Slowest week since I started...is it a search rankings thing?

[estep84_popsandmore]

I'm used to having a good day, then a slow day, then a huge day, then a couple slow ones, but I'm sitting at about $100 in 8 or 9 days. I can deal with things being slow sometimes, but I can't help but wonder if it has anything to do with showing up lower in searches.

I recently shifted away from free returns, as I sell a lot of heavier electronics these days, and I just can't afford to ship this stuff back when I get bombarded with returns. After that transition I had 2 really nice days, then lights out.

Is that the kind of thing that can happen? Seems a little...excessive.

PS, if you check my store you can see I'm all over the place, as I've shifted focus and haven't really settled on rebranding, but sales WERE good, so it's not an issue of the whole thing not taking off.

[cs497kcpope]

Yes there is something very wrong! I have very little traffic on most of my items:(

[coolections]

350 items listed and averaging 5 to 6 items sold A DAY and you're complaining. It must not be Ebay as that is GREAT NEWS. Most people would be thrilled with that high of a sell through rate.

[nghithuy-0]

You have a nice selection of items
I Luv the Raquel Welch VHS!!...lol
But seriously eBay is going through massive changes ( my opinion ) and those changes are hurting many many sellers.
The common thread is that sellers (me included ) are complaining for a sudden and massive decline in sales for no logical reason. For the last 10 months I've had sales go from 50 sales/ month to just 8 so far this month. I haven't changed a thing. Look at my 100% feedbak. happy customers and a fair amount of sales.
Just hang tuff and hope eBay realizes what they are doing to good sellers.

Peace

[coolections]

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@nghithuy-0 wrote:
You have a nice selection of items
I Luv the Raquel Welch VHS!!...lol
But seriously eBay is going through massive changes ( my opinion ) and those changes are hurting many many sellers.
The common thread is that sellers (me included ) are complaining for a sudden and massive decline in sales for no logical reason. For the last 10 months I've had sales go from 50 sales/ month to just 8 so far this month. I haven't changed a thing. Look at my 100% feedbak. happy customers and a fair amount of sales.
Just hang tuff and hope eBay realizes what they are doing to good sellers.

Peace

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Since you want to post the same exact thing using two different I.D's, I will reply the same to both your I.D.'s. I could be wrong, but I think using two I.D.'s on the message boards was against the board rules ?

@namtrag1 @nghithuy-0

It isn't that at all. Changes Ebay makes has no bearing on buyers, they do not even notice a selling policy change. In fact each and every change Ebay makes comes posters such as yourself saying the sky is falling. The numbers Ebay has is the same as always. What you have been saying for the last six months or so people have been saying for over 10 years. As far as search rankings it should not hurt much. Buyers rarely ever buy the first thing they see on the default best match. They switch to lowest price, ending soonest, or newly listed.

[marinermikes]

Some thing that I noticed recently.  Best Match!  I've always disliked best match and never ever used it for searching for items. A lot of buyers don't use best match until now. Within the last couple of weeks I noticed that my search setting defaults back to worst match every time I log on. I have had my setting on newly listed for years and never had to change it back! Now just like the mobile app, best match is being jammed down every ones throat once again. If your not paying attention you may not even notice it.

I believe this is how EBay controls those awful sellers who refuse to bend over and take their medicine and except free returns!  No free returns? Your listing will be buried in the last pages of the search. Won't suprise me one bit when they do away with all the other search options altogether!

[marinermikes]

Yep. I just did a search for my own items using worst match. I have around fifty pieces of walnut lumber for sale. All the same identical listings with just a change in pictures weight and dimensions. Two of those listings show up on the first couple of pages the rest I couldn't even find. No wonder I have almost no sales. I do have a note in the listings to look at my other items for sale to see the whole list of pieces.

Why would just two of my listings be on the first couple of pages? What makes those two a better best match than the rest of my listings?

I sold over fifty pieces of this wood in January February and March. At the time I wasn't even a TRS. Since then I've sold maybe five pieces. The decline all started when this best match thing reared it's ugly head! One more thing. It doesn't change just when you log in, it also changes back to best match every time you do search. This place is beginning to smell bad!

[thatsallfolks]

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@marinermikes wrote:

Yep. I just did a search for my own items using worst match. I have around fifty pieces of walnut lumber for sale. All the same identical listings with just a change in pictures weight and dimensions. Two of those listings show up on the first couple of pages the rest I couldn't even find. No wonder I have almost no sales. I do have a note in the listings to look at my other items for sale to see the whole list of pieces.

Why would just two of my listings be on the first couple of pages? What makes those two a better best match than the rest of my listings?

I sold over fifty pieces of this wood in January February and March. At the time I wasn't even a TRS. Since then I've sold maybe five pieces. The decline all started when this best match thing reared it's ugly head! One more thing. It doesn't change just when you log in, it also changes back to best match every time you do search. This place is beginning to smell bad!

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2,767 listings for "black walnut lumber, and you're complaining because "only" 3 of yours are on Page 1 (actually 4), out of 50 listings???

Wow.

I also found 2 on Page 1, 1 on Page 3, 2 on Page 7, etc.

[amazing_gifts]

I did a search for your alice in wonderland. When using auther in the search yours comes up on top. without it though you are invisible. Maybe put the auther at the end of the title.

[dadsfloridatreasure]

I find it very discouraging and unfair that when a seller makes a post like this about the recent slow sales, there is always a reply that states the only problem is the seller, and not eBay, and that's the only answer.

Everyone wants to relate it to the economy, bad/good weather, school is out, people aren't buying vintage anymore, your prices are too high, no one wants your products, you're the problem, etc., etc., etc. 

The fact is something strange is going on with eBay.  I've consistantly averaged at least 1 sale per day for 5 years straight and since the June 1st upades, I had a 7 day stretch with only 1 sale and only 8 sales so far this month.  This coming off the month of May with 67 sales and 80 new listings, although many of these new listings have 0-5 views for days or even weeks on end.

No, I don't sell the hot selling iPhone, smart watches, Kate Spade purses, Beats headphones, Star Wars toys, or made in China typical Wal-Mart or Target junk that some of you sell and have no problem waking up to 20 sales a day.  But I know my business, competetively price, properly use keywords and metadata, take more photos than some and add more details than others and have been successful for 20 years here on eBay no matter what I offer.

So for those of us to say, and I'm reading it's happening to more all the time, that all of a sudden views are non-existant, sales are non-existant, and search results are buried, there certainly is something going on here that we're not being told.

[inflationbeaters]

I want to buy many things on ebay because I have an ebay bucks promo but the search isn't working from home page or any specific search category.  When I go to search page or search from home page I get error message that looks like this,

Something went wrong. We're sorry.

If you want to start over, go to the homepage. If you're stuck, let us help you.

[thatsallfolks]

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@inflationbeaters wrote:

I want to buy many things on ebay because I have an ebay bucks promo but the search isn't working from home page or any specific search category.  When I go to search page or search from home page I get error message that looks like this,

Something went wrong. We're sorry.

If you want to start over, go to the homepage. If you're stuck, let us help you.

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I'm also getting a bunch of "Something went wrong" screens on searches. Refreshing the screen doesn't help, but repeating the search does.

[marinermikes]

Nope.  I'm actually complaining about the forced best match. I talk to a lot of Ebayers and none of them use best match in the past to search for a item. When I list I try to do it all at once so that the listings are all together in a newly listed or ending soonest search. Best match sends them willie nillie all over the place.

I had a couple of buyers wanting to make me offers on all my lumber not realizing how many listings I had. When I tell them how many they had no idea that I had that many. Now I know why. Best match. If I could change it and it would stay and not go back to the default I would not have a problem but I have to change it every search now.

If you saw my listings the way you say and I'm sure you did I would say that your search results for best match came out different than mine.

[thatsallfolks]

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@marinermikes wrote:

Nope.  I'm actually complaining about the forced best match. I talk to a lot of Ebayers and none of them use best match in the past to search for a item. When I list I try to do it all at once so that the listings are all together in a newly listed or ending soonest search. Best match sends them willie nillie all over the place.

I had a couple of buyers wanting to make me offers on all my lumber not realizing how many listings I had. When I tell them how many they had no idea that I had that many. Now I know why. Best match. If I could change it and it would stay and not go back to the default I would not have a problem but I have to change it every search now.

If you saw my listings the way you say and I'm sure you did I would say that your search results for best match came out different than mine.

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I didn't realize clicking "see other items" on any of your listing pages was that hard.

[estep84_popsandmore]

To be fair, I got the sales going again. When I posted originally I had around 275-300 and was selling almost nothing. Literally, nothing for a week before I posted here. I ended up doing free returns and free shipping and it was like eBay unlocked the front door. Boom...sales.

[trustedbasset]

I don't know if this happened to any other seller but I think I'm being punished. 

I started selling on another sight and had my eBay listing transferred to that sight. Since I have had very little going on. 

I'm pretty diverse in my listings and my prices are not way out there and I accept offers. I usually have 10 packages to mail on Mondays from the weekend. I had one today.