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 

[simplyessential_uk]

You know one of the things that amazes me most is how EASY it was to sell on ebay when I started out. Now, I sometimes feel like I'm strategising in a global market place against extreme competition... 

Tell me about it - I used to list and walk away  - Id pack the days orders come back and find another load appear and Id be shouting to the PC "Stop buying people"  🤣 (Gosh those were good days)

I sell on 4 platforms and now Ebay is sitting at 3-4th place now, but takes most of my time! So Ive switched off ads to concentrate now more on Social media and newletters etc for my website (as thats rocketted)  and Id rather put my energy into Etsy, at least the buyers are less demanding - Ebay buyers are getting worse with their demands.

Im just hoping that this HMRC change may remove alot of people side hustling for free money on Ebay 🤞 

[fatbobfan]

" I must have conducted 300 searches in an incognito window for terms that would show my items as results, and every single time they only appeared in the search results as "Sponsored" and never as an organic un-sponsored result."

There may be a reason for this, again something mentioned on this forum but it sort of made sense to me, obtained from a CS call,

This is my understanding.

Ebays has allocated slots for 'sponsored listings' so your rate reflects how oftern you will appear there. The comment that resonated was along the lines of, if there is no other sponsor, you as someone who is sponsoring will get the slot, If you think about it for Ebay giving you that spot 300 times is a win win for Ebay, they will make more money by putting your sponsored listing there and getting tghe sale than having an organic. 

Just my take on it, its why I no longer blanket PL and why I look at each piece of inventory when allocating its PL rate.  This and with others comments on PL Rates / Sales History is why I am reducing, getting same if not better results, but do think the better results is more 'Ebay best practices'

[simplyessential_uk]

 So thought id share. Im sure you can guess where i started switching off PL but whats interesting is the page views. That slightly increases BUT interestingly the dark blue (external) takes up the slack of no green (PL) 🤔

Sales pretty steady but on checking against same week this time last year im actually busier. ( Im busy week before valentines re massage oils so comaparing week before with PL is  misleading) 

[vintagewatchpart]

That looks interesting, but still early days, potentially the same pattern as me?

As in, the impressions and views are down but perhaps the traffic you are getting is more relevant and encouraging a better conversion rate?

My external site views were also up 34.5% after a month PL turned off. I do have a theory about this but its complicated!

[simplyessential_uk]

Just thought Id ask if anyone has taken advantage of the free £100 offer and seen any results?

Here’s £100 to spend on Offsite AdsBETA | eBay.co.uk

[ojewellery]

I did a campaign with the £100 credit £5 a day July - End Dec.  Total 115 clicks at 21p total non spend within the budget £24.15 - sales £275.  So whilst not exactly life changing it did bring in revenue and didn't cost £55/ month or over the whole campaign (£5x31-£100) - which is what I was worried about.  I believe that general advise is it takes a few weeks for a campaign to optimise so if you're going to test maybe factor in 30 days.

I've just started a second campaign that I'm paying for.  Sales are currently £166.94 and clicks are now costing £0.12.  Total actual paid amount for the £166.94 sales is £2.54 so a ROAS (Return On Advertising Spend) of 65.73.

[simplyessential_uk]

Yes Ive set one to run for last 20 days of this month th hopefully get payday in for most ppl at £5 to use up the free £100 but if its anything like google click then its throwing money out the window - what I thought was odd was it didnt let me select my target words (like you do in google PCC) and its very much as scatter approach by Ebay on this but I dont want to turn down free money 😉

[ojewellery]

What I find very odd is it doesn't let you choose the products, either individually or by shop category that you'd like to promote.

I have some items I'd pay more to promote than others.  Those I want to build traction and will have repeats of.  I don't want to spend high amounts on a branded clearance item that isn't going to be replaced and is already heavily discounted so I'm confident will sell.

The thing is at the end of the trial, I'd not got anywhere near spending the free amount so overspend was not an issue.

[simplyessential_uk]

Good point, completely missed that it didnt ask for me to pick products. Like you say i may not feel i need to promote one product as it sells well without promo. On the face of it I really cant see how this will appeal to many. As per your figs if you had paid £166 for £275 sales (then of course deduct ebays fvf and cost of buying the item) it doesnt look great

[ojewellery]

Most recently I've paid £2.54 for a return of £166.94

On the promotion I didn't pay £24.15 (because of the free £100) for a return of £275

Don't know if I'm missreading what you've posted or its the other way round

[sheba-knows-best]

I tried it from beginning to December to mid January with the free £100.

Results:

2 sales

Income 59.49

ad fees (excl VAT) 50.36

Not sure if I paid sponsored on those, I bet I did.

I decided it wasn't for me 🙂

One word of warning, when the £100 runs out, you won't get a warning so keep an eye on your fees. I didn't notice the hundred was gone so ended up paying maybe 5-7 pound for 3 days (it seems to take 3 days for the switch off to work). I capped at £5 a day.

[tabletop-hobbies]

I've decided to give the £100 promotion a go @£5 per day for a month so it should cost me about £50ish, it's a bit annoying that it doesn't allow you to target individual products as there are certain items I'd like to focus on.  The lack of customisation already puts it at a disadvantage compared to social ads etc.

Does the £100 just get credited?  Things are that slow at the moment I'm actually worried about how that will work.

Still it's a £100 of free stuff...

[simplyessential_uk]

been running 2 days 0 clicks but ill check again nxt week as stopped auto 31st March. 

[fatbobfan]

Update whilst its quite

Been spending too much time on the platform, tinkering with listings but the algorythm likes it but that I am finding so so annoying.  

Jan and early Feb were good then dropped to OK,  then I check compared to last year and was plesantly surprised by the comparision for the ast 30 days against the same period last year

Sales value up 40%, Items Sold up 30%, average PL rate down 5.00% to 3.7%  ROAS up from 20 to 27.

ROAS has been about 27 for a while, usually business is better in the spring/summer so will see then, finger crossed. 

Have culled 10 % of my slow moving, low/zero views inventory as there are aspects of the listings the algorythm doesnt like and I dont have time to change at the moment, will see if thats a negative or maybe a positive if it was effecting the account? Who knows 

Part of the reason for this post is for the PL advanced users,  its on the Promotions Listings section which can be quiet

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Promoted-Listings/Changes-to-Promoted-Listings-Advanced/m-p/7561952#...

Message 9 is worth checking, over charging?

[vintagechinashop]

It's been a while since the latest comments. Let's keep this going. I'm currently ending listings due to end each day and changing things about a bit just to see if I can attract more sales 

would love to hear from others who have been trying something different and if it's been successful 

[bojangled]

Morning

Same @vintagechinashop daily end and sell similar routine, tweaking, swapping photos. Usually gets fresh eyes and a sometimes an instant sale.

Continuing to reduce PL, as per @vintagewatchpart thread. Page views has remained pretty similar, just the impressions down. Sales pretty quiet this week, but I expected that, weather, mid month between two bank holidays. Last May was the same for me. 
Nothing different at the moment, I unlinked the Pinterest social media tool because as @ojewellery quite rightly said the updating of broken links was tedious. 
Jo

[ojewellery]

I've fallen out of a regular end and relist pattern - just getting back into a marketing plan for the next quarter  and agree it works so need to build it back into my routine.

I'm going to play a bit with promoted listings and have been experimenting, with eBay help, on a tiny group of products using promoted listings advanced - its a learning curve.

Trying to balance my time a little better this year and enjoy the quieter months, not just feel a pressure of lower sales.  They pick up every year in peek season.

My aim is to review data against previous years, keep going with a bit of tinkering, don't overthink it all and do a few more webinars and inperson events to broaden my knowledge of the ever changing retail market.

[fatbobfan]

Had a drastic drop in promoted impressions (and sliding) since 18th March 

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Business-Seller-Board/eBay-Marketing-Programme/m-p/7603420#M311700

But sales have been steadier....... 

Still tinkering with reducing PL standard, @simplyessential_uk and @vintagewatchpart  posts have been very good and thought provoking, still stand by the chain of thought that you need to know your market on this subject, PL standard has its place and getting the basic listing performing better is more important.  My PL rate average is under 2.85%, expecting it to increse as I have tinkered up a little on some higher value inventory ROAS 35.05 comparable to last year, same period it was 19.95 and all ive done is reduce PL very slowly

Coupons @ojewellery your top tips there and seems to be working, 5 blocks in a month 2 for 15 days each and 3 for approx 10 days each, the only down side,  maybe coincidence when a coupon ended sales go flat, for a few days? Ive now taken to doing a bulk refresh the morning after a coupon ends and its helped or again maybe just coincidence,  I am finding I have coupons public but buyers arent choosing to use them, are they reading the coupons already been applied?  I get a high rate of 'new' Ebay buyers so maybe not familiar with the platform , added bonus but the coupon definitely is working

Ive been pretty good at listing 3 new inventory every day, and daily sell similar but that really is beginning to become a time consuming chore and it does stick a bit, I pay to list my invnetory, other platforms dont make paying customers work their inventory to get sales, seems a flawed system to me, thats my feedback its a lot of time with 1500+ inventory

Annoyingly still seeing the where has by business gone posts are still popping up on the forums so to anyone catching this thread whose had a drop in Sales/Views it may be a long thread but its worth a read, some invaluable advice imo

[vintagechinashop]

So your views on this one please. I saw a post on a social media site yesterday from a eBay seller who thinks that not accepting  or declining an offer straight away is better because it  pushes your listing up and therefore visibility is improved. She gave the example   She had an offer on a listing of 50% of the price which she neither accepted or declined. Later that day she says the item sold at full price and she also had a message from another potential buyer who had added the item to their basket only to see later that it was no longer available. 
im trying this out but wondered if anyone else had had this experience. I'll keep you posted if it works ✌️

[simplyessential_uk]

Im do see listings with "make an offer" and do nothing then it sells same day or next, but Im guessing that ppl are putting it in their basket or watchlist then holding out for an offer, when its no forthcoming they buy full price. Any purchase pushes the algorithms so often then another is more likely, which would of happened if they accepted the offer as its still a sale.

I used to send offers daily but started holding off and leave them for a few days and yes some sell full price and the listing disappears from the "make an offer" list, but if i have a non selling item show up i will send the offer straight away to get the sale to push the algorithms for that listing to get moving.