Visibility and Stale Listings

[nanbosnan]

Do the metrics from one listing (for instance a long tail item or a stale item-- and yes, I can't necessarily distinguish between the two) affect the visibility of your other listings?  If so, is a second selling account a good idea for these items?  

[hayley22]

I am going to assume with 65 views to your post but yet not one answer means...a lot of us wondering the same.  Good question... would love to know how much stale listings metrics weigh in on my other "newer" listings...

[fashunu4eeuh]

"Do the metrics from one listing... affect the visibility of your other listings?" 

As the other poster said, that is a good question. Ebay plays their cards very close to the vest so ultimately no one knows for certain, but i would bet money that a seller's overall sales practices and history does affect placement of every item. Here is what eBay does say about Search placement:

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/listing-tips/optimising-listings-best-match?id=4166

As for your second question, I don't know. Lots of sellers use multiple accounts for a variety of reasons, inventory management being one. But since Ebay has taken steps in the recent past to minimize stale listings on the venue by outright removal of them, sellers had to rethink their strategy of offering long-tail items on eBay. (Stagnant listings, items with no sales history over months time, were removed by eBay to combat what they considered was unwanted inventory, and to encourage sellers to make changes to old non-productive listings.)  

[fashunu4eeuh]

"Do the metrics from one listing... affect the visibility of your other listings?" 

[luckythewinner]

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@nanbosnan wrote:

Do the metrics from one listing (for instance a long tail item or a stale item-- and yes, I can't necessarily distinguish between the two) affect the visibility of your other listings?  If so, is a second selling account a good idea for these items?  

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I would not be surprised if a seller's sell-through rate was a factor in Best Match visibility.

But the Best Match algorithm is so complex and considers so many factors that I doubt there is any way to measure the effect or recommend a course of action. IMHO it would be guesswork at best. 

[southern*sweet*tea]

I sell long tail items with a limited buyer base and limited views.  In my own case, what I have found is that when I list something...anything...new (not a sell similar, but totally new) within a day or two I will sell several things that have been around for a while.  Purely unscientific mind you, just my own experience.  I have  also found that when my traffic is down, my sales are up. Not sure why that is, only that it is lol

[yuzuha]

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@southern*sweet*tea wrote:

I sell long tail items with a limited buyer base and limited views.  In my own case, what I have found is that when I list something...anything...new (not a sell similar, but totally new) within a day or two I will sell several things that have been around for a while. 

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This has been my experience as well.  The best way to drive sales is just to keep listing new things.

[mr_lincoln]

@nanbosnan  In 2018 eBay pushed to take down old GTC listings where Sellers had them up for over a year ... just sitting waiting to be found.  They announced they would end those listings and require Sellers to make changes (new pics, new verbiage, etc.) but do something to them.  That may have actually been in preparation for the GTC mandate they announced in Feb 2019 and it went in to effect March 18, 2019.  They did not know for sure but they "thought" that GTC listings that would Relist WITH all the view and watch history would perform better ... hmmm, let me know how that's working for you right?!?

Anyway, they are still trying to find the sweet spot for GTC search algorithms ... plus they are pushing Promoted Listings (they still give the $ 30 per Quarter Promoted Listing Fee Credit) ...

So at the end of the day its up to you ... I will take older listings, end them then relist using Sell Similar.  I have also had success with Promoted Listing Campaigns once a Quarter. 

[martoutlet]

single items,i would only use auctions.

best match is a lot higher and people do search ending soon or newly listed.

fixed price best match goes in the toilet for that listing and could leak to your other listings.

[mr_lincoln]

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@martoutlet wrote:

single items,i would only use auctions.

best match is a lot higher and people do search ending soon or newly listed.

fixed price best match goes in the toilet for that listing and could leak to your other listings.

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Yes and no to that reply ... I think a lot depends on what one is Selling.  I prefer Auctions and most sales are from them ... BUT, recently I have done some switches with Auction listings putting them up as GTCs and they sell fairly quickly.  Its not a super high percentage but I scratch my head thinking why didn't they bid on it when it was an Auction? The price is the same (unless someone else bids) ... I can only assume that the Buyers did NOT find those items when they were Auction style ...

[yuzuha]

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@mr_lincoln wrote:

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Its not a super high percentage but I scratch my head thinking why didn't they bid on it when it was an Auction? The price is the same (unless someone else bids) ... I can only assume that the Buyers did NOT find those items when they were Auction style ...

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Or they simply didn't want to have to wait for a week to find out if they'd even won the item.

[disneyshopper]

When I see an active listing approaching 90 or 120 days without a sale, I will END it, and then relist at a later time.

At one point, I was doing the SELL SIMILAR, but it's more work than simply a RELIST, and I found no advantages, so now I use the RELIST option in order to get the "Newly listed" notation.

[tamaralea]

We really don't know how eBay is showing our items, so constantly changing them may be our best bet (i.e. fixed/auction, free shipping/shipping added, titles, categories, etc.)

[nanbosnan]

Thank you all.  I appreciate your thoughts.  Until now, I had been following the advice of list, list, list and using "Sell Similar" instead of "Relist."  Last few months my sales had slowed to somewhere between a trickle and non existent (although my baseline is pretty slow to start with) even though I had more items listed than ever.  On the possibility that sell through rate was killing my visibility, I ended over half of my listings, the older ones, but kept listing new items as close to daily as I could manage.  And for the last week or two sales have jumped up to what is for me a nice rate, 4-5 or so per week.  So, based on just this little experiment, I'm thinking this is the right approach. 

Looking for the next step, I'm thinking about starting a second selling account for the items I took down.  I can't usually tell the difference between a long tail item and a dud but I've had a decent amount of feedback from a few buyers here and there who are thrilled to find some of my old-school laboratory items-- so I want to keep these things listed.  "One man's trash," right?  I have read that multiple accounts are connected and influence each other as far as suspensions and defects and such and that's fine. I have no problem with those things.  I usually have great transactions and my buyers who are interested in old laboratory items are, by and large, great.   But, if a terribly slow sell through rate on one account would "ding" my primary account, all I will have accomplished is to make selling more complicated for me and undo the progress I think I have just gained.  I would appreciate any input on the influence of a second selling account on the primary selling account.  

Thank you all.  I learn a lot here.  

[mr_lincoln]

@nanbosnan   I have a 2nd Selling account and took 12 months to build it up to low 5 figures sales ... only to see it absolutely tank within 6 weeks of the GTC mandate back in 2nd quarter.  It went down to about 1 sale per week, did NOT recover on its own for several months.  Finally, beginning of Aug I infused it with completely new items and sales went back up to just about previous levels.

So, now comes the challenge ... I have to weigh the costs of reinvesting in enough inventory to restock that ID along with feeding the main ID ... when that account tanked I diverted inventory over a 2 month period ... now its depleted ...