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

[oldedale]

 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.

[thatsallfolks]

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@kevin*cedar wrote:

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

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This is the USA site. Look at the URL.

[msbicjev]

I want to add my name to your list of people who have had a significant drop in sales since the new promotion went on line. It doesn't matter if your a power seller, if you don't promote your auctions you aren't going to  get your items out to the public. I'm of the older generation and I'm not into all these new deals so maybe the only way out is to leave.  I hope they do something different soon.

This is the age of internet buying~does this promotion really do that much for EBAY's profit margin?

I hope, whatever the problem, EBAY resolves it soon.

[wigan_no._1]

Everyone on the Seller Hub in the UK can only see this version. They have removed the UK option and most of the Discussion Boards as well. Seems we are not wanted anymore! Seller Hub is the US version only. 

[wigan_no._1]

We know! We have no option to ANY boards now in the UK. This site is now TRASH!

[timzbiz]

Best Match placement is messed up and not working properly. It may have something to do with Promoted Listing. Listings are not displaying properly in Best Match. Seller items seem to be bunched together and not evenly disbersed.

[book_bay_cds]

I couldn't find this. I only saw HTML editor in the listing page, which had no options. Hm.

[mod-designs4u]

Are you speaking of a reduction now or since Ebay decided to try to compete with Amazon? I sell one-of-a-kind vintage pieces and there is little traffic on my stuff. I could imagine sellers who have much competition on their items have it worse. The major blow-it for Ebay management was when they decided to offer free listings to everyone. Now, every Tom, Dick and Harry has a plethora of the same items on Ebay because the listings are free and many newbie and downright foolish sellers flood the marketplace with the same items. This phenomenon has created a huge surplus of the same items and through the theory of supply and demand the items either don't sell of sell for very little. The lack of buyers is due to the "loss of novelty" on many items since buyers see many of the same things when searching and there's no "urgency" to buy anything. If Ebay had any sense they would have kept Ebay as an auction site and done a spinoff company to compete with Amazon. Instead, they ruined a good thing (ask any veteran Ebay seller such as myself) by taking a proven business model and making drastic changes for the worse. In the old days Ebay had plenty of BIDDERS to support a fun and viable marketplace for vintage items. A seller could list an item worth $100 for $1 and the bidders would establish the FMV price. Now, if you list the item for $1 it will most likely sell for a $1. I've seen some Ebay sellers sell things for $1 and how do they make any money? The reality is they don't but what the heck...the listing was free. I used to list about 50 items a week, gladly pay the listing fees, sell about half of my items in a 10 day/2 weekend auction (some sold at the starting bid and others sold for way more which balanced the seller's risk of investment) and made enough income equal to a part-time job. This happened because Ebay had plenty of bidders and buyers but that's not the case anymore. Also, Ebay used to have good marketing campaigns including television spots and "plugs" in the media and feature films. Now, I just list my free 50 items per month at the approximate FMV and put a Hail-Mary on them not expecting to sell anything which is what happens. When something actually does sell Ebay and myself make a little money. This way Ebay and their shareholders bear the brunt of the risk since they have created an online marketplace with very little customers. I don't see how Ebay can survive with sellers making very little money and I've never understood the relationship between Ebay's business strategies and their stock price on the exchange.      

[mod-designs4u]

I've noticed since I've sold a few things my ranking has gone up a little on my Fast 'n Free listings.  Being a Power Seller or paying extra for promotions doesn't do anything for ranking on Best Match.

[inthepastcollectibles]

mod-designs4u
Spot on and as a veteran of eBay (like yourself) there is no relief in sight for us. It's almost as if eBay lost it's little mind and forgot what made eBay great! To call eBay an "auction company" is a misnomer, because eBay acts in contrary to the principles of an auction house i.e.; to bring the highest price for items and to bring quality items to the auction. Auction houses use "reserves" to prevent things selling for less than appropriate (at bottom line). Using reserves on eBay is a great way to sell nothing, but I remember a time when there was actually a place for it. As a seller/buyer, I remind eBay if you mess with me as a seller, you will lose me as a buyer, but like the cheap Chinese goods eBay now sells to compete with Amazon.....everything/everyone is just a dime a dozen and replaceable without any real value.

[fastjag1]

You are one of thousands of small businesses being SQUEEZED by eBay with throttling. To see more and hear more about these issues and to see how often eBay's site is down with issues  go to  http://downdetector.com/status/ebay They show how often there are reports across the world about outages and where they are happening. When you go to eBay's announcement board there is NOTHING...EVER, posted about KNOWN issues and outages. Clearly a company that takes no responsibility for their actions and shows NO TRANSPARENCY when it comes to their site being down. Additionally it is ILLEGAL to throttle paying customers accounts. It is against eBay's own policies and it is unethical. The law offices of Morgan & Morgan will be in touch #forthepeople. #classactionSuit

   For the inevitable trollers that are paid by eBay to bash anyone who talks bad about eBay...I have sales reports to back up my claim, what do you have? My sales reports show EXACTLY when eBay began throttling and it occured and has been occuring for years!! It's just gotten worse in the past year!!

[thatsallfolks]

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@fastjag1 wrote:

You are one of thousands of small businesses being SQUEEZED by eBay with throttling. To see more and hear more about these issues and to see how often eBay's site is down with issues  go to  http://downdetector.com/status/ebay They show how often there are reports across the world about outages and where they are happening. When you go to eBay's announcement board there is NOTHING...EVER, posted about KNOWN issues and outages. Clearly a company that takes no responsibility for their actions and shows NO TRANSPARENCY when it comes to their site being down. Additionally it is ILLEGAL to throttle paying customers accounts. It is against eBay's own policies and it is unethical. The law offices of Morgan & Morgan will be in touch #forthepeople. #classactionSuit

   For the inevitable trollers that are paid by eBay to bash anyone who talks bad about eBay...I have sales reports to back up my claim, what do you have? My sales reports show EXACTLY when eBay began throttling and it occured and has been occuring for years!! It's just gotten worse in the past year!!

LOL

[frays-and-pearls]

With all the complaints one woukd think Ebay would attempt to resolve this problem 

[vam194169]

In the last 28 listings I have had 1 sale,no watchers as in zero,nada and very few views.I think Ebay has shot its self in the foot and did a heart shot on all sellers.

[usedgoodsforsale2021]

@oldedale In response to your question re:traffic dropping with promoted listings. I was invited to , and accepted , single item promotions in beta, I promoted one item and traffic dropped like a rock on that item and my store. Long story short, I was told by someone at ebay through the business page that the search engine saw it as a duplicate item and hid it. I'm not sure why it seemed to hide my other items but I am not an ebay SEO expert ( if there is such a thing 🙂 ). Just food for thought when looking at your traffic graphs drop.

[inthepastcollectibles]

One of the best articles I have read on "what's wrong with eBay".......

https://www.racked.com/2017/10/16/16473414/ebay-online-shopping-resale