@jz-5682 wrote:
So you're saying now our sales will be even worse because with GTC they will be viewed as stagnant? Oyeevay!
Your items are viewed as stagnant once they reach 90 days unsold. Stale once 30 days unsold. This all has an effect on visibility. As does promotions, sponsorships, return/shipping policies, etc. These things combine with typical SEO statistics like Impressions/Views and cheaper prices.
A brief example, since Sponsorships are taking up space on the first page of search, there's less "natural" search spots for those without sponsorships. This means you get less impressions/views since you have less spots. This means over time, your search placement is WORSE than it was before they added sponsorships.
Problem is, some of them are at odds with each other. If you give free returns, that up's the price. If you give a % to sponsored listings, that up's the price. But higher prices also result in worse placement. This mean it's no longer possible to have a "perfect listing" that meets all requirements (you can't be cheapest price + best shipping returns + sponsorships), and because of this, even top sellers on eBay are noticing a year by year decline. From a design perspective, it makes sense to see a decline. It's unsustainable design.
I've met with several category managers of eBay staff in person and described these issues. I was basically told that "eBay is a big ship and takes time to change direction", but also was told that 2019 was going to be a year of focus on promotions/sponsorships. So this means the unsustainable design is here for at least 2019 (and everyone is seeing it now due to GTC change).
https://content.screencast.com/users/NDrosos/folders/Jing/media/b0dbb1c3-2ba7-4543-9bed-4c0e21fa4dbe...
Here's an example above. Now please note, we're the #1 seller in our category of Motors, and we have been for 4-5+ years. 2019 is about the same amount of decline that 2018 had. Notice the peaks are lower, and the line is becoming "flatter"? This is a sign of unsustainable design.
But it's NOT just us. Even though we've seen a huge drop (atm eBay is saying 28.1% decline from last year), when we compare statistics to our competition, you'd think we may have dropped from our #1 spot? Nope. ALL the other top sellers have seen drops as well and we're still in the lead, this chart I showed eBay staff when I met with them in January:
https://content.screencast.com/users/NDrosos/folders/Jing/media/7a516ac5-13a0-433b-87c0-01796dbc6a5d...
Furthermore Terapeak shows that top sellers have dropped from 40% to 27% market share in just one year. The bar for success on eBay is getting lower and lower. It's no longer possible to be a "good seller" if you follow eBay policies. You're not rewarded for strong work. And you're potentially punished for customers claims on returns, rather than returns than were actual decided against you - no way to separate good and bad sellers.
So strong, high performing sellers are being "normalized" and the "wealth is spread" to poor sellers, China sellers, and poor dropshipping companies, rather than sellers actually being rewarded for following eBay policies and performing well. You get no rewards as sellers taking losses for returns for customers, no rewards for having strong feedback (feedback is 100% ignored in search). No way to prove yourself to the search engine as being a "good seller that deserves more traffic".
The designed is flawed and makes no sense.
I have some posts I've wrote over the last year about these issues, as well as some technical issues (which are hopefully fixed but not sure because some people still appear to have similar issues), as well as posts about the current design and how it's unsustainable. I'm considered making a topic linking these since it seems more relevant now that everyone seems to be in a similar situation. I had never realized how many people actually don't use GTC, but a lot of the issues make much more sense now as to why only some people ran in to them but many didn't understand.
