Analytics

Question

Hello eBay community. Recently my analytics have taken a hit I could only assume was due to orders I had to cancel because I ran out of stock. I had to cancel 19 orders out of around 300. That’s not good on me and I acknowledge that I need to make sure my stock is up to date. However, at least 5 or 6 cancellations were because a buyer place a large order on some very high value items and I felt that they were be a hassle and the items I sell people on here have returned the product with parts mi...

dhbookds · Accepted Answer

@864chris27 I'm unclear about some things....... Have you looked at the seller dashboard?Are you rated Below standard? If so, that's the reason your traffic is down....... Below standard sellers are punished by a larger FF and lower ranking for search. The only way to dig out of it is to increase the number of sales with no problems. It's a math thing, so I won't try to explain how many you may need to sell, but you should be able to figure it out from the dashboard. The usual attempts involve s...

luckythewinner · Answer

I had to cancel 19 orders out of around 300. That’s not good on me and I acknowledge that I need to make sure my stock is up to date.

Unless you lied about the reason for the cancellations, this will put you below standard at your next evaluation and you will be subjected to a substantial penalty fee percentage. And likely suspended soon afterward.

However, at least 5 or 6 cancellations were because a buyer place a large order on some very high value items and I felt that they were be a hassle

eBay does not support a seller picking and choosing who they sell to based on "feelings". When you offer an item, you are agreeing to sell the item to any buyer who can purchase it.

I am genuinely looking for any advice

19 out of 300 is a 6.3% cancellation rate. To avoid below standard and a substantial penalty fee rate, you cannot exceed 2% at your next evaluation.

gurlcat · Answer

@864chris27 Harsh as you may feel some of the replies were, the smartest eBay task you did today was post about your issue here. Trying to get help from the eBay agents is hit or miss; sometimes they give wrong information because they're not even real eBAy employees but just barely-trained phone jockeys, or they wrap bad answers up with pretty bows ..... whereas we will always give it to you straight, just the truth, no bows.

meme6253 · Answer

You are on a path to become permanently suspended, Out of Stock & cancelling orders can severely affect your account, & You are not even cancelling for legitimate reasons, We can all assume that a customer might be a hassle, but we have to ship to them if they buy it & deal with that problem if & when it happens!, Good Luck to you.

tobaccocardyahoo · Answer

The long period of time which it will take for the cancellations you made to drop off mean that you are going to feel the effects for up to 13 months.

A course of action should include every thing you can think of to avoid cancelling even one additional order, and offering your merchandise on one or more additional venues.

There is no reason to chastise you any further.

reallynicestamps · Answer

Good on you for taking responsibility for the inventory shortfalls. Have you reviewed your storage and identification systems to prevent this happening in future?
I rarely have multiples, but when I do my system is to list fewer than I believe I have. So if I have 10 packets of 37c stamps (discount postage) I will list eight. When eBay tells me I have sold eight, I still have two available.

However, at least 5 or 6 cancellations were because a buyer place a large order on some very high value items and I felt that they were be a hassle and the items I sell people on here have returned the product with parts missing rendering the item unsaleable.

To put it another way "I listed some high value items which I am afraid to sell because I might get scammed."

For those your best bet is to find another market, a local one where you are paid in cash and sales are final.

Most retailers report that Failed Transactions make up less than one percent of all transactions. The numbers are higher online where there is mixture of poor description/poor understanding, as well as shipping/delivery problems and fraud by both buyers and sellers.

You are getting Defects for poor performance. Best wishes in pulling out of that hole.

broto_64 · Answer

So, to prevent buyers from purchasing "too many" of an expensive multi-quantity item you can actually set a limit as to how many a buyer can purchase at one time.

annadryl · Answer

You're selling items that are very risky in regards to returns. So many tiny pieces. But that's what you are offering.

There shouldn't be too many returns though. If it feels too risky you should consider selling something "safer".

mamacassidy · Answer

You need to immediately look at the policy on Seller Standards. You are probably very close to getting your account restricted because of cancellations. Seller standards policy | eBay

christworks · Answer

@864chris27 wrote:
Have any of you ever experienced this before?

Yes. People who do what you've done get to experience what you are going through.

I'm glad you acknowledge you've messed up. That's a step or two ahead of most in your shoes. As long as eBay has not permanatly banned you from selling, your situation is fixable. To be frank, if you have truly cancelled 19 orders out of 300 transactions and used the out of stock option (rather than placing blame on your buyers), I'm surprised eBay did not ban you from selling 15 cancellations ago. You've had recent sales, so you are extremely lucky that your main problem is lower traffic.

Listen, and please listen good: You cannot continue to cancel orders for being out of stock. Your luck will run out sooner rather than later, and you'll be done forever on eBay under your current account and any others you attempt to make. When eBay tells you that you are done, you are done. There is no coming back.

You have have 92 items listed. If I were you, I would end all my listings and do an inventory check. You need to be able to lay your hands on each item you have listed. You need to get organized. There is no excuse for not being able to find 19 items out of only 300 transactions except for being sloppy. That's not how you run a business or even sell casually.

Also, you cannot cancel orders simply because you are scared the buyers will return the items. If you are that worried, don't sell on eBay. Here is how I look at it: If I'm not good with completely losing an item and any money I make from it, I don't list it. Period. If I did not have that decision already made up prior to making a sale, then I'd be tossing and turning all night every time I ship out an order over $20. My blood pressure would be through the roof.

I disagree with you. You've not tried "everything" to get noticed by the eBay algorithm. (By the way, I'm not sure where you got your suggestions, so who knows if what you were told is even correct.) It is great that you accept returns. I'd change it to free returns. Your prices are what is killing you though. I randomly checked several of your lego sets. Some of them were above the market. Some were right at it. You need to be on the low end of the market so that you can generate sales. If you have a steady supply of lego sets, get them listed and sacrifice some margin. If you don't want to do that with your lego sets, then find something cheap that people want and sell it at a loss. You need to boost your sales so that you are not having to wait a year for those out of stocks to start falling off.

I am surprised you are not loaded down with negative feedbacks from buyers because of the orders you've cancelled.

albertabrightalberta · Answer

" I had to cancel 19 orders out of around 300. " This is a huge no-no in ebay's eyes! Although you agree you need to keep better tabs on inventory, you should have started doing that when the first and second OOS orders came in. How did you let it get to 19? " However, at least 5 or 6 cancellations were because a buyer place a large order on some very high value items and I felt that they were be a hassle and the items I sell people on here have returned the product with parts missing rendering the item unsaleable ." I'm not sure I understand what you did in this case. Did you cancel a buyer's large order because you "assumed" it would be a hassle? Aren't you here to sell? You're fortunate enough that someone placed a large order and you cancel??!?!? Why? You thought they might return some items?

ryry-jj · Answer

I'm surprised you haven't lost selling privileges with all the BBE you have provided. You don't rank very high. All those cancellations will hurt most anything you try...you need to get sales numbers up without further cancellations

jonathanbrightlight · Answer

Canceling orders is a quick way to not be able to sell at all. You need to not only get your inventory under control to avoid legitimate out of stock cancellations, but also get the idea out of your head that cancelling orders because you think the buyer will be a hassle is acceptable. If you list it and it sells, honor that sale.