eBay

georgia_peach_boutique · ‎05-26-2019

Friends,

I agree about low sales!! I have several friends who have mentioned this to me.

I have tried to step back and look at the bigger picture at eBay and this is what I have come with.

Anybody that has a store will remember when promoted listed into affect this past year. This was a way of boosting sales and moving items up the LISTING LADDER for greater amount of views. This feature not only gained greater views but also allowed eBay to dip there finger into your profits. I believe this was the starting of the bigger picture. Now that we are no long able to control our inventory listing time it has become more of a challenge to review our sales and items at the end of any given 30 day cycle. We as sellers were able to review our adds update & do changes and even decide if we wanted to continue on with the listing of the item. No we are forced to to let our item s run to the bottom of the listing items or pursue the Promoted listing to gain more visibility and allow eBay to dip into the profit of our sales.

If we have a decrease in out sales eBay is having a decrease in there wallet also..

Maybe they need to review and go back and restore what was working and not worry about what everyone else in the market is doing....

They need to be BOLD AND INVENTIVE NOT COWARD TO WHAT THE OTHERS IN THE MARKET IS DOING.

SET THEMSELVES APART AND MOVE FORWARD TO HELP THERE SELLERS NOT DISCOURAGE US!!!

If this post does not post I am getting a Authentication failed error from eBay. Also a Authentication Ticket Mismatched, failed authen

equid0x · ‎05-28-2019

@3eyedfishcatcher wrote:
2 more just sold that have sat static for over a year. So far about 1 /4 of my sales have been through promoting nit only does it give a boost in sales the items that do not sell through it I get the extra money that I raised the price to cover the ad fees if the item sells through promoted listings.

Interesting... I'm on my 11th promoted listing campaign and so far I've only sold about 2 items via promoted listings. This may be something that works better for certain categories than others.

equid0x · ‎05-28-2019

@echo_and_zip wrote:
The Economy... is NOT "great" for 80% of us... We struggle w/ wages or sales profits that DO NOT keep pace w/ rising costs... Property Taxes, Utilities, Fuel... And now, FOOD... The Immigration & Trade War DEBACLE mean less WORKERS to pick... Rising COSTS for FARMERS who LOST many markets, like SoyBeans... OUR TAXES did NOT 'decrease'... MANY of us got a lower tax takeout last year, a few dollars a day... Meaning NO TAX REFUNDS... In states where Property Taxes are high... WE lost TAX DEDUCTIONS... As is always with Rich People running stuff... We were LIED to... Online Sellers... CANNOT 'pass on to Buyers'... INCREASED FEES... INCREASED POSTAGE... LOSS to RETURNS... THE BUYERS don't WANT... can't... SUBSIDIZE GREED... It's NOT YOU... eBay... Sure... Made In China flooding site... Manipulated / Ineffective Search & Hidden Items... BURIED below "more items similar"... Then... IF and WHEN your Buyer FINDS you... They DO NOT want to pay WT/DIM on Postage... eBay is no longer AFFORDABLE for many Buyers... It won't get better until the TAX LAWS are changed so the MONEY isn't all SHOVELED UP to the top 20%... or, hidden off shore... Until the USPS is SUBSIDIZED to HELP our trading... LIKE CHINA... This Admin is getting rich... OFF US... We need to be thrifty... Ride it out... More & more are seeing the Truth... Hang in there !

I looked up a large portion of my listings the other day and found a few that I "couldn't find" in search. I found that the eBay search engine limiting by category was producing that result. Currently, the search is only showing items from the "best match" category and the buyer would need to manually select a different category to find the item in the listings.

I also found some weirdness with the catalog listings. Some items don't show up in the catalog listings, ie - showing only new and refurb but mine is listed used. If you scroll down and look at the used listings, they are there and there were several other sellers, but these were not showing on the catalog listing as one of the condition options - no idea why. My listings do have the proper UPC/whatever to match the catalog(as do others).

equid0x · ‎05-28-2019

@lottadogs wrote:
@fern*wood wrote:
@lottadogs wrote:
@myjunqueyourtreasure wrote:
@georgia_peach_boutique

No-one is forcing you to "let them run". You can still end your listings at any time you wish.
I ended one today. Now I have a DEFECT for ending an auction early! I see no way to end these auctions and come out even let alone ahead. NORMALLY I'd just wait until the auction ended in 30 days then put anything not gaining interest in the flea market pile and list new stuff. Now I can't do that.
I'm also soon to lose my top seller status as NOTHING IS SELLING!
At the very LEAST the good until cancelled auctions we are forced to use should not create a defect for being ended.
My whole point in being on eBay is to sell stuff. If nothing is selling what is the point for me or for eBay?
I don't understand your post. You have auctions running good til cancelled or are you talking about fixed price listings? Did you end it because you were out of free listings? What defect did you get? The only defects I'm aware of are for out of stock cancellations or an unresolved by seller case.
@lottadogs
Fixed price listings. If you cancel them you get a defect or at least I did on today's cancellation.
As nothing is selling for me I typically remove those listings and put up others. No problem back when listings timed out - BIG problem IMO if you cancel one when its never-ending and get a defect for doing so.

Where are you seeing the defect for cancelling an unsold listing?

equid0x · ‎05-28-2019

@saleencobra wrote:
@nonnaattic wrote:
Of course we can cancel it but we have to remember to do it before it automatically relists and waste one of the 50 free insertions. Everyone apparently has decreased sales so that speaks volumes. Ebay has never been on "our" side and this is further proof they don't care about sellers..

Theres no point to take pictures, write detailed descriptions and the whole 9 yards just to never sell.

I see these 'my sales are lagging' posts all the time. I was there. doing my $700 per month, barely making money after paying my store subscription. Wondering why bother....oh right all these things I bought i want to sell.

Should you keep your store? Well there's a calculator that tells you where the break point is and I can tell you, and I knew it, its more than $700 per month in sales to profit from a 1% discount in FVFs. There's nothing wrong with NOT having or needing a store.

I no longer have to worry about my store fee as my sales have increased nearly 10x. Yes. 10 times. You need to stop reading the boards and commiserating and start looking deeper at your listings and those selling better. There ARE usually reasons. I didn't say good, just reasons that ebay thinks are good.

Maybe 2 pictures is all your item needs, but the guy with 6 will rank better. Maybe your description is COMPLETE and EXCELLENT, but the one with Item SPECIFICS ranks higher. And the more they sell, the worse you rank. Yes, successful listings make for better ranking. You'll notice how successful they are. No its no HIGHER prices get precedent, ebay is worried about the competition so they want to be CHEAPEST, but they also want 1 day handling (or better) they want delivery on time, they want you to accept '30 day' returns and they want your returns or item not received requests to be under 0.5%. If its not worth it to do these things, its not worth selling on ebay.

I learned after being mad for a couple of years since i didn't want to waste my time with item specifics when all was included in the description. Its sad to see so many listings with literally no description, but ebay values pictures and item specifics over description. Give them what they want or stop selling on ebay.

And its easy to look and see how ebays sales are. They will always climb. Sorry you won't be missed, there is ALWAYS someone new to fill the gaps, though there are rarely gaps anyway.

You should also consider selling more than one type of item. All items rise and fall in sales by month, season, etc. Find new avenues. Don't look for drop shipping like the other thousands of get rich quick wannabees. Look around. Maybe there's a local business with a unique product you could bring to ebay. You make sales with your experience and help them grow also.

Hmmm... I do have to say that the need to add all of these item specifics is likely to appease Google. Google requires that info for items to show up in shopping properly. That said, its an eBay "self created" problem because the platform had no issue selling items for many years before any of these item specifics were "required" for "good placement."

I understand why eBay wants this info to get better placement on shopping feeds and ultimately, make more money, but I don't really see why they need to require them for better placement on their own search engine, although I do agree that this seems to be the case.

One huge issue here is that when you are selling used or vintage, you may not have, know, or have any reasonable way to look up a GTIN(UPC) for an item to match the catalog and even worse, some of the items may not even have one. Do those sellers deserve to be downgraded in the search results through no fault of their own? Something to think about, anyways.

I can totally see requiring this for new product in this day in age but part of the problem here seems to be that eBay wants to foist such changes to all listings across the board even where such data is not even available or easily obtainable.

eBay could help this situation by offering a UPC lookup tool of some sort....

equid0x · ‎05-28-2019

@lottadogs wrote:
@fern*wood wrote:
Where on your dashboard does it show a defect and what is it for? There is no defect for ending a GTC listing. Sometimes when I end an individual listing I am prompted to pick a reason, but it is not a defect. When I do them in bulk I don't have to pick a reason but neither way causes a defect.

Defects are only for out of stock cancellations or an unresolved by seller case. Is your defect under one of those?
Yes my item is no longer available to sell on eBay so in their terms it is out of stock because its in a flea market bin instead.
I do not understand why there is so much controversy over my stating I got a defect for ending a listing. Its not like I have nothing better to do than lie to people I don't know about something that you appear to believe never happened.
I saw no other way to end the listing than to say out of stock. Is there one that says I'm sick and tired of eBay ignoring my items so am ending the listing? Am I supposed to pick something that doesn't match the reason its ending? Is there some secret reason that doesn't trigger a defect?
I sell individual unique items not 'stock'. I do not have a store as its not worth it for me to even consider having one.
And where does the defect show? Why under transaction defect rate and where else would it show?

I've definitely cancelled listings and I am not seeing anything under transaction defect rate for these. There has to be something else at play here. Was there already an offer on your item or something?

equid0x · ‎05-28-2019

@lottadogs wrote:
@fern*wood wrote:
@lottadogs wrote:
@fern*wood wrote:
Where on your dashboard does it show a defect and what is it for?   There is no defect for ending a GTC listing. Sometimes when I end an individual listing I am prompted to pick a reason, but it is not a defect.   When I do them in bulk I don't have to pick a reason but neither way causes a defect.

Defects are only for out of stock cancellations or an unresolved by seller case. Is your defect under one of those?
Yes my item is no longer available to sell on eBay so in their terms it is out of stock because its in a flea market bin instead.
I do not understand why there is so much controversy over my stating I got a defect for ending a listing. Its not like I have nothing better to do than lie to people I don't know about something that you appear to believe never happened.
I saw no other way to end the listing than to say out of stock. Is there one that says I'm sick and tired of eBay ignoring my items so am ending the listing? Am I supposed to pick something that doesn't match the reason its ending? Is there some secret reason that doesn't trigger a defect?
I sell individual unique items not 'stock'. I do not have a store as its not worth it for me to even consider having one.
And where does the defect show? Why under transaction defect rate and where else would it show?

Since you are not a new seller, I'm sure you realize the only way to get an out of stock defect is if you cancel a transaction after a buyer purchases because you no longer have the item.

I also answered earlier that you can pick several items (bulk) at once to end without picking a reason, but as explained, neither way is a defect since the item hadn't sold.   If there were, then every time someone ended an item there would be a defect, and this isn't the case.   I'm not saying you don't have a defect showing on your dashboard. I'm just saying it isn't for the reason of ending a listing that didn't sell.   You don't have to believe me, you can ask an ebay rep.
Well then I've discovered a new way I guess. The item was not sold. It didn't even have any looks which is why I ended it. I used the drop down next to the item in my list of items to end the buy it now listing. I marked it as out of stock as it was going out of my eBay 'stock'. Poof a defect for that exact transaction appeared.
The defect is for that out of stock cancellation of the listing and NOTHING else.
Saying it doesn't work that way for you doesn't change how it worked for me and I still have no idea why no one else sees a defect for following the eBay procedure or if there is a way to change the procedure I used so it won't cause one.