eBay

lovemyjeans237 · ‎08-11-2017

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.

lovemyjeans237 · ‎08-11-2017

Thanks Melinda, I feel better that Im not going crazy or being paranoid. Ebay has assured me that nothing has changed but I know it has. May have to look into other avenues too.

twyngwyn · ‎08-11-2017

@egglesdtp wrote:
@chameleon54 wrote:
Ebay do change formating from time to time. I am sure they changed the formula related to pushing popular sellers higher in search rankings and less popular sellers lower in searches around six months ago. I have a few competitors I keep an eye on and the changes where very noticable at the time. This has been a permenant shift and somthing else we need to keep in mind when managing our stores.

Ebay have also announced penalties for listings that sit unsold for extended periods. In future, they will simply be deleted by ebay or face higher penalty listing charges.

Ebay are definately trying to weed out the stock that just sits there going round and round, unsold for extended periods of time.
What constitutes an extended peiod of time?

And what are higher penalty listing charges?

See this thread

https://community.ebay.com.au/t5/eBay-Announcements-and-Seller/eBay-Spring-Seller-Release/m-p/209305...

clubesquire · ‎08-11-2017

I'm looking at some of her 'stuff' now, but I'm such a dodo. It's so complicated. But what is clear is that her sales are down 57% in the reporting period, whenever that was. I think it's October. That's close to two thirds. You'd think the page views would correspond, but it's showing down 49%. These things even show how long someone spends at your page etc. how is that done?

For someone like me it firstly indicates that half the traffic has disappeared into thin air, but then all I have is logic and commonsense and that tells me it's not possible, especailly in this period leading into Xmas.

Buyers are also watching for a while and then dropping away. So, I go searching for the same item at a better price, but can't find any. Soooooooo?? I just don't know. Can anyone else make commonsense of it?

We've had a couple of small sales but that's it, and our page views are certainly way down. You could be forgiven for thinking the honeymoon is over, people don't like what they see, or prices are wrong, but my gut and my enquiries are telling me to ignore all that. Not that it helps.

Sorry it's worrying you. I hope it get better for you. All of us.

Melina.

theemporiumofeverything · ‎09-11-2017

i have also noticed a dramatic drop in sales about 60% compared to the same time last year. I don't understand why the vintage clothing category has changed dramatically obviously ebay thinks it has made it easier, i doubt it. I have been selling on eBay since 2004 and quite successfully until this year. Sales have dropped month to month. I don't often come on to the discussion boards but I am at a loss to figure out why such a dramatic loss and thought there may be some insight here. I doubt i will even have enough in the account to pay the fees this month which hasn't happened for a very long time.

clubesquire · ‎09-11-2017

Been talking with Jen again, but she confuses me. Too much of a whiz-kid. But, according to her and her stats it all came to a grinding halt overnight on 11 October. She had good sales up until then, then nothing of any consequence. The reporting period I couldnt work out was for the last 30 days to date, so it actually took into account a few good days.

She's had six sales since day before yesterday. a big improvement, suddenly.

I dont know what to make of any of it. We're selling via Club Mail, with better margins, but not on eBay. go figure.

I've put one new very plain listing up and it is attracting attention. you just never know.

Melina.

PS....Interesting too that everyone seems to be mentioning about the same percentage - 60%, or 2/3rds, or thereabouts. Am I right?

davewil1964 · ‎09-11-2017

Not me. Mine are about 50% up since I increased my listings by 50%

lovemyjeans237 · ‎09-11-2017

Yep, down 53% last week, 66% this week. Something I have also noticed is that my settings have changed, I didn't change them but just like the sales drop the settings changed by themselves over night about the same time. My son tells me if there was an update they could have re set. Now every time I do a search it automaticly goes to the highest priced item. I know this can be changed but it makes me wonder if this has happened to everybody and with so many using the phone app ( a bit more difficult to navigate ) maybe this is why the veiws, therefore sales, are down.

Just racking my brain.

yeoldecoinco · ‎09-11-2017

November is usually a slow month for my type of business on eBay, but this month has been quite steady so far.

A couple of months back, I extracted the digit and listed about 500 new items, these have kept the wheels turning since then.

Generally with eBay, if you are realistic with the price and have something people want, the more that gets listed, the more gets sold.

It can be seasonal though, and knowing your quiet times can help.

For my business, the usual slow periods are September, November and February.

clubesquire · ‎09-11-2017

I'm possibly being a bit unfair. I've made a few mistakes with the options of our listings. I'm sure that will account for some of it. And, I do need to get a few more up in a hurry - can't sell if it isn't listed. I've sorta been a bit pre-occupied investigating, following suggestions not to have all eggs in one basket. I think I'm on the right track.

For us, we're getting a bit long in the tooth and really don't want to still be trying to clear current stock in five years time. Additional avenues will help, so big muchem thanks for the heads-up and direction dear everyone.

Melina.

chameleon54 · ‎09-11-2017

@egglesdtp wrote:
@chameleon54 wrote:
Ebay do change formating from time to time. I am sure they changed the formula related to pushing popular sellers higher in search rankings and less popular sellers lower in searches around six months ago. I have a few competitors I keep an eye on and the changes where very noticable at the time. This has been a permenant shift and somthing else we need to keep in mind when managing our stores.

Ebay have also announced penalties for listings that sit unsold for extended periods. In future, they will simply be deleted by ebay or face higher penalty listing charges.

Ebay are definately trying to weed out the stock that just sits there going round and round, unsold for extended periods of time.
What constitutes an extended peiod of time?

And what are higher penalty listing charges?

Like all abay announcements, there are a dozen completely different answers to each question, as it all seems to be policy on the run and we will make it up as we go along.

In the most recent seller realease an extended period of time was classed as 12 months. This got me worried, so I read up all the information I could find in all the ebay info, nooks & crannies. Somewhere else it stated that it would be non performing listings that would be affected. These are completely different to the 12 month thing stated in the seller release. To find out if you have any non performing listings, go to seller hub. Top right of search bar is the word " growth " . Click on this and any non performing listings will show. If none show, you dont have any non performing listings.

I have 1300 listings on my main store. Of these around 800 - 1000 would be older than 12 months. I only have seven listings classified as non performing, ( and yes ebay are right, they are duds..... ) so no dramas if they get auto deleted.

On the question of penalty listing costs. I saw the figure of 5 cents per listing, per month extra cost mentioned somewhere. If this is right it will cost me $40-$50 per month in penalty fees if applied to my 800-1000 listings that are older than 12 months. A bit of a pain and another nail in my ebay business coffin, but not a game changer.