Share your tips for increasing sales

[vintagechinashop]

Good afternoon to you all 

it's very easy to get bogged down with negativity. I for one have in recent times been quite negative, but this morning I had a sale and yesterday I had 3 so I've decided to try and be positive in these uncertain times 

so I thought it would be a good idea to start a positive post 

would anyone like to share your tips for increasing sales. Something that has worked for you maybe or something you are trying to see if it has results 

I know there's no magic wand to be waved but let's see if we can try to improve our sales by sharing the love 

my first tip is to use sell similar on ended listings and to change just one thing. I think in the past I have been very complacent and just need to up my game a bit. I've been taking fresh photos of ended items to refresh the listing 

over to you 

[sheba-knows-best]

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@simplyessential_uk wrote:

I thought DA were Promoted Listings Advanced the PPC - Sorry for the confusion

Now, I saw a YT video by "back from burnout" and she had a horrid week last year, as she moved all of her listings into promo groups so she could set different % for different valued books and her traffic fell off a cliff, Ebay told her that moving from one promo to another group can take a week so she should end the listings and relist them in a new promo group, she closed all her listings and did exactly as told and all back to normal  so Ive been wary of doing this and having seperate groups and moving them between- Have you noticed this?

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Well... possibly... but I don't think so...

So all of my items go into a promo group automatically when I list that is at an uncapped DA.

When an item gets watchers/impressions - and it suits what I want to be my new offering - I switch to my cherry picker very low capped DA  group.

It is true that I have only sold 15 in 2 weeks on that low promo group, but I would kind of expect that because I'm hardly promoting.

I expect that promo group to gradually sell more as it gets to be a larger proportion of my stock ( increases on a daily basis as I shift stock into it). At the moment it only holds 10% of my listings.

It will be hard to know whether the increase % of sales from that group (if it happens) will be due to the items gradually being seen (in line with that CS advice you quote), or because of an increased amount of my stock is in that group, or because, that group is constantly being handed my favourite stuff (and I hope by now I have an eye for what buyers want). It would be nice to think that CS was right, so this lower-fee group will get a lift I didn't expect.

Clear as mud? Shout if not x

[btr.style]

In terms of boosting sales, we always say if you have what people want, it will sell, if you don't, it won't. 

Markets change, buying habits change and even what people want changes too frequently and so it's good to have as big a range as possible. 

When I became a businessman I was a jack of all trades selling things from chocolates to pillows from liquidation auctions but it was key to find a niche and dedicate my time to it. That niche became clothing. Stating the obvious but it's important to build a business name and logo from the off. I went against the grain with our logo. Most business logos for clothing are quite boring so I put a few ideas together and got an illustrator who primarily does work for clowns, magician's and other entertainer's to create the logo which pulled in a lot more customers. 

Then came the rapid expansion. Find some brands which sell (and that I liked, to hold my interest)  as core items to sell. That's the "bread and butter" lines. We've never used any promo tools or anything like that. We just see what the market wants, source it and build from there. 

Staying relevant is a big key and that requires expansion. If you have just 1 or 2 types of products or brands, you are leaving yourself wide open for a crash in sales. Taking risks is almost an essential by sourcing products outside of what you'd usually stock in order to try and build up more "bread and butter" lines (some will fail, some won't). 

Without criticising anyone (as this is a positive thread), generally if you have to do PPC's, promoted listings and so on too often, then the product just isn't viable. On a platform like eBay where the buyers are there, it's important to offer what buyers want and they will buy it. Trying to push out an item via all promo methods to try and get the one of very few people who could be interested to buy it just causes too much stress and indicates a saturated market with those items or a market with a tiny pool of buyers. It's a sign the business needs to change. 

Better photos and detailed descriptions could help but it's nowhere near as important as having what people want. I recall once we had some in demand Ralph Lauren USA flag jumpers. With one of them it was late, I was just going to leave our office, but created the listing, the photos were out of focus (only noticed the next day) and no description was typed at that time. Yet by morning it had 10 watchers and 2 messages about it. 

Anyway, those are the main points. Find a bread and butter line that people really want. Try to build more of those lines. Take a few gamble's to get more bread and butter lines. If having to use promo tools to sell something, then something isn't working. 

I just don't understand businesses on eBay that are there to offer a service/goods to customers (and to make money of course), but are having to use a variety of tools/paid services to gain sales. Surely customers should be coming to them? (It's why we all pay fees isn't it? eBay provide the customers). 

[ojewellery]

@btr.style  Its great you've found a business niche that works well for you on eBay.  I love hearing of others doing well - I believe success is contagious, surround myself/ expose myself to people who are dynamic and doing well and I can grow as a person and in business, so your experience is great to read.

There are many right ways to run a successful business, knowing your numbers and finding what works for your business to be profitable are certainly key to this.

You have expressed quite strong opinion on advertising PPC 's and promoted listings. 

Do you know your business wouldn't have been exponentially larger if you did use them have you considered doing some experimentation before writing them off or maybe you have? 

My current promoted listings standard return on one campaign I have is a ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend) of 48.3.  That's a turnover of £48.30 for every pound spent.   I've done lots of playing with turning promoting on and off over the last few years - it stacks up for many elements of my business. 

My own business model started selling a well know brand, who pay a fortune in advertising so do all the promotion that generates the interest that meant as an onseller I didn't need to. 

With my own brand, as with all brand owners,  people don't know who Ojewellery are, until I tell them.    Its not a case of design it and they'll buy it.  Its design it, make sure it gets seen, then if people want it they will buy it. 

Its a very different business model to yours, its spread across multiple platforms so I believe the risk is spread.   I'm getting slowly known and have a great loyal customer base slowly building with quite a good repeat customer rate. 

My designs aren't available from other sellers so if they want Ojewellery they need to buy from Ojewellery.  Other people can't look see that's selling well and copy identically, they can offer similar but not the same and wouldn't appear the same way in search even if they did because if people search brand, they wouldn't appear.  I have trademarked my brand which is great for selling on some platforms like Debenhams, Amazon and even selling jewellery on TikTok - my latest exploration (its a restricted selling category on most platforms).

I mention risk spreading because as you highlight in your post, the market continually changes, staying relevant is important, spreading risk and exposure is also important.   18 months ago I woke up to an eBay deleted listing.  Long story short two days later I was told I couldn't list my products anymore in fine jewellery or I risked permanent account suspension.  All my items are fine jewellery.  The bottom fell out my business world.  It took a few weeks and a hell of a lot of support off many brilliant posters on the forums to keep my motivated to move forwards.  In fairness I also received some support off some great staff at eBay (they are humans too) to resolve a situation that just shouldn't have happened or escalated in the way it did.  Its business, these things happen.  It wasn't personal but it did happen and it was devastating.  That was with other revenue streams and retail opportunities for my stock. 

Its great we're all different and find different ways of being successful.  Its why positive threads like this are so valuable.

[btr.style]

I appreciate what you are saying and of course it's good you too are doing well with business. 

What I'm saying here with PPC is, if someone was selling, idk a brick. Generally nobody would want said brick. Using PPC and promo techniques, it might gain the odd sale but it's really not worth it and would require a rethink of said business model.  We probably could all agree on this. 

If someone has a truly viable business model with bread and butter lines. Would there really be a need for promoted listings to clear the dead weight? Add on sales are a key factor here whereby the bread and butter lines are already bringing in customers. Some will look at other items and from experience will clear the dead weight. GANT used to be a massive seller for ourselves (a superb brand imo) but in recent years it's just not what people want anymore. It's our "dead weight" but remaining stock is cleared by add on sales with bread and butter lines. 

Certainly one thing I've overlooked is truly exclusive/in house made lines such as with yours and definitely that's where promoted listings are key. I see too much of promoting something that doesn't sell and hoping for the best, but in terms of the in house exclusive stuff, promoted listings are good. 

Actually, with your username being here and view listings being there, I've had a nose and seen things I wouldn't have otherwise looked for. Well presented, some very nice items as well and I've now shortlisted a few I'll buy for Xmas gifts. It all looks very crisp on your item list too with plenty of silver with white/grey and a few on wood to break it up (this reply was typed up 15 mins ago but have been flicking through your listing instead of pressing post here 😂). 

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

Ebay is shrinking according to last year quarter four reports.

So if buyers and sellers are leaving not a lot you can do.

I have noticed ebay getting slowly quieter as time goes on.

Maybe the old saying about putting all your eggs in one basket is relevant here.

But my website sells nothing and Etsy charged me 35% fee's !

Amazon hide my listings so the jobs a bad one.

[sheba-knows-best]

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@btr.style wrote:

In terms of boosting sales, we always say if you have what people want, it will sell, if you don't, it won't. 

I just don't understand businesses on eBay that are there to offer a service/goods to customers (and to make money of course), but are having to use a variety of tools/paid services to gain sales. Surely customers should be coming to them? (It's why we all pay fees isn't it? eBay provide the customers). 

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Okay - so I read this earlier and well, I am fascinated.

You have to promote because ebay gives higher visibility to sellers who promote their items.

You can't sell an item if it is on page 10 of search. Or you can, but once every six months, rather than one a week.

If you really aren't promoting - but think buyers will just 'find you', I suspect you are throttling your own business. Buyers will find you, but in smaller numbers than is possible (which I accept you may be happy with), but I suspect (unless you sell elsewhere too) your profits are way below mine (which is fine! but wouldn't be fine for me).

You imply a business that promotes - and I do - is not really viable. But I could not promote - and then probably sell at a level similar to your own (from what I can glean from your sold items). But that isn't enough income for me. I come to ebay to earn as much as I possibly can in as few hours as possible. So I run my sales at 80k rolling month in month out as that is the best way to earn a good living.  

You dont talk sales figures - or whether you only sell on ebay or not - I like your philosophy - but it is just that, at the moment, a philosophy, with me having no idea whether it actually brings in a decent income or not.

If this sounds defensive, or competitive, or nasty - it isn't! - I really am very interested as to how profitable your business is. I would love to hear it is more profitable than mine without promoting as it would give me a kick up the butt. But like OJ suggested, I think you would probably find promoted would give your business wings...(unless you don't need them because you are already flying just below VAT).

What I;m getting at is I would like to hear more 🙂

[btr.style]

No offense or nastiness taken at all, it's all good chat. 

eBay doesn't really give the best visibility for promoted items in that way. 

To break it down here. If I were looking for a Ralph Lauren quilted jacket. Normal results would show just that. You will then get the promoted listings at top, totally unrelated in many ways. Some generic brand even. I then see at the top "marks and Spencer" quilted jacket. Would I then go so vastly away from what I wanted, to buy a designer brand and end up buying some high street lower quality brand? No?

Promoted listings are always ignored by myself and via research with my customers as it's non relevant junk. Imagine looking for a belstaff top of the range £1000 RRP jacket and seeing some promoted stuff at the top advertising some £50, PU leather (fake leather) jacket. It will hardly sway anyone. 

For us it's incredibly tactical and has gained such huge investment. It would be silly to put all eggs in 1 basket. Our stock is excess of 10,000 items but why list the lot? It means more tax, more fees (listing cost of each item) and more importantly we'd have to go VAT reg. 

Looking at your own listings, maybe I have this wrong with what you mentioned but our sales wouldn't be enough income for you? We aren't VAT reg and to avoid this we have to shut down for at least 3 months a year. You aren't VAT reg either? So surely turnover couldn't be more than us? 

As an open book. We have a warehouse, staff on the books, in excess of 1 million pounds invested (from my own pocket but mostly other investors), 15,000+ current items in stock. Turnover is 84.5 (thus having to close down for 3 months a year, I refuse to go VAT reg as it's more tax). 

Easily in October and Nov we take around 15k each month. Business it shut down for warehouse rewire at the moment but still accumulating several sales a day even with deferred delivery period. 

When looking at your listings, now, with total respect for what you do. All I see is blazers galore. Those have gone niche. Some cool looking trench/pea coats but very much unbranded. What is a "vintage tweed wool long coat" to consumers? 

Some nice shearling bits but it's all 10 a penny really as unbranded/high street names. Pre owned seems steep, £55 for m&s leather jacket we'd ship out for £50 new, £175 for used m&s blanket tweed checked coat is a no hoper. Next, Boden, Hobbs. There just isn't the market. £32.99 for m&s trousers. Clarks for £45. Next used jeans for £28?

I'm not having a go at all. It's silly money, in many cases above RRP for used goods that aren't very desirable anyway. Firetrap jeans, used for £44.99 and size 30 mens. Next used jeans for £30 size 10. 

It's fair play to what you do but really? Those prices are insane. We do pairs of m&s jeans brand new for £10. 

We'll go like for like... You are selling a new Ralph Lauren tunic dress for £200. We have new RL down filled jackets for barely £120. 

It's crazy money for mostly high street brands at often more than the RRP used. £119 for a used Tommy Hilfiger duffle coat? Honestly? It's £20 at most. 

Fair play to you for being able to make a living from it but I honestly don't think I've ever seen such crazy prices. I have literally had to look twice to make sure I'm still seeing the same members listings and that it hasn't gone into general search for stuff with such high prices. 

[btr.style]

I need to wind down. I'm truly flabbergasted at those prices and I've been in the industry for a long time. Used new look jackets for £80. Used new look shoes for £30. Used size 10 new look jeans for £28. I can't do it anymore

....ok.... Top shop.... Surely not......

Wow....just wow.....

£55 Topshop shoes. £90 coat. 

1 last.... M&S.... I dread to think....

Eek...£32 pair of jeans that were only ever £20 RRP. £30 pre owned autograph jeans. 

Right no more. The prices are huge. Honestly hand on heart, I don't think I've ever seen such mega prices for items. Yes you will get some customers but heck, that's extreme sorry. 

I mean no offense at all to you, you clearly have a decent business but wow. Are the items particularly rare? Or just priced really high in the hope they sell for a mega profit?

[sheba-knows-best]

@btr.style 

I love this thread. And I love this kind of debate.  Talk about a thousand ways to skin a cat and I take it all back - you are clearly running a business that works if you choose to take 3 months off every year.

We are doing the same - running under VAT - so we can agree on that. I choose to work 21 hours a week and last year I had to shut down for a month at Christmas too (which also worked great with the post strikes). You choose to employ staff (which I applaud, but if there are a few of you taking a wage under 80k, you can't be high earners... no offence meant and I suspect I may have to take this back too). So we are in a similar boat (leaving aside our hourly rates).... now for the differences....

Who gives a monkey about 'brands' and 'new'. Many of my loveliest items are unbranded, I don't care about brands. I care about quality and/or keeping stuff out of landfill and getting it to someone who will love it. (I frequently force myself to buy those High Street jeans you despise, incidentally. Not worth it really - measly profit - but I know someone on ebay will search for them at sometime and want them desperately.)

And you're wrong about promoted - that is pay per click that puts the dumb item at top of search. DA is what keeps peeping at you from all sides as you look at items on ebay. And yes sometimes they are plain wrong, but often they tempt buyers to actully choose what suits them better.

I know NEW LOOK is cheap - but trust me, some people (probably women, but whatever) - when they find the right pair of jeans - or shoes - or boots - that fit exactly right and make them look and feel a hundred dollars, then they want them again and again and again. And I provide them as good as new, 10-20 years later. That isn't a rip-off, that's virtually a public service 😄. Who are YOU to say they are undesirable? Just cos they're not branded? God, give me strength with some of the rubbish that comes out under a 'brand name' (gag).

"Nice shearling but ten a penny as unbranded?" ARGGGGHHH. My best leathers and shearlings come from the 1960s. You get to wear something that went to a Beatles concert and that will still be around - treated well - for an Ed Shearan anniversary memorial concert. I jest. But have you no heart? No romance? No soul?  My tweeds are beloved in NYC. I have two shearlings in the middle of nowhere in Minnesota and the lady sends me photos of the Northern lights. My items - if you added up how often they have been given a showing, and still they look great - will probably cost less than 0.001p a wear (if that) by the time they are done. Some 'new stuff' is in Landfill at, what, £10 a wear?

Why does it have to be new? Why is better to have something new that 'looks okay' than something worn once or twice  that you KNOW you will love because you've owned it before.

I don't know where you source your stock. 95% of my supply gives money directly to charity. (that can be hundreds a week). Another box ticked. 

You keep bleating on, as if promoted means force-feeding buyers what they don't really want. No one can forcefeed a buyer. They will simply return. If you check my feedback - as I have checked yours - people are happy with both our offerings. I think I have to promote to be seen - I'd love not to.

We are coming at things so differently. Great discussion - no offence taken - no offence meant - very quickly dashed off, so please ignore any bluntness - I only wish I didn't have to go and sell stuff.

[goingfishinguk]

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@sheba-knows-best wrote:

And you're wrong about promoted - that is pay per click that puts the dumb item at top of search. DA is what keeps peeping at you from all sides as you look at items on ebay. And yes sometimes they are plain wrong, but often they tempt buyers to actully choose what suits them better.

 This is one of the annoying things about eBay.  When the search is working I know at least ten of my products are top of the search and none of them are PPC promoted.  Same as my earlier question in this thread about titles and a fair few posts since.  

All good positive posts (a couple have been a bit meow) but there is very little consistently.  My question was answered by three different people and all gave differing answers and most of them went against the eBay advice.  We have since had conflicting posts regarding promotions and price etc.

That is a huge problem, zero consistently so for me my advice would be 'do what works for you.'  Do it until eBay changes something that makes that not work then if you can find out what eBay changed and alter your tactics to suit.  It should not be like that.  You should list, alter stock when needed and send out your parcels.  It used to be like that and was very very successful.  Now with all the tinkering it's not.  It's a 24 hour job tweaking, reading, watching and more often than not guessing what to do to make it work.

So like I said my advice would be 'Do what works best for you and your family, business, yourself.'  Because what works this week will certainly not work in a months time at the current rate.  Oh and if it's not working (me now included) DO NOT throw more money at promotions as that certainly does not work.  More than likely your account is 'damaged' for a reason they won't tell you so either walk away or start again.  You can't beat the system.

Good luck all!

[sheba-knows-best]

Just bumping this up to keep it near the top for any sellers too busy in the week selling and packing sales (!) to visit the boards and catching-up at the weekend. I think there are a lot of good tips here people might benefit from.

[ojewellery]

I remembered another one .... 

When you end and sell similar and are looking to tweak things, if you're changing the price it doesn't always need to be down.  If your item is a slower moving one, a rarer find but not really hard demand its just waiting for that right customer.  The price is less relevant. 

Likewise listing in a category with lots of items people may search by price point, so changing price point puts you in front of different people.

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

The only way to get more sales is to use a time machine to go back to the good old days of ebay.

As time goes on ebay gets quieter  and quieter.

My sales are erratic at best.

Like 5 sales on one Friday and none the next Friday.

[goingfishinguk]

Ok so I've gone back through time, recent time to when things were a lot more successful for me on eBay.  I was only using Promoted Listings Standard and at 1.2%, I was soon forced IIRC to up that as the minimum was 2%.  So everyone of my listings were promoted standard at 2%.  No keyword guff, no dynamic, no promoted display or PPC.  Pure and simple 2% on every sale this got to the point where I handed over approx £90,000 in fees to eBay in the year, so yes my eBay turnover was touching £400,000 and of course daily sales averaged a tip over £1000.  I've told this story a few times on here.  However I always added 'all I did was set my ads to 2% and added extra stock to my listings.'

Looking back in more detail and noting when I had 'growth' spurts I came across a rather consistent trend.  It appeared every time I got NEW stock, not topping up current stock was when my sales went up and since was a fairly regular event my sales went up week by week or every ten days or so whenever I got new stock.  So in other words I enjoyed decent growth and decent sales when I listed completely NEW listings, not sell similar or end and start again but ONLY brand new items.

So from my POV making four or five completely NEW listings (I can't stress the NEW part of this enough) was the key to my very fast growth.  Unfortunately the massive loses due to the post strikes last year and the failed promise of protection cost me over £30,000 in sales, the new promoted dynamic adverts cost me between £10,000 and £15,000 then the impressions test in July finished me off.  Unfortunately I have not been able to test the theory above but to a lesser extent it has worked with the new account but since I'm still trying to recover from losing all that income and eBay still meddling I can't do a 'fair test' to see if it will work again.

So in short my advice is to keep making brand NEW listings and keep topping up old, current ones.  No need to change titles, pictures or descriptions just add to stock levels and make five or so NEW listings a week, no end/sell similar as that basically keeps your number of listings the same just keep adding NEW ones.  Good luck.

[vintagechinashop]

That's very interesting  thank you for this insight 

I have in the past always just topped up listings when I have purchased additional stock but now you mention this I notice one of my competitors seem to have several listings for the same item at different costs and with different pictures indicating that they don't have listings with multiple items and this particular seller is very successful. Unfortunately I don't have the available listings to do this with all my items but I can certainly start doing this. It would also create more visibility as you would have several listings instead of the one multiple listing   It's definitely worth a try 

[fatbobfan]

Just bumping the thread

[bittyboy101]

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@btr.style wrote:

In terms of boosting sales, we always say if you have what people want, it will sell, if you don't, it won't. 

You can still have what people want but if people don't have the money (or their wives won't let them spend money willy-nilly) then the item  will just sit there in people's watch lists UNSOLD and forgotten.

[goingfishinguk]

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@fatbobfan wrote:

Just bumping the thread

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You'd get an instant ban on a few forums I'm on for doing that haha.  If the thread has ran it's course it's ran it's course...

[sheba-knows-best]

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@fatbobfan wrote:

Just bumping the thread

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I agree - and well-timed for the weekend when busy sellers might take a break - and have ideas to share.

Seeing the recent 'retail figures release' reminded me that at the beginning of this year I U-turned slightly on my buying strategy. So I had been sourcing ever higher priced items (because I as focusing on fewer sales with higher profit and spending less time on ebay). But when I expected the cost of living crisis to deepen I decided to invest in the 'lipstick effect'.  Back in the day - when I worked analysing companies - I couldn't believe it when 'high end' stock and spend in extremely expensive restaurants saw a lift in times of recession. It was explained to me that it is 'treat' buying. Buyers have foregone a holiday maybe, so go out for dinner instead. I think this is what we have seen, just now, with M&S showing record growth due to its Food Halls, which are definitely not 'discounters' but are great treat suppliers.

Earlier this year, I decided to build volume in some lower-priced stock I thought would match this demand and it has paid off. Some of it also has very high margins because of how I buy, some of it doesn't but might bring in synergy purchases.

A slight tangent/crossover - is I think a range of prices/quality is useful in riding out recessions. Could this be even more true in Brand new items that could be considered gifts?

Another thread on the 'retail stats' has been considering who is still buying at the moment. I agree with a lot of what has been said. The idea of high end buyers (older people) still having money etc. However, I feel we could make up any number of theories... skint people trying ebay for the first time at all price points, people of all ages who usually buy High Street having to buy preloved, people who usually like high end new trying to get it new 'old stock discount' on here etc etc etc. The point is, if you keep a range at all price points, you maybe covering your back (and you can see where the trends are going).

These are not meant to be smug comments or proven facts. They are supposed to suggestions and thoughts to muse over whilst we all try and cope with maintaining sales.

[simplyessential_uk]

Lots of ppl still on fixed rate mortgages who havent really been effected so theres still lots of cash out there - I took 3 times my usual amount yesterday over on another platform beginning with A so ppl are still spending.  weirdly yesterday on Ebay the more I put prices up (once first one sold) the more they sold thereafter and I was higher than competitors on 2% promo and certain items still kept selling, so something with algorithms is pushing mine (of a certain item) up best match, so for me I think the trick is getting that 1st sale through hence the close listing and sell similar will bump it for first few days get that hook.  Geez when did selling on Ebay become so time consuming tinkering 😃🙄