What did eBay Break Now?

[valueaddedresource]

Anyone else seeing this today?

[namtrag1]

To save you a Bunch of time there is really only one matrix to look at.

Impressions...Page views....organic....non-organic...etc etc etc.....These all don't mean

anything.

Just look at sales...sales...sales...sales.

[valueaddedresource]

@namtrag1 that's actually exactly what I was looking at.  On Friday I noticed our sales were down about 80% from average. 😲

That is what caused me to go looking to find out what was wrong, which lead me to the discovery that there was clearly something going on with Promoted Listings - as several other people have also confirmed.  That's not to say that everyone is going to see this, as it appears to be specific to a few categories and/or possibly related to limited/rolling testing that won't affect everyone.

When a certain percentage of your sales consistently come from Promoted Listings, and Promoted Listings Impressions suddenly drop like a rock overnight, it's going to have a major impact on sales as well.

Obviously there will be variations in Promoted Listings performance over time, but what people on this thread are seeing is not normal or natural, it's literally like a switch was flipped.

[zamo-zuan]

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@namtrag1 wrote:

To save you a Bunch of time there is really only one matrix to look at.

Impressions...Page views....organic....non-organic...etc etc etc.....These all don't mean

anything.

Just look at sales...sales...sales...sales.

---

Not completely accurate.

Of course sales are the most important statistic. But you can break everything with eCommerce down to statistics. Impressions are the first step, a % of those become views, and a % of those become sales.

Mathematically, the more you lower the impressions, the less sales you get at the end of the day.

If you were to get 0 impressions, you most certainly would not be getting sales.

That said, we do see a decrease in sales. Not the highest percentage of our customers came from promoted listings, so it could be worse. But that portion of our customer base is certainly gone now.

It really is like a switch was flipped on the promotions: 

Is everyone experiencing this? Only certain categories? I feel like we really need to find more information about what is going on here... 

[valueaddedresource]

Has anyone called and reported this issue to CS? I know sometimes it takes a few calls before they'll treat it as more than just a one off issue.

[zamo-zuan]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

Has anyone called and reported this issue to CS? I know sometimes it takes a few calls before they'll treat it as more than just a one off issue.

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Not yet, I had been waiting to see how things go with the Holiday weekend in hopes that things will stabilize.

At this point I'm hoping to get more information before I do that. I'd rather have some data to give them, as I'm sure all they will be able to do is open a case with the tech team anyway.

[valueaddedresource]

brian@ebay  tyler@ebay  - we could really use some help here.

[jsph_togo]

Yes, I noticed that too, my sales not preformed well as in the labor days weekend, and I also see my promoted listings not been presented as it should before, the impression volume is way down ....  both promoted and organic.

[mcdougle4248]

@zamo-zuan 

I sell mainly in Home & Garden and Collectible categories.  Impressions appear normal for me.  I have all of my listings promoted.

[zamo-zuan]

So it definitely seems to be going on in the Auto Parts categories of Motors.

Seems to be related to specific categories, some others in addition to auto parts/motors.

@jsph_togo Does it seems to be "all" impressions, or just the "promoted" ones?

For the specific issue I'm seeing, it's only promoted, organic are performing 100% normally.

You may have a different issue if it seems to be hitting all impressions.

Kinda sad to be seeing this. Impression problems have been less prevalent for a lot of this year, it's discouraging to see them returning. 

[mcdougle4248]

@zamo-zuan 

I have no idea what correlates to what with eBay, so I will just throw this out there in case it may have some bearing on what is going on.  Some categories have new required item specifics that go into affect tomorrow.  

[namtrag1]

I am of the belief that you really should not put much credence in the many matrixes that ebay provides.

I mean I Question the validity of their figures.  Don't wanna sound like a conspiracy theorist but I think to some degree that we are given fake or false figures.....so that's why I only trust the sales count because that's what hits my bank account.

Regards

[zamo-zuan]

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@namtrag1 wrote:

I am of the belief that you really should not put much credence in the many matrixes that ebay provides.

I mean I Question the validity of their figures.  Don't wanna sound like a conspiracy theorist but I think to some degree that we are given fake or false figures.....so that's why I only trust the sales count because that's what hits my bank account.

Regards

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While I absolutely understand the sentiment, it is obvious these figures were valid, as the percentage of sales lost is matching up to the amount of impressions lost.

So in this case, it's best to be addressing the cause, as if you follow the trail of breadcrumbs, it's pointing to  the very obvious dip in promoted impressions!

[valueaddedresource]

I did notice in today's Fall Seller Update there are some changes to Promoted Listings.

I don't know if it is related, and it would seem odd that it would only affect certain categories if so, but it's eBay so anything is possible.

[zamo-zuan]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

I did notice in today's Fall Seller Update there are some changes to Promoted Listings.

I don't know if it is related, and it would seem odd that it would only affect certain categories if so, but it's eBay so anything is possible.

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Yep I seen it in the notes. But nothing that (should) affect our listings in there. None of the new IS apply to us, and there's no perceivable changes to the promos (outside of the drop in promo impressions). 

I did call in to eBay yesterday and provide them with anything I could, which is mainly the categories that this seems to be going on in. The rep said she believes this is likely something overlooked as well, since this type of change would hurt both eBay and sellers. 

Hoping it's addressed soon!

[valueaddedresource]

@zamo-zuan  absolutely! One positive thing about PL is eBay only gets paid when it works. 😊 Hopefully that gives them incentive to get this figured out ASAP!