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??

[jfmgray]

My opinion - EBAY is yet to make the changes to the best match search to give priority to Premimium sellers.  I only have a handful of listings that qualify for the premium badge and the are nowhere to be found in best match search results.

[daniellebradydesigns]

It's not just best match items that aren't coming up. I purchase things on eBay frequently. I'm currently watching a few items, while searching further, for similar items, using Lowest Price + postage, 90% of those items don't show up in search at all. There is an issue with the search function. I'm sure there are plenty of others experiencing a loss in sales, due to this. Regardless of people's opinions, on search functions, and how people search, there is an undeniable issue.

[5kazam]

"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."

I am in agreement that a lot of buyers would use that option.  However,  I would guarantee there are a great deal more buyers who just click onto their chosen category and start looking from page 1 onwards.  You need to remember that not everyone is an eBay guru. 

But I think you missed my point -  '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....'.  Which also means that irrespective of Best Match algorithms, or any other ideas that are dreamt up - ALL SELLERS LISTINGS WILL BE ON PAGE 1 OF THEIR CATEGORY AT SOME POINT.  This also means a  level playing field for all sellers, and everyone gets their turn to bat.

They way things are set up now, I cannot accept that it is a fair situation for BUYERS or SELLERS.