Simply-the-best-for-you Volunteer Community Mentor
OK, clothing seller here, been selling here since 97, pretty much exclusively clothing for about 14 years. Take a look at my listings & also Chapeau's who answered you previously & is an amazing clothing seller. There are a lot of issues with your listings, sorry to say. Good news is they're all fixable! As others have mentioned, drop the AI & give measurements. But to me the most obvious thing is your pictures need a LOT of work. Even the good ones are WAY too dark. You need good lighting, there are 1000 videos & write-ups on the net of how to accomplish that for $30 or so (I do it for free by going outside). You need to present clothing in a manner that is appealing. 99% of the time that means a clutter-free, well lit photo of the WHOLE item. Almost never is a close-up of a section of an item, an appropriate main photo (there are exceptions, like your harley-davidson tee, it works there). Remember, the main pics are zoomable, so people can see the close up by hovering. You also need to use a background burner. Way too much clutter & other stuff in there. You want CLEAN solid color well lit backgrounds. Panties on fur, inside of a picture frame? Huh? Nope. Solid white, cream or gray background. Nothing else in the photos. The close up of the afghan, no, it looks like microscopic germs or something, I'm sorry but I didn't even know what I was looking at & it makes it look unnattractive. The pics with the weird circles, I can't even figure out what I'm looking at, but assuming they're shadows b/c the circles are appearing all over the item. The lime green top with the red writing on it saying the color is wrong, No, go fix the lighting. You can fix lighting (to a point) in any photo editor, but since almost all your pics are affected, your time would be better spent getting yourself a good lighting set up, then just tweaking as necessary. Plus editing lighting will often mess with color tone. Lighting is extra important for clothes b/c color is so important when buying clothing.
Also, the background burner will lighten your pics if you use a white background. I believe eBay's photo editor has their own, but I use this free one:
https://www.photoroom.com/tools/background-remover
there are other good free ones too.
Ok, a couple of other things, someone else mentioned it, don't give discounts just cuz people ask, those are often 'bottom feeders' & they always seem to find something 'wrong' with the item. They expect perfection for $5. Value your items, present them well & others will value them too.
Now here's the controversial part. Take it for what it's worth, many will disagree with me. I have been No Returns for pretty much all my time on eBay. I have experimented at times with allowing returns, but allows go back to No Returns. Keep in mind, if you get a SNAD, you must still accept the return. HOWEVER, let me tell you what happened the last time I allowed returns, I tried it for 2 months. First of all, let me tell you that with No Returns, I almost never even get asked! Maybe 3x a year. I can say no to anyone unless it's a SNAD (and I do). So I did a test 2 years ago now where I allowed them for what was supposed to be a 2 month trial. Suddenly, I had like 8 returns, that's about 4 YEARS worth for me, but ok, I could have lived with that. Except that 5 of them lied & made it a SNAD reason & so suddenly my SNAD rate was like 6 years worth of SNAD's in a month. Needless to say, I went back to no returns & I have had maybe 2 SNAD's since in the 2 or maybe it was 3 years, since then. I think I had 2 return requests all last year, which is about normal for me, though some years I have 0. I'm not a high volume seller though, I'm sure these numbers would be way different if I was high volume or was not a perfectionist.
So, consider going no returns. Also, some people say that doing seller paid returns works well for them b/c people think they have forever to return the item & often don't ever return it. I'm not brave enough to do that with clothing, but I concede that it can work with other categories. Buyers have become far more entitled & willing to lie about a SNAD. Over the last 10 years, I've experimented with returns many times & never had this kind of crazy results that I did the last time. But I got so many SNAD's it was putting me in danger of having to pay higher fees if I got much more. Also, know that the way eBay presents the return reason choices has SNAD options near the top, so many buyers will click on 'item was not as described' thinking they're just asking to return & having no idea that it's a SNAD. Sometimes they aren't trying to get a free ride, they just want to return the item.
Don't feel bad, these are common newbie mistakes & they're easy to fix. It sounds like a lot of work, but once you have a good lighting set up & stop doing the odd close-ups, I suspect a lot of your issues will go away. Your sales will improve b/c people will be able to accurately see what they're buying.
ETA; I'd stick with the hanging presentation, the flat lays look very sloppy, although the color is better in some like that jean jacket. The flat lay color is good, but it's a crumpled mess. Your first 3 pics show 3 TOTALLY different colors for the same item. No wonder you're getting returns. Describe like there's no photos & photograph like there's no description! Lots of buyers NEVER bother to read the description!
@bellagotti24 So glad to see you're taking the responses in the spirit given & are going to make changes. I just left a long, doozy of an explanation, but with 28 years of selling under my belt, mostly clothing, it's a worthwhile read even tho' it's a dose of tough love. Here's the thing, you're already way ahead of most who post here, b/c you're willing to listen to the feedback objectively & make changes! Most people really just come here to complain. They ignore the feedback & are back here 6 months later making the same complaints & not having made any of the improvements that people took their time to suggest. The fact that you can look at it objectively, puts you above the masses & will go a long ways towards making you successful here.
@hgil8527 No Returns, means you can decline REMORSE return reasons. It does NOT mean you can decline SNAD returns. No Returns works just fine for declining remorse returns, I have done it tons of times, but yeah, you can't decline a SNAD.
I'm sorry you had a bad experience but as a 28 year seller, for me, less than 1% of sales has an issue. 99.999% of them go great. The few returns I've allowed have gone fine. I've had exactly 1 scam attempt in 28 years, which I recognized as such & didn't bite. Lots of people are very successful on here. But you do have to know the rules, source smartly & taking a loss, no matter how unpleasant happens to everyone in business at some point or another.
@hgil8527 wrote:INAD ("Item Not As Described") or SNAD ("Significantly not as described") can mean anything. It's just a category of claim. The level of significance is unclear, but if a buyer asks for a refund you have to honor it no matter what you wanted policy-wise .. even if you suspect the seller destroyed the item yourself.
@hgil8527 That is not a true statement. I've denied probably 100 requests for returns. It depends on the REASON chosen for the return request whether you're allowed to deny it or not. I do understand that buyers can lie & that a SNAD can mean anything & that even if a buyer opens it as a SNAD incorrectly (intentional or not, I've had both), that you cannot deny the request.
However, a properly opened non-SNAD reason return request can absolutely be Denied & the 'Deny this Request' option will show up for you. I've done it many times. I will concede though that it can be frustrating b/c I sometimes feel like I'm denying the ones who follow the rules & rewarding the ones who lie.
<<As far as I know, there is absolutely nothing that can be done by a seller once the buyer decides to hit that button / go that route, other than dragging it out over time, which really serves no purpose other than to delay the inevitable in exchange for a lot of overhead.>>
NOT correct. If they open the request with what eBay deems a non-SNAD reason and you are No Returns, you can absolutely deny the request. Like I said, I have done it many times & it has always been available since they implemented this. Non-SNAD reasons vary by Category. The buyer gets a dropdown choice. Some of those choices are deemed SNAD reasons by eBay & others are deemed Remorse reasons. It totally depends on which one the buyer chooses. For example in Clothing, if the buyer chooses 'Doesn't Fit' or 'Changed My Mind', you WILL have the option to Deny the request. I'm paraphrasing the names of the reasons b/c I don't recall exactly what they are.
@hgil8527 Also, just to be clear, IF you Deny a Return Request b/c you have the option to do so, the buyer may still leave FB. So that's something to consider. Personally, I do it pretty smoothly, so I have never rec'd a NEG/NEUT for denying, but it is a possibility.
Good luck with your shoe sale!
@chienoir wrote:Well said! Yes, if a remorseful or shady buyer is trying to force a return without a valid reason, you as a seller can and should challenge the SNAD return. ("Significantly" is the operant word in SNAD. ) Sometimes if you question the buyer carefully about their fraudulent claim, the truth will be revealed. That will help you present your case or an appeal to eBay to show that the buyer is lying or trying to force an unwarranted return.
@chienoir Thank you & I love your user name. Though I can't agree with you about not selling women's clothing. I've done it seriously for about 12 -14 years & honestly, I maybe have 1-2 problem tx's a YEAR. But I'm a woman, so I'm probably more familiar with sizing & I'm super detail oriented, which helps. Of cousre I would never say a man can't be successful at it, but being a woman helps with the extremely complex sizing & having been a fashionista for many decades doesn't hurt either. I know the brands, I know which run small & large or weird 🙂
Just so you know though, eBay no longer adjudicates cases, so while you should definitely put the buyer on your BBL & report them (if they are lying), there's no point in fighting it anymore & your acct can end up worse than if you just accepted the return. They quit adjudicating about 4-5 years ago.
BTW your bag complaint probably had merit. It is a well known issue about the plastic ziploc style interior bags that we clothing sellers discuss ad infinitum on other boards. There are issues with the machinery from time to time, that makes them smell smoky. Also, since most of us buy the bags from a couple of the same sellers, when they have a bad batch, it affects us all & there's an uproar. Your buyer likely got one of those. Smoky smelling inner bags have been an issue for over 10 years now. It's when an equipment malfunction happens & honestly probably happens with all the sellers cuz they aren't manufacturing their own bags. Compounded by the fact that the plastic smells smoky to begin with, so when there's a bad batch they get extra smoky & the sellers all get up in arms b/c people can think our items smell like smoke. It's a continual problem & most clothing sellers notice it on their own bags & don't use those. If you're not aware of the issue, I can see how it can seem ridiculous, but it's not, b/c the bag can impart the smoke smell to the item. My worst ever was a buyer that left me a neg cuz a wool sweater was "ichey". Ummm, it's a wool sweater, of course it's "ichey". If you don't want that, don't buy wool LOL. Good selling to you!
