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]

This is the same chart for page views and sales.

I believe these charts show that PL can transform your business but at a cost to profitability.

So - from Oct-November 28th I was utilising uncapped Dynamic ads. You can see my impressions and page views - and to some extent sales - did very well due to the visibility I was paying for.

I seriously turned down my % on November 28th and you can see the immediate drop off.

[sheba-knows-best]

I know this is disjointed. I can't seem to get the charts to preview properly.

The point is - the grey line is the comparison, same period, previous year.

In Sep-Nov 28th 2023, I paid for visibility that enabled me to smash last year's impressions andpage views - and to a lesser degree - sales.

In truth - I probably over-reacted. I was always aware that I was running very close to my VAT limit. I probably should have switched the dynamic ads percentage down a lot sooner. However, I knew I had to get rid of bulky stock (which I did). I will probably end the year with sales growth of 2% but a drop in profitability of 3%. I'm annoyed and relieved in equal measure by the profit drop, but the sense that my business is surving in an incressingly competitive market. I feel that the mood on these boards (a lot of people struggling) probably added to my 'heavy-handed' reaction in September, but I don't know for certain whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

I suppose, this is mainly why I am writing this.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I had no idea in September that come December 16th I would have turned PL off, and not be sending out offers, because I am too close to my sales limit. Had I known that, I might have acted more cautiously. But if I had acted more cautiously - I might now be sitting on a load of bulky items with dwindling storage resources.

People come on thse boards for perfect answers: if I change my titles to TITLES or Titles will I sell more? 

The truth is there are no perfect answers - you just have to keep on trying everything and then beat yourself up about should I have done it differently? EBay is no longer easy-peasy money for old rope.

[simplyc-accessories]

The only thing I have found that works for me is consistent listing every single day. Sales usually come in.  If I don't list every day I simply get no sales it's that simple. 

If your shop is quiet no activity from the owner imo it just sinks the listings and busier shops are further up in search.

I have found promoting to social media does work as well but even this has to be done regularly.

I feel like a fraud saying I am self employed anymore how can you be when you have so many interferences from eBay and no support for the seller they always support the scamming or lying buyer.

I got out of the blue last night one buyer claiming the item smelled of smoke nope it did not they have the usual excuse I bought it for a gift and now I can't give it. What was the point of me arguing with the buyer the item had never been opened by me still in its original packing. So I simply refunded them and told them to keep it, it would have cost me more to pay for return postage. So on the block list, they went.

Then another one INR after 3 weeks from purchase why wait so long so refunded straight away again there is no point trying to reason with buyers because eBay always takes their side so another one went on the block list.

I have tried to be positive while selling on here but what is the point when you are up against a brick wall with no support from the platform you PAY to use? They are slowly killing their site out of pure greed. Always supporting the buyer is encouraging the ones who are scammers imo so it just goes on and on. 

There are good and bad sellers why can't eBay distinguish the two and support the good honest seller and work on who truly is a bad seller? I have never given eBay one day of aggravation always paid my fees on time and ran with the rules yet you are left feeling so deflated every time you log off at the end of the day.

I feel I am employed by eBay and waiting for my P45 to drop in a message. sorry to be so down beat but it is truly how I feel these days no incentive next year to buy new stock will just keep selling the stock I have unless a miracle occurs over Christmas and eBay changes.

It's about time eBay forced private sellers who are a business to register as one they get far too much rope and more support for being dishonest.

Merry Christmas everyone.🎄

[ojewellery]

@simplyc-accessories 

The listing every day has come up quite a few times on the thread - its nice to see more weight/ validity behind it.  I've never worked in this way and its something I'm certainly going to consider how I could manage for next year.  Your social success is also interesting.  I'm terrible at social, can I ask what you do - is it follow the post from ebay links or independent of eBays systems? 

Reading your post you sound like you're in need of a break.  I think there wont be a person on the thread who hasn't hit that point at some stage.  Sometimes stepping away getting your head fully off the business enables the path forwards to become much clearer.  I hope that you get a merry Christmas and head space to rejuvinate your prior success' in the New Year.

@sheba-knows-best 

Tut tut: if I change my titles to TITLES or Titles will I sell more?   TITLES is not very PC - all caps are a nighmare for those using readers as they're spelt out by the reader letter at a time

(Tongue in cheek, I'm aware, doesn't come across in written word but is intended to be read in that way and your comment was also about magic wands not being handed out on the forums - why aren't they, its Christmas surely we all need a little magic in our lives!)

@vintagechinashop  I'm very grateful for this thread.  My business has been quietly evolving this year but in October I was seriously considering downgrading my shop and limiting my offering to more clearance type products in my eBay store. 

I bit the bullet and turned on dynamic promoted listings standard (not Pay Per Click)  pay a percentage of sale thats flexibly varied by eBay upto my pre chosen fixed maximum.  This is not across all my product ranges.  Its across a few of them.  Below are my charts.  I would usually expect a 30-40% upturn in Nov/ Dec from prior months.  This year its just shy of 105%.  A combination of a dire October and uping ad spend from 19th November, which as @sheba-knows-best found you can see the change point in the figures.   You can also see that my offsite ads have significantly dropped.  My ROAS (Return On Advertising Spend) for this period is just over 20 so still very healthy - eBay is obviously being selective so the adverts are converting well and I'll keep the campaign going so long as the ROAS remains so healthy.

I haven't yet slowed down (just hit weekend 5 of 7 day working when I thought It'd be slowing down - I do also have a rather hectic life thats being balanced) so I haven't yet run numbers on cost of sales vs previous period, but prices were reviewed up across platforms in October so I know the profit element will be reasonable.  December represents 20 -25% of my turnover so this has been a critical month to cover my quite high product development costs and give me confidence to continue the designs for my product ranges in the New year.

[simplyc-accessories]

@ojewellery

I am more frustrated with eBay than anything they give us a site to sell on yes we pay for that but the consistent changes they keep doing most of them are unnecessary imo all the faults on here to many to list but we all know what they are our complaints go out the window with the C/P response everything is working as it should when we know it is not.

It might work on a spreadsheet but it does not work in real-time. I wonder sometimes if any of the top brass at eBay have ever tried to buy and sell on here and experience what we have to as a buyer and a seller I put money on they have not.  If they would only take us seriously for once might be a start in making changes that do work.

As for the social media thing, it is very easy to set up been doing it for years. With results. I would rather spend the money to promote social media than pay for promoted listings and advanced. 

Just sending your listing via eBay social media to your personal FB page won't work as well. You need to set up a business FB page you can do that from your account page and post to the business page in your business name. Once that is done you have the choice if you would like to have the free shop that comes with the FB business page It is vital to have this as you can list your items on there so they link back to your eBay shop so anyone on FB clicks the link can purchase on eBay.

If you set up an Instagram account as well  in your business name and a Twitter account also {I will always call it Twitter} it is vital to have a uniform look right across social media

Then you need to link all these accounts to eBay. once that is done it is very easy to just post from eBay social link to all social media accounts at once but one exception is at the moment Instagram won't accept the listing as the pics are too big. So I just go straight to Instagram and post a direct link to the listing with a smaller pic.

You can do a lot with the Facebook page and paid advertising is very reasonably priced. It's all about being seen.

I have two FB business pages one for jewellery and one for other accessories. 

A YouTube channel is great for promoting your business and showing your items in short videos it does work you don't need to be on camera if you don't want to be. I know some won't like this idea I know a lot of eBay YTs, and I don't agree with ones that show what they paid for it and then tell how much profit they have made that's just madness to me, but they are mostly resellers.

It's madness to ignore social media advertising it's such a useful tool.

I have stock that is not listed and going to try FB marketplace had some success with that in the past. 

[pillarboxred]

I've started doing Promoted Listings so my fees are much higher but I've also slashed my start price to £1 on most listings. Has it worked? No so far.

[fatbobfan]

I have new listings ready in draft till the end of the year, 3 listings for every day, stock arriving this week so will get that ready for January and planning to have 3 listings a day for all of January ready by the end of week one.  As OJ has said its popped up a few times in this thread, many swear by it, been implementing for a few weeks now and going OK guessing the test will be the quieter months New Year.

Part of the reason for January sorted by week one is to do with your 'Working For Ebay' comment, know that feeling, spending too much time on this platform, always something to do in Ebays eyes but with over 1500 listings, the 'new' way, imo, is not user freindly, too time consuming but its the current Ebay way and the tool we have. Theres some good tips in this thread addressing time and actions, its just reading how it can be appropriate to your business. 

Idiot customers, we use the automatic returns process for a few reasons but probably the best thing to come from it is shaking off chancers.  First thing I mention if I get an unhappy email ? an apology and our FREE returns service, never give them ammo or pink a fight, just be totally totally nice.

Had one this week, didnt like the 'smell' we store all our stock the same way, everything is New or cleaned. Checking the tracking, in less than two hours they stopped everythoing in their life, washed and dried it twice, mmm maybe?  didnt ring true, so being the the consumate proffessional and with sickly, sickly sweet niceness we agree, we apologised, and pointed them down the returns route, pointing out its free and at their convenience, it reduced their wiggle room, they still complained, we apologiesed again, and continued to offer our free returns service, they gave up after 3 emails and all the while all we did is apolise and agree with them. 

Yup your right, maybe buyers manipulate situations/play the game and it falls in their favour but thats a downside of online selling, Maybe think how you can deal with them that will make you feel better as they are not going away, for me I know theyre coming, a small handfull every year, I just try and make it as difficult for them as possible to get their way, never pick a fight, always be over the top nice and make them return, there is a financial decision but sometimes when you know when your dealing with a **** I take the £3.50 small parcel return hit. It ammounts to one or two a year but it makes me feel better knowing Ive hacked off a chancer but perhaps more importantly insisting on the return, makes it difficult for them to get a freebie or a discount. 

Private sellers, Ebay says use this tool https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/action?topicid=4022 Its a bookmark on my Desktop and when I price match I report as I am going. I know its easy for me to say forget it and move on, just so you know private sellers and private sellers running businesses are my biggest competitors, and yes it really, really does hack me off,  but I just keep reporting them, I use Stats as well when reporting especially for the blatant ones, EG Inventory of 7k and Feedback of 15K (a private seller with those stats, I dream of those stats) Try and give them a reason to look at rather than dismiss it. Its often raised in weekly chats Mods insists the tool works, so use the tool we are given. 

Some top tips in this thread, its long but worth a full read, if you cant see an answer to issues, post away, some experienced sellers maybe able to help, Ive got more help on here than the other way. 

[bojangled]

@fatbobfan 

I'm another advocate for listing every day, be it new or sell similar.

I applaud your discipline in preparing listings ahead, I'm afraid I always hit the list now button .

This week I investigated the sale and markdown prompt on the seller hub, not a bad shout actually, shifted some older listings that had watchers and trickles of views. Only adjustment I would like is to make sure they aren't promoted before putting on sale. Unless I'm missing a tick box somewhere. Will definitely use again.

Unlinked Pinterest as @ojewellery was correct in that keeping links active became another todo. 

Jo

[fatbobfan]

I get you, 

It seems wrong, not actually listing it when its prepared, doesnt seem like a good business practice sitting on stock and not listing it straight away, in theory some ready to go drafts I have prepped now may not be listed till end of Jan, seems like nonsense but Im sticking with it.

I think you can use the 'Customise Table' in  'Active' listings in seller hub to show 'Promoted Listings' , its only there when viewing, not when editing. If it helps

Just noticed your 'Oasis' album cover, caught Noel this week, top night.

[bojangled]

@fatbobfan 

Not wrong at all, very organised. Fresh new items hitting your listings on a daily basis is a positive however you achieve it. For me it's about my SKU and storage location, less time spent on locating a tiny piece of ephemera the better! But going forward I would like to get ahead of myself with listings. 

(Love a bit if Oasis occasionally, great documentary on album artwork on Netflix atm.)

Jo

[fatbobfan]

I have a couple of irons in fires so to speak, both with locating issues, 

Books, photo's and recording the location when actually filing on shelves. Shelves numberd and shelves run by Author. Not the usual way for books but weve stuck with it for years.

Ebay stock - Small plastic containers these are named by inventory colour, so the black Crow pin I bought from you would be in 'Black 1 'The White Oasis pin be in 'White 1', Plastic containers would then be White 1,2,3,4 etc. The upside being if its not in White 1 theres a good chance it might be in White 2,3,4,5. It usually (famous last words) eliminates me having to check all colours. White black, blue, red etc etc.

BUT when it goes wrong, it really goes wrong with 1500 to check it can be a good hour or two, guessing youve been there,

I really dont know how Sheeba does it, especially if somethings not shifted, I can hardly remember what got listed yesterday, let alone an item of clothing on a rail from 3 months ago, thats some memory skills that is

[sagr2519]

The biggest tip I can give is this: Don't use stock photos. Ebay hides listings with stock photos. Even a png with the words "sorry, photo unavailable" is better than the buyers not seeing your listing at all. Another advantage is that you avoid the INAD cases when your item is slightly different from the stock photo.

[sheba-knows-best]

---

@fatbobfan wrote:

I really dont know how Sheeba does it, especially if somethings not shifted, I can hardly remember what got listed yesterday, let alone an item of clothing on a rail from 3 months ago, thats some memory skills that is

---

That made me laugh!

Whenever I can't find anything, I sit myself down and say 'okay, if you were going to put it somewhere now, where would you put it?'.  99.9% of time, there it is after all - and if it isn't, I usually find a note from myself saying: 'Hello Sheba! I know X should be here but I put it behind the boxes at the top because there was no room xxxx.

I kid you not.

[vintagechinashop]

Thank you to all the people who have positively commented on this post. I know there were a few negatives but I'd like to hope some of us have picked up some valuable tips and hopefully had some good results. Let's keep this going in 2024. I'd like to hear also if any advice has resulted in increased sales for any of you   Let's end a difficult year for some of us and begin 2024 with a positive start 

Happy Christmas and new year to you all🧑‍🎄

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

"for goodness sake why does every thread on the flipping forum have to constantly be dragged into another moan."

Because people are happy rarely come to vent on the forums.

I am happy to hear that some people are doing well.

For me:

Xmas day, sold nothing.

Boxing day, sold nothing.

Day after boxing day, one £55 item return claimed.

So currently going backwards.

[simplyessential_uk]

So what are you going to do differently in 2024? - Sorry to be blunt but are you going to keep moaning on every post even this one which was to share tips for incresasing sales?  You have 8 listings which is quite niche so perhaps you have a limited audience but  you can not really complain about lack of sales when you hardly list anything.

If what youre selling on Ebay is not selling then moving forward have a look at your options, can you diversify? can you focus on your own website? Are there other platforms to sell on? Have you been able to look on this post and try new ideas? ...Perhaps review your options rather then complain every day on every post about how poor your sales are.

When I said "for goodness sake why does every thread on the flipping forum have to constantly be dragged into another moan." was because not everyone on here wishes to constantly go round and round moaning about how awful Ebay is now.  I can agree with many things people say and its been hard but there has to be a point when the moaning achieves nothing and a seller has to look after their business and move forward or close.   

I have had a really busy xmas, especially on my website and Im here listing lots of new products I have bought (putting in draft to drop a few every day) This post was for those who wanted to share ideas not complain, lots of other posts on here for that.  

[bittyboy101]

"Share your tips for increasing sales"

Ditch eBay ! and find another site.

[fatbobfan]

The good,

PL has improved with some guidance from here, after playing with PL standard I get that my market needs some sort of promotion against private sellers and private seller businesses (grrrrr) but thats not goin g to change, Thread has helped me get the bigger picture of my competitors and how competitive some lines can be. Dont think Dynamic is for us,

PL stats comparisons for Christmas 2022/2023 (2022 was really dire) 

Impressions up 200k on the same as last year for Christmas but with 10% less stock

Clicks up 10% 

Sold quantity up 41.4%

Value of sales up just under 50%

ROAS up just under 4% to 25.50%

Ad Rate average dropped 4.8% to 3.9% 

Sales conversion rate up 3.34% to 5.44% not sure why on this stat, not really done anything major photo listing wise, ad clicks are up only up 10%, thoughts on this one appreciated.

The Bad

Been pretty darn poor the past week, was hoping for a lot better, did a bulk refresh late last night, might be coincidence but the graphs are going up.

As @vintagechinashop appreciate all the help, thanks to all. 

[oceanartsnorthdevon]

With regards to the "Private seller businesses" some of these are going to be hit by the new rules of reporting earnings of over £1000 to HMRC in the New Year where digital platforms start recording sellers’ income, I wonder if this will put a few off? 

[bojangled]

Bumping because I'd like to know how you are all fairing, and I'm sure it's been January for at least 3 months already and the boards are full of HMRC posts. 
Jo