Seeking opinions on variations listings.

[inhawaii]

As a buyer, I hate it when I see a variations listing

where all the variations are sold out except for one or two items.

That's a huge turn off for me.

Now the tables are turned. 

I am the seller and I have a few variations listings where I can't  get any more inventory

and the number of leftover choices has dwindled own to one or two items.

Would you just leave it as a variations listing right down to the point where nothing is left?

Or would you break it down and list the few items that are left separately?

Thanks in advance for your opinions.

Have a great weekend!

[714ricki]

Aloha!!! I would leave the variation listing as is until everything sells out. Maybe update the primary photo to focus on what is remaining in stock. 🙏😎✌️

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

I don't do variation listings because my category doesn't allow/enable it. (Very frustrating as variation listings would be super helpful in some cases).

So my inexperience with variation listings leads me to ask... can't you just remove the "dead" varieties?

You will never be able to get those varieties again? Or you will not be able to get them for the foreseeable future?

Is there any reason you can't remove the 0 Qty varieties to reduce the dead space? Is there any reason you wouldn't want to remove the 0 Qty varieities?

In the future, couldn't you re-add the varieties if you get them in stock? Is there any reason you wouldn't want to or be able to?

[mam98031]

@ajs_coins_and_alchemy guess is spot on.  If you know you aren't going to get anymore in, go delete the variation.

However if when a buyer drops down the box that lists all your variation and it is only one page of choices, I wouldn't worry about it.  But if you have a longer list on the variation, you can clean it up to just what is available and then the buyer is less likely to get frustrated.

I get annoyed by listings that have 100+ choices and many are out of stock.  It is simply annoying to look through that long list.

[richard1rst]

I have run into the same thing. I have certain stickers that come in 3 sizes and I have them listed as a variation with your choice of size. One size sold out and I did nothing. Then I started getting emails asking when it would be back in stock. So now if one size sells out I change the listing to 2 variations by simply removing the missing one. If I then get down to just one then I redo the listing as a single item.

On the one hand I now do not have to answer a bunch of emails with a disappointing answer. And, I believe, it avoids irritating my customer. If they only see 2 with quantity then there is no reason to send an email as there would be if they saw 3, one of which with a zero quantity..

[dnasilver]

If you hate variations of listings, most likely others are the same. If you have the time, break them out.

[mam98031]

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@dnasilver wrote:

If you hate variations of listings, most likely others are the same. If you have the time, break them out.

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It is like most things in life.  Some like them and some don't.  I'm not sure which opinion offers the larger percentage.  I've had many buyers over the years buy several different things from the same listing.  It seems for some it makes purchasing much easier, not to mention the Volume discounts I can offer those from purchasing multiple items from the same listing.

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

Somewhat side tracked here...

On Amazon, I was shopping for the bubble mailers I always get. I always get them from the same seller.

They sell them in bundles of 100. So I always buy x batches of small and x batches of large. I saw a listing that advertised a bundle of 200, 100 of small & 100 of large. When I went to purchase this bundle of 200, it showed up in my cart as two separate items (two separate listings) bundled together.

Apparently on Amazon, you can have listing A ... you can have listing B .... and you can have a separate listing that is a package deal of A + B.

I feel like that would something great if we could do that on EBay (in some fashion). Although I understand it would likely get abused if it was put out with no limitations, crazy sellers would start creating listings for iPhones and blenders and start offering a iPhone + blender package deal.

I've tried doing this manually where I create listing A, listing B and listing A+B where I split my inventory across the listings, but it would be so much easier if it was a feature of eBay (someone buys listing A+B and it automatically deducts Qty 1 from each of listings A & B.)

Ughhh...one can dream, right?