Sales dropped dramatically!!!

[www_directweld_eu]

Hi,

I have 2 accounts on eBay and they are business accounts.  One of them has ~ 3400 listings and nearly every listing has a variation! Another has 460 listings and also variations! They are popular items and very well selling for 10 years. Also, everything I sell is genuine items and I'm the official distributor for many German tools companies!  Sales dropped down last 2021 year but not dramatically BUT this 2022 year I lose sales on eBay by 75% 

When I contacted eBay with a request to check my accounts and just what happened - I received an answer that everything is fine with my accounts and metrics! Now I have 4 sales since the 5 of September (today is the 28 of September) When I checked my popular & good-selling items I find that they are located on page  Nr.8 ...????? I pay promotions and that is what eBay recommends, not just 2%! And I use the most popular promoting features.  HOW CHINA sellers are on the page Nr.1 with junk items and brand new accounts??? I understand that they have a very cheap price but shipping is slow and if there are some old sellers BUT their accounts have so much negative feedback!!! How does eBay let them be here and selling? 

I start checking all of my listings and I find that drill bit sets were located in the category "WOOD DRILLS"! HOW??? if I listed them in the specific categories for metal drills! I changed categories and after some time I found that these listings were again located in the category "WOOD DRILLS"! **bleep**???
Also, I find that many listings were renewed and listed on my behalf and I received orders BUT these items are out of stock! I canceled orders and removed these items AND of course, my metrics became worse.

I am so happy that I have Amazon - this isn't an advertisement, but those who have Amazon and have the same story as me - will understand!

Yesterday (26 of September) I received a message from eBay:

*** You’ve received this notification as your ‘Item not received’ rate is high or very high for the period between 01 Sep, 2021 and 31 Aug, 2022.

Service metrics are evaluated on the 20th of every month. We’ll review your transaction volume for the previous 3 or 12 months and your open ‘Item not Received’ cases compared to your peers listing in the same categories. We then assign you a rating of low, average, high or very high.

For example: You are evaluated on the June 20th and your lookback period is 3 months; that means we’ll review transactions from 1 Mar - 31 May.

You can find more details in your service metric dashboard under the Performance tab in Seller Hub. You can also learn more about how to monitor your service metrics here.

Consequences for very high item not received rates

Time will be added to delivery estimates on your listings in postage categories and listing sites where you are rated very high.
Listing sites where listings will have time added to delivery estimates are ebay.com, ebay.ca, cafr.ebay.ca, ebay.com.au, ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr, ebay.es, ebay.it and ebay.de.
Time extension will be automatically removed once you are no longer evaluated as very high on your following evaluation.
Further information can be found in the Service Metrics policy. ***

Today (28 of September) I received a message from Amazon:

**** Dear Seller,

We identified that more than 90% of your orders in the last three months have arrived before your promised delivery dates because your promised transit time is slower than your carriers delivery performance.

What does this mean for you?

Your performance indicates that setting a faster transit time could benefit you and the customer by showing a more accurate promised delivery date. In October, we will update your standard transit times ranges in shipping templates to values that are closer to your actual delivery times. As an example, if your transit time is set to 14-21 days and your preferred carrier is delivering within 10-12 days, we will update the transit time to 10-14 days.

No action is required from your side at the moment unless you want to further re-adjust the transit times. We will only adjust Standard Domestic Transit times in shipping templates. Your premium ship options, international and expedited templates will remain unchanged.

What are the advantages of adjusting to faster & more accurate transit time?

Faster transit times mean earlier delivery promise for your offers and customers are generally more likely to purchase products that have a faster delivery promise.

You can, at any time, update or change transit times in the shipping settings if you are unable to offer set transit times to the customers. ***

By these eBay and Amazon messages, I mean that I sell exactly the same items and use exactly the same shipping companies!!!!!!!

So, probably eBay became useless and dead! eBay representatives can't explain what is going on... probably they don't care just receive their salaries...

[mam98031]

There are several active threads on the vary subject.  You may want to look at them to see if there are any answers for you.

For Ebay to notify you that you have too many INRs is nothing like the email you got from Amazon nor does it even pertain to the same information.  Meaning Amazons is regarding how fast things got delivered to the buyers.  Ebay's message has to to with how many buyers filed INR claims against you in that period.  So you are not comparing apples to apples here on this one.

[www_directweld_eu]

I compare the right things! eBay tracking information is incorrect and therefore buyers opened "not received item cases"! Of course, these "buyers" aren't decent...! But after tracking by any third-party app like www.17track.net we see that buyer received the parcel! So, eBay should improve tracking history synchronization! Therefore here on eBay are many INR claims and therefore metrics dropped...
*** Also and this is very important for new sellers!!! *** AUSTRALIA doesn't provide tracking information for international shipping - especially for the National Post service!!! I think that eBay must pay attention to the INR claims/cases from Australia...

I selling here on eBay for ~ 10 years and I know what I said and what I compare! I saw many changes by eBay and most of them are really stupid! And for these stupid things by eBay, paid us, sellers! 

[earthdreamer]

Also and this is very important for new sellers!!! *** AUSTRALIA doesn't provide tracking information for international shipping - especially for the National Post service!!! I think that eBay must pay attention to the INR claims/cases from Australia...

This is not my experience.

I reside in Australia, and have made numerous purchases from the US over the years, and have always been provided with tracking if the seller has provided it. 

Additionally, have received most packages within 14 days, which is sometimes quicker than postage from within my own country. 

In 24 years, I have never made an INR claim against any US seller, so whatever issues you have encountered cannot reasonably be extrapolated to everyone down here. 

[duncanvr]

3400 active listings on one of the accounts. How many are older than 3 months? ebay has recently stated items older than 90 days do become stale listings. They only get found if someone does a direct title search or looks in your store for a specific item. They are hidden in main search results otherwise. If your below top rated as well your items can be lowered in the results. I recently saw a post someone needed to use 10-12% promoted to get his sales rolling again. I do believe the China sellers go much higher I heard some are doing 40-50% promoted to get at the top of the results they also do free shipping. Its very hard to compete with them. You need to find products they don't have and sell those, otherwise you'll always be in direct competition with the China sellers.

[inhawaii]

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@www_directweld_eu wrote:
They are popular items and very well selling for 10 years.

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 Apparently not any more. 

[mam98031]

@www_directweld_eu 

Ebay doesn't create their own tracking info.  The info they have is directly from the carrier.

Tracking internationally has always been an issue.

[mam98031]

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@duncanvr wrote:

3400 active listings on one of the accounts. How many are older than 3 months? ebay has recently stated items older than 90 days do become stale listings. They only get found if someone does a direct title search or looks in your store for a specific item. They are hidden in main search results otherwise. If your below top rated as well your items can be lowered in the results. I recently saw a post someone needed to use 10-12% promoted to get his sales rolling again. I do believe the China sellers go much higher I heard some are doing 40-50% promoted to get at the top of the results they also do free shipping. Its very hard to compete with them. You need to find products they don't have and sell those, otherwise you'll always be in direct competition with the China sellers.

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@duncanvr 

Stale listings can be an issue for sellers and they are lowered in search returns, however I am not sure they are stale after 90 days.  Also you said "They are hidden in main search results otherwise."  I'm not aware that happens either.  Where did you get this information?  Certainly they are lowered in the search return, but hidden completely, IDK.

[duncanvr]

I heard it from people at ebay open from ebay staff and yes they go stale after 90 days. What you need to do is what every other seller does. end a selection of the oldest each day then relist them but use the sell similar button not relist button. Once they go back up they have a new item number good for another 90 days. You have to do this daily and keep your store refreshed for more chances of your item being seen. I have another seller friend who has 3000 items and I can promise you at least 2000 of them are not being seen in the main search results. Oh and after the batch you do each day are back live with the new item numbers delete the unsolds each time. As mentioned do not use the relist button when you end then use sell similar and change nothing in the listings then hit submit. This brings you back to the newly listed. You can do 50 a day for a start. Try it on the oldest first.

[mam98031]

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@duncanvr wrote:

I heard it from people at ebay open from ebay staff and yes they go stale after 90 days. What you need to do is what every other seller does. end a selection of the oldest each day then relist them but use the sell similar button not relist button. Once they go back up they have a new item number good for another 90 days. You have to do this daily and keep your store refreshed for more chances of your item being seen. I have another seller friend who has 3000 items and I can promise you at least 2000 of them are not being seen in the main search results. Oh and after the batch you do each day are back live with the new item numbers delete the unsolds each time. As mentioned do not use the relist button when you end then use sell similar and change nothing in the listings then hit submit. This brings you back to the newly listed. You can do 50 a day for a start. Try it on the oldest first.

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"What you need to do is what every other seller does. end a selection of the oldest each day then relist them but use the sell similar button not relist button."  While I agree that some sellers do this on a regular basis, there are a whole lot of them that do not.

Personally I find it much easier to bulk edit my listings.  Change something on those listings cause it to reindex.  Reindexing will happen usually within 24 hours but can take a bit longer sometimes.  It is so much faster than closing listings and relisting them or using the sell similar.

[www_directweld_eu]

We are located in Latvia (EU) and if we use National Post - then Australia doesn't provide tracking information! You can find that on www.aupost.co.au This is direct message from their website: 

""" These messages might be shown for items sent using one of our international services that doesn’t come with tracking as a standard feature. These include:

• Registered Post International
• International Economy (Air and Sea)

No track events will be shown for these items. However, if the item was sent using Registered Post International, a signature will be obtained when the item is delivered. """

Another shipping method (courier company) will just be too expensive!!! And then definitely no one will buy!

[www_directweld_eu]

Still very well selling on Amazon! even better...

[lakefor94]

You cancelled orders that were out of stock and you blamed eBay. You have to keep up with the inventory or you end up with OOS defects that cost you an additional 5% or 6% in seller fees and you items get dropped lower in search results.

The INR's are not going to help your ratings in search. Especially the extended delivery times.  It is up to you to get a handle on your INR's and OOS defects. eBay is not doing that for anyone.  

I received the same basic letter from Amazon. Many of the same over time. Amazon is adjusting your domestic shipping times, not your international.  

[xpres_sales]

is this allowed by ebay to end items and relist them using sell similar?

[baydistributionllc]

"What you need to do is what every other seller does. end a selection of the oldest each day then relist them but use the sell similar button not relist button."  While I agree that some sellers do this on a regular basis, there are a whole lot of them that do not.

“Personally I find it much easier to bulk edit my listings.  Change something on those listings cause it to reindex.  Reindexing will happen usually within 24 hours but can take a bit longer sometimes.  It is so much faster than closing listings and relisting them or using the sell similar.”

This means you aren’t making any meaningful changes to the items and they are just going to go stale again. Everyone wants a quick solution and there isn’t one.

Everyone is an ebay seller these days and many of them would be content to list 15 garbage items and 3 good items. The will build up to a store with 10,000 items nobody wants. Since they sell the 3 good items they keep going. Before you know it the servers are overwhelmed with listings of garbage. They are forcing sellers to reevaluate old listing. Putting the same old listings up, even in bulk, won’t help. You need to try and understand why the item isn’t selling and make meaningful changes to help it sell. You can’t do that in bulk. 

Yea, you get a little bump doing that while it thinks your items are new but its not really a solution.

It sucks when they put you in a hole but I understand why they do it. Buyers would have to sift through a mile of trash.

I to end and sell similar. I don’t do it right away. I end and let sit in unsold. When I don’t have fresh inventory I go back and sell similar. I change anything I think will help. Lower price, different shipping, new pictures, lot up multiples, etc.

Bulk ending and selling similar without meaningful changes is just spinning your wheels.

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