EBAY SALES TANKED

[productbuyingsolutions]

I want to ask the ebay community for help.  We are a top rated seller, power seller, ebay store owner, and we used to use inkfrog as our lister for items to ebay.  About 4 weeks ago we stop using them and decided to spend money upgrading to frooition with a listing design template.  Since that switch our sales have gone straight down to nothing?  Is the market this slow on ebay or do I have something I am missing going on when changing listing designers?   Any help would be appreciated.  If you recommend a better company let me know. 

[hammy.n.peeps]

Ebay has come to a screeching halt for me.  Now with the forced Ebay managed payments, I am officially done with Ebay.  They will delete my listings on the 28th according to the email I got, as I refuse to let them report me to the IRS for sales.   It's not the lister you are using, many people have abandoned Ebay.   Now they are forcing sellers out, too.   Good luck!

[inhawaii]

Some sellers are up.  Some sellers are down. Some sellers are seeing no change. I'm in the third category.

Some say it have everything to do with the recent changes. Some say it has nothing to do with the recent changes.

Good luck and stay safe.

[kensgiftshop]

@productbuyingsolutions 

I think a lot of it has to do with people getting out now and not stuck at home all day.

People saving for vacations.

Prices are going up and people are buying just what they need.

[chapeau-noir]

When I look at current listings I see your banner, no description and then row after row of stuff from other sellers, recommended products, etc.  Basically, the listings I looked at were taken over by other people's products with nothing more than a banner marking your territory and no communication at all beyond that.   I didn't look at all of your listings, though.

When I looked at some of your older listings, I saw a smaller, less aggressive banner and a description, and only then the eBay clutter, which made your territory much clearer.  Is this change new with Frooition?  If I were shopping I'd be completely distracted by all this other stuff in your listing and would probably move on because I'd really not see what I was buying.  

Anyway, that's just what I'm seeing.  Usually various template tweaks don't make much difference, but this one really does.  You have items that should be coming into demand (travel, etc.).  I'm just thinking of how fast people flip through listings.

ETA: I see other current listings with the old banner and seemingly no description until I notice the scroll bar on the right, so maybe it's just my browser.

[go-bad-chicken]

@productbuyingsolutions 

So I checked one of your Listing's which is for:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/TRIJICON-RMRCC-6-5-MOA-BLK-Red-Dot-Sight-CC07-C-3100002-Micro-Reflex-/11482... 

TRIJICON RMRCC 6.5 MOA BLK Red Dot Sight CC07-C-3100002 Micro Reflex

Unfortunately for you eBay is displaying your competitor's listings (Sponsored Listings) for the same item right below the listing title. And their price's are anywhere from $20 to $42 less than yours. 

This might be what is hurting you especially if it is happening across all of your products.

 

 

[cantonchick]

Most people are paying uncle Sam , I can buy something after I do that ,maybe in a middle of June , right now I need to pay TAX , wish you a great summer time...

[fashunu4eeuh]

Ebay will block listings with active content. You mentioned you are using a new template. It could be you have downloaded active content into your listings from the third party service. Ebay has a tool to check for AC in your listings.  Good luck with your efforts. Hope you can rectify this situation soon. (Below is more info.)

https://pages.ebay.com/sell/itemdescription/bestpractices.html

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Replacing-Active-Content/How-to-find-and-cope-with-Active-Cont...

[nuclearomen]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

When I look at current listings I see your banner, no description and then row after row of stuff from other sellers, recommended products, etc.  Basically, the listings I looked at were taken over by other people's products with nothing more than a banner marking your territory and no communication at all beyond that.   I didn't look at all of your listings, though.

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This is why sellers should invest (some) inventory in promoted listings, that will give the second of those bars at the top two of promoted listings your inventory "Sponsored items from this seller" - if not to just show viewer other stuff you have. 

[nguy2476]

If you feel Ebay is still a good place for selling, keep continuing.

[go-bad-chicken]

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@nuclearomen wrote:

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

When I look at current listings I see your banner, no description and then row after row of stuff from other sellers, recommended products, etc.  Basically, the listings I looked at were taken over by other people's products with nothing more than a banner marking your territory and no communication at all beyond that.   I didn't look at all of your listings, though.

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This is why sellers should invest (some) inventory in promoted listings, that will give the second of those bars at the top two of promoted listings your inventory "Sponsored items from this seller" - if not to just show viewer other stuff you have. 

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@nuclearomen 

You are correct. When a seller chooses to participate in the Sponsored Listings program that seller is essentially eliminating a whole carousel of competitors items within their own listings. I don't agree with the way that eBay has chosen to implement this program, in the fact that a seller is basically paying to advertise their other listing within their own listings, and if they do choose to pay they are reducing competition within thwir own listings. But is does work and i am fairly certain that that is how eBay intended it to work, from the beginning. "Pay us or we will use your listings to advertise more of your competitor's."

[nuclearomen]

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@go-bad-chicken wrote:

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@nuclearomen 

You are correct. When a seller chooses to participate in the Sponsored Listings program that seller is essentially eliminating a whole carousel of competitors items within their own listings. I don't agree with the way that eBay has chosen to implement this program, in the fact that a seller is basically paying to advertise their other listing within their own listings, and if they do choose to pay they are reducing competition within thwir own listings. But is does work and i am fairly certain that that is how eBay intended it to work, from the beginning. "Pay us or we will use your listings to advertise more of your competitor's."

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@go-bad-chicken 
Initially promoted listings was not meant to do this but to promote your listings in ebay and google searches. It changed when ebay seen that they can leverage more sellers to use promoted by occupying  the listing's promoted real-estate areas with competitor's items. Promoted listings has gone through several changes since it's ebay inception. Basically every quarter ebay has decided to keep changing the "game" of the way they use sellers to compete with each other and make - More - profit doing it. At first promoted could be easily used to any sellers advantage by electing 1% across the board (I still do) and have an increase in sales because at start not all of ebay sellers were using promoted, many even fought back on it (including me - it's as you say, pay to be seen operation). The when more and more sellers started using it, ebay changed the way those listings are seen with the ad space within listings being the primary target on competitors listings, not just through search. The most recent change is the last quarter update where ebay seen they can suck more money from sellers by having them select promoted to a daily rate - instead of the cross the board election, allowing ebay to charge whatever they say is the "suggested trending rate" for that day. The more (higher) that rate the more likely your item will "sell" (it's really the more likely ebay will push that promotion and make it available to be seen). 

I keep all mine at 1%, at 1% ebay still make millions more per quarter on promoted sales. The game now is not that the items i select to promote have a "better chance" to sell, but that I am filling that second promoted bar on my listings with my own inventory instead of having it filled with others inventory, giving me at least 1 of those two top bars of real-estate before viewer gets to my item specifics & description instead of giving both to competitors. If I sell a $30 item on promoted ebay gets $0.30 for that promoted sale - I already have that $0.30 figured into the total cost, weather it sells on promoted or not.  

[go-bad-chicken]

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@nuclearomen wrote:

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@go-bad-chicken wrote:

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@nuclearomen 

You are correct. When a seller chooses to participate in the Sponsored Listings program that seller is essentially eliminating a whole carousel of competitors items within their own listings. I don't agree with the way that eBay has chosen to implement this program, in the fact that a seller is basically paying to advertise their other listing within their own listings, and if they do choose to pay they are reducing competition within thwir own listings. But is does work and i am fairly certain that that is how eBay intended it to work, from the beginning. "Pay us or we will use your listings to advertise more of your competitor's."

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@go-bad-chicken 
Initially promoted listings was not meant to do this but to promote your listings in ebay and google searches. It changed when ebay seen that they can leverage more sellers to use promoted by occupying  the listing's promoted real-estate areas with competitor's items. Promoted listings has gone through several changes since it's ebay inception. Basically every quarter ebay has decided to keep changing the "game" of the way they use sellers to compete with each other and make - More - profit doing it. At first promoted could be easily used to any sellers advantage by electing 1% across the board (I still do) and have an increase in sales because at start not all of ebay sellers were using promoted, many even fought back on it (including me - it's as you say, pay to be seen operation). The when more and more sellers started using it, ebay changed the way those listings are seen with the ad space within listings being the primary target on competitors listings, not just through search. The most recent change is the last quarter update where ebay seen they can suck more money from sellers by having them select promoted to a daily rate - instead of the cross the board election, allowing ebay to charge whatever they say is the "suggested trending rate" for that day. The more (higher) that rate the more likely your item will "sell" (it's really the more likely ebay will push that promotion and make it available to be seen). 

I keep all mine at 1%, at 1% ebay still make millions more per quarter on promoted sales. The game now is not that the items i select to promote have a "better chance" to sell, but that I am filling that second promoted bar on my listings with my own inventory instead of having it filled with others inventory, giving me at least 1 of those two top bars of real-estate before viewer gets to my item specifics & description instead of giving both to competitors. If I sell a $30 item on promoted ebay gets $0.30 for that promoted sale - I already have that $0.30 figured into the total cost, weather it sells on promoted or not.  

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@nuclearomen 

Well said. You have figured out the Promoted Listings game. 

IMO eBay always intended it this way. They created 4 advertising carousels on almost every single listing. 2 above the item details description and 2 below. In essence they (eBay) wins in this new scenario as a lot of sellers like yourself and myself included are willing to pay a little extra to eliminate that 1 advertising carousel filled with competitors  listings above the item description with our own promoted listings which come at an additional cost to us.

IMO I feel that I do a lot of work to provide eBay and my prospective buyers with really good listing titles and over the top detailed photos. And eBay has turned my own good work against me, and now requires me to pay to compete on my exceptionally executed listings. 

But with that said I am doing the same when i use my eBay listing as the higher priced shill compared to my same identical listings for the very same item on other sites as well as my own and use Google shopping to advertise those different price points for the exact same item. 

[nuclearomen]

@go-bad-chicken 
it wasn't hard to figure out really, even when they started this you could see somewhat where it would eventually lead to. I dread quarterly updates, because that is when they decide to slick in all the new things that will change and they are never clear, you have to read, re-read, then read again, then try and figure out how that will impact your promoted elections etc... but...good news is, ebay isn't inventing any of this, it's all being mirrored from others, amazon has done this for years, walmart and most all large retailers do this now in some way or another. The only difference is everyone else targets their sellers higher prices to illuminate their cheaper price (as they sell items, sellers on sites like walmart, amazon, are competing against those platforms) ebay doesn't sell anything so their advantage is to not highlight whom has better price, it's to highlight whom has the largest promotional percentage elected, either way they make money, but they make more on the promoted sales then non-promoted. That 11.7% FVF just became 22% because some seller got desperate and elected 10% (or higher) suggested rate. And to guarantee their extra income, they made it so any buyer who clicks that promoted listings and is then locked to promoted rate for 30 days, to ensure that if buyer buys within that 30 days, they get more money.

[toysaver]

"About 4 weeks ago we stop using them and decided to spend money upgrading to frooition with a listing design template." 

The design template akes your listings hard to read and understand.  Lots of information nobody needs is there flashing like neon diverting people away.  If I were shopping on a phone I would have jumped ship immediately.  Sometimes to have less is to have more.