Do I have to bite the bullet to get sales to increase?

[kathys_impressions]

I'm not on the forums very much, so I wanted to get your valued opinions. I've been a seller on eBay for 23 years. My sales have been declining in the last year especially. I read someone say that you have to be modifying or adding listings frequently or your store won't get "indexed" by Google. I also read someone said listings older than 9 months should be ended and restarted with "Sell Similar".  So I've been doing that on some older listings for the past 2 months. But it hasn't helped one bit!!! Because of the extreme drop in sales, I'm no longer TRS due to less than 100 transactions in a year. So that doesn't help my listings visibility.  My question is:  I have quite a few listings that are very old (6-11 years!). But they have an extreme amount of watchers. Should I just bite the bullet and end them and restart, and lose all those watchers?  Or will it hurt my overall shop stats?  Ugh!!  

[jg.mason]

This past week I went through about 100 old listings. The main reason was I still had them listed with Priority Mail and I wanted to change them all to Ground Advantage but I also wanted to refresh them using sell similar.

Some had watchers and recent views but weren't selling.

So far I've sold one item I changed but it's still early. I do see them getting views so I do think it helped.

[hartungcards]

If someone has been watching your item for 6-11 years I think you can safely assume they're not going to buy it.

[chapeau-noir]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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My question is:  I have quite a few listings that are very old (6-11 years!). But they have an extreme amount of watchers. Should I just bite the bullet and end them and restart

You just said you have been doing that to other listings and "it hasn't helped one bit". 

and lose all those watchers

A watcher is someone who viewed your listing and decided not to buy it.  

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Not necessarily.

[luckythewinner]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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My question is:  I have quite a few listings that are very old (6-11 years!). But they have an extreme amount of watchers. Should I just bite the bullet and end them and restart

You just said you have been doing that to other listings and "it hasn't helped one bit". 

and lose all those watchers

A watcher is someone who viewed your listing and decided not to buy it.  

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Not necessarily.

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I suppose they could have bought it and then continued to watch it afterward. 

[theteamsetguy]

@hartungcards ,

Better be careful about assuming things.

[inhawaii]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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My question is:  I have quite a few listings that are very old (6-11 years!). But they have an extreme amount of watchers. Should I just bite the bullet and end them and restart

You just said you have been doing that to other listings and "it hasn't helped one bit". 

and lose all those watchers

A watcher is someone who viewed your listing and decided not to buy it.  

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Not necessarily.

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I suppose they could have bought it and then continued to watch it afterward. 

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Optimists will say ... they are still THINKING about buying it after 11 years.   😉

[chapeau-noir]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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My question is:  I have quite a few listings that are very old (6-11 years!). But they have an extreme amount of watchers. Should I just bite the bullet and end them and restart

You just said you have been doing that to other listings and "it hasn't helped one bit". 

and lose all those watchers

A watcher is someone who viewed your listing and decided not to buy it.  

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Not necessarily.

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I suppose they could have bought it and then continued to watch it afterward. 

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They watch it and buy it a little later after they decide. 😉

[mam98031]

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@baantiques wrote:

watchers aren't sales

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They might be if you send them an offer.

[mam98031]

I refresh my listings every month or so.  I don't do all that work that some sellers do.  I simply use the Bulk Editor and change my handling time from 1 day to 2 days.  Then a month or so later I change it from 2 days to 1 day.  All those listings have to re-index and it is a pretty simple process that literally only takes a couple minutes.

[apkdone-45]

Whether you're an experienced eBay seller or launching your first listing, it's essential to know which service metrics you need to monitor to stay competitive. Fortunately, eBay makes it easy to review sales reports for individual listings as well as your overall performance through the Seller Hub. On the eBay Seller Hub, you'll find a wealth of data from your seller level, sales, traffic, and more in digestible charts and graphs.

[mam98031]

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@apkdone-45 wrote:

Whether you're an experienced eBay seller or launching your first listing, it's essential to know which service metrics you need to monitor to stay competitive. Fortunately, eBay makes it easy to review sales reports for individual listings as well as your overall performance through the Seller Hub. On the eBay Seller Hub, you'll find a wealth of data from your seller level, sales, traffic, and more in digestible charts and graphs.

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@apkdone-45 

All very good advice.  I would add that learning what Ebay calls specific things is important so you and others don't get too confused.  I bring that up because the Service Metrics is a real thing.  It is separate from the Seller Dashboard.  The Service Metrics in another way in which they measure sellers on performance and it is a policy that is important to understand.  You can monitor it on the Seller Hub too.

[fbusoni]

@kathys_impressions 

Not sure if this has already been mentioned, but the other thing you can do, which I have found helpful, is to have a sale.  

Unlike offers, which are now good for 96 hours, you can have a sale -- lasting hours or days.  

PS: I have written about "indexing."  Just to clarify:  eBay likes fresh listings and it is my understanding that eBay will give a buyer who adds new listings on a regular basis greater prominence, for the simple reason that such a buyer is doing eBay a huge favor by broadening the scope of what is available on the site... which ultimately means more opportunity for revenue for eBay.

Google does not "index" your store... Google does, however, pick up listings that eBay itself promotes.  And in my experience over many years, offering same day / 24 hour shipping and 30/60 day paid returns is a guaranteed way of getting eBay to promote one's listings, without the need to throw money away on so-called "promoted listings" and other gimmicks that eBay knows appeal to sellers desperate to move their items.    regards

[meme6253]

If you are not getting great sales, where is the money suppose to come from to acquire more inventory?

[colettescorner]

Yes! Send offers. Remember some people do not frequently check their watch list so it it saved and forgotten basically. Sending offers refreshes their memories and it also puts it out to new watchers. So it is like saying "Hey look at me!!". Be prepared not to get a taker but it does seem to reboot your listing and give it life. Otherwise, look at your pricing and play with that. Sometimes a small drop gets action. Whatever you do don't list and hope for sales. Continue to work the listing. 

[az93]

Try lowering prices. Ending the listing takes you back to zero watchers, but it's an option many sellers choose.