eBay

ignatia · ‎11-03-2018

I have had listings live on eBay for three consecutive months now, and have had only one sale. I recently followed a number of suggestions I received here on the forum to get more views and sales, and am working on them. However, with the listing adjustments I am working on aside, my listings are not bad at all and are very much in line with other listings I see in the same category.

Is it "normal" at three months, to have had only one sale? Surely it can't be or no one would be left here to sell.

annasunicorns · ‎11-03-2018

Its rare but not unheard of , especially in niche categories. Is healing crystals your niche, because in a quick glace that is what it looks like. Id browse your category whatever it is by completed listings, see what people are buying?

joesoucie22012 · ‎11-03-2018

Your putting your store/user name in your titles. Unless you have hundreds or thousands of followers no one will put your store name in eBay search. Try adding key words in title instead of your store/user name to boost your sales or at least views or watchers. Good luck

ignatia · ‎11-03-2018

@annasunicorns wrote:
Its rare but not unheard of , especially in niche categories. Is healing crystals your niche, because in a quick glace that is what it looks like. Id browse your category whatever it is by completed listings, see what people are buying?

Thanks for the reminder on this; I believe it is one of the few recommendations I was given before that got overlooked. Yes, crystals are the bulk of my items.

victorias_gifts_n_treasures · ‎11-03-2018

I agree with the other poster, that putting your store name in the title doesn't mean anything unless your a well known brand like Pepsi or Nike. Your wasting a lot of space that could be used for important characters that will make people find you better. You need good keywords that people are going to look for.

ignatia · ‎11-03-2018

@joesoucie22012 wrote:
Your putting your store/user name in your titles. Unless you have hundreds or thousands of followers no one will put your store name in eBay search. Try adding key words in title instead of your store/user name to boost your sales or at least views or watchers. Good luck

I appreciate the suggestion but will disagree for two reasons--first, there aren't any more relevant keywords I could fill that space with in most instances. Secondly, in a niche market, I am certain that people will more surely remember me if I do that. With only useless filler available for further keyword placement, I really feel that placing my user ID there is my best bet

gdiesel70 · ‎11-03-2018

It's been slower than the usual "slow". The type of "something is broken" slow, not "buyer's aren't buying" type of slow.

You can try making some changes to your listings to see if it makes a difference.

Make sure the first four words in the title are the most relevant. You'll see a lot of people waste this valuable space for words like "WOW! L@@k, or REDUCED PRICE!!!!!"

Avoid using ALL CAPS, remove commas and punctuation from titles, put the words in order from most to least important. Remove your username from

the title (unless you have a big following that will specifically enter your username in the search bar).

Stop words are useless in titles since search engines usually strip them out, so it's wasted space ( Google "SEO stop words list").

Fill out as much of the item specifics as possible.

Add more photos, like the item

next to a ruler or quarter so people can gauge the size.

The listing template is nice, but it's not mobile responsive so the font is hard to read.

*edit*

...and I sneezed and hit the "post" button by mistake.

reallynicestamps · ‎11-03-2018

And then there is pricing.

When I looked at your clear crystal listing priced at $8.99 plus $12 shipping, which is 13/4" long, eBay also showed me a 6" clear crystal priced at $2.66 with Free Shipping from Hong Kong.

Most buyers would take that (even with over 800 negs in the past 12 months and a 98.7% rating) over yours.

And I brought up in the other post, that unless you are shipping these tiny stones by courier, PO boxes are safer than any other destination.

I strongly agree about looking at your fancy template on a mobile.

And putting something in the pictures that give an indication of size. Just the measurements are not enough.

castlemagicmemories · ‎11-03-2018

Actually new sellers get increased visibility and what is called the "honeymoon period" is enjoyed for those three months.

ignatia · ‎11-03-2018

Thanks. I am not sure what you were saying with the comment about your edit though, tbh. Mind sharing? I get a feeling it's about how slow it is around here but not wanting to say.

ignatia · ‎11-03-2018

@reallynicestamps wrote:
And then there is pricing.
When I looked at your clear crystal listing priced at $8.99 plus $12 shipping, which is 13/4" long, eBay also showed me a 6" clear crystal priced at $2.66 with Free Shipping from Hong Kong.
Most buyers would take that (even with over 800 negs in the past 12 months and a 98.7% rating) over yours.

You can't be serious about this. That's like comparing McDonalds to a fine dining restaurant. There are high ends and low ends in every industry. Your own preferences are but one example of people's preferences. I see one seller with very similar pricing to mine, that on a bad day has 22 sales and her shipping is higher. I see one seller that sells run of the mill crystals for averagely 22 dollars US a piece, shipping extra and the shipping is in line with mine. Pricing seems to have little to do with what people are looking for. I am talking about two of the busiest sellers in my niche.

@reallynicestamps wrote:
And I brought up in the other post, that unless you are shipping these tiny stones by courier, PO boxes are safer than any other destination.

I responded to that before as well... that at times I cannot ship to PO Boxes for reasons that are pointless to delve into here. But yes, at times I cannot. Tiny? Why are you so negative here, some of them are huge.

@reallynicestamps wrote:
And putting something in the pictures that give an indication of size. Just the measurements are not enough.

The measurements are in the title. If there are a few listings where they are not, I am currently working on all changes. There are all necessary measurements in the description. I work from desktop, I cannot use a mobile because there is no signal where I am, I write my listings as is logical given my own experience.

I write very careful descriptions, that omit nothing. If people do not read descriptions to buy, that is very, very naive, and it is not my problem that we have a generation of people that buy by phone, when sellers have long been taught to sell by description.

If people are not reading the descriptions as they buy, they are not getting the information I need them to have on my items. If I cannot make it as a seller with the information primarily in the item description as opposed to the images, there is indeed a problem.

As for the template, I have been informed that all templates are not properly visible on mobile, so there's that.

ignatia · ‎11-03-2018

@castlemagicmemories wrote:
Actually new sellers get increased visibility and what is called the "honeymoon period" is enjoyed for those three months.

I am disheartened tenfold to read that, because it did not happen. If it's downhill from here that's a real problem.

gdiesel70 · ‎11-03-2018

oh, I'm using my iPhone to post here and halfway through writing my response I sneezed and dropped the phone. When I picked it up my thumb hit the "post" button before I was done.

I was going to ask if you list 30-day or good til cancelled and if these items are "long-tail" slow moving niche items. If they are, I was going to suggest "good til cancelled" so they stick around long enough to get indexed in Google.

Try tinkering with a few listings.

if theres no watchers on something try ending/relisting.

end>sell similar>tweak the title>relist

then delete the old unsold listing.

That usually gives the item a temporary boost in visibility.

ignatia · ‎11-03-2018

@gdiesel70 wrote:
oh, I'm using my iPhone to post here and halfway through writing my response I sneezed and dropped the phone. When I picked it up my thumb hit the "post" button before I was done.

I was going to ask if you list 30-day or good til cancelled and if these items are "long-tail" slow moving niche items. If they are, I was going to suggest "good til cancelled" so they stick around long enough to get indexed in Google.

Try tinkering with a few listings.
if theres no watchers on something try ending/relisting.

end>sell similar>tweak the title>relist
then delete the old unsold listing.
That usually gives the item a temporary boost in visibility.

Yes, it seems that long tailed keywords work best in my niche, so maybe you are right about trying good til canceled. I have generally gone with 30 days. I started off with good til canceled but was reading that it was bad for views, so I canceled them all and replaced them with 30 day listings. Lol. Hmmm. Thanks for that insight. It appears I have some experimentation to do.

castlemagicmemories · ‎11-03-2018

@ignatia wrote:
@castlemagicmemories wrote:
Actually new sellers get increased visibility and what is called the "honeymoon period" is enjoyed for those three months.
I am disheartened tenfold to read that, because it did not happen. If it's downhill from here that's a real problem.

So sorry, didn't mean to dishearten you, and I hope your sales pick up soon.

You seem very well versed on your competition and the leaders in your niche.

Can you identify anything they are doing that you are not?

I understand you feel it important to list your store id in your listings. Do they?

You say it is so buyers can find you again, but if they aren't finding you to start with, the id is unnecessary, and, as others have said, could be what is dragging you down in search. Adding keywords that buyers will actually use to search for your item will help.