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]

Evening all!

Always good to bump this thread.

First off... an update on promoted listings. Apologies @vintagewatchpart  - I may be confused - but I think you were trialling PL right? Anyway, this summer for various reasons (busy elsewhere, wanted to widen the gap between sales and VAT limit)  I decided to turn off PL as you did (if it was you). I think it had a major impact.  Please see impressions, page views and sales:

I presume everyone can see that by turning off PL (apart from a few one day turn ons to try and jumpstart sales) there was a serious impact on impressions but NOT on page views as @vintagewatchpart  had noted when he trialled - however the impact on my sales was notable - particularly in terms of zero sales days (which I have never really known before).  You can see when PL is turned on, sales return...  I should also say I usually see a sales pick up earlier in August, I waited for as long as I could before losing my nerve. I make 2/3rds of my annual income in the next 4 months I couldn't keep waiting...

My view - regardin promoted -  is that you can sell without PL, if you are diligent with keeping all of your listings fresh (ie non stagnant). But you will snag the careful buyer who takes a while to search, or who knows exact keywords (such as brand) for what they want. You will NOT snag the impulse buyer. And maybe it is these impulse buyers who make the difference between having zero sales days and steady (albeit sluggish) sales.

[sheba-knows-best]

SO... to share my tips for increasing sales... in this nightmarish year...

I think 2024 is mega challenging. There are big competitors (for me, Vinted). There are huge changes (the whole business seller debacle, HMRC demands - both of which will affect the number of buyers on the site). I think it is a tough year to predict. I currently have sales 20% down ytd y-o-y, profits 16% down. Whilst we would all love growth, this is partly by design. I had to take a lot of time out this summer and I decided to use it to widen my gap to the VAT limit. Usually towards Christmas I have to start turning down fair offers because I was over 80k, this year I am only at 73K as we run into the busy season, so I  have some enthusiasm for the months ahead...

Having said that, my prediction is for huge discounting by big sellers and by the High Street (some sellers already discounting 50% on coats). So for the first year ever I am really focusing on sending out targeted offers. Unique items (Yellow spanish leather, Ken faux furs, incredible vintage distressed leather or even just High Street that I know never goes out of fashion) I am sticking at offers of about 20% off. But lots of other stock I am offering 30-45% off. I am kind of taking my profits while I can. I may be wrong. I may regret my discounting... but what I don't want is a load of stock hanging around come November when the shops are at 70% off.

Regarding eBay - it has never had it tougher: Vinted, HMRC, business/private seller stuff to sort, younger people with so much choice (us old timers are more likely to be loyal, we dont like change)... but I know eBay is rising to challenge in pre-loved and is really focusing on trying to hold its own... we will see...

It would be nice to see other people's takes on the year!

[vintagewatchpart]

Your graphs are very interesting, when I turned off my organic impressions dropped slightly but then went up higher than they were after turning off promoted.

I don't understand why turning off your promoted listings would result in a huge drop in organic impressions, it's like eBay is blocking your listings from organic placements where they usually would have been until you resumed promoting?

Could this be because you are in the clothing category, perhaps eBay has introduced a category blanket policy to do something to encourage clothing sellers to promote more? E.g. by lowering their organic placements unless they promote so eBay can get their fees back?

I am still not promoting and I know many others who are the same who are doing better than if they had promoted. It seems to be different for different categories but this one is just bizarre as the organic impressions shouldn't have been hit so badly and as soon as you started promoting it's like eBay gave you the placements back...

[fatbobfan]

Not recorded the data but I turned off PL standard in bulk and everything dropped of the cliff, sales and impressions, I put it back on and increased in panic but now have greatly reduced but ever so slowly.

I still personally belive its what your selling, its value and who you are competing with, not all categories, price points will show the same results, just my opinion 

Shebas comments about keeping the listings in good order imo, is probably a huge factor in performance, if the algorythm is seeing youll get impressions,views which leads to sales. 

Still tinkering downwards on PL,  but still doing it slowly

[sheba-knows-best]

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@vintagewatchpart wrote:

Your graphs are very interesting, when I turned off my organic impressions dropped slightly but then went up higher than they were after turning off promoted.

I don't understand why turning off your promoted listings would result in a huge drop in organic impressions, it's like eBay is blocking your listings from organic placements where they usually would have been until you resumed promoting?

Could this be because you are in the clothing category, perhaps eBay has introduced a category blanket policy to do something to encourage clothing sellers to promote more? E.g. by lowering their organic placements unless they promote so eBay can get their fees back?

I am still not promoting and I know many others who are the same who are doing better than if they had promoted. It seems to be different for different categories but this one is just bizarre as the organic impressions shouldn't have been hit so badly and as soon as you started promoting it's like eBay gave you the placements back...

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Very good point; so zero fees to private sellers but few sales unless they use PL? It's a thought...

It chimes with something else...  I was on these boards In June bleating about a massive rise in organic impressions from June 16th which continued (see below) for no apparent reason. I talked to concierge and protrader about it. No one could give a good answer as to why. But it dropped as soon as I stopped using PL.  Now I can see it dropped to the pre-June 16th level.

The plot thickens... I wonder what the hell someone decided about organic visibility in preloved on June 16th? But it does seem to be increased organic if you use PL. My only guess is counting halo sales as organic not PL?

Thanks for your thoughts. Its good to chat 🙂

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[sheba-knows-best]

... although having said that... impressions are still only slowing climbing back to the post-June 16th organic highs... 

It is all very odd. I suspect the alorithms are constantly changing as ebay tries to keep its fee income from falling.

[fatbobfan]

Costs, Time and GSPR for this year

Costs on this platform I will be reducing, Shop size I am pretty sure will immediately be reduced after Xmas, and slow moving inventory I used to keep to use my shop allowance will be going as well. 

Time, 1500 listings can take too much time for the return especially on slow moving inventory , new photo's, editing, pricing/matching/checking all too keep an alogorythm happy we are hoping is operating the way we were told 12 months ago, Im annoyed at myself as I regularly get hooked in with 'Ebay admin' time can just disappear. ( Yes, I did say the same last year, grrrr) 

GSPR - Popped my head up after a month away this week and dipped into the GSPR threads and it does seem no one really knows and comms from Ebay has been, well. OJ posted on a GPSR thread many are hopefull of better comms this week.

Compliance Department removing inventory this year was bloomin scary and not having the ability to communicate with them and the usual CS fairy tales. This GSPR preparation exercise by Ebay compared to other platforms has been an awful customer experience

For @sheba-knows-best just a quick question on your PL changes, how did your higher value listings do with the changes, personally I like a bargain and do search using the low-high option. PL does get inventory in these results, were your high values effected.

For anyone going this week, have fun, and if you could share on the following.

Any official insight on GPSR 

Any changes to best selling practices/Best algorythm practices

Sure I could add to the list but currently the two that most concerns me, 

[bittyboy101]

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@sheba-knows-best wrote:

... although having said that... impressions are still only slowing climbing back to the post-June 16th organic highs... 

It is all very odd. I suspect the alorithms are constantly changing as ebay tries to keep its fee income from falling.

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Maybe if they allowed people to get more steady and regular sales easily and they reduced their fees to a more reasonable/sensible rate, then  they would not need to "keep their fees from falling" ?  because more people will be using them instead of leaving and selling elsewhere...

[technthread]

I am sticking at offers of about 20% off. But lots of other stock I am offering 30-45% off. I am kind of taking my profits while I can. I may be wrong. I may regret my discounting... but what I don't want is a load of stock hanging around come November when the shops are at 70% off.

I would be really interested to see what happens if sellers with the ability to be so flexible on price, stop promoting listings and coincide that step with a sale event. I'm guessing your discounts go out by way of offers to watchers. I wonder what would happen to impressions and views if you stopped paying eBay promoted listings and ran a huge sale of whatever it may be, say 20% plus the fees saved on PL so maybe a 30% average sale discount? From a buyers perspective it should be very appealing (if they can find you).

[vintagechinashop]

In the past I have promoted all my listings. However I decided a few months back to be more selective and to look at each listing on merits of how much competition was out there for each particular item. That seems to have worked for me as my sales of the rarer items have increased. I think it's a trial and error thing especially in my category 

[sheba-knows-best]

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@fatbobfan wrote:

For @sheba-knows-best just a quick question on your PL changes, how did your higher value listings do with the changes, personally I like a bargain and do search using the low-high option. PL does get inventory in these results, were your high values effected.

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Hmmm... hard to answer... I actually have my very high end vintage so £200+ on the lowest PL anyway and they also wouldnt sell well in summer. Who wants a £400 coat in July?  Plus they are always slow-moving (and in some ways I dont care, they bring people to me who might look at other items. I think as bizarre as it may sound quite a few people search high to low just to have an idea of what would be wonderful... and if I get the photos right.... come back). So rambling answer but... on the whole... no, highest value items were defo not more affected than low value with zero PL, if anything the low sales were as usual with them.

[sheba-knows-best]

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@technthread wrote:

I am sticking at offers of about 20% off. But lots of other stock I am offering 30-45% off. I am kind of taking my profits while I can. I may be wrong. I may regret my discounting... but what I don't want is a load of stock hanging around come November when the shops are at 70% off.

I would be really interested to see what happens if sellers with the ability to be so flexible on price, stop promoting listings and coincide that step with a sale event. I'm guessing your discounts go out by way of offers to watchers. I wonder what would happen to impressions and views if you stopped paying eBay promoted listings and ran a huge sale of whatever it may be, say 20% plus the fees saved on PL so maybe a 30% average sale discount? From a buyers perspective it should be very appealing (if they can find you).

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During my zero PL time I ran a 25% off coupon and was involved with an ebay coupon. Niether seemed to help very much. I tend not to do strike through... I tried it once and it was less effective than coupons... maybe I should try again.  

I use coupons if I find that I am sending out daily offers to watchers and none are biting. Instead I switch to coupons, say, Mon-Thurs, dont send offers and collect watchers. Then on Friday turn off the coupon and send out an offer for the same amount as the coupon but allowing counter offers. You then allow the buyer a bit extra off.  If buyers offer during the coupon, make clear on your counter offer that the coupon can not be applied along with the offer.

INFO (in case people are confused):

Seller initiated coupons work on full buy-it-now price only (cannot be applied to offers)

Ebay initiated coupons (either fully funded by ebay or a seller/ebay split) can be applied on top of  accepted offer.

[tribalgiftsuk]

Just to add a little tip bit i learned a few weeks ago, i was running an auction whilst i had an Ebay initiated voucher/coupon running. I didnt realise at that time that the auction end date was still during the coupon period so my customer took the advantage of getting the coupon discount on the final auction price 🙄

Lucky for them, unlucky for me! So dont have any coupons running on your whole shop if you have auctions running at the same time, unless you can afford the hit!

[fatbobfan]

Almost a year on this thread and the advice given has improved things

Thanks to all that posted

Trying to the dot the i's and t's for hopefully improved Christmas sales, have gone back (skimmed) the Ebay notifications, the last being prepare for peak trading (September videos)

I didnt recall any 'changes/improvements/do's and donts' videos or forum comments from the Ebay event on Birmingham, so am I right in presuming nothings really changed in best practices?

Thanks

FBF

[vintagechinashop]

Thank you for refreshing the post

i started this as you say a year ago. Hopefully many have taken advantage of the tips shared and hopefully have seen results

always good to share anything new 

[fatbobfan]

Apologies if Ive asked previous, dont think I have (old age)

On PL you should leave a time period before strating and ending a campaign,

Should you use the same practice for coupons? or is it OK to jump straight on with a new coupon the same/following day or does the system not like.

Thanks in advance

FBF

[ojewellery]

On promoted listings it can take up to 24 hours for listings to appear available to repromote.  That's the only reason I can think of to delay.

With coupons, you can go one to another or even have overlap and the system chooses which gets priority, or I think you can still do it in your offers.  The reasons against that are one of the things that can get achieved with sales, Coupons, order discounts (which can be rotated through) is they create a halo effect.  So the promotion creates increased visibility of the listing which remains for a period after the listing goes back to full price and should generate sales at full price.  I think it lasts three to five days before it starts to drop but this no doubt varies by category. 

The other consideration is obligations under advertising practices.  To offer an effectively permanent discount means your listed price is a false representation of product price.

Another small business owner I chat with had an interesting take on basket discount though.  Customers like a bargain and may add to basket under offer and not checkout.  If they go back to their basket and see no discount they may cancel the transaction.  If there's still a discount showing, regardless of amount in relation to the original discount, frequently they checkout.  On that theory running a mixed bag of discount rate promotions could potentially be the optimal way to work.

[fatbobfan]

Thanks OJ

I had my first negative in 10 years and a BS one at that, probably coincidental but as many others have posted, despite prepping listings in October for Christmas, its gone very quiet.

I think because of the inventory I sell, seeing the offer on first interest really helps, coupons help me get my best results compared to other practices

Thinking of a Christmas target to try and get some Santa buyers then back to your suggested block strategy.

I find this platform so annoying with the time it takes to generate interest, the 'best practices' can be so time consuming with a large inventory, Im doing this now and it will take me three days, its beyond a joke

[ojewellery]

How do you get on with newsletters - I find a Friday morning offer newsletter pretty successful for click thorough and love Gemini for helping get the best of my title and 1000 characters of text.

I did one of the free account check appointments and had the all valuable extra set of eyes over my account.  I'm an old wrinkly and think I know most of the system ins/ outs/ quirks but it was again so valuable to have a dedicated person give me a bit of their time.  Of the back of that, I was told offers are very  successful at my average price point in my category so I'm currently blitzing send an offer out, in parallel to coupons/ offers/ sales.   It is a little time consuming but is also getting great results so justified time.

Sales have had a big upturn for me this month - in part due to 400 new gold items, a lot of them have been sent to be hallmarked so good gold weights and its pushed my listing numbers over 1000.  My payout this week brought a smile to my face, the first time an eBay payout (in the right direction), has surprised me in a fair while.

I've got around 150 left to list and can't believe how long its taking me, with an upturn in sales, increased packing and general increase in customer service requirements at this time of year, I'm doing well to average 10 new listings a day.

Tough break on the negative, I've had two neutrals the last two months.  Both size related.  Very frustrating when everything gets dimensioned.  So long as percentages stay above 97% you'd still get my business without batting an eyelid.  I get disproportionately annoyed at less than positive feedback though, even though its completely beyond our control and I have a strong logic side the emotional side feels bruised. 

[sheba-knows-best]

I'm firing on all cylinders to make up for a rubbish summer and to make the most of zero fees until December 31st. (Lucky I know) So, yes, my top tips might be easier for me than most.

1) Send out offers. Set your first price as 'cheeky' as you can to allow for discounts/offers.  Any guesses as to which day (see below) I trialled NOT sending out offers? 

2) Time your markdown sales to fall around payday. If you run them mid month, they're not allowed again for 14 days and you will lose out the option at a busy period. Use coupons mid month (stock that been on a coupon in the prior 14 days can be put into a markdown..

3) Also time your sell similaring for 14 days ahead of payday. If you have sell-similared it is a new listing and cannot be marked down for 14 days.

2) Time your send offers, markdowns and coupons to run in line with ebays co-funded coupons (if you are invited).  Then you can offer less - but remind the buyer to use ebay's coupon as well. Be aware on this: check the buyer will be able to 'stack'  by pressing buy it now on your item on a different account. Don't complete the purchase - just see that the codes are valid. Also be aware that some buyers will struggle with the codes, so you might get a tad of aggro (I got two complaints this week, only one unpleasant). 

4) Use a newsletter to announce your markdown/coupon etc. I use it to announce my last day of double discount (coinciding with ebay coupon) .

Frankly, the whole thing is a lot harder/more strategic than it used to be. But that's what happens in a crowded market place.