Increasingly Impossible!!

[meme6253]

It has become increasingly Impossible to try to operate a business properly on this platform, To properly support a business, you need a certain amount of sales to put back into the business,such as inventory, supplies, & multiple other expenses, & that is not happening here, not anymore, I feel I am being strong armed into increasing PL's & offering free shipping & free returns, & If I do not succumb my sales will forever be suppressed, Not what I signed up for when i started!!

[toomuchstuffagain35]

Not to mention the sheer number of listings on the site now.

That's what the verbiage in the TOS was meant to cover, that it's nigh near impossible to show all relevant listings in a search. (with the caveat that they seem to have no issues bringing up all the irrelevant listings).

[redlinear]

It's just the "limit your sales" that I don't buy.

Last summer I hired a "wheeler dealer" guy.  I paid him to do some work, and at the same time, I bought some inventory from him.   (the inventory was SUPER SATURATED stuff).  I got it dirt cheap and listed it about the same.  
For three months, I listing this stuff (crap), just trying to keep up with what my new guy was feeding me.  
Basically, I quit my normal routine and worked my tail off.
He was here 3 months before leaving for greener pastures.

Sales darn near tripled for about 5 months. 
The more items I listed, the more items sold.
The more items that sold, The more items that sold. (that's not a typo).
When I finally slowed back down?  When I finally stopped listing 50 items a day....Sales slowed down as well.  Even though, at the time, I had more listings running on eBay than I ever had in the past.

Search seems to like newly listed stuff, and there's something about "activity" as well. 
It seems that you just can't list a million items, then take a break.   

[toomuchstuffagain35]

Sales definitely affect visibility in search, which is why sellers will often note they get a "run" on certain items.

The hard part is figuring out how to get that FIRST one to sell = )

[chapeau-noir]

Pretty much every marketplace rewards activity and consistency.  I've found it's better to just list daily rather than dump a lot of stuff and wait a week. This will change depending on one's market - mine is supersaturated so activity creates a much bigger impact because of the other metric of recency, which weights freshness and newness.  When there is constantly newer, fresher listings being posted, one's item can drop in search fast.  If someone sells in a much quieter market, IMHO it doesn't matter as much IF (and that's another big aspect) there's a market for that particular widget at all. No matter what, just leaving stuff up in dusty, musty listings month after month after month is guaranteed to sink it to the bottom, particularly in markets like clothing and collectibles which are overflowing. Got to keep it fresh. Move that stock around!

And yeah, sell one item and it does raise in search anything else in that particular cohort one might have listed - but getting that first thing sold can be a challenge!

[redlinear]

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@toomuchstuffagain35 wrote:

Not to mention the sheer number of listings on the site now.

That's what the verbiage in the TOS was meant to cover, that it's nigh near impossible to show all relevant listings in a search. (with the caveat that they seem to have no issues bringing up all the irrelevant listings).

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YES!
I like the way you worded that.   Statement of the day. 👍  

[chapeau-noir]

If you've ever shopped on a busy social media site that has a feed, you can see how quickly items fall off the first screen and get buried.  Poshmark is a perfect example of this.  Sellers there have to constantly share, constantly list and renew listings to stay relevant, and it's very visible by watching the feed - I've listed something and had it fall many screens down in the feed in a matter of a half an hour.

[meme6253]

I Have To Disagree, I Recently Listed Two Hot Wheels Custom Classics Bone Shaker, Type That In & My Listings Are Not Anywhere??

[meme6253]

I don't have a Victim Mentality, Just stating the facts!, I have been trying everything in the book!

[sailinship]

Well said, the competing platforms do have something to do with this, and ebay keeps pushing sellers here, towards them.

[sailinship]

You said a thing, and then proved it wrong. "I disagree that eBay is suppressing some sellers. What they are doing is promoting sellers who are willing to pay for promotion. The effect may be the same."

[redlinear]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

If you've ever shopped on a busy social media site that has a feed, you can see how quickly items fall off the first screen and get buried.  Poshmark is a perfect example of this.  Sellers there have to constantly share, constantly list and renew listings to stay relevant, and it's very visible by watching the feed - I've listed something and had it fall many screens down in the feed in a matter of a half an hour.

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I agree and I understand that.   Therefore, when you enter your search "words" and hit enter, you should immediately see a choice of 6 filters.   Choose one, and see results.
Results that match that filter.

I just ran a search here, for Dana 80 ring and pinion.  My 1st result was a Dana 60 (best match)....ugh.
I then filtered "used".   5 results.   Then a page of results matching fewer words (that page if full of Dana 80's that are actually listed as Dana 80's).
     And that is quite a bit of the issue sellers are having with eBay right now...and Buyers too I'm sure

[sailinship]

Sorry, but you are mistaken. You assume that traffic ON EBAY, is all the traffic there is, and it is not. They aren't hiding things, but remember, they control what offers are seen by buyers, what scrolls on other's listings that the buyer is considering purchasing, and what they see in scrolling windows after they purchase something. 

[sailinship]

I agree that stupid high Promotions wont get you top billing. But what does it do outside of ebay, in google searches, and how does it affect who gets the offers you send out, and what a buyer sees in those scrolling windows? Who knows? Only the Phantom Knows..... 

[sailinship]

The perfect answer, you've found it. 

"

The answer is in resolving the difference between expectations and reality.

    ACCEPT: Sales have always been an ebb-and-flow process historically. Currently they're ebbing with this inflationary economy and the upward cost of staying in business. Our expectations need to be aware of and accept this recession, so we don't get our knickers in a twist because we demand our current expectations to match the times in the past when sales were flowing.

   ADJUST:  Change our expectations, attitudes and selling behavior to match the cyclical downturn in sales, adjust our prices, get smarter than our competitors, delete listings that are no longer in demand (ie Beanie Babies collection fads), and adjust our profit margin expectations until sales start flowing again - which they will as they always have.

   ADAPT: Ride thru the down times with a changing and breathing business savvy, and look forward to the up times.

   I've used these 3 rules throughout the ups and downs during my 25-year career here. I'm constantly deleting stale or dead items, adding new lines of items, and adjusting prices. It's working, and my sales are only in a trivial, minor downturn compared to the past.

   Stagnant business attitudes and expectations are just as bad as cyclical downturns - maybe worse, when one hears of other sellers throwing in the towel when it's not really necessary with a change in attitude, expectations, perseverance, and taking a deep breath.

Cheers, Duffy"

[sailinship]

Love that show. Still watch it over and over. The movie was perfection. In some ways I do hope that they bring it back, and then I look at the current state of Hollywood, and hope that they don't.