Regards,
Account #1: The account is a Basic Store selling collectibles. When GTC was announced I gathered 1st Quarter (Jan-Feb-Mar) sales by format - Auction & Fixed Price. That's all the further back I could go. I kept the same info for 2nd Quarter (Apr-May-Jun). I am using percentages opposed to sales volume and dollar volume.
1st Quarter
-Auction sales = 54%
-Fixed Priced = 46%
2nd Quarter
-Auction sales = 67%
-GTC Sales = 33%
There was a 13% down turn in GTC Fixed Priced sales. I did NOT manipulate GTCs by ending them and Relisting, I just let them ride testing eBay's supposed theory that more history on an item will improve its conversion to a sale. 13% decrease negates that premise in my mind. Additionally, in May, I ran my quarterly Promoted Listing Campaign for every GTC listing.
Account #2: The account is a Basic Store selling collectibles similar to Account #1. It is newer and about 1 1/2 years old, worked up to TRS in about 4 months with known good selling items from account #1. Some listings through the growth period would be flipped back and forth between accounts, the system worked. It showed steady growth over a 12 month period. I did not collect 1st Quarter sales info, I just monitored sales.
-April = Sales dropped approximately 50%
-May = Sales did not recover and continued to drop ... on the 30th I dropped the store level to the newer entry store with 100 items. May also included the Quarterly Promoted Listing campaign that I run.
-June = sales dried up to about 1 per week (5 total on the month) with no signs of recovery and very little activity (regular increases of Watched and Viewed items).
Significant on this account is the fact that ALL sales, both Auction and GTC, dropped and basically flat lined in about 8 weeks. I did nothing to try and save the account, part of this "experiment" is to see if it would recover on its own by just doing what has worked in the past other then not being able to use Fixed Priced listing durations of 7, 10 and 30 days. Inventory from that account was shifted to Account #1 and sold on other venues. My opinion, GTC and whatever else Home Office did made this account fail. It may or may not recover. I am going to monitor it for another 3 months but if Sales do not improve in July it will be changed to the Everyday Rate plan ...
The good news is 6 new Auction items were added yesterday and 2 already have bids and the game plan is to slowly replace existing inventory with new collectibles and shift the existing stuff off the account.
@fern*wood Yes, I am sure many Sellers will have different results based on what they sell. for me the Account 1# and 13% drop is not a killer but it indicates there was no increases sales for GTC listings ... if that % grows then I will be more concerned, I anticipate it to fluctuate.
I also acknowledge that even my info is subjective based on what I sell ... but its the only info I have to work with ...
My biggest concern is Account #2 where it just died, period ... I did nothing different yet sales just came to a grinding halt so to speak.
So we'll wait and see ...
@tunicaslot wrote:I'm still cancelling before day 30 and relisting so can't really contribute - but I certainly am glad someone is testing the waters and letting us know how they are faring.
I just thought it would be beneficial to do nothing out of the ordinary to see how the algorithms handled the changes. The whole theory (that others have shared on other threads) that sales generate more sales is a major fail too, if that were true then the 2nd ID that was also growing and selling would not have dropped like it did in 8 weeks ...
@poppyswag wrote:Haven't ended my GTC since the March change. Before that I used 7 or 10 days. I think there are less eyes on my items because there is no listing bump.
Advice given is leave them alone so they will be indexed. Other advice given is end them at least every few months because they bottom out in search. Confusing. Which one is it?
That is the premise I am working with ... let them ride. I sold one GTC that I've had for at least 5 months ... it had accrued over 250 views and 16 Watchers since GTC went in to affect ... I kept seeing it at the top of the list when sorting by Watched items and just this past weekend thought, "will someone please buy this and put it out it misery???" ... someone did, I shipped it out this week.
@lecroy3 Good info and thanks for sharing that ... one of the scary things that keeps getting repeated is Sellers doing nothing different and sales simply dropping like a rock.
@lconway50 wrote:I am with you. The last three months have been the worst ever selling on Ebay. My sales are down now approximately 80% according to Ebay over this same period last year. Don't know what changed but I am now not sure I will be able to keep my store. Will have to close if I can't sell my items and come out with some profit.
Reoccurring theme, "Don't know what changed ..." and sales dropped for no apparent reason.
