Inadvertent Experiment - eBay Rewards Consistency!

[pls-consignments]

If anyone wonders how important "consistency" is for a seller, let me share my personal experience.

For the last 6-weeks or so, I recently had to give most of my attention to my aging parents. This prevented me from spending time photographing and listing an average of 5-items per day, which was my routine for years. With nearly 1300 items, I decided to just focus on discounts, offers, and refreshing.

Well, after the first week, my sales began to fall and eventually plummeted to about 15-20% of normal. For the last several days, I've been trying to list daily, but not many sales... yet.

The lesson? List at least 1-2 items EVERY day, so the algorithm sees activity. You'll be sorry if you don't. 😉

[meme6253]

Yeah unfortunately Ebay does not like when life gets in the way!, Good Luck to you!

[fbusoni]

@pls-consignments 

Good point... eBay, like Google, loves new, fresh content to index.  

The other thing that sometimes works (I have found) is to end listings with little activity, and then re-list them later, perhaps with a new title.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

In one of the ebay for business podcasts, ebay addressed this issue, and stated that the algo does NOT take into account a seller's listing frequency. 

However, ebay also acknowledged that its own internal data supports what most of us realize: any new listing gets a new listing bump (that IS in the algo) and this increases the likelihood of not only the new item being seen, but of viewers then looking at other items of the sellers, which can result in a sale. So, it isn't that the algo "rewards" you for consistent listing, it is simply that new listings can draw more potential buyers. 

(One thing I'm going to be working on as soon as I have a little more time, is creating a direct link to other related items (category or subcategory) in all my listing descriptions to make it easier for a buyer to explore my other items. True, not everyone reads the description, but if they DO, I'd rather they click the link and go directly to look at my other items, rather than scrolling past the description to look at hundreds of other seller's items in my description.)

And, while I could never get ebay to provide further details, a year or two ago, I think at ebay Open or one of the Check Ins, bay said that the aglo can now recognize a listing that has been ended and relisted/sell similared, and such a listing does NOT get a "new" bump unless there is a substantial change. I have not tested this, but the impression I got is : a relist with NO change won't get any bump, and minor changes ($15.00 to 15.01, for example) might not be sufficient to get the bump. I suppose if someone wanted to spend the effort, they could try testing this.

[kensgiftshop]

I keep hearing that, but I haven't seen it.

A couple years ago, I was listing every day, updating listings everyday.

The next year, didn't do anything at all, no new listings, no updates, nothing.

That year, I sold almost double what I had sold the year before.

I think it all depends on what you have and what people are looking for at the time.

[lakefor94]

I find successful sales are directly related to need, presentation and price. Price is king. Competition is fierce with new sellers and additional items flooding the market daily. It is hard to keep up with the pricing as a one-man-show. If I don't have it priced correctly, the item will sit there, unsold. Simple as that. 

Just finished a complete repricing project at the end of August for what is now 1382 listings. As I see the chance to send offers and recheck pricing once again, I sometimes find that I am not the lowest out there and my item will be unsold unless I at least match the price. The only time I don't at least match is when I am undercut by a "questionable seller" or an overseas outfit. 

Lot of active sellers in the networking categories are working the business hard to move products. Same as other categories. 

I do agree that listing new items regularly increases sales but I see that more as a supplement to the existing listing cash flow rather than some sort of algo related bump. The 2% PL's get my items at or near the top of the Best Match search. The Lowest Price search throws it up there where it is priced. 

[reallynicestamps]

I suspect category also has something to do with it.

Some categories are long tail and occasional"refreshing" of a listing is helpful.
Others are fast moving . If it doesn't sell in a week, it won't sell for years.

I sold an item last week first listed in 2012.

[chapeau-noir]

Consistency (activity) is a major metric in search on most platforms and has been for a long time.

[evry1nositswindy]

I agree it is true.  When I have antique shows and don't put much on eBay, sales fall.  When I start listing again, sales come in.  Many years ago, there was a thread entitled "Strive for Five", meaning list five new things every day.  I aim higher, but it's a good start. 

[tobaccocardyahoo]

I postulate that the greatest benefit of new listings comes from the people who follow my store. I can't prove that because I don't know the IDs of those followers, but at least some of my sales of newly listed items are repeat buyers.

I try to list items which are similar to other items in more stores which are related to multiple types of existing items, it seems to be more productive than when I limit myself to a single type of item. Though sometimes I have much more of one category.

Since my items are long tail, I cannot say what is causing them to sell after being listed for long periods. I rarely reduce prices. But I know many of my items sell to buyers with small amounts to spend on self indulgence. Maybe the ran out of things they needed or buy or no one had anything more appealing than my item.

Observational data on what we have done and how it affects our sales is often misleading, but when you feel you need to do something, doing something is better than not.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@chapeau-noir  As I mentioned above, ebay has actually stated that listing frequency is NOT a factor in the search algo. However, new listings get a "new listing bump, which no doubt helps with search visibility. AND ebay has also said that "buyer engagement" IS a factor in the algo....so the number of watchers a listing has, the number of questions and offers made, etc, can elevate a listing in search as well. 

Listing consistently....if a seller is in a position to do it....is certainly helpful, but is no magic wand. 

[lakefor94]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

I suspect category also has something to do with it.

Some categories are long tail and occasional"refreshing" of a listing is helpful.
Others are fast moving . If it doesn't sell in a week, it won't sell for years.

I sold an item last week first listed in 2012.

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I regularly sell items that have been out there 7-8 years and never ended and relisted. If the item is cached/searchable via Google, that is a plus. 

[fbusoni]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

In one of the ebay for business podcasts, ebay addressed this issue, and stated that the algo does NOT take into account a seller's listing frequency. 

However, ebay also acknowledged that its own internal data supports what most of us realize: any new listing gets a new listing bump (that IS in the algo) and this increases the likelihood of not only the new item being seen, but of viewers then looking at other items of the sellers, which can result in a sale. So, it isn't that the algo "rewards" you for consistent listing, it is simply that new listings can draw more potential buyers.  

---

So in other words, listing more frequently increases the likelihood of sales.  

Quite frankly, I am not inclined to believe much of anything that eBay says "officially."  

I'd rather just experiment and take my chances.    And so far its working.

[nuclearomen]

been that way long time, but listing everyday when sales are slow(er) isn't easiest to swallow. I myself usually list daily, but haven't much this week and sales this weekend are less, but I did re-enter some items back into stock today little bit ago, just a lot going on this week haven't listed as much + on vacation (well it's a stay-cation) this week been doing other things but still sending orders all this past week, just not listing much. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@fbusoni  I made the point about the algo because I have seen many sellers spin their wheels once they decide the algo is the cause. I've seen sellers trying to decide: does the algo want one new listing per day? Five? Some percentage of a sellers average listing count? Etc.  So I think it is worth noting that the algo doesn't consider this at all.

And yes, it is much simpler to recognize what many of us have been pointing out since before anyone was talking about "the algo." The "new" bump has value beyond merely the particular listing. So, sure, add new listings and sales might very well increase. Add new listings every day and you increase the chances of more sales spread out among more days.

We've been saying this for years.