eBay

tweetystwades · ‎09-26-2018

I have read conflicting stories here. Is the general rule to use Relist or Sell Similar.

I've heard people say that ebay has told them to use Sell Similar, and other say why would ebay tell you not to use their Relist toll. I have also heard to create a listing from scratch, and that is too much work every month.

I used relist yesterday on 10 listings, and not 1 view on any of them.

zamo-zuan · ‎09-26-2018

@tweetystwades wrote:
I have read conflicting stories here. Is the general rule to use Relist or Sell Similar.
I've heard people say that ebay has told them to use Sell Similar, and other say why would ebay tell you not to use their Relist toll. I have also heard to create a listing from scratch, and that is too much work every month.
I used relist yesterday on 10 listings, and not 1 view on any of them.

Unless they changed anything very recently, relist is basically keeping all the information from the old listing.

Sell similar lets it start fresh. Although just be careful as sell similar has had a number of errors lately, make sure the data is correct after sell similar, and that price/etc are correct. And that you are not being charged for the listing if you should not be.

*coins · ‎09-26-2018

When you relist it, eBay notifies any watchers about that. If you use sell similar, they are not notified that you listed it again. So...if you are trying to keep watchers, relisting would be the way to go imo.

I use GTC for a lot of stuff and that is great. That can get confusing though since it uses a listing every time it aut-relists. I use relist on all the 30 day FP listings I run and that seems to work well for me.

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zamo-zuan · ‎09-26-2018

@*coins wrote:
When you relist it, eBay notifies any watchers about that. If you use sell similar, they are not notified that you listed it again. So...if you are trying to keep watchers, relisting would be the way to go imo.
I use GTC for a lot of stuff and that is great. That can get confusing though since it uses a listing every time it aut-relists. I use relist on all the 30 day FP listings I run and that seems to work well for me.

From my discussions with the Sellers Health team, in addition to our own research, what I've found works best is relisting is good as long as your listings still have healthy activity. The only thing you should avoid is "stagnant"listings.

Some eBay staff has been giving advice to sell similar all "stales", and to be honest, that's bad advice. But stagnants do seem to have a significant penalty.

Stagnants are determined by 90 days unsold. So if you see any listings that are 90 days unsold and don't seem to have a healthy amount of activity, those are the ones which would be good to "sell similar".

But in any other cases, relisting is fine. It basically functions the same way as GTC does automatically. It preserves the current listing statistics, and brings them in to a new listing. The only time GTC hurts seems to be if it's stagnant.

No statistics, are better than poor statistics, though. So once you get that status of "stagnant"... it's very unlikely you will have enough visibility to sell again. At which case, sell similar is better.

tweetystwades · ‎09-26-2018

So, is that the only difference, you keep the watchers? I've read here that some think there is more visibility with sell similar. I don't care about watchers, they aren't buyers. I have 18 watchers on 1 pair of pants, and nothing. lol

Anonymous · ‎09-26-2018

Sell similar is better than relist. Starting from scratch is better than sell similar.

You should change your titles and photos periodically to refresh the listing.

zamo-zuan · ‎09-26-2018

@tweetystwades wrote:
So, is that the only difference, you keep the watchers? I've read here that some think there is more visibility with sell similar. I don't care about watchers, they aren't buyers. I have 18 watchers on 1 pair of pants, and nothing. lol

You keep watchers, in addition to the SEO statistics (views, impressions, click thru, conversion rates, etc).

Which is why if a listing is not performing well, it's better to start anew. If your listing is performing well, it's good to just allow it GTC or relist.

If those watchers are actually bringing you traffic, they can be worth saving. But if your traffic is poor, might as well relist.

You can have a general idea of how good your statistics are if you search your own items & based on their placement. Higher placement = better statistics.

Also, you can use the growth > underperforming listings section, it has an analyze tool that compares your listing to others in the category.

ted_200 · ‎09-26-2018

@tweetystwades wrote:
So, is that the only difference, you keep the watchers? I've read here that some think there is more visibility with sell similar. I don't care about watchers, they aren't buyers. I have 18 watchers on 1 pair of pants, and nothing. lol

You'll keep the watchers, because relist keeps the same item #.

You'll also keep all the sales history and "impressions" for the listing.

Relist is useful for a listing you have many of the item, and it's selling well. You keep relisting it, because it has a strong sales history, good "impressions", and eBay will treat it favorably in Search (better than a new listing).

Sell Similar is essentially a "new" listing. It has zero sales history, zero impressions. That's better than a listing that's been around for months, gets very few hits, has bad "impressions" data, and never sells - that listing will get visibility less than a new listing.

For a listing with 18 watchers, I'm not sure which is better. If any of those watchers is a potential buyer, you'll lose them on Sell Similar. But if it's been around a long time and won't sell, eBay may not ever show it to any more buyers.

The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves.

Anonymous · ‎09-26-2018

@ted_200 wrote:
You'll keep the watchers, because relist keeps the same item #.

That's only on Good 'Til Cancelled listings, not a regular relist. A regular relist has a new item # and may alert watchers of the relisting but the watchers don't automatically transfer over.