Separate listings vs. variations listing.

[inhawaii]

I have a item i've been selling for years.  It has been one of my best sellers.  It comes in 5 flavors. I had all 5 flavors listed seperately. 

Several months ago i decided to combine all 5 flavors/listings in to 1 combined listing even though it would mean losing all my previous sales stats.  I figured they sold so well that i could/would  quickly build my sales stats on the new combined listing.  I may have even posted about this "big change" when i was contemplating making it. 

Since the change sales have tanked. I would estimate that they are now about 1/10 of what they used to be.   I have no idea if it had anything to do with the new variations listing or it's just a fluke but i  am seriously thinking about chaning it back. 

Does anyone else have any first hand knowledge/stats/opinions of separate listings vs. variations listings?

[go-bad-chicken]

You can't do that here on eBay.

Pick A Box is an Amazon feature that they use for variation style listings.

eBay only has the drop down menu feature.

[mam98031]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

The company I work for has one product that is overwhelmingly one of our most popular.  It comes in 20 oz, 32 oz, and 1 gallon sizes as well as various kits with extra accessories.

Our individual listings for the different sizes/kits do really well (hundreds of sales per month).  I did not take them down, but did try a test like you did by creating a variation listing as well to see if buyers preferred being able to select the size/kit in one listing.

After letting the variation listing run for a few months, I killed it as a major failure - literally only sold about a half dozen items total across all variations in that time vs the hundreds per month on the individual listings.

I don't know if people just don't like that format/find it confusing or if there is an aversion to it because a lot of dishonest sellers use variations to game the search results by having one really cheap item as a variation, but our customer base definitely seems to prefer individual listings.

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I think it will depend on the category.  In Crafts it works really well because often times a buyer wants the beads [or something else] in more than one color or same color but different sizes.  

I can see that it could work well in many categories and not so much in others.

[bigdeals.etc]

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@inhawaii wrote:

You guys got me confused.  LOL

So is having separate listings for 5 different flavors a violation of the duplicate listing policy?

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I don’t believe the bots catch these. I’ve asked CS agents about this policy previously. Some say yes it is, others say it isn’t. And even from the ones who believe it to be a violation... ebay never ended up removing ANY of the listings I brought up to CS.

This was years ago when the duplicates policy first came out. I’ve since never bothered with it anymore since it went nowhere.

[japan-treazures]

@inhawaii 

My cousin sells Japanese candy and she expanded into the different flavors of the same candy and called eBay and actually got thru to a CSR.

They told her that a duplicate listing  is one that has the exact same title and description. They told her that her description can be the worded the same and by changing the flavor it is not considered a duplicate. They also explained that strawberry and grape flavors make it the listings different.

She had two items up and running and had the CSR view them and they said her auctions were in compliance. 

Her auction descriptions are about 97% the same, she only changes the flavor and sometimes the size. For two months, none of her auctions have been cancelled by eBay. I told her this and she didn't beleive me. LOL!

I used to do this with Pokemon cards, I used to use the same title and description and only changed the names of the characters and series. I do this when I list the same species of sea shells. Everything is the same except the size, condition and sometimes the location. I have listed thousands and thousands of shells and never once has one of my auctions been taken down. 

Hope this helps!

[computeraidllc]

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@gcorbin2169 wrote:

How do you create a listing to do what you are doing with cards. I can't find a step by step process. Thanks

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All you need to do is select the option for multi-variation for listing type and click edit for the variations. You select which attribute you want variation for and edit.

It is pretty self explanatory. The key is selection the listing type as multi-variation. 

[japan-treazures]

@inhawaii 

I have tried both separate and variation listings and found that listing separate auctions was much better.

I even tried listing four similar items as one auction at a cheaper price then the individual auctions if you bought four. People still bid on the single auctions more than the one with more variations and a cheaper price. 

I rarely sold the four similar items vs. the single auctions. So for me, I definatley, sold more individual auctions. Haven't used the variations style ever since.

If I were you, I would ditch the variation auctions and go back to the individual listings. I am sure some sellers are successful with it, just not for me.

Hope this helps!

[gcorbin2169]

Thank you. I was able to get it working.  

[evry1nositswindy]

Do an experiment:  say you have 100 of an item, 50 of each variation.  Split them into different listings.  One would be the variation and then the othefs as individuals.  See which sells better head to head.

[davesmusic_com]

If you want to try a variation sale, consider taking the quantities of your sales with great stats to zero. Then set up your variations sale. If the new variation-sale numbers suit you, consider ending the zero quantity sales. If not, end your variations sale and restore the quantities of your other sales. This way you won't lose your stats while you test the market. I've done that; kept some and ended some. The inherent issue with any eBay sale is that the majority of buyers DO NOT READ your descriptions. Depending on the item, if you further "complicate" the process, they'll just move on to the next sale with pretty pictures on which they'll entirely base their purchase.