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Huge reduction in traffic to listings, huge reduction in sales. Is promoted listings causing this?

 I have a question regarding promoted listings. We see 40 results in a general search. If 10 are promoted listing. Does this mean 10 unpromoted items are not being seen. Is this the cause of our traffic decrease? We see traffic dropping from 6555 views in May - to 3195 in Sept. This also has resulted in a 50 percent decrease in sales. Same 2 months. Also, when did ebay start Promoted listings on all items including single qty listings?

Traffic = 6555 May - items sold = 83

Traffic = 4929 June - items sold = 62

Traffic = 4611 July - items sold = 64

Traffic = 4199 Aug. - items sold = 65

Traffic = 3195 Sept. - items sold = 46

We see over 50% less traffic which results in greater than 50% decrease in sales.

Message 1 of 191
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190 REPLIES 190

Re: Huge reduction in traffic to listings, huge reduction in sales. Is promoted listings causing thi

I have been selling on eBay for about 10 years, first for myself, and now for someone else. I used to to turn myself into a pretzel trying to figure out what causes these downturns and spent hours and days making changes in my listings to try to reverse the trends. It never really helped, and sometimes I would end up changing everything back. I don't do this anymore. My sales dropped tremendously coinciding with just about the time frame that supposedly the reporting data for promoted listings was incorrect. I don't know if it was just a reporting issue or not. May just have been a coincidence. My point being, all any of us can do is follow the updated guidelines we are given when eBay makes changes to this marketplace, just like any other marketplace, and do the best we can. 

Message 16 of 191
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Re: Huge reduction in traffic to listings, huge reduction in sales. Is promoted listings causing thi

My point was, you should see a decline EVERY year from disaster areas.  You may personally sell more to the ones that were hit this year but, thet would not contribute to everyone's downturn.  Think beyond your own box.

Message 17 of 191
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Re: Huge reduction in traffic to listings, huge reduction in sales. Is promoted listings causing thi

To be honest, unless you sell items specificly for those areas, it still makes little sense that it would give even just you that much of a decline from last year.  We had a couple major hurricanes last year (I live in an area that was hit) and major fires.  This nothing new.  I understand that your sales are lower in those areas, but you should have had a similar downturn last year.

 

I think you need to look at your numbers from last year and re-evaluate.

Message 18 of 191
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Re: Huge reduction in traffic to listings, huge reduction in sales. Is promoted listings causing thi

Ebay regulates sales now for sellers.  I can have 5000 items for sale or as high as 50,000 and my stores do the same money every month

 

Ebay is a lost cause for sellers

Message 19 of 191
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Re: Huge reduction in traffic to listings, huge reduction in sales. Is promoted listings causing thi

I used to do big numbers on ebay, things reallyt changed in 2011?  Whatever it was I have never had good sales again.

Message 20 of 191
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Re: Huge reduction in traffic to listings, huge reduction in sales. Is promoted listings causing thi

Something is severely wrong.  There have been major changes that we are unaware about.  My sales were through the roof and now im getting less than 10 views on my listings in a month when the average was over 200+. My printer was going off like crazy everyday all day and now it shuts off automatically after 5 hours and stays off until i eventually get a sale. The clerks at the post office are commenting where all of my pachages are!! I have made no changes to my store or prices, only added promotions to hopefully increase sales. That did not help at all.  I have actually dropped my prices but never made a difference because they are not getting views. Views mean everything! If something cant be seen, it cant be sold!If i list something for 2 dollars but gets no views, it cant be sold! So What is going on here??? Is there a resolution to this issue. Stores are barely surviving when they were once making a fortune.......??????

Message 21 of 191
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Re: Huge reduction in traffic to listings, huge reduction in sales. Is promoted listings causing thi

Something it seem not right I was doing pretty Good and it been a couple of days 

so slow not sales at all 

Message 22 of 191
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Re: Huge reduction in traffic to listings, huge reduction in sales. Is promoted listings causing thi

I wish we could get some answers from ebay on this matter.Any explanation would be nice at this point.Too many sellers doing poorly without a good reason.And during this time of poor sales, no promotions either.Have not had a listing promotion in a year now.

Message 23 of 191
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Re: Huge reduction in traffic to listings, huge reduction in sales. Is promoted listings causing thi

BIG FAT 0 SALES in the last two days!   This is awful! 😞 

Message 24 of 191
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Re: Huge reduction in traffic to listings, huge reduction in sales. Is promoted listings causing thi

People buy on here in spurts. It's been like that forever. It's a lull before all the holiday spending starts.

Message 25 of 191
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Re: Huge reduction in traffic to listings, huge reduction in sales. Is promoted listings causing thi

i dont know if you have gotten your items listed using the HTTPS? I did see if items contain http they will be blocked from viewing. I have went through mine did the HTTPS update. 

 

So you need to go into item description HTML tab click find and replace. Type in the find area  HTTP and in the replace area type HTTPS. 

 You can  do this in the bulk editor too.  Hope this helps

Message 26 of 191
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Re: Huge reduction in traffic to listings, huge reduction in sales. Is promoted listings causing thi


@oldedale wrote:

 I have a question regarding promoted listings. We see 40 results in a general search. If 10 are promoted listing. Does this mean 10 unpromoted items are not being seen. Is this the cause of our traffic decrease? We see traffic dropping from 6555 views in May - to 3195 in Sept. This also has resulted in a 50 percent decrease in sales. Same 2 months. Also, when did ebay start Promoted listings on all items including single qty listings?

Traffic = 6555 May - items sold = 83

Traffic = 4929 June - items sold = 62

Traffic = 4611 July - items sold = 64

Traffic = 4199 Aug. - items sold = 65

Traffic = 3195 Sept. - items sold = 46

We see over 50% less traffic which results in greater than 50% decrease in sales.


I can't see why it wouldn't affect traffic.  eBay puts big emphasis on promoted listings.  It's a larger revenue stream for eBay.  I even have a live person from eBay call me on the phone to offer me and encourage me to sign up for promoted listings!   When that happens, I can't help but to wonder why eBay would put so much effort to convience sellers to use promoted listings and the "reprecussions" for not using promoted listings.

 

I had been contacted a few times by live eBay representative (not initiated by me) to convience me to purchase an eBay store.  At that time, I was getting extra monthly free listings plus I was making sales... So I decided against opening up an eBay store.  Then after a couple of month, I stopped receiving additional free promotional listings.   Maybe it's a coincident, maybe not... you decide.

Message 27 of 191
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Re: Huge reduction in traffic to listings, huge reduction in sales. Is promoted listings causing thi

Spoiler
Same here! I'm in the same situation. I don't use promoted listings, I list the 50 then pay the .30 cents for over that. I'm getting 1-3 views per listing when it's normally 50-200 plus! This is what I noticed:

Ebay did change the layout for the listing page this month. I think around October 18th 2017 was the date. After that, practically no views for me! AND, I can't revise any listings. It will "revise" when I select that option & says "revise successful!" But then I view the revised listing and it didn't work!

I'm assuming this problem is happening because Ebay is doing maintance and changing layouts - since it happened the sametime. And I'm hoping maybe in another week or two, this resolves.
Message 28 of 191
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Re: Huge reduction in traffic to listings, huge reduction in sales. Is promoted listings causing thi

I am assuming by your comments that you are in the USA as you mention Hurricanes and wildfires

I am on the seller Hub in the UK and do not know why your comments are appearing on ebay UK never the less Sales on ebay UK have fallen since mid september acording to alot of  comments that I have read on the sellers board here in short October is terrible and after talking to customer service here they tell me everything is fine......I have a difference of opinion sales do not drop off suddenly as if someone turned off a light switch

Message 29 of 191
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Re: Huge reduction in traffic to listings, huge reduction in sales. Is promoted listings causing thi

I have also seen a decline in sales, and have been selling for six years.  Sometimes, I even wonder if I'm actually connected.  Recently had 3 sales with no payments.

I think there is competition out there with neighborhood groups, Etsy, etc.  It's been sloooow.  One complaint I have is that many of my "Buy it Now or Best Offer" listings don't have the best offers listed.  I am constantly going back to check, finding so many blanks where best offers should be.  Has this happened to you?

Message 30 of 191
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