eBay

arkhamvintagestore · ‎02-14-2022

Hello, I am having a major issue with that is affecting my sales and business. Since Jan 21st, my promoted listings impressions and views have dropped by 99%. This is not an exaggeration. Since this date I have not had 1 sale via promoted listings. Before this probably 40% of my items sold were via promoted listings. This is a major slowdown for my less popular items as they are getting absolutely no views. When i search my items on ebay under incognito mode or another device, sometimes my items are nowhere to be found with major keywords in the title matching. This is a major issue ebay and I am not happy at all.

Below is a chart of the current collapse

Now the even bigger issue that was discovered is that this is the THIRD TIME THIS HAS HAPPENED IN LESS THEN A YEAR!! As you can see below in the month of January 2021, November 2021, and January 2022, this exact issue has happened with absolutely no help from the ebay customer support. It has randomly gone back but who knows when it was or after what phone call i finally made to customer service.

Now currently I have spoken to Ebay customer service a total of 6 times with absolutely no help. I've "Refreshed my account". I have ended my campaigns and created new ones. I have tried automated. I have ended my items and relisted. I feel like i have tried everything and EBAY has offered absolutely no help. Now I can only hope someone is out there who has dealt with this issue and can offer some support. Thanks.

partfinds · ‎05-16-2022

PLs is dying down even without any changes see my screenshot.

3_prophets_sportscards · ‎05-16-2022

I’ve been selling Sportscards for two years now and have never saw anything like the drop I’ve seen recently. I average 3k in sales for past 18 months. I haven’t hit $400 yet this month. I’m blown away.

the_expedition · ‎05-16-2022

Unfortunately that’s how economics go. Everything in the market is down right mow, with sky high rising prices in basic goods, people are buying less “stuff.”

badbonz · ‎05-28-2022

I'm experiencing the same thing. I don't sell much, but I have a couple of things listed.

All of a sudden the number of total views have disappeared. For instance, I have a Little Mermaid VHS listed and its been on forever and it 'used to have' over 6000 views and 1 watcher. Now all of a sudden it has only FOUR views and 1 watcher.

The other stuff I have listed also has only like 2 or 3 views per item. It's ridiculous. Ebay has definitely done something to their algorithm or something. It's very aggravating... NOONE is finding or even looking at our stuff anymore. I'm pretty sick of it all.

I really feel bad for the dealers on here who mostly sell on eBay and rely on it for their livelihood.

What happened to the old eBay? It sucks now and more frustrating than it's worth. Time for everyone to jump ship!

ladyindecadence · ‎05-28-2022

Ebays algorithm seems to weigh buyer engagement with a listing higher then anything else when calculating a listings rank in search. This works great for listings of new popular merchandise where you have a large quantity available. This however kills the search for one of a kind antique and collectable items that just need to be seen in a search so buyers looking for similar items have the opportunity to consider your item. I believe that the algorithm used to count bot views as buyer engagement (which would artificially push up and items ranking in search) and now that those views are being excluded items are being ranked lower because there is no actual buyer engagement. So now many of these long tail items are just being pushed to the bottom of the search. I also believe that the promoted listings work in a similar fashion in that the more engagement buyers have with a promoted listing the more that listing gets promoted to push sales of an already popular listing. So until ebay finds a happy medium in the algorithm where long tail merchandise gets some of the better placement in the search again sales of those type of items will continue to decline.

In the long run this is bad for ebay as a marketplace as its those unusual items that can't be found elsewhere that has always been the drawl to this platform. Buyers that come here looking for something unusual stick around and buy more common items.

And for those who think its just the economy that doesn't explain why this is the only platform that I sell on where sales have been declining. While sales elsewhere are increasing and prices at all of the local auctions are through the roof. The economy may be causing pain for those who live on the edge of financial insolvency. But in a world wide market there are plenty of people who still have lots of money to spend on quality items.

To put it simply ebay has become focused on different types of merchandise and different seller business models. Running an antiques business here no longer seems to fit with eBay's goals as a company.

partfinds · ‎05-28-2022

@ladyindecadence

THANK YOU . THAT’S IT. Bull’s eye

gratescape · ‎05-28-2022

Interesting. The thing is my sales were doing well for years without having to do that. It's only in the past few months that it seems things have changed. When you make the change to the title are you saying you end, relist and then make the title change or make the title change before you end and relist?

easm05 · ‎05-29-2022

Before the new view roll out I got more views, and sold more items. All views are not bots as ebay trying to claim. If your link is on a third party site, and someone click on that ebay, ebay may consider it a bot, and block that person from viewing your item. I had 270 listings on ebay, and only 1,476 views for the month. That is 5 views for each listing. Although most of my listing shows no views for the month. Ebay is no longer a friendly site for sellers. Every other month ebay comes up with something to get another dollar out of sellers to make more profit, while most sellers makes less profit. The average seller on ebay make only $12,000 or less a year. If you looking to make more money, and sell items faster, put your listings on other sites. If not, ebay will have you frustrated. If a person ask a ebay seller should he or she should sell on ebay, the seller would most likely say no. There are better sites than ebay to sell products on. I hope ebay would get it's act together, and get rid of those on top who is bring ebay down.

snamar21 · ‎06-17-2022

Hello, hope you are doing great I am facing the same problem for 1 and half months. firstly it was only promoted listing views now it's affecting my organic views as well is there any hope?

dreamcommerce · ‎06-21-2022

Hello, same problem here, did your problem resolved?

njfleamarket · ‎06-22-2022

We've had similar results since Sept. of last year, sales and views slid off the slope and kept sliding till it all but died in Jan.

Items and ads that were selling strong are now going unseen with no views.
We tried new ads, new pics, lowered prices, but nothing. Can't sell it if they can't see it.

derricksoutboards · ‎08-21-2022

That's bull**bleep** this is how leftest answer questions

arkhamvintagestore · ‎11-21-2022

Wanted to give an update to everyone who has read and posted in this thread or will come here in the future with this issue.

I want to state this:

EBAY had absolutely no idea or solution to why this problem was occurring. They seemed to even ignore that this was even a thing. After about 3+ months of listing daily and selling normally, My promoted listings did seem to go back to normal. Once again there was never a call from ebay, any message or anything telling me why this major drop in promoted listing occurred. My suggestion would be to just continue listing new items and hopefully the algorithm will change for you soon enough.

thepurplefox_1 · ‎04-21-2023

Firstly I would like to say. Yes, Economy, competition, Cost of living etc tect ect all play their part in the post Quarter 4 drop but No they do NOT have anything to do with the many sellers seeing the massive drop almost overnight. This is infact an Ebay sight wide error/glitch. I too literally overnight of 3rd January saw a landslide drop in promoted impressions. I then spend in excess of 100hrs of calls across 3 1/2 months to c/s persistantly telling them they were wrong and I was right.

Eventually They agreed there was a sight wide bug that was affecting many accounts. They wont delve deeply into issues to resolve. You have to be persistant and polite and determined. No the following information I am going to share may or may not be the reason for you but get the to check and get them to add you to the group IT ticket relating to the following information if you can for them to check into it (worth a shot)

Here are a list of glitches that fall within this bug.

1) Promoted inpressions falling off a cliff, and nothing you do can get them to move upwards.

2) The number of item used within your monthly listing limits don't make the number in your store

3) The amount you have used for the month from you limits in currency does not add up to the amount you have sold + listed

4) Older listings that you may have ended and "sell similar" suddenly take in excess of 24-36 hours to "index" and become visible. Whereas brand new created listings get indexed within minutes.

You maybe affected by some or all or other issues. I cant say. But there was an internal Alert sent out to c/s staff on 3rd Jan about the pr/impressions the Internal Alert Code for this bug is 14383 (Get the c/s staff to look for it, they can't deny it then.

Don't be put off by c/s staff or even supervisors giving you the standard run arround saying things like its your titles, your images etc etc if you were already getting the impressions with the same details, they would not fall off a cliff overnight unless something happened on Ebay's side. It might be a coding update or new search parameters. The standard responses like those I have had and seen mentions above regarding time of year, cost of living blah blah blah these are pasifiers to shut you down when raising a case.

Unfortunately ebay is so compartmentalised no one knows what any one else is doing. So you have to keep clear records of information you gather and gain as you call c/s and build your case.

Always ask for the SR ref number of the call.

If you can but not always given try and get the IT ticket number it will start with "REQ" They wont want to give you this as its internal, but your not breaking any rules by asking for it or getting it. The clearer the path you can make for you case the better.

Hope this helps some peeps.

Good luck and stay strong