Sales Still Suffering? This Maybe Why!

[nuclearomen]

After a horrid September month and sales falling to lowest they been in a year I called EB MP, who connected me to Sales Team and what did we find? Promoted Listings dropped from the time I told them sale plummeted. Check your Performance -> Traffic and see if this affected you. Eb reported it to Tech Support to look into because - there is Nothing we can do about it, it's Ebay's job to promoted listings and generate traffic to your listings/store. Either something happened on the account or there is something wrong with the Promotional Campaign ebay has your listings in, mine is " Listing Campaign - US - 64" 

[mcdougle4248]

@nuclearomen 

Your graph looks like a few other posters in this thread: 

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Potential-problem-with-Promoted-Listings-impressions/m-p/31233... 

I have not kept up with the thread for a couple of days, but it seemed to be mostly affecting

Motors>Parts & Accessories, I think.  I bet the posters would welcome your input since you are in a totally different category.

[vintagewinecollector]

Good for you! Looks like Fenton is the hot thing to sell right now. 

[nuclearomen]

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@oneglassman wrote:

I just had to speak up, I am in MP's  and promote my listings my number are ALL UP** Listing Impressions UP 23.2%, Sales UP 75.6%.  Maybe it the type of items your selling versus what I sell.  So it's NOT affecting every seller.  Have a good one**

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@oneglassman 
I have been selling vinyl for over 20 years. To say my knowledge is extensive on the format would be a sever under judgement, literally, I've manufactured, distributed, recorded and mastered specially for vinyl as well as have done art/layouts. I know more about vinyl and the industry then likely most sellers. 2. incase you missed Sweetnam's Annoucement on Sep 7th, i'll provide it for you: A vinyl resurgence - Jordan Sweetnam, SVP + GM North America shares insights so no, it's not the type of item I'm selling, nor is it my prices as mine are typically cheaper then my competitors if they even have what I have and most of them do not. 

[nuclearomen]

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@mcdougle4248 wrote:

@nuclearomen 

Your graph looks like a few other posters in this thread: 

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Potential-problem-with-Promoted-Listings-impressions/m-p/31233... 

I have not kept up with the thread for a couple of days, but it seemed to be mostly affecting

Motors>Parts & Accessories, I think.  I bet the posters would welcome your input since you are in a totally different category.

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thanks, I made a small post there, just directing to this thread - not going to repost the same thing I did here. But YES, the OP charts are EXACTLY as mine, and like he said, sellers having the issue MUST report it to be able to get EBay to do something. 

[nuclearomen]

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@windhorseventures wrote:
I was talking about the international charges that are now being accessed in MP, even when is domestic sale, which were never charged for this client before I was forced into MP.
Not promotions, though I have known something was amiss when my sales fell off a cliff after 8/24.

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MP told me that as long as the buyer is registered in another country, and use US shipping address to a ship forwarding service the international fee applies... even though I don't sell internationally, US only. But yeah, that's why I called, because never seen these charges before either. 

[mam98031]

Mine are barely down at about 3% but my sales this year far exceeds last year, so I'm getting a better sell through rate from the views than last year to be sure.  It appears we are having all kinds of experiences with this.

[mam98031]

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@windhorseventures wrote:
I had one of my really good repeat buyers see on her end of things that her payment was processing. She got a hold of me and was very concerned and I had to explain to her what was going on. It does lead to the question on whether people aren't buying at all because they they are concerned.
Adding insult to injury, I also got charged an international fee on her sale even though her address is in Delaware. I guess she originally registered when she was still living in China. Sold to her many times before without being charged this, thanks MP.

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Are you sure about that.  PP had the same rule as MP on international sales.  Although thinking on that a bit more, PP would have decided that based on the PP account set up not Ebay's.

[mam98031]

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@oneglassman wrote:

I just had to speak up, I am in MP's  and promote my listings my number are ALL UP** Listing Impressions UP 23.2%, Sales UP 75.6%.  Maybe it the type of items your selling versus what I sell.  So it's NOT affecting every seller.  Have a good one**

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The issues the OP is talking about have nothing to do with MP.  Just selling in general.

[nuclearomen]

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@mam98031 wrote:

Mine are barely down at about 3% but my sales this year far exceeds last year, so I'm getting a better sell through rate from the views than last year to be sure.  It appears we are having all kinds of experiences with this.

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it is creating a varied experience, there are those not being hugely effect and those like me that are. However there is as said nothing we can do as the issue isn't in your listings themselves or how much you elect to promote listings...it's the campaign the listings are in and it's issue (whatever that is) is internal to ebay's systems and how they actually work/operate. Adjusting the percentage does nothing as that only determines the cut ebay gets if the item sells through that promoted listing...the campaign is what gets the listings seen, so i.e. much less promoting = much less impressions. 

These promoted listing never will hit a seller as to how much they can matter - until this happens and you see the sudden drop... feel it in your sales. Look on the charts and see numbers like 13,000 impressions and just say OK, where is the sales? but when you see those numbers drop to where everyone has been since Sep 3rd at approx 2,000 and have had extreme drop in sales that's when it hits and realize those impressions are actually making difference... I know my sales in past year since Promoted Listings really started went up, because ebay designed them to draw traffic to sellers promoted and non promoted listings - basically draw buyers to you store and maybe buy more was the idea, and of course for ebay to make $$ doing it. 

[oneglassman]

Thanks for explaining,  now I understand the situation a lot better.

[nuclearomen]

Ebay may have heard sellers, looks like the promoted listings are going back up, have to keep looking daily to know for sure...

[jaina_solo]

Hmm, I don't use promoted listings, and my sales are up a lot - up 80% since last month, up 50% from same period last year. I think the reason is COVID made it easier for me to get inventory since a lot of stores marked down what I sell cheaper this year?? But I can't know for sure. I was surprised though, to see how much it went up.

[nuclearomen]

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@jaina_solo wrote:

Hmm, I don't use promoted listings, and my sales are up a lot - up 80% since last month, up 50% from same period last year. I think the reason is COVID made it easier for me to get inventory since a lot of stores marked down what I sell cheaper this year?? But I can't know for sure. I was surprised though, to see how much it went up.

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your impressions will not be affected if you don't use promoted listings. 

[jaina_solo]

Yikes, so they charge you more while making it harder to sell. Oof.

[nuclearomen]

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@jaina_solo wrote:

Yikes, so they charge you more while making it harder to sell. Oof.

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not exactly... your only charged the percentage of a promoted listing the amount you elect to promote ONLY if the items THROUGH the promoted listing...most sales (for me) do not happen on the promoted listing but the normal listing instead. However, the idea is not to have all your listings sell through promoted listings, the whole thing is designed to drive more traffic to the listing you promote, but also all your other listings/store... so i.e. say you google a item... or your on ebay and type an item in search bar... what promoted listing does is raises the listing in the order of items that show up...so maybe your item has a lot of sellers with same thing... your item normal listing may fall on page 3, but the "sponsored" listing will be much higher in the results. Someone clicks on that listing, then they decide to see what else you have to sell and click "visit store" and now they are seeing all normal listings and maybe they decide to purchase one or a few of them, or maybe they decide to watch that item... you then don't get charged if they buy from the normal listing... is that good way of explanation??? 

The elected percentage on my listing for promoted listings are 1%, never any more then that...if item sells on that promoted listing maybe it's $0.20 or $0.50 ...small amount ebay makes on top of normal FVF