Sudden drop in sales May 2022

[partfinds]

Please, report here if you recently within a week or so experienced sudden drop in sales. We can then ask Velvet to pass it on to technical team for review of the accounts. https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Updates-are-happening-to-some-item-specifics-and-category/m-p/...

[siamjane8]

some of them were 8x10 photos yes.... but none of them were x10 pro. Ebay ignored the actual direct word for word match and chose to show nude pics instead. proof being that the 5,6,&7 results were word for word- X10 Pro listings....  then another couple hundred nudes....

     The search is so over manipulated that it is the wild wild west on ebay anymore- no relevancy or connection to what was originally searched.. Their AI must have and IQ of 40.  

Relevancy = sales.

Ebay knows this because that was the point of the AI- to better match the search results with the intention of the buyer's search.  The problem is that not only have they failed at this attempt- they have made it 10x worse than just showing a direct keyword match based search

[nuclearomen]

@mr_lincoln @zamo-zuan 
...So just another update...since made changes as of today: 
Last 31 days Sales 🔼59.8%

Listing Page Views 🔼21.7%
Listing Impressions 🔼17.2%

PLS Impressions 🔼17.1% 

PLS Clicks 🔼21.86% 
PLS Sold 🔼12.50%
PLS Sales 🔼37.96% 
PLS Ad Fees 🔼76.89% 

Sales are basically every day again, just amount isn't back to what was prior - been a lot of 1 item per day then every few days 3-4 then repeat... still it's an improvement. 

[mr_lincoln]

@nuclearomen 

sell through rate is not what I need ... that's the bottom line ... MILLIONS of Impressions ... sales are not booming ... the Views info on Traffic is subjective until we get months away from the new counting method to really see what the new norm should be ... I am tempted to END all Fixed Priced listings by the last day of the month then Relist them ALL on September 1 just to see how Views get counted since they are supposedly reset each month.  That "should" give me a nice linear increase in Views as the month goes by and then reset on October 1 ... 

[nuclearomen]

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@mr_lincoln wrote:

@nuclearomen 

sell through rate is not what I need ... that's the bottom line ... MILLIONS of Impressions ... sales are not booming ... the Views info on Traffic is subjective until we get months away from the new counting method to really see what the new norm should be ... I am tempted to END all Fixed Priced listings by the last day of the month then Relist them ALL on September 1 just to see how Views get counted since they are supposedly reset each month.  That "should" give me a nice linear increase in Views as the month goes by and then reset on October 1 ... 

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@mr_lincoln that sales conversion rate was the same for me as you have for few weeks, it's now 0.6% pts - I do not understand this one myself, don't know how they calculate this or why it was neg 0.00 then positive 0.00 and took few weeks to get 0.6. 

Any ways... I ended and created new listings for a lot of my listings (year or more - didn't do all, still got some) some of those were where quantity had sold, i just had more copies. I ended them and created new listings - not relisted, and entered them into new campaign. It wasn't hard, I just use template and type the little info I need in description/specification for each title

[mr_lincoln]

@nuclearomen I have five items with bids heading into the weekend ... four of those are on a new batch of listings from a somewhat rare group of 15 items ... I anticipate the number of those items with bids to at least double this weekend ... this pattern is not unusual but the issue is with the other items that in the past sold on a regular basis but now don't.

[mr_lincoln]

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@mr_lincoln wrote:

@nuclearomen I have five items with bids heading into the weekend ... four of those are on a new batch of listings from a somewhat rare group of 15 items ... I anticipate the number of those items with bids to at least double this weekend ... this pattern is not unusual but the issue is with the other items that in the past sold on a regular basis but now don't.

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@nuclearomen 

Meant to add I will be watching to see if Impressions increase in volume between now and Sunday ... weekends have historically been busier times ... but at the end of that day and as mentioned, it's all about consistent sales ... 

[zamo-zuan]

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@nuclearomen wrote:

@mr_lincoln @zamo-zuan 
...So just another update...since made changes as of today: 
Last 31 days Sales 🔼59.8%

Listing Page Views 🔼21.7%
Listing Impressions 🔼17.2%

PLS Impressions 🔼17.1% 

PLS Clicks 🔼21.86% 
PLS Sold 🔼12.50%
PLS Sales 🔼37.96% 
PLS Ad Fees 🔼76.89% 

Sales are basically every day again, just amount isn't back to what was prior - been a lot of 1 item per day then every few days 3-4 then repeat... still it's an improvement. 

---

As you could see the economy obviously had a resurgence in the last couple weeks! It's completely turned around and is back on track again!  lol. (I hope the sarcasm was detected)

Coincidentally, a couple weeks back they DID fix the traffic page statistics. And from that date, suddenly traffic and sales have drastically improved from a number of people I've talked to. Sellers aren't stupid and could detect when somethings wrong, and displacing blame to the economy only serves to make it more frustrating. 

But now that the traffic reports seem accurate and to match each other, these are the more concerning numbers: 

Our Promoted impressions are far higher than Organic impressions. But our Organic views are far higher than our Promoted views. This implies that the Organic searches are better matching the customers search than Promoted, as more people are clicking the Organic listings than Promoted...

So how on earth are our conversion rates for PL more than DOUBLE the our Organic conversion rates...?

It doesn't pass the smell test. The weight of impressions on one side, views on the other, and conversion rate on the first side don't make sense. Furthermore, those PL conversion rates are astronomical for eBay, especially in our category.

Is it how sellers have reported repeat customers purchasing from their product history are coming up as Promoted purchases?

Is it because if you search a listing specifically by eBay ID it's counting as a PL purchase? 

Or is there another reason?

Either way, eBay is being far more obvious this year about their manipulation than they have in the past. 

[nuclearomen]

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@zamo-zuan wrote:

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@nuclearomen wrote:

@mr_lincoln @zamo-zuan 
...So just another update...since made changes as of today: 
Last 31 days Sales 🔼59.8%

Listing Page Views 🔼21.7%
Listing Impressions 🔼17.2%

PLS Impressions 🔼17.1% 

PLS Clicks 🔼21.86% 
PLS Sold 🔼12.50%
PLS Sales 🔼37.96% 
PLS Ad Fees 🔼76.89% 

Sales are basically every day again, just amount isn't back to what was prior - been a lot of 1 item per day then every few days 3-4 then repeat... still it's an improvement. 

---

As you could see the economy obviously had a resurgence in the last couple weeks! It's completely turned around and is back on track again!  lol. (I hope the sarcasm was detected)

Coincidentally, a couple weeks back they DID fix the traffic page statistics. And from that date, suddenly traffic and sales have drastically improved from a number of people I've talked to. Sellers aren't stupid and could detect when somethings wrong, and displacing blame to the economy only serves to make it more frustrating. 

But now that the traffic reports seem accurate and to match each other, these are the more concerning numbers: 

Our Promoted impressions are far higher than Organic impressions. But our Organic views are far higher than our Promoted views. This implies that the Organic searches are better matching the customers search than Promoted, as more people are clicking the Organic listings than Promoted...

So how on earth are our conversion rates for PL more than DOUBLE the our Organic conversion rates...?

It doesn't pass the smell test. The weight of impressions on one side, views on the other, and conversion rate on the first side don't make sense. Furthermore, those PL conversion rates are astronomical for eBay, especially in our category.

Is it how sellers have reported repeat customers purchasing from their product history are coming up as Promoted purchases?

Is it because if you search a listing specifically by eBay ID it's counting as a PL purchase? 

Or is there another reason?

Either way, eBay is being far more obvious this year about their manipulation than they have in the past. 

---

@zamo-zuan could be why sales are up lol... but yeah, shouldn't be that, i would figure the reason is maybe due to less listings are being shown on the promoted level and search results are returning the normal listing. As for me 8 sales this month via the Promoted 29 sale total since the 1st, 16 of those sales are not promoted at all. 

[ravensbeak]

Yeah, I don't know what's going on with ebay. My sales were regular every month up until May of this year. As well, the views on my items were regular, with every single item listed having at least SOME views. As well, in most months there were at least around 18-20, or more, items that had been favored. Then it was like somebody just flipped a switch. Since May I have been getting about one sale a month, two if I'm lucky, and the views on about 75% of my items remain at ZERO all month, and the number of items that are in the watch list is a mere fraction of what they once were.

Sure, this crappy economy may have something to do with all of this. I get that. But NOT to THIS extent. Something in ebay is broken, or not right, or something along those lines. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck...

I'm just a small seller, but before whatever happened happened, I made enough every month to help supplement my Social Security and help pay a few bills... and now... well, this crap is just insane!

I've been selling on ebay about five years now and have NEVER seen things this bad. As well, I have a close friend who has been selling on ebay since it first started and he's seen a total nose dive in his sales since May, too. Whatever in San Peteration is going on, ebay needs to fix it!! And fix it ASAP!

[nuclearomen]

@mr_lincoln they were here usually too, 2 weeks ago 8 sales on weekend, this past week was 5... see what this weekend does - no surprises 😉 

[nuclearomen]

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@nuclearomen wrote:

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@zamo-zuan wrote:

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@nuclearomen wrote:

@mr_lincoln @zamo-zuan 
...So just another update...since made changes as of today: 
Last 31 days Sales 🔼59.8%

Listing Page Views 🔼21.7%
Listing Impressions 🔼17.2%

PLS Impressions 🔼17.1% 

PLS Clicks 🔼21.86% 
PLS Sold 🔼12.50%
PLS Sales 🔼37.96% 
PLS Ad Fees 🔼76.89% 

Sales are basically every day again, just amount isn't back to what was prior - been a lot of 1 item per day then every few days 3-4 then repeat... still it's an improvement. 

---

As you could see the economy obviously had a resurgence in the last couple weeks! It's completely turned around and is back on track again!  lol. (I hope the sarcasm was detected)

Coincidentally, a couple weeks back they DID fix the traffic page statistics. And from that date, suddenly traffic and sales have drastically improved from a number of people I've talked to. Sellers aren't stupid and could detect when somethings wrong, and displacing blame to the economy only serves to make it more frustrating. 

But now that the traffic reports seem accurate and to match each other, these are the more concerning numbers: 

Our Promoted impressions are far higher than Organic impressions. But our Organic views are far higher than our Promoted views. This implies that the Organic searches are better matching the customers search than Promoted, as more people are clicking the Organic listings than Promoted...

So how on earth are our conversion rates for PL more than DOUBLE the our Organic conversion rates...?

It doesn't pass the smell test. The weight of impressions on one side, views on the other, and conversion rate on the first side don't make sense. Furthermore, those PL conversion rates are astronomical for eBay, especially in our category.

Is it how sellers have reported repeat customers purchasing from their product history are coming up as Promoted purchases?

Is it because if you search a listing specifically by eBay ID it's counting as a PL purchase? 

Or is there another reason?

Either way, eBay is being far more obvious this year about their manipulation than they have in the past. 

---

@zamo-zuan could be why sales are up lol... but yeah, shouldn't be that, i would figure the reason is maybe due to less listings are being shown on the promoted level and search results are returning the normal listing. As for me 8 sales this month via the Promoted 29 sale total since the 1st, 16 of those sales are not promoted at all. 

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@zamo-zuan was in rush before had to leave for a bit... so to finish... 
the conversion on your chart say the PL is more then the Organic - looks like had more views on the Organic but more sales on the Promoted could be sales those days were more from people who viewed the Promoted and necessarily viewed them that day? Even if they did view the Organic after they would still be sold on the Promoted (according to ebay) for 30 days after clicking that listing. In any case I didn't look at the comparisons between Organic and Promoted for conversions for myself, just looked at the seller hub overview for sales conversion rate, which yesterday was positive 0.6% and today is negative 0.00% and I sold 3x items since posting last night...like I said above to @mr_lincoln i don't understand how they are getting these wonky numbers where they change little or drastic within 12 hrs!? 

[mr_lincoln]

@nuclearomen 

I'm thinking the Traffic report with Impressions count is just bad data accumulation ... how can they show a % of Impressions being UP when the actual count has dropped by several hundred thousand Impressions ... 

and since the bottom line is resultant Sales (or lack of) then I am not "Impressed" with this information ... more like DE-pressed.

Anyway, it is what it is and maybe that kind of stuff impresses the share holders ...

[nuclearomen]

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@mr_lincoln wrote:

@nuclearomen 

I'm thinking the Traffic report with Impressions count is just bad data accumulation ... how can they show a % of Impressions being UP when the actual count has dropped by several hundred thousand Impressions ... 

and since the bottom line is resultant Sales (or lack of) then I am not "Impressed" with this information ... more like DE-pressed.

Anyway, it is what it is and maybe that kind of stuff impresses the share holders ...

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@mr_lincoln some of the stats seem to be not all correct - not sure what they have done in the past few weeks between PL's and Organic serach and algorithms so they maybe still working on stuff (? who knows anymore). Don't much care about that, just as long as sales continue to restore. 

[mr_lincoln]

@nuclearomen   Well, I just sent out 16 Offers ... will see if that yields anything ... could have sent more but busy working on other projects.

[zamo-zuan]

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@nuclearomen wrote:

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@zamo-zuan could be why sales are up lol... but yeah, shouldn't be that, i would figure the reason is maybe due to less listings are being shown on the promoted level and search results are returning the normal listing. As for me 8 sales this month via the Promoted 29 sale total since the 1st, 16 of those sales are not promoted at all. 

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It's true that they're showing less promoted links per search page. But I don't believe it's a coincidence that the numbers started appearing correctly at that time, either. Some numbers were obviously skewed in their system, and now they aren't, for the first time in months. 

I should also mention that part of the reason I feel that way is people who did NOT use PL had no issues with the statistics, and those who do use PL did have the statistics issues. So there was definitely a correlation between the statistics issue and promotions.

Regarding the PL views/conversions in your other post... Even if it was a promoted view from weeks earlier, that still doesn't explain more than double the amount of promoted purchases than organic, lol. Promotions shouldn't really have a significant effect on conversion rates - click through definitely - but not conversion rates. 

The fact that there's nearly double the organic views, while the double the amount of conversions just has it make even less sense. It compounds the odd statistics exponentially.