Very low item views?

[blackcatbooksuk]

Hi all

Is there a fault today that is affecting items views? Mine are showing an extremely low number today. Anyone else noticed this?

[diecastmanhattan]

Sales/Item views have been seriously low for several weeks now.  I've just removed 200+ items from my shop, so that I can downgrade it next month.

[blackcatbooksuk]

Mine haven't been too bad. Just today it is stuck on 4 views. Was stuck on 0 till about 10 this morning. Something seems off.

[diecastmanhattan]

Yes, been on here 25 years - it's never been so bad

[ascotscalemodels]

Low views,no sales for over a week-I think ebay have switched us off but will no doubt want their shop fees at the end of the month.

[vintagechinashop]

I’m going to do the same. I’m going to rotate items but as I’ve been building up my Etsy shop I’ll move more over to that. I did try it last year but didn’t really keep on top of the rotation or the best selling items and making sure the lower selling items were removed. 
im doing this because my fees are so ridiculously high. I’m also finding I’m getting better prices on other selling platforms. In my category eBay is saturated with private sellers who can sell cheaper because they don’t have to cover fees 

[diecastmanhattan]

Yes, thats why I'm going to a basic shop - no point in paying over £90/month if no-one visits the current shop.

[the_book_seekers]

The first 10 days of April were bad and then made some sales last weekend. Since then nothing. 

At the moment I've got ebay trying to persuade me to take up the latest offer on off-site promotions - 

Get 30% off to level up your ads

Save up to £2,000 on Promoted Offsite.

I usually find being pushed to take up a promoted listing offers means lower sales. 

[davidc1971]

Something isn't right, I have been a seller for over 20 years, I have about 4,000 items for sale and have sold 2 items in the last 6 days...I have never, ever known it to be so bad, all the time being badgered to 'get 30% off' Off Site Advertising, instead I am thinking of downscaling on Ebay and looking for other options. 

[tressygirl]

With many similar reports coming through it seems you are not alone !

@davidc1971 

[thesmokingrunner]

There could be a couple of reasons for the reduction in the number of views:

1. A genuine reduction in the number of buyers looking at items;

2. eBay reducing item visibility in order to push sellers into paying for off-site promotions

Then, of course, there's always the possibility that the number of item views has never been a true figure anyway: it's a number generated by a computer program, that's all. It might be the actual number of views of an item but it might equally be a random number generated for the benefit of the seller.

Its funny (funny odd, not funny ha-ha), but sellers seem happy to accept the figure for the number of views  if they see a high number but not if they see a low number and yet a) the number shown is produced by the same system and b) unless one has access to the raw data it is simply not possible to confirm whether the numbers displayed are true or not.

[davidc1971]

I think it's probably both of those reasons and may be a few more we are not aware of, May be they have been hacked and are keeping a lid on it, The thing is when things nosedive so incredibly like this, really to the point of improbability, people search for answers. My opinion is the reason you said plus some kind of Tech issue or issues and not small ones, everything from views, sales to even messages are unbelievably low,  even for this economic climate, it goes beyond what you would expect, way beyond.  I mean I went 72 hours without a sale, I had 1 and then again nothing for another 48 hours. Sales have been declining on Ebay, especially over the past 2 or 3 years but they have now fallen off a cliff.

[theelench]

I used to be able to compare sales / views of my niche items on ebay and on the other site I sell on.  At the moment I'm not selling on ebay so can't do that.

But what I can say is that on the other site my sales collapsed in 24-25 and haven't recovered at all this year.  They have a "Free Ad. " forum where sellers can 'spotlight' their items for other board users.  Although how accurate the number of views of that forum has always been debateable because of security bots and crawlers etc. I can say that views have gone back to where they were 4/5 years ago.  As have listing views and sales.

As that site doesn't have Promoted Listings, one thing I can be sure of is that neither my ads. or my regular Free Ad. posts are having their visibility reduced for any reason.

So as a completely independent observer, I'd have to go with your first reason; that there is a genuine reduction in numbers of buyers viewing items on the other site. 

Ebay may have had tech. issues and may be restricting visibility but that would not have any effect on another site.  In fact, if ebay were doing either I would expect views/sales elsewhere to have increased as buyers widen their search.   That certainly hasn't happened in my niche.

[ascotscalemodels]

My thoughts exactly they have also been pushing me to promote that would explain why I've not sold anything for almost two weeks,my last sale was on the 7th.I've never known it so bad!

[vintagechinashop]

Same here I’m sick of paying the shop fees for such little traffic or sales

so I’ll be downgrading before the end of the month  I’m basically working to pay eBay at the moment  I’m doing better on the other platforms I sell on and not having to pay for a shop so it’s time to reduce my fees   I will just have my 250 best viewed listings no point paying for no one to look and I’ll also be reducing my promotions 

[vintagechinashop]

I’m being pushed to promote daily. Is this desperation by eBay or is it manipulation. Not sure which but after 20 years I’m losing faith with eBay for my category and it’s definitely time to vote with my feet 

[jlovie]

As of yesterday, when I try to look at page views via the listing page (the one where there's a pop-out window) it's not working.

The pop-out is happening but the data is blank.

Anyone else seeing this?

[vintage-emporium-jedburgh]

Ebay works on the lemming principle 

for every lemming  that falls off the cliff there are a thousand more waiting behind

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

Not sure that is applicable now though, things have changed.

[jlovie]

Struggling to see the page views pop-out via the summary page now, getting the spinning wheel most of the time.