the same problem

[davewil1964]

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@crazyapple-store wrote:

all of the sellers suffer the same problem

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In which case it is a level playing field

[5kazam]

The way I see it is that until recently listings that were ending 'soonest' were the ones on page 1, 2 etc. of any category, when you just wanted to do a search of what was available in a chosen area.

Tonight I had a look to see where my items were that are ending in 1 day and x hours.  My first one was on page 6, quite a few more on page 7, heaps more on page 8, didn't bother going much further.  But they were intermingled with lisitings that had 6 days to go.

I set up a chat with eBay, asking them to give me a valid reason as to why this was now going on - response being  my query would be sent  through to the tech team.  What came back was a generic response regarding algorisms, and other such nonsense.  Literally the same wording that another member received on another thread.

Why can't eBay understand that most buyers don't want to look through 50 pages of what is available in their chosen area, and that they actually may miss out on buying something at a good price, that is going to end tomorrow because it is on page 27, and didn't get that far!!!  

If the listings were in their ending day/time order (as was the previous norm), sellers would be making the sales of the past, buyers would be happy, and eBay would be making more money.  How hard is it for eBay to absorb simple logic.

[davewil1964]

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@5kazam wrote:

The way I see it is that until recently listings that were ending 'soonest' were the ones on page 1, 2 etc. of any category, when you just wanted to do a search of what was available in a chosen area.

Tonight I had a look to see where my items were that are ending in 1 day and x hours.  My first one was on page 6, quite a few more on page 7, heaps more on page 8, didn't bother going much further.  But they were intermingled with lisitings that had 6 days to go.

I set up a chat with eBay, asking them to give me a valid reason as to why this was now going on - response being  my query would be sent  through to the tech team.  What came back was a generic response regarding algorisms, and other such nonsense.  Literally the same wording that another member received on another thread.

Why can't eBay understand that most buyers don't want to look through 50 pages of what is available in their chosen area, and that they actually may miss out on buying something at a good price, that is going to end tomorrow because it is on page 27, and didn't get that far!!!  

If the listings were in their ending day/time order (as was the previous norm), sellers would be making the sales of the past, buyers would be happy, and eBay would be making more money.  How hard is it for eBay to absorb simple logic.

Why would you assume that buyers don't use ending soonest or price + postage lowest as their criteria? I do, and I suspect I'm not Robinson Crusoe.