Views

[inhawaii]

Recently  I've seen a bunch of sellers coming here complaining about slow sales because ebay has been messing with views.

Let's agree that  ebay has been messing with views.  Let's say the views are TOTALLY SCREWED UP.  

How does that effect sales?

[bonddm_07]

I think more views equal more demand for your product and then you can adjust your price.

[chapeau-noir]

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@richard1rst wrote:

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

The many views and no sales simply drops the item in search (one metric is relevancy),

That is an interesting thought which I hadn’t considered.

If I could explore that with you a bit.

When the views count was for the entire time that the listing was up it would seem to make sense for slow selling items. But I have some listings that sell on a regular basis and I constantly restock before they run out. As a result some of my listings are as much as 4 years old - but still selling well - except I had no idea of the currentliness (I think that’s a word?) of the views.

I checked my current listings and many of them have a few to a dozen views which is what I would expect for a 30 days period.

But I have some with several to many dozen views in 30 days and few to no sales. Within the context of your comment do you think that is a problem (regarding search placement) that needs to be addressed? Or am I overthinking it?

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Well, from my POV, it isn't something I would worry about in a regularly selling listing, even if the regularity is slow rather than quick.  But I'm thinking about items that are left up month after month after month collecting large numbers of views but no bites.   At one eBay interview one of the people in charge of search said that at about 90 days of no sales, a listing is considered stale.  A regular selling item can be up for years and keep selling every time the seller gets the items back in stock - it's still relevant and ranks well. This really checks out with what I know and have studied about SEO. 

I only sell one-offs, but if I have a listing of something that commonly sells pretty well overall with 150 views but no watchers, no bites, I'll first check that listing to see if there are any problems (title off? mistake in the listing? Pricing problem?) that accounts for people looking at it and saying 'nah'.  If it's just sitting with no takers, few views I'll redo the listing to raise it back up in ranking.  If it's a dud, well, nothing I do will work, but I sell most of what I list.

I also sell on Poshmark and it's really easy to see this stuff in action because of the site structure which has a heavy emphasis on sharing, so there's a feed, i.e. (recency), as well as good SEO for search.  This has happened more than once:  I've had an item just sit and sit, I mark it down, I send offers, I sacrifice a rubber chicken, nothing.  I'll delist the item, redo it completely, list, share and bam - it sells. Doing this not only pushed it back up to the top in not only the feed, but it was also 'new' in search and not something that had been sitting around gathering dust for months.

[partfinds]

All the time I keep hearing that showing activity gets sales. I think that if you get lots of views (it shows item is desireable) and so the robot (AI) picks up on it and shows it frequently, this is how I see relation view to sales. If item is shown frequently the sales happen fast. If you get  stale listing (happens with desireable item) when there are no views item doesn’t sell. So sometimes I see some sellers sell i]same items for double money while you stuck with same (lower price) with little views.

Views do matter in successful sales. Counter is screwed you can’t get any clue what is up with your listing. Whether listing needs refreshing, promoting.  Better pictures. Accurate view counts are important.

[yuzuha]

I've honestly never found view counts to matter in the slightest because the vast majority of things I sell sell with under 20 views.

I'd honestly be MORE concerned if I had an item that was racking up a huge number of views and not selling-- it would make me wonder what was wrong that no one wanted it.

[richard1rst]

Thank you for your insight. That was very helpful and informative.

[coolections]

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@inhawaii wrote:

Let's agree that  ebay has been messing with views.  Let's say the views are TOTALLY SCREWED UP.  How does that effect sales?

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Probably not much as most of the items would not have sold during that period anyway. Another thing for sellers to consider, those that already viewed will probably not view again so it would be expected for less views even with the restart.

[coolections]

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@tealt wrote:

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I seem to remember once reading that eBay Search bots/algorithm involves evaluating the "desirability" of a listing by checking views.  If views were low, the listing might be considered to be undesirable and much less likely to be displayed in Search.

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@tealt  That would be very accurate. But one must also do a comparison to impressions vs views. Also it says less likely because the bots may have put it on page 38.

[donsdetour]

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@inhawaii wrote:

Recently  I've seen a bunch of sellers coming here complaining about slow sales because ebay has been messing with views.

Let's agree that  ebay has been messing with views.  Let's say the views are TOTALLY SCREWED UP.  

How does that effect sales?

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Views or when some one looks at the item for sale> Hey if the first one purchases great.

Yet views as well as watches: can show if your item is being SEEN.  If it can not or is not SEEN then it aint going to sell is it...

[partfinds]

You mention redoing the listing when there is no interest. For me it worked till about a week ago. The listings I ended and listed as simillar are doing worse that before I ended them. I am not sure if that is just me but ending listing gets me barely any views recently past May 12. Maybe Ebay changed algorithms to prevent people ending listing prematurely?

[johnrj1226]

Just my opinion from my point of view.  Is sold on eBay from Jan , 2010 to October of 2021.  I sold/shipped a net 1665 items all one of a kind 95% or more  where pre-owned  high end  things like  shirts, sweaters, foot wear - men and women's, hand bags, western style stuff (boots, shirts), all list had separate  s/H, fixed price, an always a return policy that was pop at the time14 , 30 days, my price point was at mid point of my reasearch (through out the  high highs and low, lows price, had . less than 5  returns, decent pics and bullet point word description, - 4 were remorse. I kept  50 to 100 items active.  When I finally closed down I had a total of 5 items remain - still got views, some were over 2 years old - one was a Vera Bradley, very nice large tote with fall type colors. and was made in the USA - VP used to sell like hot cakes but more  and more sellers got in into sell prices went tanked, VB used China for a manufacturing point but a the expense of quality, just like Coach did, profit tumbled and  the label/design just went out of style.  Sold it at a Yard sale and got my eBay asking price to a nice blue haired lady.- life is good.

In a nutshell I placed very little value o views or watchers.  There are too many  variables to come to  a single conclusion that can be applied  for any period of time.  Kinda'  like going fishing and ask some one how's the fishing they commonly reply "you should have been hear yesterday - ya' had to stand behind a tree to bait your hook"

Got out of selling 'cause my 3.5 y.o.grandson got bigger and fun - we are buddies - take him fishing, taught him how to shake his booty and he did at our grand daughters wedding last Dec,  We have a pool  table and we play pool, his way, (he tells PaPa how we are going to play), taught him how to roll the dice (on the pool table) and how to blow on them in his hand to warm 'em up while  listening to Louis "Shatchmo" Armstrong song and some duets w/ Bing Crosby - he  likes  it -  it is chill music with some pop -  he shakes his booty. to it without any prodding.

[onlinecentral]

I go to the Seller Hub on the 21st of the month and look at Seller Level and Service Metrics under the Performance tab. Other than that monthly look, I ignore the Seller Hub.

eBay has conditioned the sellers to look at the Traffic. Then offered a way to increase that for a fee.

If you read through 100 previous discussions about Promoted Listings, there is not a definitive answer whether they actually increase sales or not.

Here are some tips to increase your sales.

Ebay business that survived recessions or advice for recessions tips
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Ebay-business-that-survived-recessions-or-advice-for-recession...

[stainlessenginecovers]

I am willing to bet that 90% of 'buyers' just put in a search term in the search box at the top of the page when they shop on eBay; just like they do when they shop on AZ, CL, FB etc. 

Very few click a 'category' first. 

Therefore, the category that something is in would have little effect. 

A pair of shoes could be in the Antique Glassware category, wouldn't matter. If I want '1988 Air Jordans', that is what I am putting in the search box. 

[inhawaii]

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@donsdetour wrote:

Yet views as well as watches: can show if your item is being SEEN.  If it can not or is not SEEN then it aint going to sell is it...

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Correct. If it aint been seen, it's not going to sell. I agree.

If a item has views and has been seen might sell.  The 139th viewer might buy it. 

The same item with no views also might sell.  The 1st viewer might buy it.

Which is kind of the whole point of my post.

[inhawaii]

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@partfinds wrote:

All the time I keep hearing that showing activity gets sales. I think that if you get lots of views (it shows item is desireable)

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Views don't mean an item is desirable. Selling does.  As @luckythewinner mentioned earlier, if you have a item with tons of views but nobody buys it, does that make the item desirable or undesirable?

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@partfinds wrote:

so the robot (AI) picks up on it and shows it frequently

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Do you have any proof of that or is that just a theory?

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@partfinds wrote:

Counter is screwed you can’t get any clue what is up with your listing. 

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Again, how does a broken counter make your sales drop? If the counter (correctly or incorrectly) reads "0" or "3" or "21" or "117" "987" or 5520" how does that make your sales drop?

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@partfinds wrote:

Whether listing needs refreshing, promoting.  Better pictures. Accurate view counts are important.

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Which listing would you say needs more "refreshing":

A) A listing with lots of views but no sales

B) A listing less views but lots of sales
 

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@partfinds wrote:

THIS IS MY THREAD CREATED FOR SPECIFIC REASON @inhawaii  AND @stainlessenginecovers  WHY ARE YOU POSTING HERE IF THE PROBLEM DOESN’T AFFECT YOU?

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The other day you responded to me in ALL CAPS asking not to participate in "your thread" not because the problem doesn't affect me. It's not that the problem doesn't affect me, it's that  I don't think there is a problem. I had the nerve to disagreed with you.  So why are you participating on my thread with a opposing viewpoint?  Sounds kind of ridiculous, doesn't it? 

I welcome your viewpoints, even if they're wrong.  😉   (kidding)

Have a nice weekend.

[chapeau-noir]

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@yuzuha wrote:

I've honestly never found view counts to matter in the slightest because the vast majority of things I sell sell with under 20 views.

I'd honestly be MORE concerned if I had an item that was racking up a huge number of views and not selling-- it would make me wonder what was wrong that no one wanted it.

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That's the only time I'm concerned about it - like that one item I ended that I mentioned up-thread.  Bunch of views, bunch of watchers - huh?  If it was something extraordinary that would be one thing (for instance, I listed a traditional Kashmiri embroidered wool coat that got loads of views almost immediately - it was unusual with amazing needlework and sold about a week later for a bundle) but this was just a shirt that had been listed for about 20 days.  I mean, for all I know, there's a blog called "eBay Deadly Duds" that featured it.  😖 I don't need that type of advertising lol. 

PL has worked for me, but I'm in a supersaturated category - I'd be much less inclined to use it if I wasn't, and I don't use them on items that have unique value - it's only so I can keep my head above water in a sea of similar brands.  Even then I don't promote at a very high percentage.