After closing our store - - -traffic increased by over 60%. We started selling again at the rate

[oldedale]

We closed our store on May 12th, this after 5 years as a top rated plus power seller. Our traffic and sales had fallen 50%. After closing our store - - -traffic increased by over 60%. We started selling again at the rate we had last year. We reopened a store after 2 weeks of good sales, June 2nd. Traffic fell again. Why would we receive a big increase in sales and traffic when we didn't have a store? Why does traffic drop when we open another store? 

[3eyedfishcatcher]

My first guess would be that while Ebay says store subscriptions get you better placement in search results they may have started to prrioritize non store sellers because they pay more per listing. My second guess is that most of you are still using GTC for your listings. When GTC relist on the old all selling page they look like the start date is refreshed but it is not refreshing anymore. In catagory searched, store inventory, and the new seller hub ITems are being sorted by original list date.  So when sorted by newly listed items listed in the last 30 days come first then the remaining items are sorted by when they were listed. The same applies for oldest listed. For the last 30 days items are sorted by the oldest then the remaining items past 30 days are sorted oldest first by the original list date.  This new method means the longer you list a item using GTC will cause it to become buried and most likely buyers will not be able to find the item as a search only pulls 10,000 results. It would also account for the seller who closed their store and started listings all over.  By the time they reopened their store things were going good but their items started to get buried again. Most likely Ebay wants sellers to evaluate their items every 30 days dropping items that are not selling or changing prices. The longer items stay on their servers not selling cost them more money.  To keep your items from getting buried and maintain good invisibility at all times you should be using a 30 day listing and manually relisting the items after they end. 

[nessas_nook]

I've tried the 30 day listing and manualy re-listing, unfortunately it didn't do anything to pick up views or sales.  It's been over a year now since my sales tanked (and I've never found out the reason why) only that I'm not the only person it has happened too.  I may sell 1 - 2 items a month now if I'm lucky.   eBay doesn't care, many of us tried to find out answers a year ago and never got anywhere.  How it happened for me was May 2017 I was building my store great, June 1st hit and views and sales dropped by 80 - 90% and it's never recovered since.  (I've been looking for other venues that will work, and more than likely will have to find a job).  Whether it's a comany that pays you a wage or a company like eBay who you use to make money it's becoming dangerous to rely on them these days, they just don't seem to care about the people who work or rely on them for income anymore.  It is probably better to have your own website and market that.

[rockz1101]

Interesting and sensible speculations and we have been experimenting with variations. Not experiencing increase in sales. There might be some reality in that creating a "new listing"
does get viewed sooner by followers/watchers.
With the scramble going on to improving website ranking, there has been and continues to be
ALOT of website tweaking to justify progress and command position salaries.

[microshnik]

As a buyer, I can tell you why sales fell.  I hate eBay Stores; I avoid them like the plague.  They may be nice if you know exactly what you're looking for, but they're miserable for just browsing to see if something catches your eye.  If I want to see what else a seller has to offer, I use the "view seller's items" link to get at the normal search results page.  It used to be that this link was everywhere -- on the user profile page, on the feedback page, and on each item page.  Recently (I don't remember how long ago), eBay switched the link on the item page to go to your store if you have one.  Suddenly my easiest way to get at my preferred method of browsing was removed!  Now, I'm a persistent little bugger, so I click either the seller name or the feedback number to get at one of the other links, but how many other buyers don't put in that extra effort?  If you want to encourage browsing and thus sales, don't waste your time with a Store.