Boosting sales

[bburgess42]

How can I boost my sells get my items out there more I know there are bigger stores than mine but I’m just a small fry ! Just me and my girl and my kittens and cats 🐈🐈‍⬛😻.I was selling a lot when I was promoting my listings ! But now I am not allowed to promo my listings anymore I got sick was in the hospital a couple weeks so I want able to complete 3 orders I refunded the people there money and explained to them I was hospitalized but they wanted there $12 dollar monsters inc. T- shirt I would gladly have sent for free if given the opportunity.Then there was an order for a $12 dollar brush .The girl left me a horrible review.I was in the hospital! With no iPad no phone to monitor my account I refunded everyone $$$money but it hasn’t been the same my sales are way down.Any advice would be nice thank you from the SpaceCoast of Florida.

[inhawaii]

---

@bburgess42 wrote:

How can I boost my sells get my items out there more I know there are bigger stores than mine but I’m just a small fry ! Just me and my girl and my kittens and cats 🐈🐈‍⬛😻.I was selling a lot when I was promoting my listings ! But now I am not allowed to promo my listings anymore I got sick was in the hospital a couple weeks so I want able to complete 3 orders I refunded the people there money and explained to them I was hospitalized but they wanted there $12 dollar monsters inc. T- shirt I would gladly have sent for free if given the opportunity.Then there was an order for a $12 dollar brush .The girl left me a horrible review.I was in the hospital! With no iPad no phone to monitor my account I refunded everyone $$$money but it hasn’t been the same my sales are way down.Any advice would be nice thank you from the SpaceCoast of Florida.

---

Refunding an unhappy buyer doesn't necessarily turn them into a happy buyer.

You need to make a emergency back up plan with a friend or family member who can take care of orders should you become incapacitated. 

In the last few months I was incapacitated/admitted to the hospital TWICE and both times managed to get out my orders.

[bburgess42]

Good idea thanks for the advice .Best of luck 

[ed8108]

I hope sales improve for you & your cats very soon.  I  have a cat that is  dependent on me

[christworks]

@bburgess42  I am assuming you have been downgraded to below standard. You are right - you need sales to get back up to standard. The good news is that is not impossible. The bad news is it will cost you a little money, and I'm not talking about advertising. 

Go to the bank and get 10 or 20 $2 bills. List each bill one at at time for $1.00. Do not list them as a multi-quantity listing as one person will buy them all that will only get you one positive feedback. When one sells, hit sell similar and put another one up there. This is a relatively inexpensive loss-leader that will generate you some sales and (hopefully) good feedback. 

If you don't want to do that, you can stick with the stuff you have listed. It will take longer and you will need to offer stuff at a deep discount so buyers are willing to take the risk buying from you. 

[gurlcat · Accepted solution]

@christworks  I'm at a loss for how to even begin this reply because I literally can't tell if your suggestion was a joke or sincere, and the 4 'Helpfuls' given make it even harder to tell (like do you 4 folks agree this is a viable suggestion or do you find it humorous snark?).  

 Matter of fact, I was about to list the ways it's problematic, but they're so glaring it makes me think I'd be wasting time being Captain Obvious, because it was indeed a joke. 

[chapeau-noir]

I think it's sincere, and it has been suggested as well by others, but wouldn't do it myself. My own suggestion would be to just start selling as much as you can, including mark-downs, and keep 💯 good practices. Just work their way out of it. 

[jbbowers12012]

This My Friend Is Genius.......

[reallynicestamps]

Because cats are unreliable as packers and shippers, you have to teach your "girl" how to at the worst, close all your listings * and at best how to check and fill orders. 

To repair your account, you need to start listing. List every day and list at least five items daily. 

Use Free Shipping-- but know that this means you are including your cost of shipping in the asking price. 

Accept Returns-- this makes the chances of Claims and Disputes go down, as well as increasing consumer confidence.

Some of this is counter-intuitive, but it works.

*They will go to Unsold for 60 days before disappearing.

[mamacassidy]

@gurlcat  I think they were being sincere. 

Someone else (Onefootflipper) posted on one of these boards recently : 

"Put all your real listings aside, and sell cheap stuff at a loss until you climb back out. 

I suggest buying a bulk stack of "holo" pokemon cards or of garbage pail kids cards and selling them 99 cent free ship (losing about 25 cents on each transaction) shipping them ebay standard envelope. Until you climb back out. 

Just taking a break from real sales and eating $50 that way will be cheaper than paying the penalty fees on a bunch of real sales for lord knows how long it might take."

I think the overall message is to just sell as many positive transactions as she can, even if it costs a little bit, to get the percentage out of 'below standard'. And to make that cost cheaper than the penalty fee that ebay will apply to her regular items.

[gurlcat]

Lots of cheap sales (like what you suggested) -YES.  The 2-dollar bill thing though, uh no.  

[pickapaper]

@bburgess42 

In your opening post here, you blamed a lot of your problems on the fact that you were in the hospital.   However, in looking at your feedbacks, it looks like more than that was involved:

1.  You sent a buyer a pair of shoes that were two different sizes but refused to refund.  

2.  You sent some makeup in the wrong color.  

3.  You sent a collectable Star Wars figure in a bubble envelope instead of a box and it arrived damaged.

Plus the ones that said you did not respond to them when messaged. 

I don't know how many of these buyers actually filed claims against you but it appears that some of them did not know about eBay's Money Back Guarantee and know that if they filed a "Not as Described" claim, they would have gotten a refund, either with or without the return of the item which would have been your choice of whether you wanted it back or not.    If you have a "Not as Described" claim filed against you, you do not have a choice whether you want to refund or not; you are required to, and it doesn't matter if you say "no returns" on your listings; eBay's MBG overrides a seller's policy.  

[gurlcat]

Okay I guess I will indeed need to explain how flawed the 2-dollar bill thing is. 

Firstly, the OP wouldn't even comp 50% of their investment (1 dollar back for every 2 invested), because of eBay fees, never mind SHIPPING of each bill to each buyer. The only way to make the sale enticing to buyers would be free shipping, so that would be an additional investment for the OP.   The very cheapest  would be with a 78-cent postage stamp, which (along with the FVF's) would eat up that one-dollar comp, plus a few cents. 

More importantly, stamp-mailed items would NOT contribute to their "Transactions with tracking uploaded on time and validated" -because there is NO tracking with postage stamps. 

Speaking of that, some of those buyers would likely file INR (honestly or not) and the OP would have no way to dispute them.  -$2 lost again, each time.  AND each INR would go against them in Service Metrics. 😆

So the alternative would be $4-5 for Ground Advantage.  That's an INSANE amount of money to spend for 1 measely positive feedback, and 1 measely percentage point toward Seller Performance. 

But okay, say you think it's worth it.  -How many buyers would be interested?  All they would profit is one dollar for spending, or one 2-dollar bill for their collection.  But even if that seemed worthwhile, would they be wiling to risk buying from a seller with 96.7% feedback, 8 neutrals and negatives, including comments like:



So for the minuscule reward of getting $2 for $1, the buyer is looking at a possible runaround AT BEST ... or something worse at worst (people's imaginations are limitless when it comes to scams, and you can't blame them really).  

But say a buyer still finds it all worthwhile and buys a $2 bill.  If the OP then quickly puts up another listing for it, the same buyer could see it and buy it, then (having noticed the pattern) do it over and over.  And however many times they did it within a 7-day period, there would be only one positive feedback point to gain.  So there goes that part of the scheme.  

[gloryglorygifts]

Do you have any type of social media accounts? If you do, put your listings on there with a link to purchase them. Get them in front of people that might be interested.

Definitely get a back up plan. I'm a frequent flyer at my local hospital and ALWAYS have a back up in case I get ill. It is a necessity for an ebay seller.

I hope that you are feeling better! Good luck to you.

[gurlcat]

Oh and I forgot another thing.  -If the buyer is a currency collector, they won't want just any randomly-selected 2-dollar bill; they will want to see the actual bill, for its condition and its serial number. So that would require new photos for each listing.