Why have my listing views dropped to 0?

[littleblackleica]

I have been selling antiques and collectables on eBay for over 20 years but in recent months almost nothing seems to be selling.  I initially put it down to the pandemic and the cost of living crisis but when I checked my for sale listings I discovered that many items had no views and therefore no watchers.  Others had between 1 and 3 views after weeks online.  Can enyone tell me what's going on?  I have been unhappy with eBay's apparent lack of interest in smaller sellers (I have just over 1,000 positive items of feedback after 20 years) but the categorisation in antiques and collectables is questionable to say the least. One of my most popular items used to be Georgian wine glasses.  Now when you put those words into the selling engine it recommends posting the item in "decanters" as there is no category for antique drinking glasses.  There have been several other similarly bizarre examples.  So is ebay trying to squeeze out smaller sellers or is there something else going on?

[tressygirl]

Don't worry nothing sinister going on here.

eBay have very  recently changed the way their viewing counter works.  This will now only show views from the past 30 days.

eBay inform us that this  now more accurately reflects views from real potential buyers by filtering most machine and bot views.

This fully explains this new change to the viewing counter.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/listing-tips/page-views?id=4165

Some members have been experiencing recent viewing figures missing too.  There may be some readjustment period for this new system to settle and show the correct views per month.

Do not worry your items are still seen in searches.

[four_mid_able]

Views have never been accurate and mean very little now.

[littleblackleica]

Hi,  Thanks for your reply.  Here is a screenshot of an item I posted exactly a month ago.  It has had no views and there are 0 watchers.  I know from dozens of previous sales that there is demand for antique drinking glasses so to have no views is odd to say the least.   This is the same with my other items although most have recorded 1 or 2 views so it's not that the view counter is broken.   

 

[nikki77770_0]

I feel your pain - I sell antique items too and for the past few weeks I've had virtually no views, no watchers and few sales. And to add insult to injury I've just had my first ever neutral feedback from a lunatic buyer. 😑

eBay is not what it was, and sellers of unusual/antique items are pretty much scuppered.

[littleblackleica]

You have some very interesting items for sale.  Good luck

[nikki77770_0]

Thanks - good luck to you too!

[roy3686]

I tend to agree withyour scepticism regarding ebay attitude towards sellers. I posted 18 new listings on Sunday 6th Nov 22 and have been checking their progress daily. Yesterday (Wednesday 9th) most items had m,ultilpe views, a fair few had watchers and a 3 had bids. Watching like this helps me gauge if my postings are attracting attention or if I need to edit listings to help them along. All seemed pretty good on Wednesday. This morning (Thursay 10th) went in to check and all listings have zero views. Have exited ebay and gone back in 3 times and satill the same. Just another glitch in the flaky ebay process, alongside my SOLD items status NOT updating beyond despatched and there being no options available to move it along - this has always been an important part of keeping buyers updated. Ebay have also held on to my payments from buyers "so they can verify my transactions as a new seller" - I have previously sold over 700 items on ebay, have 100% feedback from buyers and their feedback is still listed in my ebay account. I am seriously considering selling elsewhere now. there are good local sites where postage issues can be avoided.  After just 3 or 4 weeks selling afain I am very disappointed with ebay - theu can blame YODEL for my delivery status updates not happening but ebay promote/offer the delivery service without making it clear the process is flaky

[pollythepink]

I completely agree with you.

I often change the wording on items that are not viewed and then find they then sell.

Surely this minor but essential detail is needed by sellers.

l have 100% feedback on my account so l must be doing something right.

Come on Ebay get this sorted you will loose a lot of sellers to this annoying but needed item.

l will be moving elsewhere if this carries on too.

FROM a very UNHAPPY seller.

[kgeorge9335]

What a mess Ebay are making of their own site . I think I will have a look at Vinted if Ebay do not listen to their sellers . I need those  reviews to know what is happening with my sale articles

[roy3686]

I spoke with ebay help centre yesterday (10th Nov)  and they said their technical team were working on the VIEWS count problem. They clearly were because this morning (11th) the view count is working again which is good because it is just in time for buyers peak viewing window over the weekend. The view count now appears in blue and if you click on the view count it displays a count of views by day which I think could be very useful for judging viewing trends on different items. Just need to make sure that better software testing is done before putting out on general release. Next on the list for fixing needs to be the listing status which, for me, is stuck on DESPATCHED even though buyers have paid, item has been delivered and a buyer has left feedback.  

[magik-limbo]

Isn't this just eBay's way of trying to bamboozle small private sellers with technical jargon instead of what it really is, that your listings won't get a single view if you don't pay them extra in fees to promote it. 

[prelovedlovers]

I've only started selling a month or so and the sales are awful, even though I'm listing 2 or 3 items a day which is what I've had suggested from YouTube ebayers. Hardly any views, hardly any sales. It's worrying. 

[toolboss15]

This is down to eBay changes,  you are selling collectables, the new defaults on searching cut out the vast majority of potential listing on your type of goods. That’s why I don’t bother now on eBay as they have completely mucked up on the categories and dumb defaults, so you would experience no views but unfortunately eBay has to change back and get rid of defaults that were introduced as they just do not work on collectables and such like.

Sorry I do know where many that were on eBay are selling now, but If I do say on here, I will get my post removed and band for a week again as there is no freedom of speech on eBay community.

[1902elder]

Nothing to back up your assertion, not promoting cannot prevent views. If your items are interesting enough, they will get views. Difficult to see why you are not, apart from that you have no live listings and all your recent transactions appear to be from buying, and not from selling.

[andyp33blue]

I'm not selling as a business on here, but 7-day auction listings are the same. There are little to no views on items I list now, despite how nice they are? What's going on? Has Ebay fallen off a cliff? It seems unlikely that this is normal as with most other complaining on here, I'm experiencing a woeful drop in views. It's very odd.

[reilly50]

100% Agree

[anemone444]

I also have items with 0 views after 2 weeks of listing even though the 'sold' filter shows that  the same items with similar listing details are popular and selling. I suspect this is because I do not pay eBay extra to promote my listing. I can't understand why eBay seem to be forcing small sellers out through their strange methods of limiting visibility of certain items. 

[anemone444]

My listings are now regularly showing 0 views even though checking the 'sold' filter shows me that similar items are popular and selling. I believe it is because eBay have changed their system to favour people who pay extra to promote their listing. I suggest trying other selling platforms to increase sales. 

[aquatints]

For the time taken to list each item, after 48 hours, 7 items (antiques) placed on the platform and only 3 views in total I'm thinking eBay can't be as popular as it used to be. 48 hours, 7 listings, 3 hours to list them, is it worth it? Seems like a lot of hassle to me for no good reason. If no interested potential buyers are in the marketplace, why would I put my wares onto eBay? Beginning to think this is a useless platform.