Promoted listing won't work. Sales down

[diamond_scotch]

Hello everyone,

Lately, I've been experiencing issues with my promoted listings activity. Although this feature is supposed to increase sales, I'm not seeing the desired results. I've even increased the percentage of my promoted listings, but my sales continue to drop. In an attempt to boost sales, I've even lowered my prices.

After reading several articles, it appears that many other sellers are also facing the same problem with promoted listings and low sales on eBay. While eBay features are great, the results have not been as expected. The ultimate goal of using promoted listings is to see a positive impact on sales, but that's not happening.

I would really appreciate it if someone could provide me with some guidance on how to improve my sales. Any advice or insights would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

As a jewelry seller, I'm always looking for ways to improve my business. I would greatly appreciate any advice or insights from both sellers and buyers. Whether it's tips on improving my product offerings or suggestions for better marketing, any feedback is welcome. Thank you in advance for your help!

[inhawaii]

Just wanted to share with you that I don't use promoted listings and I'm doing ok. Maybe it works for some and not for others. Good luck!

[aldelbertmatthew]

Ebay as a whole has been extremely broken for the past few weeks. Tons of glitches such as search results giving you unrelated or very poor selections, promoted listings are barely promoted, descriptions randomly disappearing on listings and extremely low views overall. Sales are erratic for me and make little sense such as 3-4 in a row from different buyers in an hour then nothing for the rest of the day.

Cross-listing is the name of the game right now until eBay chooses to fix their site. Maybe when competitors start pounding them down, they'll decide to act like a company.

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

I thought at first you may be exaggerating or something. Often times people say sales are down and it's miniscule. You've got over 8,600 current listings and only 66 sold listings in the past 3 months.

Quick check says you've been on here for 5.5 years and have sold over 3700 items. If you sold 100% consistently in that time frame, that means you should have done like 167 sales in the last 90 days, not only 66 sales. That's less than 40% of what you should theoretically be doing if trends were super consistent.

So, I have nothing for you in terms of advice, because I'm not in the jewelry market ... all I can do is point out your sales are truly down and are statistically low ... you're not just making this up!!

[redlinear]

Most (most) everybody is promoting to some extent.  SO, you about have to promote in order to maintain what you had before promotions.
But, in order to maintain, you have to promote competitively with others.  (a % which isn't super easy to determine).
THAT'S THE THEORY that makes sense ANYWAY.
However, with Item Specifics and search....there are now hundreds of characters of "keywords" (as opposed to the old way of 80 characters in the title).   Many of which get filled in incorrectly by sellers trying to be seen in search.  They'll get seen in unrelated searches.   Taking spots that should be for sellers that have the items one is searching for. z

I run hundreds of searches a day.   Most times I'm surprised at what I see....completely unrelated items on the 1st page.  It's just a mess
It's become almost CHANCE that you are, or are not, seen in a search. 

[kensgiftshop]

You have a 10 day handling time.

Buyer can order from US sellers and have their item before you even ship.

You're in India dropshipping cheap stuff from the US.

No matter how much you promote or how many people look at your listings, if they are not interested in buying, it isn't going to make any difference.

You need to update your payment section.

You don't only accept Pay Pal.

Buyers have 4 days to pay.

[noconsultantneeded]

@diamond_scotch I refuse to promote my listings. I think it's turned into a scam. 

[dubsteesllc]

I would suggest trying Mercari, except I'm not supposed to do that, because they are a competitor to Ebay 🙂

[aeparts1]

Those neutral & negatives aren't helping you.

[meme6253]

Many of us are not seeing the desired results!,More money for very little result!

[the-hook-and-the-loop]

As many predicted, and as common sense will dictate, many sellers promote their listings. Then many sellers raised their promoted listings %. So last month you had to promote at 13%, this month 18%, next month 23%. With the items you're selling, you should have plenty of margin to accommodate those percentages. Good luck.

[dbfolks166mt]

     There is NO substantiated proof that PL helps increase sales. You are selling a lot of costume jewelry which is a saturated category. You also appear to be drop shipping from Cranbury, New Jersey although you are located in India. 

     Rather than being worried about increasing sales you may want to check to see whether you are making a profit and/or a decent ROI. I am not sure what you are paying for the items from your US supplier but looking at a couple of your items most offer free shipping. If I crunch the numbers on one of your items factoring in the eBay fees, estimating a 7% sales tax, that you are promoting at 5%  and that you are paying nothing for shipping (assume your supplier offers free shipping) then for the following item. 

    You would receive approximately a $84.97 payout from eBay after deducting the eBay selling expenses. From this you have to subtract any other expenses primarily what ever you paid the supplier for the item followed by any other expenses you have. Packing supplies, any taxes India may collect or your earnings, etc. Evaluate how much you are earning, hopefully it's not a loss, and assess whether it is worth your effort. 

[fashunu4eeuh]

I took a look at your listings and found a few issues.

Your item descriptions are filled entirely with sales terms and there is zero info about the items you are selling. Even though there are the Item Specifics, the information about the item needs to also be repeated in the description. Though this may feel redundant, each section of a listing supports the whole.

eBay is very brand-centric, where buyers rely heavily on inputting keywords to narrow down their search results. You are selling your own branded goods with very generic keywords. It will be harder then for your goods to show up in more specific Search results because of it. Your brand name is not well known in the US, so your other keywords need to be more descriptive to compensate for this.

For example, the style of the man’s ring in Item #175721811588 is a dome ring. That would be an important keyword not currently present in the listing. And in the IS, it states the shape of this very rounded item is “square” . This does not describe what is seen in the photo. All fields in a listing should support the whole with correct facts about each item presented.

I see titles that don’t match the items in the photos. Looking at the same dome ring mentioned above, i see a mens gold ring with clear stone but the title says it is sterling silver, not gold. Pretty confusing. I have to read the Item Specifics to find that it states that the ring is gold plated, but that is not stated anywhere else in the listing. I’d recommend adding the words Gold Plated to the title and description. Otherwise it will seem like a discrepancy.

As for the lengthy terms of sales in your description field, those could be shortened or some eliminated  altogether. For example, your terms regarding returns already exist in another  section of the listing. And if you state you accept returns, then you cannot pick and choose among the reasons for it. You accept all returns, including buyer’s remorse.

And sellers cannot withhold a portion of the refund from a buyer. Restocking fees are no longer allowed. (The exception is for free returns. If you offer free returns, then you can withhold up to 50% of the refund for an item returned in altered condition.)

[urban_picker]

I have promoted from 8% to 25 % (I have no costs in my goods) and I can tell you there is no difference in sales between them. Actually it seems like when I go over 20% my sales drop even harder. I have been saying promoted listings is a mess and has been for over a year now. When the site and everything seems to be working fin I sell $800-$1500 a day, when the site has clear issues which is most days I am in the $500-700 range with 49,000 items listed. I have lost all hope that the site will ever work properly everyday again.

[luckythewinner]

Although this feature is supposed to increase sales, I'm not seeing the desired results.

It is supposed to increase visibility, which may result in increased sales. A buyer still has to decide to buy, and all the promotion in the world can't cause that.