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

[dwtrading2015]

I dropped promoted down to 3.6 from 5.6 and nothing changed for a week.  Then a general colapse of impressions but organics stable.  Items that haven't sold well since relisting earlier in the year got the odd sale.  But since the general sales drop starting early August that a number of people have noted, there has been little change overall.  I'm considering withdrawing all promotions too, I agree that promotion maybe pushing items off the search results to the promotion bar.  And any experienced user of eBay knows that things like item location filters are not applied to the promoted listings and so don't watse time following false leads via promoted.  The whole environment has become a mess, from the broken search to the attempt to nudge sales to promoted only items for higher fees.  You can't manage markets, there are always unintended consequences.  This managed market is fast spinning out of control.

[dwtrading2015]

A couple of months ago before mid-August, I had 2 no sales days from 2015.  September is now a couple per week with the other days one or two sales.  There has been a catastrophic collapse in the eBay market.  The sum total of breaking the search function, ending exposure in search engines, penalising listing position when not engaging in silly promo gimmicks and the fees debacle, all of it has conspired to wreck the eBay market and profile.  At a time when Etsy has entered self-destruct, eBay should be flooded with buyers seeking widgets elsewhere (Etsy has deleted thousands of legit accounts), back to the original market place here at eBay.  They did respond to Vinted with free listings, but it took several years and too little too late (although the Vinted market is as dead as a dodo now being saturated with any old *bleep* from the cupboard and a dreadful filter system).  How did it end up all such a mess?

[gift_of_sound]

I wonder if some of the traffic that was coming through to make eBay sales was down to the Google pay per click advertising that was previously being funded out of the membership fees. Over time the cost of this pay per click advertising has become too expensive and as we all know just does not make any financial sense to use unless you have massive profit margins to play with. Perhaps this is why eBay and others have removed this cost from their bottom line and passed it on directly to us sellers as a "new" advanced promotion option. Of course nothing has changed and the ppc still makes no financial sense so none of us use it and consequently these incoming links have disappeared along with the sales.

[dwtrading2015]

You know the problem when dealing with people claiming items not delivered yet there is a strong suspicion the item was delivered and eBay do nowt about it?  Here's one way to deal with those issues.

https://www.royalmail.com/report-a-crime

Fill ya boots! 

Oh and pass this link on, but only one post per person else you fall foul of the spamming bot.

[gift_of_sound]

Hooray - New benefits for business sellers see below

• private sellers will not pay transaction fees when they sell items on eBay.co.uk

🤔🤔🤔  ...eBay management logic sees this as a benefit to business sellers ?

So eBay "private" sellers now receive "only" 300 free listings along with their zero fees. However, they can pay £19.99 for a shop and up this to 400 free listings. Of course eBay will be cracking down here :- "...we monitor trading activities, and we’ll continuously help business sellers using a private account to transition to a business account..." 

Contrast this against a legit, "doing the right thing" business seller where you have to pay £27 per month for 250 free listings as well as abiding by the distance selling regulations etc. But dont worry you can look forward in the next few months to eBay's promise to business sellers :-  "...we'll be ramping up our marketing initiatives"

Cheers

[jow1995]

Why on earth do a private seller need to open a shop? the mind boggles .  

[dwtrading2015]

Gutted - posting on this elsewhere.  This free fvf for businesses masquarading as private is just one huge horse kick in the teeth.

[carinya.designs]

Sales are absolutely dead here, lucky to get 1 a day

[felinesrfun1]

Private seller here.

I have found my quality clear out items are not even getting views!

Searched for them, some didn't even show up.

So for one revision I put as little detail as I could in the title, searched again and they showed up.

Once my offers have expired I am going to do the same with the others.

Even offers are not generating sales and I've never had it as bad as this.

Now I know that the problem is the search function.

Might be worth a try to make titles very simple just to get views.

Watchers aren't converting to sales though and I suspect those who might buy aren't seeing the items.

[felinesrfun1]

I do shop a lot on eBay UK for things because so many shops have closed where I am and going further distances isn't on for an item that might cost below £5. B&Q's web site now has so many things that can't be collected and I won't pay their delivery charge for a cheap item.

eBay is my first port of call usually. What I have noticed is the choice eBay makes to show me items they've selected. No just show them all and I can scroll through. With one of my listings I searched and it wasn't showing up. So I changed the title to put as little information in so it could be found and then once I've revised it searched again and it shows up.

I've concluded that giving too much information in the title and the item doesn't show up. Also putting too much information into a search and the same thing happens. Once my offers to watchers have expired I am doing this with all my listings by revising the titles and putting the removed information into the listing if not done already.

[felinesrfun1]

Vinted is little better than a jumble sale.

I bought a stunning Gina Bacconi bolero for a snip NWOT on Vinted and then the sale was cancelled.

Seller told me she couldn't find it when I asked by the sale was cancelled.

She hadn't bothered to message before the cancellation.

Felt like saying but you had it to photograph but couldn't be bothered.

Etsy needs to change and expand rather than sticking with crafts, handmade and vintage.

I've seen many who are resellers on there in certain categories and they get away with it.

[felinesrfun1]

It isn't working, as a private seller I have found out not to put much detail in the title as that excludes listings.

Similarly searching a listing I changed the title in I found it!

I also don't like eBay choosing what I see for me.

[theelench]

Just a suggestion 🙂

How often do you search for "Stunning" anything ?

Stunning is a wasted word in your titles, especially if, as it's widely believed that the first for words are "strongest" and are what the search searches for first.

It's what the buyer  types in the search box that counts (at least to some extent on ebay)  Your title should include as many words as possible that they might put in their search.  I might loose 'stunning' in favour of some other aspect of the earrings that a buyer might search for and use all your title to increase the number of searchable words.

It might also help if you take a look at "Sold" items.  If yours didn't sell, what were the titles of those that did look like ??

Also check the categories of Sold items like yours.  It's quite possible (an invented example) that a cigarette lighter will struggle if listed in 'Collectable Lighters' category but get far more interest in something like 'Tobacciana > Lighters & Cigarette Cases'.

All the best.

[santlache_sales]

Now I know that the problem is the search function.

That's because it is no longer a search engine, and eBay are taking a liberty calling it a search engine after the way they have been manipulating it to show what they want you to see, not what you want to see.

By doing this they created a two tier selling platform, and with Private sellers now getting free listings we have a three tier seller platform, with Business sellers at the bottom, here to be milked for all eBay can get.

[radio_fix]

I have been selling here for 15 years + and sad as I am keep records of every sale and have sales numbers for every month for the last 8 years, average for January 38 but Jan 2023 42 Jan 24 38, Jan 25 to today ZERO. my listings come up in searches as usual along with others who have copied my productsand I seem to be getting viewers but *bleep* have they done ?

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I have to ask, if these products are your own, then surely you have a patent or brand protection on them?

If so, then you only need to use VERO to stop the copies.

But if you have no protection at all, then why would you be surprised at all if people have copied the items and your sales have died.

[radio_fix]

They are products used as replacements in the service industry just better than the manufacturers original components and they have been copied for years, my sales are not slowing down they simply stopped abruptly on 31st dec