I asked Ebay what new changes have damaged my sales...and they responded...

[Anonymous]

I just opened a chat with an Ebay representative and asked them "what changes have recently been made that has seen my sales drop by 95-100% this month?" I received the following response

Jean Su. "We have done nothing to destroy any seller's account. It is up to the buyers to buy items and some items are seasonal. Also, there are many sellers nowadays that the competition is very stiff."

....I then mentioned that the drop in sales happened instantly which is neither seasonal nor due to competition being "very stiff" and the response I received was ...dead silence... It appears that rather than tell the truth o a lie Ebay will just go silent and wait for you to go away. So after years of advertising and telling us all to build our own Ebay business and encouraging us to rely on it for our living this is the response we get when they decide we are no longer of any use. I would have some more to say but i have already received 4 warnings from the Ebay moderation team today for speaking out of line. I guess they will shortly send me another dozen or so.....because i know I have been speaking my mind a lot lately. Shame on me.

[i-once-was-bump]

Why can't you just write the question here that you wanted ebay to answer?

[Anonymous]

Because its not relevant and the moderators will remove it! So off you go now and find somewhere else to display your ignorance.

[2106greencat]

Wow, there was no need to speak to a well respected member like that.

TFSFE

[love_station_au]

I am little bit better - my sales dropped 80% (not 100% yet). I had a live chat with ebay too, but it was just wasting my time...

[Anonymous]

2106Greencat   Perhaps you had best look further before offering your opinion. Especially when it was ignorance that I was commenting on..... Anyway I can see this is about to degenerate the way these forums often do when certain types join in so I will leave you all to it and get back to work. Thanks everyone. 

[jensmanchester-australia]

movie_models - sorry to hear about your drop in sales.

I just had a quick look at some of your listings and a couple of things which might help would include:-

Accepting returns - you can set your own terms for under what conditions you accept returns and who is responsible for the postage costs.

Incorporating the postage cost into some of your items and offering so called Free Postage (which should really be promoted as postage included).

Adding the Best Offer feature to some of your listings.

For listings which haven't had a sale for a while end the listing, maybe revise the title and/or description and relist it. This sometimes gives a boost in the best match search results.

Use as many keywords as possible in the title to help items coming up in search results.

For items which are New add that word into the title.

Run a few auctions - you get some buyers who really like the auction format.

From the changes that ebay are introducing IMO the two main reasons you listings may have dropped in search results is because you don't offer returns and you don't offer "free post" in your listings.

[bsal6160]

WOW, only 95% drop. Heres hoping for another 5% drop. With an attitude like that it was only going to be a matter of time before sales dropped. If that is the attitude towards the medium which allows you to SELL then pity the buyer who is not happy with the service the seller provides.

[love_station_au]

Hi jensmanchester,

I just checked your shop and found out you have 1629 listings. I am just wondering if you need change all listings to ebay so-called "free" postage, how long will take you to do so? I have only 150 listings but already think it is too hard to change them. 😐

[jensmanchester-australia]

Hi love_station_au,

If you use the bulk edit tool it doesn't take too long.

I think you can revise up to 200 listings at one time using that tool.

[misterforgetfulsbooks]

I believe the topic is a good one, it has benefits to many sellers within the selling topic.

Could it be that the Aus. Post rates have affected sellers more than we already know?

Have the changes ebay has recently made affected sales? If so, what was parameter tweaking that caused the drop and what needs to be done by us to avoid losing sales?