Traffic drops 50% after every Quarterly update. Why does this occur?

[oldedale]

Traffic drops 50% after every Quarterly update. Why does this occur? For the last 3 years, after the quarterly updates, traffic decreases by 50% or more. What is happening to our placement and traffic? Easily seen in traffic reports - daily impression rate averages 40,000 daily impressions. eBay pushes out the update, traffic impressions drop to 15,000 daily impressions. Currently sales and traffic have decreased -85% compared to last month, -86% compared to Feb 2023. Can someone help us to sell again? We are TRS with zero defects and 18 years experience sourcing and selling on eBay.

[theteamsetguy]

@oldedale ,

That must be a coincidence. I think one of the issues especially with antiques and collectibles is when ebay came out with good until cancel the number of items listed has skyrocketed every month because many sellers just let their items that don't sell relist month after month. 

Folks most things things that don't sell within one year will NEVER sell or is probably priced TOO high. This is part of the slow sales issues for some sellers. 

[oldedale]

My traffic reports show this huge drop after every quarterly update. Goes back 3 years. Steady at 40,000 daily impressions. After the update traffic drops to 15,000. This is repeated every quarterly update.

[onefootflippers]

Start by pricechecking all your books and easy to pricecheck items. I price checked several of them and your price was not competitive on any of the ones I checked.

[samanthasb0utique]

I have been tracking this phenomenon for about 10 years now. You are correct, impressions and views drop dramatically after every single update. It is just the eBay way I guess and nothing anyone can do about it unfortunately. I have talked to many customer service reps about it over many years and they always just rush me off the phone. They don't know why it happens either. The only ones that know are technical support and there is really no way to contact them directly. Its a situation where you just have to shrug and say to yourself it is what it is. Its unfortunate that we sellers have to deal with drops like this but it hasn't changed and it probably will never change. Thankfully though, things usually normal out after a couple weeks following the update.

[dhbookds]

I agree there is a drop.........which rebounds fairly quickly.   I've always thought sellers who are buyers are concentrating on the updates and trying to figure out what they need to do/not do.......or how the update is going to play out for them........  redirecting those sellers to the updates, limits their time for searching/viewing either as buyers or simply researching.........

[powell-memorabilia]

Glass half full - sales double two weeks after a quarterly update, and continue for eleven weeks.  

[its*in*the*bag]

This is so interesting. Been on here 20 years and this makes a lot of sense. I always panic and start lowering prices but maybe I just have to wait it out (as hard as that is). Thank you for the insight!

[wri-4945]

Traffic has dropped for me too and I blame the new design of the website, how sellers enter the listing information.  They removed the "auto relist" for 8 times feature in auction.

I hate this new design.  Everytime EB changes stuff, it's downhill for me.  And trying to learn the NEW way to list is cumbersome.

AI is broken.  Don't try to ask it a question. 

[its*in*the*bag]

How long do you usually see it lasting? Thanks!

[yuzuha]

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@theteamsetguy wrote:

Folks most things things that don't sell within one year will NEVER sell or is probably priced TOO high. This is part of the slow sales issues for some sellers. 

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I disagree. I've had loads of long tail items sit around for 2-3 years+ and then sell out of the blue for my full asking price. Some things just have a very small potential buyer base, but when the right buyer comes along they'll sell.

[samanthasb0utique]

Usually right at a couple of weeks. I remember one update a year ago or so that took almost 4 weeks for things to look normal again. Very annoying!

[oldedale]

Strange - we price according to what the item has sold on eBay in past 3 months, so why do you say overpriced? Our books are always over priced, we cannot compete with GW prices (but we ship next day and show the book condition). ie GW has 100 Steven King titles, GW can afford to promote with 5 dollar click ads on 100 books. Our 1 copy, we cannot...but we do sell the books if eBay shows them or someone stumbles into our store. We sold $500/mo in book sales before eBay allowed the MEGA sellers on here. Now we lose money on every book.  Our cost increased from 25% 2021 to the current 41%. This does not include cost of goods to list, packing/boxes/tape...An estate sale charges 35-40%, and there is no returns, no associated shipping costs (packing/boxes). It is no longer profitable for us to use eBay. (unless we find a real nice item cheaply). We have sold many items by ending and relisting at same price, sell fast if eBay show it...