11-15-2018 04:52 PM
Im kind of new at this and wondering about out of stock items. If you have a item go out of stock is the item still visible in search with a quantity of zero? And can the item still be purchassed. If it can whats the best way to proceed if the item has multiple watchers but it may be a couple weeks untill you can refill the stock. If you end the item it seems like you would lose the watchers on the item for when you get it back in stock. But if you sell another it may cause you a whole different set of problems. For now i just raised the price high. Is there a better way?
11-15-2018 05:07 PM
Just leave the quantity as 0 and update when new inventory is at hand. It's not visible in search until you update the quantity to 1 or more.
11-15-2018 05:17 PM
@jaad_6732 wrote:
... is the item still visible in search with a quantity of zero? And can the item still be purchassed....
No, and no. That's the whole point of that option.
11-15-2018 05:36 PM
Using the Out of Stock option keeps the item's history, and I believe the watchers are notified when the item relists, but not 100% sure (Sorry, I haven't sold multi-quantity items). The link below has more information and how to activate the OOS option. This only works on Good Til Cancelled listings. It is valuable to sellers because it prevents a possible defect that happens when a seller has to cancel a sale for Out of Stock.
11-15-2018 09:58 PM
I use it on basically all my listings.
- It isn't visible in search, but if a watcher clicks on it, it'll still load but as quantity zero (the URL to your listing still works).
- No it can't be purchased. Ebay will not allow any listing to go into negative inventory.
- Yes you will lose the watchers if you end the listing. They MIGHT get notified if you relist it.
- No need to raise the price. But if your listing fails to make sales within a significant time duration, your "best match" ranking may start to slide down until you make more sales.
11-16-2018 12:13 AM
For myself, I don't use the OOS function. I let the listing close because I sold out. When I get more stock in, I then relist the item. For me this works best. I also don't like paying the listing fee each month that a listing is in limbo in the OOS function as they stay active, it is just no one can purchase from them until you add more stock. I like being in control so I don't use the OOS function.