No Sales MKII

[dwtrading2015]

Since the No sales board was abruptly terminated, after 88 pages of contributions, I've tried setting it up again here

[theelench]

My last sale on ebay - 29/5/24

10 years ago, selling the same sort of collectables, most of my 4 / 5 listings a week sold.   

 5 years ago I was down to an average of 2-3 sales a month.

Previous 2 years, 13 sales p.a, average 1 p.m.

This year 3 sales total so far.  Average 1 p. 2.5 months (approx.)

As the site has been continuously mucked about with, mostly for no apparent or beneficial reason, other than to facilitate ebay's ever increasing level of greed, my sales have consistently fallen.

Ebay = From the sublime, to the pathetically rediculous.

A shadow of of its former self.

[dwtrading2015]

Very very slow sales.  Payments to bank account of 20p (yes pence).  The sales are far to erratic to indicate this is a market issue with school holidays or other forces.  More attempts to rebrand up front pay per click and sell it again.  AI interfering with search results, I noticed search getting much worse last couple of weeks.  I don't buy the same widget over and over again, the widgets I look for are diverse and rarely the same thing; printer, headphones, MIDI cable, DIY tool, sweets, dishwasher tablets... there is no way any AI is ever going to second guess what my next purchase might be and so filter results based on previous sales ignoring what I actually put in the search bar.  I can not for the life of me understand how anybody could ever assume predictive search results could ever work given the wide range of potential purchases that could be made.  Before, people were just given resonably close matches and then found what they were looking for themselves in the results.  It worked.  Why did that have to be fixed?  The search has been busted for a couple of years now - and so the answer is to make the results even more obtuse?  Let the buyer chose, it is all part of the shopping experience, the shopping hunt.  That's why 'window shopping' has survived ALL forms of shopping evolution and is as much a part of online shopping as on the high street.  AI results take the hunt out of the hunt whilst failing to deliver matchs for what people are hunting for.

[theelench]

"Predictive Search"  --  Is that the technical term for it?

I agree with every word you say except, perhaps,  "The search has been busted for a couple of years now -"  IMO ebay started wrecking it before that.  See my post at #95 which is something I've been saying for years about Collectables.

It doesn't even work if, like I do, I mostly buy the same sort of item (vintage glass).  In a nut-shell I used to buy mainly low price items (£5 - £10)  --  trinket bowls / candle sticks to complete dressing table sets.   But when my Collecting slush-fund balance allowed it I'd treat myself to a table-lamp or vase (£100 - £200).  If I could find one that I'd been searching for, for years.

Often I wasn't allowed to see this type of item, except when searching and I clicked on Sold Items.  But having found and bought one, for a week or two afterwards, the search would then allow me to see a dozen others previously hidden.

Not being able to window-shop / browse and find the un-expected, rarer, or previously unknown piece is why the Collectors/Buyers/Sellers have gone.  Why I don't bother to search and why I don't sell anything much on ebay any more. (See #101)

My most recent example.  Yesterday my 3 auctions for Miles Mason Ceramics ended unsold.  Previously every piece of this set has sold the first time it was listed.  A friend on the other site I sell on searched for them earlier in the week.  They were allowed to see some of listings I was shown, but not all, including 1 of my auctions.  Not the better items (@£25), but the cheapest, with a hair-line crack (@£10.)

Thank you ebay.

[dwtrading2015]

With only one sale again and confusing information on the promoted campaign page, which semed to indicate most of my listings had no promotion, I have launched an experiment.  I've removed all promotions for a few hours before reapplying a blanket 3% later this evening.

1 sale shortly after removing all promotions, or in eBay speak my sales have increased 100% since embarking on a new dynamic marketing stratergy. 

What a mess.

[gift_of_sound]

Good luck with the new promotions experiment.....

I just complained to eBay support that my Featured Shop is no longer value for money due to low sales. I asked what they could do to help...I was told thank you for your loyalty and 23 years of service but there is nothing they can do and if I was unhappy then downgrade to the Basic shop. I then asked why their Basic Shop only includes 250 "free" listings when most of my competitors who are not registered as a business (despite selling high volumes) are enjoying 1000 free listings.... I was then told its because they dont have all the advantages associated with a business account...🤔

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

😀

Did you ask them what those advantages were ?

[dwtrading2015]

I think the shop is only an advantage if you have over 60 listings from a fee point of view.  Otherwise merely being registered as a business gives you one sole benefit over private.  As a business you can do promotions.

[tabletop-hobbies]

Well sales are okay here, though I'm having to promote more and work harder on the ebay hustle to get the same revenue I was getting a year ago, inevitably with less going in my pocket.

The market is saturated with *stuff*, total over supply with more and more platforms fighting over the customers.  Suppliers reinventing the wheel with product re releases that just mean you're commited to massive stock purchases to keep selling the same thing are not helpful either.

The solution, same as ever, differentiate, diversify, hustle, and remember when you had a boss and worked for a big corporation in a job that sucked the life out of you, well you're the boss now.

eBay, god love that great big lummocking website... is eating it's sellers in some wierd death spiral of pay to win in an arena of ever shrinking buyers.  It's still a leviathan and you can still win here but the watering hole is slowly drying up and my mind keeps going to those nature programs where the hundreds of fish are slithering around in an ever shrinking muddy water hole struggling to breathe and probably realising they're doomed.

A lot of my products are unique used items and belong on ebay because that's what ebay does best, but as for the wholesale stuff, I do not intend on being one of those fish.

[dwtrading2015]

Impressions consistent, same shallow decline in page views, sales still vacant.  If everybody has gone on holiday, maybe I should join them, huh at the most expensive time of year.

I'm bored!

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

Year on year traffic to our listings is way down, both impressions and page views are around 50% lower. which is obviously massive

The only solution we can see is to move more and more of our business to our own website and spend more and more advertising that (the money spent doing that will be the money we used to spend on Ebay fees).

[dwtrading2015]

With luck I can go back to abandoning the eBay as an income screen for holiday money with a new job offer an day now.  There is no way I could support myself on eBa like I did just a couple of years ago.  The market for a direct competitor to come in and wipe eBay out are set.

[gift_of_sound]

The main advantage he suggested were

1 - You receive a 10% discount off of your FVF (not including the 30p) if you offer a good service

2 - Business sellers receive a "boost" over private sellers in the visibility of listings  🤔

3 - Access to Promotions Discounts etc.

4 - Anyone selling business level volumes under a private account status will be closed down following a new initiative starting in September.

[the-nutwood-collection]

Business seller advantages?

1 - You receive a 10% discount off of your FVF (not including the 30p) if you offer a good service

Private sellers receive frequent offers of 80% discount off FVF, zero fees if they sell clothing, and listings are free.  

2 - Business sellers receive a "boost" over private sellers in the visibility of listings

I don't.  As a top rated plus seller, my listings are behind (a) sponsored listings and (b) private listings

3 - Access to Promotions Discounts etc.

Only if you pay £27 a month for a shop

4 - Anyone selling business level volumes under a private account status will be closed down following a new initiative starting in September.

If they transfer to a business account now, they'll receive zero FVF until the end of the year and a free featured shop.  Jan 1 2025, they'll close the business account and open a private account.  If they're closed down in September, they'll open another private account.

[oceanartsnorthdevon]

I contacted customer services today as it has been nearly a week with no sales which is a first in over 10 years to go a full week with nothing. Expectaions were low and I wasn't expecting to hear anything new or any groundbreaking revelations just the usual tips to improve sales which make absolutely no difference and hear that all is ok on site and the issue is with me and what I sell or what is going on in the current market.

A recommendation was made to take my listings off promotions and use that percentage it is promoted at to reduce listing price, I was quite surprised at that suggestion as I thought we was encouraged to promote our items for better visibility plus this is extra revenue for ebay? (not that much is selling when it is promoted!)  My reply was surely if I do that, yes price of item would be lower with a better chance of selling but would anyone even see it if it is not promoted? The next piece of advice was to optimise listings and this in turn would sell items quicker as they would appear in top of search in best match as this is best option to get visibility.

As far as I am concerned I thought my listings were optimised and that seems to make very little difference, I have had this advice before but feel if I were to remove all promotions and reduce listings by the percentage they are promoted at my guessing would be they would all disappear into oblivion! Has anyone tried doing this with any success?

If the way to go forward and get your listings seen and have regular sales is making sure they are fully optimised that they appear in search in best match, that this is the secret all along for fruitul sales without needing to promote but using that saving on reducing listing price which has been advised, why are there so many different ways of promoting being pushed if this is apparantly the way to get regular sales? Have I wasted my time and money promoting? Am I missing a trick on optimising my listings as it appears they cannot be showing up in best match otherwise I would have some sales? I am confused now.

[gift_of_sound]

That customer service agent is no longer employed by eBay, having been frogmarched out of the building...

Lets face it, eBay have spent all their advertising budget and most of their goodwill on these promotions projects that are designed to generate a return for investors.

If eBay's advice is to take everything off of promotions then perhaps thay should be sending out a "we are so sorry" email to every business seller and disabling the Promotions option.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I really don't know why everyone is so stuck on the  "promote or it will disappear" line......

I have stopped using promotions on the majority of my listings now and am continuing to make sales.

I do participate in the Ebay based 10/15/20% discount deals, but that's all I run now.

I've found that the key to this, is to make sure your listings are optimised for the search engine and to regularly introuduce new items.  Along with refreshing any items approacing 90 days old.

There are reasons to advertise, but everyone seems to have got stuck on this as the be all and end all.  
Maybe it's because there are so many on Ebay, that really don't know any other business and relatively new at it.  

I would suggest, that you try with maybe half your listings not being promoted and see how it goes.

What's the worst that can happen if your not making any sales anyway?

[vintagewatchpart]

Yes:

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Business-Seller-Board/No-Promoted-Listings-for-1-Month-Experiment-Re...

I have not been promoting now for 8 months. My sales are up circa 8% vs the same period last year when I was promoting. My selling costs are down 11.5% vs last year, so I am selling more and that selling cost figure of 11.5% saved represents a staggering £15,000 that I have earned extra that is not being spent to achieve the same sales results via promoted listings.

If your sales are non-existent then could be worth just turning off all promoted listings and see what happens to your stats for a week.

[oceanartsnorthdevon]

Thank you, I read your report with interest it does make you wonder.  I will certainly give it a go and stop some of the promotions, as you say I have  nothing to loose at the moment as nothing seems to be selling.

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

I'm not sure what benefit promoted listings are having now, the absolute maximum I will pay is just over 5% however Ebay wants more (as ever). In the main they just seem to provide pointless impressions from being shown on the pages of other items, the result is they wreck the click-through rate through no fault of the seller. 

My page views have taken a tumble recently even when I am promoting. I used to get 300 - 700 page views a day, at the moment it is often around 100 - 150 which is pathetic when compared to my page views for the last 15 years.

The whole platform has become too time consuming and costly for the rewards on offer.  

[dwtrading2015]

Well, despite me deploying every trick in the book, this last fortnight has been the worst ever.  One maybe two sales with some days a blank.  Never ever seen it this bad.  The platform was on the knife edge to begin with, so a small change in the market with the bank holiday weekend and likely pushing annual leave to bunch up since it is earlier than often means there is no residual market.

If these couple of weeks do not wake up the bean counters that something is very amiss in the UK market at least, then eBay UK will stay on the death spiral.  So many widget specialists have set up shop off eBay, entire niche markets are gone.  I was seaching for an old school 'toy' musical keyboard the other day and google brought up a cheaper match through Cash Convertors compared to the handful listed on eBay, and that includes DHL shipping.  Cash Converters don't have to pay high 12% fees plus another 10% promotion. They likley have a small % in Google costs.

eBay has priced it's sellers out of the market through high fees, however they want to label them, listing, promotion, regulatory, fees on top of postage fees........   Add to that very heavy handed return label costs, aiding and abeting online fraud for buyers and the end result is an unviable business.

Remarkable how such big bold corporations are capable of self-destruction.  Seen it so many times before, this time I'm watching it happen from within.  This must be how the orchestra felt as the Titanic went down.

Chin up!  Only 9% on the workforce gone.