Now I know Why My Sales Are So Bad

[mrob7487]

In the last 3 months I've only had 15 sales, 13 of those were to the U.K and the other 2 to Poland. I sell internationally using eBay's GSP but haven't had a sale to the U.S, Canada, Japan etc for months and now I know why. I have 283 items listed but when I checked out the U.S site only 36 of my listings were showing. I sell vintage jewellery so nothing that's restricted and am at a loss as how to correct things. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

Since Brexit my international sales have gone to almost zero.

Adding in extra international postage and VAT for goods just kills it.

[sheba-knows-best]

This has long been an issue. I have 1,500+ and show 1,100.

I once had an issue with a buyer and got curious and started messing around. If you log onto ebay.com. Then add in an American postcode as your shipping address so you can see what they see - for instance,  IL66016 - then you are allowed to swap your filters down the lefthand side from 'default' to 'Worldwide' and then, magically, all of my items showed up for my buyer.

I agree - if a buyer in the US is just browsing they may nnot change settings to worldwide (from default). I don't know whether the difference between default/worldwide is a glitch or ebay trying to offer international shipping on certain items for definite reasons.

[mrob7487]

I went onto the U.S site and changed item location to worldwide and my listings now show up in search (would have to do it for every search), but I'm not sure how many buyers would actually do that. And the fact that I haven't had a U.S sale for months tells me that not many do. My shop in the U.S still says I only have 36 items listed for sale though!!!! 

[mrob7487 · Accepted solution]

Yeah, it isn't much fun being a U.K seller now, the Tories certainly didn't do small businesses any favours when they pulled us out of the E.U

[angry-space-triangles]

I dont beleive the accepted answer here is necessarily correct.

My sales to USA and Canada suck - here's what i've worked out.

When using the GSP you cannot select the option to "list item in USA and Canada" for a listing - this costs you 25p of whatever (yet another evil ebay fee).

Lots of categories are restricted from being visible in the US because ebay has an obvious  "USA first policy"  (this is discriminatory - we can't decide were we live just as we cant decide our skin colour or height or sex)

I know this to be true since I was told it to be true by an eBay support representative  - paraphrasing, he said "you listing visibility is based on where your account is registered" - ie not is the USA so 99.5% of your listings dont show in the USA

If you go to my shop via the various international ebay sites, you see a varied amount of listings;  via USA you see 1 listing (or you did last time i checked.

This all makes me very angry.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I'm sorry, but I'm really not getting what the issue is here.

When I search for something on Ebay UK, then I expect to get results from Ebay UK, with maybe some extra ones at the bottom from other countries.

So why would it be any different when searching on the US website?

If an item is listed on .com and is located in the US, then I would expect to see it in search.

So why is it so unusual not to find something that isn't located in the country your searching?

I would imagine, that the majority of buyers will only want to buy from their own country.  I certainly do.

I don't do anything other than add GSP to my listings and I still get sales in various countries.

It frankly astounds me that anyone would be willing to pay as much in postage as the item costs, but they do fairly regularly.

[candytan67]

Ebay's GSP rates are far to expensive for savvy American buyers. They make the combined cost of what you are selling very expensive to the buyer. I never use it

When you list un-check the GSP button and just offer a "worldwide" shipping/postage option as well as a UK rate and your items "should" be seen overseas showing a more competitive or realistic shipping charge (you could charge at cost or + say 50p for materials) to potential buyers. You sould really add 14% to all your UK and overseas shipping rates otherwise you will be taking a loss on postage when eBay take their fees on a sale.

Overall the eBay search is "pants" unless buyers have an high IQ and know how to use it and of course Ebay can always hide your listings for reasons known only to them.    😒

[angry-space-triangles]

If you look in my shop you should see everything i sell. its that simple. If i look on a US shop (not an ebay shop - just some website) you see everthing they sell no matter where im from!

If I look at my ebay shop via france or ireland or span you can see lots of my items, just not my shop via ebay.com

[superchallenge]

Yep. Reported a few months back. Apparently people have been having the issue for years prior to that.

UK Listings Not Displaying on eBay US 

Not expecting anything to ever be done. Then they send me an email saying I've lost my Top-Rated Seller status in the US because I don't sell enough to the US. Y'know...that country that can't see my listings.