Am I Open to All Potential Buyers All the Time?
I always wondered if everyone can see my items 24 / 7 or just sometimes...
I suppose I should promote again which I turned off...
My sales have gone down quite a bit after stopping promoting which I ended everything now.
I am never closed or on 'Time Away'.
9 comments
meme6253
·8 months agoI have often wondered the same thing, I wish there were a way of actually knowing.
12345jamesstamps
OP8 months agoI clicked on my store name on the right side of 'Seller Hub'.
This popped up by mistake I guess.
And I thought what the heck I clicked up 'sale items' which of course I never have any listed.
My beef on this is that it popped up when I usually always click on it...and noticed it.
And then it stopped popping up.
Nothing got changed for it to appear and disappear on my items for sale.
This has nothing to do with location(s) since it came up and disappeared magically...LOL
The strange thing is I might get a day with like 4 different countries who made a buy coming in at the same time frame on the same day...but countries have different time zones?...and get no domestic buyers or my 'repeat buyers' or the same time frame.
Auctions might be an idea instead of turning on promotions again.
I just don't want to end up becoming a stamp collector where this stuff is not moving out the door.
tobaccocardyahoo
·8 months ago@12345jamesstamps
Ebay actually gives us some numbers other than just our sales.
It helps if we can figure out what to do with them.
There are impressions, which I find to be the least important. They seem to be the same for my items over a week or a month, whether there are good days or bad days.
There are top 20 search placements, which on would think would matter, but never seem to matter in terms of my sales.
There are views, which go up and down, and may be affected by promotion. My best days have more external views than my worst days. That suggests that promotion on Ebay might help, but when I promoted, it made no difference.
It would really help if you knew how your buyers use the search. I believe my buyers use search terms that are narrow, and are not affected by promotion, search placement or other factors which help me stand out from the ton of similar but different listings.
And there is the conversion rate, the rate at which buyers who have viewed the item buy. My conversion rate remains constant and low. Which means that at least some of the viewers really never intended to my item or any similar item.
Lets face it, if an item is as common as dirt, price might make the sale but lowering the price could not improve matters. Promotion might get you more views but products which are common as dirt might not be priced high enough to be worth paying the promotion fee, even if they sell instantly.
If a product is rare and obscure, needs a buyer with enough money in their pocket to afford it. And many of the people who view it might not have the money, today or ever.
I have some buyers who spend a fixed amount each month on what they collect. They buy what they want the most with the money they have to spend. They are going to spend the money, and are smart enough to know what will give them the most pleasure.
This has been a strange year for my sales. Lots of stuff has sold in the past few months which has been listed for years. Maybe my competitors have given up or died. Maybe my prices seem more reasonable than they seemed before. Maybe my buyers are doing better than before.
The one single thing that I have done is added Ebay auctions back into my strategy. My auctions ending on Sunday nights have actually had some bids, including buyers who have bought multiple items, and I have fed related items to those which have sold each week. My auction buyers have also bought some related fixed price items.
I do believe the auctions have been driving some more traffic to my fixed price listings.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·8 months ago@12345jamesstamps
I think @eburtonlab is probably right about why you are seeing no listings. And as far as that "Sale" graphic, that has NOTHING to do with Promoted Listings. That has to do with "Promotions" such as discounts, coupons, etc. If you are not running a sale of some sort, that's the message the buyer will see. If you are running a sale of some sort, the Sale Tab will show the buyer the sale or sales you are running.
But again, to be clear, it has nothing to do with Promoted Listings.
eburtonlab
·8 months ago@12345jamesstamps
Make sure you have not inadvertently changed the location you use to calculate your shipping estimates to a country you do not ship to:
"Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, China, Colombia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Macedonia, Martinique, Morocco, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Niue, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Reunion, Romania, Russian Federation, Somalia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yemen"
stainlessenginecovers
·8 months agoI put 'german stamp' in a search, incognito using another computer that I've never searched that nor signed in on, in Nevada US.
There are 370,000 items returned.
Without Promotion, I have no idea how you would get to the 1st page
12345jamesstamps
OP8 months agoMe either...LOL.
I do use 'Germany' and not 'German'...and also 'Germany DDR'...the title does play an important role.
I can get to the first page for one day on 'new listings'...but that's only one day.
stainlessenginecovers
·8 months agowithout looking again, I'm sure the 370000 listings returned has German, Germany, Germany DDR etc. in the Titles.
biggymoe
·8 months agoNot sure if this is what you are referring to, but I see you have 4652 active listings.