Drastic Sales Drop---What do you do when you know it's a technical issue?

[dustedofftheshelf]

I don't know what to do. I have 100% Feedback, no issues, yet I've gone from selling around 100 a week to 1!!

I'm not a huge seller (1350 listed) but I have been steadily increasing my listings, keep on top of everything and they tell me I just need a "refresh". I was told they would "monitor" for 5 days. It's not my sales, it a technical problem. I will probably have to move to another platform this coming week. This is my full time job. Has anyone found a method of contact to get a resolution? Spent all day on this. 3 Months ago, my impressions dropped to 0. They didn't know why. 

[sakic92710]

The "technical issues" are the many idiotic changes they have made to the site.  In the last 9 days, I have had 5 without a single sale.  On 2 of them, I had 1.  Best to try elsewhere if you see something positive going on.  This is how I make a living, too.  It will be a rough ride for many if they don't find other venues to make steady sales.  I saw a video that explained we should end several listings every day then relist as sell similar.  They say it works for them   Good luck to you & everyone.   🙂

[kabilab]

My sales in the last 2 1/2 weeks have fallen off the cliff. I just finished trying the sell similar method and will monitor its success or failure until Dec.

[kensgiftshop]

@dustedofftheshelf 

I think the biggest issue now, is people don't have to extra money to spend on things they don't need.

[bill.purvis2012 · Accepted solution]

Your items are beautiful, I went and looked. Priced okay.  A couple months ago my sales dropped really low. I was adding listings every day. Couldn't understand it.  Here's what I did.  My sales have never been higher. Yes, Ebay is getting more of my money, but I'm pricing my items accordingly.  First thing.  I did a bulk end item, sell similar on EVERY item.  Every one.  That way all my listings were "new".  I also promoted every single item  at 7%.  My sales took off. My profits are good.  You can check my sold on my store, Gemstone's Treasures.  Do it. You'll be glad you did.  Bill

[2011jleach31]

One thing I noticed is when the screwed with all the item specifics my selling home page only showed my recommended specifics ad made no mention that I was missing new required specifics so I had 800 listing missing required specifics because I had no idea they were missing and that affected my views and sales.  

[inhawaii]

I'm sorry, I missed the part how you KNOW It's a technical issue.

[duncanvr]

The first question I have is did you update your store front? I noticed you have no store banner and you really should have one along with added featured categories. Your shop front is out of date and needs to be updated as per recent ebay announcements. You only have shop by category and rely on buyers to click the category. Your store is not optimized I recommend getting it up to date urgently. Your not offering your buyers any form of discount which they expect these days. I recommend you use voucher coupon discount 10-15% off the code would appear at the top of your listings I've sold many this way. Are you at all running standard promoted listings? You need to be these days 1-2%. Next problem is you have no returns policy you should have 30 day returns buyer pays return shipping. Have you on another device not signed in as yourself tried to find your own items in the search results? Placement is important if your not on the 1st pages of best match results you may not be seen at all. How old are your oldest unsold listings? Have you tried to end a batch of them. Then bulk put them back up using sell similar? (Note make sure you have enough free listings left if you do that so you don't get charged). If you try all I mention your sales should come back oh and run a strike through sale as well. Let everyone know here if any of this helps you.

[katzrul15]

There are so many moving parts and for many Sellers, this is where we are.

We too hit a brick wall.

I have ended, revised, bulk edited, fixed categories, ended PLs, tweaked PLs.....

My head hurts.  We list daily.  If I had the silver bullet, would have used it and then shared as it is stressful and some days consuming.  We moved a ton to FBA that immediately sold.

Buyers are buying - just not on here like they were.

[ten_o_nine]

I think you're just going thru an "ebay down time", I've gone thru them so often, things will pick up soon and will average out, but surely understand the frustration and how tough it is to move to another platform.

[postingid7659]

Buyers can't buy what they can't see.  People can't see the listings, they can't find your items.  Search was bad before but it's ten times worse now.  

[femmefan1946]

How do your sales for October 2021 compare with October 2019 and 2018?

2020 was such an outlier with the pandemic surge in sales that we probably should ignore it, but look at that if you want.

It's been my experience that retail has a rhythm -- you can't sell a BBQ after Father's Day, collectors don't buy for their collections in December,  swimsuits sell better in April than in August.

So don't compare to last month... go for last year.

The "refresh"  customer service suggested is pretty vague. I agree with @duncanvr  that you should End all your listings (perhaps a few every day) and then relist them as Sell Similar, to make the bots think they are Newly Listed.

At the same time, actually look at the listings for creeping errors. Do you charge less to ship to Uzbekistan than you do to Florida? Are you using Surface shipping internationally? Are there spelling mistakes in your Titles (unintended ones).

I also agree about using Promoted Listings, the classic version where we choose the fee and only pay that if the Promoted item sells. I found my Views jumped with PL, but the sales were of other items. Apparently PL brings the eyeballs, but those eyeballs then shop the rest of your Store.

I disagree with Item Specifics having much to do with Buyer actions. They are not aimed at Buyers. I'm not even sure IS are part of Search and would appreciate any confirmation of that. They are aimed a SEOs (basically Google Searches) and people who are looking for items like yours, but not thinking of eBay as a source.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

I disagree with Item Specifics having much to do with Buyer actions. They are not aimed at Buyers. I'm not even sure IS are part of Search and would appreciate any confirmation of that. 

ebay has repeatedly stated that Item Specifics are used in ebay search. And most of the search filters (on the left side column) are based on Item Specifics. I'd guess title and IS are the two most important factors in search.

[duncanvr]

You only need the required item specifics which should only be 2 or 3 of them. I think the OP is lacking in store optimization. They probably are not taking advantage of all the features on seller hub. I did notice without looking to much at their store some titles were a little on the short side. So they do need to see where their items sit in best match and amend the titles, its no longer just enough to have key words. No returns policy would also be a big put off for buyers. I think the OP has a lot of good replies here with good info hopefully they will adopt some of the suggestions. I think you can't just list an item and let it sit forever anymore at some point you have to end it and use sell similar and fix errors.

[dustedofftheshelf]

Wow. I've never used this forum before and I appreciate all the advise. I'm sure it will make a difference! I'm not very technically savvy, but I will learn. Just a note----I know it has to be technical issue in part because I listed 2 items-- Tiffany & Co Plate & Coke Bottle Collection for a 1 week auction with no reserve. They have only been seen 3 times each after 6+days.  When I look for them, even with the exact listing as I posted, they are several pages down even though they apparently did the refresh. And their technical experts don't know, don't care, or have no expertise or authority to make changes.