Sales drop off problem

[warren689]

Hi guys,

Like many of you I noticed a sudden drop in sales. I usually would sell 6 or 7 items a month then it was like someone turned the fawcett off In october.  The customers just disappeared. I have good merchandise and offer fair prices and tried the usual suggestions of lowering prices and changing the headers around to no avail. I have now figured out what the problem is for ALL of us. It's google. 8 out of 10 internet shoppers GOOGLE what they are looking for and purchase from one of the vendors presented. Ebay listings are not showing up but ironically POSHMARK listings are. When I google any item I carry none of my listings show up on google but Poshmark, Tradesy, and major retailers whose items are sold out do.  Something happened that caused ebay results not to show up no matter what search criteria I use. I could type in "Brahmin EBAY" and I still get nothing. If items don't show up how will customers find us? Most people don't think to shop ebay for fashion and will go to one of the retailers on the first page of google results. What did ebay do to cause this? And Do they plan to fix it? If 80% of internet traffic is going elsewhere then how will anyone including ebay make money?

[coolections]

Your item are visible. What happened is you got lowered on best match. No one in a million years will search 200 pages to find your skirt, shoes, pants, blouse, or anything else 2 million people are selling. The good news is if you go with lowest price most buyers switch to lowest price when searching so your item will show up sooner.

[goldrushfinds]

"How will they make money", we don't and eventually they won't either. If their stock price is any indication of the health of their company, those in charge better figure out a strategy to better compete. Don't want the snowball to keep rolling down hill.

[rdj831]

The interesting experiment to test your theory would be to do listings on the sites showing up the most in google shopping search results.

On some sites, you have to pay them to show your listings on google.

[warren689]

I think you mistunderstood. I'm not talking about ebay search, I am talking about searching on google. For instance, if I search a specific style of designer dress on google that is sold out everywhere, my ebay listing should show up on google and it doesn't. Instead some seller on Poshmark gets that honor who is offering it for $50 more than me. A few months ago that was not the case. Ebay listings are invisible on google search engine.

[warren689]

When I first started selling ALL my listings showed up on Google with pics. Right at the top of the search page. Now only Poshmark sellers are showing up. Is google in bed with Poshmark?

[warren689]

I think Amazon is looking to buy ebay. It's their only real competition.

[coolections]

@warren689

Very few search google to shop on Ebay. Ebay has been around 20 years. Those who want to buy your clothes on Ebay will search Ebay. You cannot rely on google to get Ebay buyers as those are two completely different entities and Ebay has departed ways with google years ago.

[nopans0]

I went from 10-15 items a day being sold to maybe 5 to 7 a week, Most people cant find my items when they search, sometimes I cant even find them, they need to make it so everyone can see your items again.

[coolections]

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@nopans0 wrote:

Most people cant find my items when they search.

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@nopans0

I checked 5 of your items and found every one so stopped there. People see your stuff. I cannot give the actual results because for some reason the post will get removed. I can tell you that a few where within the first few shown.

[sharingtheland]

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@coolections wrote:

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@nopans0 wrote:

Most people cant find my items when they search.

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@nopans0

I checked 5 of your items and found every one so stopped there. People see your stuff. I cannot give the actual results because for some reason the post will get removed. I can tell you that a few where within the first few shown.

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Did you search for OP's items on google ?

[dhbookds]

Isn't that yours in the center? 

That said, you need to beef up your titles, with more descriptive, inviting terms.....colors, sizes, etc.  On that coat, you have it listed as an XL, "fits size 12" best.  With no measurements, you're inviting someone to buy as an XL but is not a 12, to file a not as described, even if that's the way BJ items fit.........

[nopans0]

I have 1162 items so i guess 5 out of 1162 is not bad LOL. Plain and simple my items are not being seen, the promotional deal killed all sales pretty much, not sure who thought up of that idea, but it was a VERY bad one

[fashunu4eeuh]

@warren689, you are right about something happening between Google and eBay. It’s been several years ago but basically eBay was gaming the system to get better placement for listings. Google was not amused and essentially pulled eBay listings off their platform. The effects were felt over several years and now things seem better.

Better but maybe not a complete recovery. I’m not an expert in these matters, but hope i’ve covered the gist of things. Below is a link to an article with details.

https://searchengineland.com/google-ebay-penalty-cost-197031/amp

(2014) “Earlier this year, eBay was hit with a search penalty by Google. The loss of traffic resulting from that has been noticeable enough that eBay acknowledged it in a financial call this week, suggesting it may have cost up to $200 million in revenue...”

[teebasket]

your link is from back 2014, which is not relevant. But there is something happening between ebay and google. I hardly finding any ebay links in google search, but mercury , etsy and poshmark are everywhere. Poshmark is ridiculous with its 20% sellers fee and they charge people for shipping too much. So they do profit from sales and shipping fees also. Still they have preferable search results in google.