Ebay randomly showing seller's listings to different areas of USA.
As an owner of 2 Ebay stores this process irritates me greatly. Store owners pay fees regular sellers don't. There is no way that a seller would know that Ebay does this when they agree to Ebay's rules. When I began selling over 25 years ago this did not occur. Ebay just decides what to do without informing the sellers. After being loyal to Ebay for so long I feel cheated and stabbed in the back.
35 comments
siamjane8
·2 years agoThe problem with the rolling visibility is that when your item comes up in a search in PA but is not being shown everywhere else- you are relying on the buyer in PA being ready to purchase at that moment. If they are not then you get no sale. Perhaps there were 6 buyers in other states that were ready to purchase but were NOT shown your item- so a sales opportunity was lost and a potential customer went unsatisfied.
Granted, if you are selling i-phone cases or widgets or other high volume selling consumables, you will probably not see a difference.....BUT if you have antique, vintage, used goods and long tail items- your items need to be available for view in search at all times to all locations to effectively be connected with a buyer at any moment in time. That is where the frustration comes from for both buyers and sellers. AI does not work with unique items- they must be shown to all if they search for those keywords
isaiah53-57
·2 years agoThis was an improbable issue for us also - Living on the east coast and having a statistically improbable/impossible percentage of our sales going west of the Mississippi - Given that near 60% of the US population lives east of the Mississippi, given we are situated just hours away from one of the most populous regions in the country, given people on the west coast would need to pay 2x to 4x or more in shipping than those in our region, and given that we live in a state that has no sales tax, yet HARDLY EVER got sales from our own state...
We wholeheartedly believe it was underhanded tactics designed to artificially drive up the cost of the entire transaction in order to increase the fees retained - To make things worse, in our eyes, it couldn't have been more blatant and obvious... kind of like, oh sellers are stupid... they'll never even notice...
luckythewinner
·2 years agoThis does not happen to me. My sales are spread all over the country, and the four most common states I sell to are - unsurprisingly - the four most populous states.
But there is another conspiracy theory that eBay only throttles traffic for sellers who publicly criticize eBay on this board 😄
luckythewinner
·2 years agoPeople have been accusing eBay of "rolling blackouts" for 20 years.
eBay makes money when items sell, so it makes no sense for them to do this. But over the years people have blamed it on ...
Many sellers tend to blame eBay for their lack of success on eBay instead of blaming themselves for their lack of success on eBay.
siamjane8
·2 years ago@luckythewinner
Thanks for the list lucky- it really represents some of the major issues sellers have been dealing with over the years as ebay has changed. Hopefully this will help ebay management get the larger picture and effectively make design and policy change that will improve the platform again and encourage more GMV and sales in general. As these decisions are made by people that do not actually use the site- lists like this showing the challenges of eBay's customers/sellers are very valuable I'm sure.
luckythewinner
·2 years agoJust to be clear - my list was a tongue-in-cheek list of all the conspiracy theories that I do not believe and that I have seen no evidence of in my 20+ years here.
bchural-0
·2 years agothank you so much for clarification
Unavailable member
·2 years agoI don’t believe that eBay does this, but let’s pretend that you are correct. Do the math. If eBay is hiding your listings from certain parts of the country, and showing it in others, then they are doing that to nearly every seller. That means that where your item is being shown, there is less competition from the sellers that are being hidden. Really, that should mean no difference in sales.
The more likely reason for soft sales is supply and demand. If people don’t want what you are selling, at the price that you are charging, then your sales will suffer. It is as simple as that.
pcobra93
·2 years agoRead the post of janet9988 above .....its shown in Ebay's own words. There is more to the visibility algorithm for sure than just number of items listed and Ebay will not share that with us but the rolling visibility is definitley part of it. I happen to think the issues we are all seeing is the programming has become so cumbersome and patched together with 30 years of old code that they cannot control it anymore. They make one small change and it ripples through the whole thing.....and they seen to do VERY LITTLE BETA TESTING anymore....
Unavailable member
·2 years agoAgain, let’s pretend that eBay is hiding listings based on geography of the buyer. How would that hurt the average seller? If all are being hidden to the same basic degree, and eBay is doing it on saturated items, what is the math to explain how any seller is being disadvantaged (overall)? Sure, if eBay hides listings for me in Ohio but but hides my competitors in Pennsylvania, we are even, right?
a_c_green
·2 years agoI am trying to see what advantage this would give to eBay (since, you know, eBay is most interested in things that benefit eBay).
I have a more-or-less fixed set of searches that I run one or more times a day in order to spot any newly-listed bargains to pounce on. If this rolling-blackout strategy (or whatever you want to call it) was in effect for the items I search for (which typically return anywhere up to 1000+ hits in each search result set), I should see entries disappearing and then reappearing some days later (or whatever time interval you want to choose), and TBH I simply don't see anything like that.
siamjane8
·2 years agoOn high selling volume new goods- it probably does not matter much....... but on used unique items- exposure to everyone searching for your item is crucial! Small differences in condition or price make a difference. Many vintage car parts are bought just because of the date code inscribed in them as people restore date matching cars/trucks. Ebay's "one size all" approach to search that is catered to new trinkets and bar coded items is horrible for unique vintage items. When there may only be 10-15 of what you are looking for on ebay but ebay search only shows 2 or worse yet none- its a big sales killer and customer disappointer.
Nothing is perfect but you cant deny that when the search was less cluttered with all this AI and promoted listings...sales were better and ebay was growing instead of shrinking. I understand that there are other factors BUT people cant buy what they cant find and when your search does not give relevant results...we all suffer.
pcobra93
·2 years ago‎04-28-2024 05:34 PM
Again, let’s pretend that eBay is hiding listings based on geography of the buyer. No need to pretend, they are doing it ...in their own words and what we have all observed. How would that hurt the average seller? If your items cannot be seen, then you cannot sell. If all are being hidden to the same basic degree, and eBay is doing it on saturated items, what is the math to explain how any seller is being disadvantaged (overall)? Got no idea on the math as Ebay wont disclose the algorithm so I would just be guessing....however, I don't believe it is on just "saturated items". I believe it is doing it on most (if not all) items and that is where the real problem is. Sure, if eBay hides listings for me in Ohio but but hides my competitors in Pennsylvania, we are even, right? No...actually, you both lost.
mr_lincoln
·2 years agoHi @ryanrobyn
The venue, like others, covers that in the User Agreement as pointed out up thread. The internet sales "industry" is controlled by the venues because their main source of income is from fees (eBay, Etsy, Poshmark, Bonanza, Mercari, etc) ...
I can see where they would look at their vast assortment of listings on their site and systematically expose them to different regions of the country and world in an effort to see what sells best and where. While that approach may benefit the venue it may not benefit individual Sellers.
For myself I have seen a slow steady decline in sales for over 2 years and peg the start of that decline to early 2022 when PLA was fully launched, Views counting was changed and PLS "Suggested" ad rates doubled and tripled seemingly overnight. The venue has published that there are 1.7 BILLION listings worldwide. They have the numbers to do some pretty serious testing. For example, if one does not use the suggested ad rates on a PLS campaign their sales will not be very good (that's part of what I experienced).
So at the end of the day Sellers have to try and figure out if there is a way they can get their items moving without giving away the farm ... this is my 9th April selling and at present it ranks 7th place and has little chance of moving up the list with only 2 days remaining.
The sad part is, I REALLY like Selling on eBay but at the end of the day, the operative word is Selling ... I am patiently waiting for things to recover and get back on a growth curve ...
swenson8781
·2 years agoUnfortunately, eBay, like many other things, has just simply lost it's lustre. The younger generations have little interest in this site, and likely view it as tired, worn out, and not on trend. Don't get me wrong...I really love 'selling' on here also, and don't intend to stop anytime soon, but my sales have certainly dropped year over year also. I also sell clothing, so that doesn't help the matter either.
I think we stand a slim chance of revitalization as B&M stores seem to continue to carry less inventory overall, and some have ended up closing down, due to increased online sales as a whole. But I doubt we'll ever get back to the hey day of sales. The 2000's were pretty good IMO, as everyone started to have consistent internet access, and all online sites were still fresh & exciting. Guess we'll all just keep on keeping on!
mr_lincoln
·2 years ago@swenson8781
I think you have some valid points there on the younger generations. eBay may not be their choice for places to buy many things they use in their daily lives. The other important aspect of selling online is knowing who most of your Buyers are. For me I know who they are. Many are from the baby Boomer generation. Many are collectors still collecting BUT will be downsizing in the next 5-15 years or dying suddenly with their collections in place and ready for liquidation. I also have a group of Buyers who purchase things because their parents had them when they were younger and they want to have it for their kids, etc.
And here is the thing, the economy has little affect on a lot of those Buyers, otherwise, I would be wallowing in surplus inventory acquired at ridiculously low process ... that is not happening. Trying to obtain inventory for my categories at a decent price is harder today than it was before Covid. Prior to Covid I went to live auctions and the only competition was those who were there. Covid forced many auction companies to convert to online selling which opened up their Buyer base to around the country and some international buyers. Prior to Covid it was not uncommon to double and triple my profits on items whereas now I target a specific % and no when I have to stop bidding on something or else risk losing money on it reselling.
jerseyboymusic
·2 years ago@ryanrobyn
I'm sorry... you're talking but not really saying much. What do you mean? I don't understand
janet9988
·2 years agoYes there is as it is stated in the user agreement.
bennotbill
·2 years agoThis was often said on the UK forum. Some would laugh some would agree. With stuttering reduced sales I've sometimes noticed this myself.
Three or four days nothing then suddenly three sales to Edinburgh, nothing then a few sales to Birmingham, nothing then a couple to Shetland Isles.
As long as something was selling though who cares what part of the country is buying.
If I remember right I think a few asked who could see their items in the search. Some could and some couldn't, depending where they were. But we all know a lot of various daily differing search shenanigans goes on. Which is why I now Google first then eBay second.
ryanrobyn
OP2 years agoMany items are sold shortly after listing the item. When only a small segment sees this it means by the time most of the country sees the listing that it is already buried by 3 to 5 days of new listings. Sales are cut down.
bennotbill
·2 years agoAh the good old days. I remember them well. Putting up a couple of dozen items on a Friday and then transferring several hundred from PayPal to my bank on Tuesday.
reallynicestamps
·2 years agoStore subscribers get 1000+ listings for their $25 a month, as well as a slightly lower selling fee and a quarterly coupon for branded shipping supplies.
We also get promotional Free Listings. My Stores have for some months had over 10,000 available Free Listings, should I ever want them.
And we can organize our listings into our own categories, which I think of as the aisles in my Store.
I agree that visibility moves around.
My 'proof', such as it is, is based on the agreed fact that if we get sales, we get more visibility and thus more sales.
Recently another slowish Store has had a rush of sewing pattern sales, which have been in the doldrums since before Christmas.
And both in that Store and in this one, when I get a run of sales, they also tend to be in the same parts of the USA or even of the world.
Many years ago, I sold two stamps, two weeks apart, to two different cities in Liechtenstein. Never a sale there before, never one since. I believe the first sales led to visibility in Liechtenstein and another sale there.
Flimsy evidence, but memorable.
Normally about 80% of my sales on this account go to the USA, but this past month more than half have been to Canada (I am in Canada). Again, I believe that those Canadian sales from listings on dotCOM led to more visibility to Canadian buyers.
But as @yuzuha says. A sale is a sale. As long as I'm being seen where the people and the money are, I don't care how my listings rotate.
janet9988
·2 years agoHave you never read ebay policy????
https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/member-behaviour-policies/user-agreement?id=4259
If we believe you are violating this User Agreement or any of our policies, or abusing eBay and/or our Services in any way, we may, in our sole discretion and without limiting other remedies, limit, suspend, or terminate your user account(s) and access to our Services, delay or remove hosted content, remove any special status associated with your account(s), remove, not display, and/or demote listings, reduce or eliminate any discounts, and take technical and/or legal steps to prevent you from using our Services. We may offer a process allowing users to report claimed violations for us to consider and handle through one or more of these options, all in our sole discretion.
ten_o_nine
·2 years ago@ryanrobyn
Store owners pay fees regular sellers don't.
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True, store owners pay additional fees, these fees provide access to advanced features and tools that help you manage and grow your business.
inhawaii
·2 years agoAs an owner of 2 Ebay stores this process irritates me greatly.
What irritates you, some unproven theory that you have?
There is no way that a seller would know that Ebay does this when they agree to Ebay's rules.
I totally agree with you. There is no way for a seller to know that ebay does this.
When I began selling over 25 years ago this did not occur.
It still doesn't ... but that's just my theory.
After being loyal to Ebay for so long I feel cheated and stabbed in the back.
If you feel cheated and stabbed in the back, you do have options.
slippinjimmy
·2 years agoStore owners pay fees regular sellers don't.
I don't have a Store.....I pay plenty of eBay fees, what am I missing?
Ebay randomly showing seller's listings to different areas of USA
What evidence do you have that eBay only shows your listings to some buyers and that they only show them to buyers in different areas they decide on?
oaklandmaryland
·2 years agoyes we all pay fees but store owners pay to have a store while sellers are able to get 250 listings without paying extra fees .Ebay has been doing this for 15 years or so....I don't always agree with it either, however it does make some sense for a seller. With millions of sellers selling similar items how do you not have 100 pages of the same item where yours gets buried? The concept of rolling visibility allows more people to be near the top of the pages...but only for certain buyers. It rolls to different areas every few days from what I can determine. If you are selling items where there are few of them, this does not always apply and your items will be seen to all. It mostly happens in crowded markets but to my knowledge, Ebay has never revealed the entire process for the search algorithm.
buyselljack2016
·2 years agoPosted twice on the internet. It is now fact 🙂
anyway.............. seems that I have read that somewhere eBay states that not all listings may be viewable in all areas at all times. Seems I have seen it as a "copy & paste" more than once.
Happen, doesn't happen, how extensive? Dunno
pcobra93
·2 years agoThey have been doing this for 15 years or so....I don't always agree with it either, however it does make some sense for a seller. With millions of sellers selling similar items how do you not have 100 pages of the same item where yours gets buried? The concept of rolling visibility allows more people to be near the top of the pages...but only for certain buyers. It rolls to different areas every few days from what I can determine. If you are selling items where there are few of them, this does not always apply and your items will be seen to all. It mostly happens in crowded markets but to my knowledge, Ebay has never revealed the entire process for the search algorithm.
zobal99
·2 years agoSure! It makes sense. That accounts for the days you dont get business. Then they give you a sudden burst of business to keep the sellers still interested. And then it slows down again. The pattern is obvious.
lucia-erni
·2 years agoIt sounds.like.its time to go like so many of us .
a_c_green
·2 years agoHow did you determine that?
pcobra93
·2 years agoIf I recall correctly, Ebay admitted it....I think it was due to some court case possibly. That was several years ago and i thought everyone just knew and accepted it now. I will have to try doing some research to see where that came from. I think it is pretty obvious they do that though if you sell a lot here. One week I have 5-6 sales in the NE....the next 5-6 in Texas.....then California... you can see it rolling in your sales usually.
robbie31415
·2 years agoI'm confused. 🤔
yuzuha
·2 years agoSame. Does it really matter where a sale comes from? A sale is a sale. I don't care if I'm shipping to CA or MI or LA or Puerto Rico.