drop in sales

[lovemyjeans237]

Has anyone noticed a dramatic drop in veiws and sales in the past 7 days?

I have noticed the veiws on my items have slowed and my sales have more than halved. This has happened suddenly. 

I have also noticed my items are hard to find when I am doing a general search where as before I would find my items quite easy.

[ozstockman]

I noticed a few days ago that a lot of items simply disappeared from eBay search like there is nothing or just 1-2 items for sale. I know there should be at least 30-50 from different sellers but only few shown. The same happened with the other items that I am sure there should be plenty of listings for. Tried searching them in a few days later and all went back to normal but disappeared in a couple of days ago again.

No wonder sellers have no sales when their items regularly ON and OFF with showing on eBay.

[clubesquire]

Sadly, none of us are going to know until eBay definitively address the issue. I'm a natural born worried about everything, but I'm determined not to get into a tiz about this just yet.

eBay would be well served to keep an eye on these forums and responsibly answer the concerns and take on the good critique from the coalface. It would be to the betterment of everone, eBay included. It just makes sense.

Melina.

[fmurphy2005]

Things were considerably slow for me.

Then I changed my listings to 1 day handling and free postage fellow for Aussies (and reduced international shipping acccordingly) to get the FAST & FREE tag, just to see what happens.  I then had a burst of sales, but then it stopped after several days and I received an email from eBay saying essentially "see what FREE & FAST" does for you?  do it all the time for better results!"

The timing of how it happened just made me feel like they turned the lights on in my showroom to give me some sales and then off again, to keep me in line with the FAST & FREE thing.

[yeoldecoinco]

"They have also had a number of views, but no buyer. ebay rates most of them as a 1% chance of selling. I expect some of this would come down to how many similar items have sold on ebay recently and the price achieved."

Yes, spot on. I have a few underperforming listings and it seems eBay compare the price of your item to the same item sold by others.

Last week, I sold several items that had been listed on eBay for a couple of years.

They were not listed by eBay as underperforming, presumably because no similar items had been sold for less by others in that period.

This change will probably add more fees to the monthly bill, but I can see the benefit to some extent.

There is an awful lot of optimistically priced material out there..

[dazzledayz]

A while ago Wenig was saying that one of ebay's strengths was its long tail (unusual, rare and uncommon items).

By definition, these do not have a high sell thought rate and may sit on the shelf for quite some time.

It doesn't look like we can put any faith in the statements ebay make when the actuality is often shown to be the reverse.

I have books that will sell after 2 years or more on the site.

I have others that sell to a very limited audience

I have still others that are expensive by way of rarity or collector value that will not sell quickly.

All these are "long tail" listings that, while not being quick to sell, add interest and variety to the overall offering.

It seems that the opinion amongst management now is that ebay should be a bog standard retail outlet.

This flies in the face of commentaries all over the web that eBay has become difficult, bland and boring.

If they plan to go head to head with Amazon and main stream retailers they most assurely will lose.

In fact that may be half the reason sales are in the toilet right now.

(3 days without a sale as of this date)

I also have no plans to be offering Delivery Guarantees either, especially when I see that we MUST accept immediate payment to use the program (so goodbye to any combined purchases).

[*tippy*toes*]

I see fast and free on your listings because I live in the next state. However, those in WA or FNQ won't see it. That's why it's a big take. It only applies to a select audience.

[brerrabbit585]

It seems that the opinion amongst management now is that ebay should be a bog standard retail outlet.

This flies in the face of commentaries all over the web that eBay has become difficult, bland and boring.

---

Yes, this is what I was trying to say but you've said it much better.  I know some people buy everything online rather than going to b&m stores but I've tended to use ebay for items I can't get anywhere else, especially not locally, or that I can buy cheaper online.  I can't see the point of only having things listed that you can easily buy in retail stores without having to pay postage.

[davewil1964]

... or buy at the same (or better) prices from the retailers' websites.

[knewdoors]

sales = dead as a dodo

[morgan*73]

Haven't had a sales for 3 days and inquiries/offers for 2 days. Normally I get an offer/enquiry or sale every day.  I also added international shipping but that doesn't seem to have made any difference. Haven't got a lot of listings but I feel most of my clothes are priced appropriately to sell. Anyway I wish Ebay would say that they are turning off certain sellers so you could do other things with your time. Anyway see what happens today I am changing a few listings up with different photos, prices, etc.