Keeping up with inflation?

[movieman630]

Anyone have any stories about how inflation has effected their stock and sources?

Are you repricing to keep up with inflation?  Are you able?  Have you noticed a difference this year as opposed to last year?

How do you regulate your ebay inventory price wise?

Also has your "invisible selling limit" kept up with inflation or not?  Personally my "invisible limit" has not been raised to keep up with inflation, at least not in the last 4 months.  It seemed that in the beginning of the year ebay was making an effort to allow our "invisible limit" to be raised in order to keep up with inflation but as of late we have not noticed this trend.  In fact what we're seeing is the opposite.

We're seeing a sustaining of our Yearly limit which in reality is a pay cut when it comes to inflation.  Also not noticing a boost in sales from PL's as promised only the same amount of sales but just higher fees do to that promotion rate.  It really would have been nice to see a boost in sales from promoting! 

What are you seeing?

[fbusoni]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

@fbusoni 

EVERYTHING that takes place here does so within a political framework: "Economic Opportunity For All."

Nah, everything that takes place here does so within the basic framework of "Make Money for the Shareholders". 

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Agree... that is the ultimate objective.  

All other priorities are layered in descending order of importance.

[meme6253]

Maybe speculative, But highly suspicious & should be looked into further & not so easily dismissed.

[meme6253]

I can handle an extremely huge amount of sales, Just bring them!

[gloryglorygifts]

"Are you repricing to keep up with inflation?  Are you able?  Have you noticed a difference this year as opposed to last year?

How do you regulate your ebay inventory price wise?"

Yes, I'm seeing an increase  in prices from two of my suppliers, especially those in the sterling silver market. it depends on what the item is, if I will increase the price or not, but usually do it for the sterling items. How do I regulate the inventory? My one supplier sends me emails of what is in stock and out of stock, which is a big help. Otherwise, I have to look on websites to see availability and price increases.  When we were bigger, I used to have someone control the inventory. Now, it's just little old me. 

[fashunu4eeuh]

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@movieman630 wrote:

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@fashunu4eeuh wrote:

@movieman630 wrote:

“Also not noticing a boost in sales from PL's as promised…”

Hi.

Just finished reading the information on eBay’s Help pages outlining PL. Could not find a single incidence of eBay promising a boost in sales. It is not likely they would guarantee such to any seller, but am open to being shown or directed to the text/policy.

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What is the purpose of it then?  What is it's intention?

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You misunderstand me, @movieman630 . I am not challenging the purpose of PL, which is to attempt increases in visibility and traffic, as a strategy to increase sales.

I am challenging the notion that eBay promised that if a seller employs PLs, it would absolutely increase sales. I can find no assurances of this in the written policy.

Using Promoted Listings is a marketing method, and not a guarantee of sales increases. You are suggesting eBay promised more sales with PL and has then failed to keep that promise.

[mam98031]

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@movieman630 wrote:

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@fashunu4eeuh wrote:

@movieman630 wrote:

“Also not noticing a boost in sales from PL's as promised…”

Hi.

Just finished reading the information on eBay’s Help pages outlining PL. Could not find a single incidence of eBay promising a boost in sales. It is not likely they would guarantee such to any seller, but am open to being shown or directed to the text/policy.

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What is the purpose of it then?  What is it's intention?

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Ebay can't promise a boost in sales as Ebay does not control the needs or desires of buyers.  The intent of PL is to get your listing a boosted visibility which is NOT the same thing as sales.

[bashort]

I price most of my items using the "whatever the market will bear" at that time  method, I look at inflation as  a automatic repricer that slowly lowers the price over time on old stock

[movieman630]

I didn't mean it literally as "they promised me" it's implied that participation would generate new revenue.

The purpose of paying extra fees in PL's is to generate more sales.  If the item would sell to the same customer anyway why would I want to pay extra fees for the promotion? 

The PL scheme should inspire participation by positive outcome.  What would the positive outcome be?  More sales.

If your sales remain the same what's the point of the promotion campaign?

That's my point.  Nobody is going to spend money on a marketing campaign if it doesn't generate new revenue.

[movieman630]

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@dbfolks166mt wrote:

One theory is it's to "spread around the sales" and also limit the amount of work that ebay thinks a seller can handle.

     It's a nice "theory" but it would be counterproductive for eBay to do so. 

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How so?  Because that's exactly what they do.

[movieman630]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@movieman630 wrote:

Ebay employees have admitted it exists in the past.

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NOT Throttling.  That Ebay sometimes hides listings, that isn't the same thing and it covered in the User Agreement for anyone to see that would like to.

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If a listing is "hidden" it's not being seen.  If it's not being seen it can not sell.  If it doesn't sell you don't make money.

That's controlling your income.  That's "throttling" your potential sales revenue.

[richard1rst]

You are 3 1/2 years late. This is a plan you should have laid out in January of 2020. The signs were all there. Sorry you missed them.

Something about the barn door comes to mind.

[mam98031]

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@movieman630 wrote:

I didn't mean it literally as "they promised me" it's implied that participation would generate new revenue.

The purpose of paying extra fees in PL's is to generate more sales.  If the item would sell to the same customer anyway why would I want to pay extra fees for the promotion? 

The PL scheme should inspire participation by positive outcome.  What would the positive outcome be?  More sales.

If your sales remain the same what's the point of the promotion campaign?

That's my point.  Nobody is going to spend money on a marketing campaign if it doesn't generate new revenue.

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All they give you is more visibility with this PL program.  Other factors like what you are selling and how you structured your listing are the main factors that a buyer may view your item and hopefully purchase.

If you are not seeing this happening, then it is quite possible that PL isn't for you.  Most sellers do not use PL and survive.  You might consider not using it for awhile and see if you see a difference.  Just keep in mind that a couple weeks of testing is not enough to give you an accurate result.  You would need to do this for a few months.  But this may not be a change you want to make just entering into the Holiday season.  However if you aren't getting the sales you thought you would from using PL, I would consider going without it now.

[mam98031]

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@movieman630 wrote:

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@dbfolks166mt wrote:

One theory is it's to "spread around the sales" and also limit the amount of work that ebay thinks a seller can handle.

     It's a nice "theory" but it would be counterproductive for eBay to do so. 

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How so?  Because that's exactly what they do.

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Because Ebay earns money on actual sales.  So if some sellers are experiencing good sales, it makes no sense to cut them off and see if other sellers can pick up the sales.  A risk that has no good Business sense IMHO.

[mam98031]

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@movieman630 wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@movieman630 wrote:

Ebay employees have admitted it exists in the past.

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NOT Throttling.  That Ebay sometimes hides listings, that isn't the same thing and it covered in the User Agreement for anyone to see that would like to.

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If a listing is "hidden" it's not being seen.  If it's not being seen it can not sell.  If it doesn't sell you don't make money.

That's controlling your income.  That's "throttling" your potential sales revenue.

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Hiding A listing is NOT "throttling".  "Throttling" is controlling how much a seller is allowed to sell in any given period of time.  And I'm talking about sellers that have been using the site regularly, NOT new sellers and infrequent sellers.