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Sales & Visibility

Assuming that there is adequate demand for a product and that it is listed appropriately, it seems to be that the only way on eBay to significantly increase sales on a sustainable level is to increase your product's visibility.  And the only way to significantly increase the products visibility is to increase sales.  So there appears to be a which came first, the chicken or egg scenario.

 

 For example, we might have an item that sells on average 1 every 4 days.  If we get lucky and sell 2 in one day or maybe 3 over a 2 day period, then eBay appears to pick up on the increase and will boost the visibility of that item and it seems that sales spike over the next few days to about 8 over the course of a week.  The same thing seems to happen on the other side of the coin; if we usually sell 1 of a particular item every 4 days and maybe go a week without selling any, then we probably won't see another sale for that item for another 2-3 weeks as eBay seems to reduce its visibility further.  

 

We have seen this scenario play out a countless number of times.  I have one particular item in mind that from March to the end of June we only sold 2 of.  Starting at the end of June, we sold 3-4 over a short period of time.  Over the next several weeks we sold an additional 25-30.  Then we ran out of supply.  So we ordered more and now that we have them again, we have sold about 2 over the last 6 or 7 weeks.  The price is fantastic, the pictures we used have been taken by a professional photographer, I think we have only had 1 returned and the feedback has been all highly positive.  The demand for this product is there.

 

I have seen this story play out where eBay reduces visibility when a product doesn't sell and increases it when it starts to get a little bit of traction in the market.   I use promotions, promoted listings, sales etc...is there anything else I can do to get better visibility?  The demand for the product is there as proven by the fact that once my items do start to sell, then there is that sort of a snowball effect where sales beget more sales due to increased visibility.  I truly feel that my sales would  at least be 250% greater if it were not for the games eBay/Cassinni play with an item's visibility.     

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Sales & Visibility


@cb-boards wrote:

Assuming that there is adequate demand for a product and that it is listed appropriately, it seems to be that the only way on eBay to significantly increase sales on a sustainable level is to increase your product's visibility.  And the only way to significantly increase the products visibility is to increase sales.  So there appears to be a which came first, the chicken or egg scenario.

 

 For example, we might have an item that sells on average 1 every 4 days.  If we get lucky and sell 2 in one day or maybe 3 over a 2 day period, then eBay appears to pick up on the increase and will boost the visibility of that item and it seems that sales spike over the next few days to about 8 over the course of a week.  The same thing seems to happen on the other side of the coin; if we usually sell 1 of a particular item every 4 days and maybe go a week without selling any, then we probably won't see another sale for that item for another 2-3 weeks as eBay seems to reduce its visibility further.  

 

We have seen this scenario play out a countless number of times.  I have one particular item in mind that from March to the end of June we only sold 2 of.  Starting at the end of June, we sold 3-4 over a short period of time.  Over the next several weeks we sold an additional 25-30.  Then we ran out of supply.  So we ordered more and now that we have them again, we have sold about 2 over the last 6 or 7 weeks.  The price is fantastic, the pictures we used have been taken by a professional photographer, I think we have only had 1 returned and the feedback has been all highly positive.  The demand for this product is there.

 

I have seen this story play out where eBay reduces visibility when a product doesn't sell and increases it when it starts to get a little bit of traction in the market.   I use promotions, promoted listings, sales etc...is there anything else I can do to get better visibility?  The demand for the product is there as proven by the fact that once my items do start to sell, then there is that sort of a snowball effect where sales beget more sales due to increased visibility.  I truly feel that my sales would  at least be 250% greater if it were not for the games eBay/Cassinni play with an item's visibility.     


I'm afraid I find it's more of a total peak and valley for me. Doesn't seem to matter what the items are. I'm either getting better visibility for a period of time and then the draught happens for a few weeks, then it starts all over again. So far this year it's been awful during April, June and now September. Sure hope it doesn't happen in December. slight_frown

Message 2 of 18
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Sales & Visibility

I've read that listing new items every day may increase your over all visibility as buyers check out the new listings and may look at your old ones as well.

Message 3 of 18
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Sales & Visibility

Hope your sales increase soon!

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Sales & Visibility

I'll give that a shot.  I have always been told that if an item doesn't sell within 30 days to end the listing, then instead of "re-listing" hit sell similar.  Therefore it comes up as a new item.  I might start doing that for every 2 weeks an item doesn't sell.

 

 Why does eBay make it so difficult for us to make money for them??? 

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Sales & Visibility

Of course, all this "visibility" or lack of, refers to placement in Best Match.  If a seller's chance of getting a sale is so dependent on how they place in Best Match, then the game is already lost.   There is a lot of competition with other sellers on eBay, so you need to stand out from the other sellers in other ways than just Best Match. 

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Sales & Visibility

I've also heard the sell similar thing, but I read recently that those that had it in their Watch List won't see that it is relisted on the old listing.

Message 7 of 18
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Sales & Visibility

So you are between a rock and a hard place.

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Sales & Visibility

Definitely true about the watch list; it doesn't come without negative consequences but overall I think ending the listing and using the "sell similar" feature is the better of the 2 options.
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Sales & Visibility


@cb-boards wrote:

Assuming that there is adequate demand for a product and that it is listed appropriately, it seems to be that the only way on eBay to significantly increase sales on a sustainable level is to increase your product's visibility.  And the only way to significantly increase the products visibility is to increase sales.  So there appears to be a which came first, the chicken or egg scenario.

 


Not sure where you got increased sales = increased visibility?  Example would be   -   I sold 15 items to a single buyer not 15 separate buyers

 

There is also more than one way to increase sales besides increased visibility.

 

eBay has lots of tools available to its sellers including the seller hub that can help you identify ways to increase sales.  Try this link for more info in this area eBay seller tools

 

If your thread is about the econbyte blog released today I would be careful what you are reading in that blog.  There phrasing never tells the entire story but designed to fit there agenda.  Many times it is not what they are telling you but more importantly what they are not telling you. 

 

Good Luck Selling!

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Sales & Visibility


@cb-boards wrote:

I'll give that a shot.  I have always been told that if an item doesn't sell within 30 days to end the listing, then instead of "re-listing" hit sell similar.  Therefore it comes up as a new item.  I might start doing that for every 2 weeks an item doesn't sell.

 

 Why does eBay make it so difficult for us to make money for them??? 


Your priorities seems to be way out of sync with being successful selling online, let alone ebay as a marketplace.

 

Good Luck Selling!

Message 11 of 18
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Sales & Visibility


@goodluckselling wrote:

@cb-boards wrote:

Assuming that there is adequate demand for a product and that it is listed appropriately, it seems to be that the only way on eBay to significantly increase sales on a sustainable level is to increase your product's visibility.  And the only way to significantly increase the products visibility is to increase sales.  So there appears to be a which came first, the chicken or egg scenario.

 


Not sure where you got increased sales = increased visibility?  Example would be   -   I sold 15 items to a single buyer not 15 separate buyers

 

There is also more than one way to increase sales besides increased visibility.

 

eBay has lots of tools available to its sellers including the seller hub that can help you identify ways to increase sales.  Try this link for more info in this area eBay seller tools

 

If your thread is about the econbyte blog released today I would be careful what you are reading in that blog.  There phrasing never tells the entire story but designed to fit there agenda.  Many times it is not what they are telling you but more importantly what they are not telling you. 

 

Good Luck Selling!


But if the OP was referring to the ecommercybytes article they would’ve seen there are many factors other than sales that influences visibility.

 

OP- IMHO sales are important to the algorithm but there are other factors in play. Since you’re not posting with your selling account, it’s hard to know how to improve 

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Sales & Visibility


@goodluckselling wrote:

@cb-boards wrote:

I'll give that a shot.  I have always been told that if an item doesn't sell within 30 days to end the listing, then instead of "re-listing" hit sell similar.  Therefore it comes up as a new item.  I might start doing that for every 2 weeks an item doesn't sell.

 

 Why does eBay make it so difficult for us to make money for them??? 


Your priorities seems to be way out of sync with being successful selling online, let alone ebay as a marketplace.

 

Good Luck Selling!


Lol

 

OP- I’m not here to make $ for EBay- just for me.

 

If it was easy than everyone would do it and there’d be even more sellers clogging up the site than there are now.

 

Take a walk, shake it off, then get to work

Message 13 of 18
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Sales & Visibility

I've been selling for 8 years on eBay and do about $250-300k a year in sales. I have 2 accounts...one has a 99.8% FB rating and the other a 99.7%. Pretty good FB for apparel as it is one of , if not the , hardest categories to sell in. My return rate is about 4.5% which is much better then the 10% rate for most apparel retailers and I use studio quality photographs taken by a professional photographer. Once my items do sell a little more then average, they tend to do much better in the immediate future.

I extrapolate that to mean a a few things 1) there is demand for the products and 2) I am pricing my items appropriately (we very frequently get thanked in our feedback for the quality items at a great price and have a lot of repeat buyers) 3) they are listed properly...we don't key word spam and are in the correct categories and 4) the overall gist of my post which is essentially that sales seem to create greater visibility which in turn creates more sales.

There are always ways to improve and by no means am I trying to suggest that I can't create a better listing. We all have things we can learn from one another. But I do sincerely believe that if my listing, for whatever reason, doesn't seem to get any traction for a certain period of time will have vastly diminished visibility due and get buried on the bottom of the 3rd page of a buyer's search.

I'm just trying to get input from others who might have had similar issues in the past and learned how to overcome them as I truly believe I should be doing about $600k a year in sales at this point.
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Sales & Visibility

LOL!
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