Where are all the customers?

[movieman630]

Did somebody forget to put out the "open" sign?  Are we closed?  I can't support a family on this!  I've been working hard to keep my site updated.  I add new listings constantly.  I use promotions above the "suggested rate". 

Where are the customers?  They were just here not to long ago. 

Or is it just me?

Sincerely,

A man with 3 children to feed...  Including one that's only 6 months old. 

P.S.  Please fix whatever is broken.

[johnrj1226]

Add one more thing - even the price of baked beans keeps going up and the loaf of bread gets smaller.  Folks in DC say we got it under control.  Me thinks they are writing Aesop's Fairy tales part Deux.

Yeah for my wife's birthday, a '45 model got her a new outside unit for our heat pump (3.6K) and an IOU for a mini vacation to a casino in the Smokey's of North Carolina and  a day surgery this Friday.

But ................................................................................V

[fbusoni]

---

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

@wilsonharborsales  Thanks for mentioning that.

This is like PLA--- it's a cost per click campaign. 

---

When I read "cost per click" above, my first association was to a lottery ticket.

I've not admitted this to many people, but in my 64 years, I've never once purchased a lottery ticket.

And I never will.  😁 

[fbusoni]

---

@heane3 wrote:

They are clearly manipulating sales.... once you havent sold in a few days they shadow ban and dump your listings way down... no amount of new listings, repricing, promoting or offers sent recover it... how do you have a hand in anything 0 feedback ??? Lol 

---

I had to look up "shadow ban."    You sound like you think you are being singled out.  

Why would eBay single out sellers -- with an otherwise solid set of metrics -- in that manner?   What is the logic there?   Personally I don't see any.

I've gone a few days without selling and then suddenly I have a dozen sales in 72 hours.  I am not the only one.  There is a cyclical dimension to it.

Having said that, what does seem clear is that eBay is in fact manipulating listing visibility.     

That, in accordance with eBay's stated ethos: "Economic Opportunity For All."

As I've noted previously, it can be done with a few lines of computer code and governed by an algorithm that aims to level the playing field for all sellers in a given category, regardless of price, feedback score, listing quality, etc..

Think of it as the intersection of politics and hi-tech.

Now, does manipulating listing visibility equal manipulating sales?

If I were a betting man, I'd say that eBay's legal team -- which may well be the same group as Amazon's legal team, which does the same thing -- pondered this question for a very long time and decided that it could never be proven in a court of law.

PS: I've been on eBay for 25 years but use a different ID to post here... which is why I have 0 feedback and no listings.  Regards

[siamjane8]

@fbusoni 

lol..... When i am in line behind someone buying a lottery ticket or a scratch off, i always tell them i had just won....when they say how much- i tell them 1 dollar each day for not buying a ticket lol.... they usually agree and have a chuckle

[fbusoni]

I hereby request your permission to steal this idea from you.  🙂

[costkos]

This is happening to us all. 5 days of great sales then poof to 12 to 24 hour sales blackouts. We have just been replenishing what we sell and nothing more. 

[siamjane8]

@fbusoni technically any search algorithm is a "manipulation" someone has to put all the results in some sort of pre-determined order.......but that used to be relevance of keywords searched years ago- when you could find anything on ebay and sales were great and growing.    Allot has changed since then.                Now, so many more factors are in play and put into place by people who do not grasp the idea of simply showing people what they search for.   It seems as though the harder you work at making quality listings-the less reward (in sales) you get.   The algorithms no longer favor or reward hard work, quality listing, shipping times, customer service, good product, etc.- the algos are designed to turn people on and off to spread the wealth and not let any one seller dominate or grow. We can see this by years of data and trends and sales graphs- ebay sales no longer track with normal business anywhere.  The only consistency is that if you sell allot in one day- you will sell very little for a couple of days to "maintain" your monthly allotment.   Breaking free from this is nearly impossible and therefore a seller cannot expand and grow.

       Ebay algorithms seem to be geared more towards a political or social ideal than just simply what will be the most effective way to sell items.  This does not help sellers or shareholders or even buyers ( as they are not shown the most relevant options)

      At this point we have just given up on thinking we can grow here- we just do our best to bring new products and continue to bring new buyers in to ebay with that product.  Trying to change a companies ideals is a losing battle so we are focusing our efforts else ware.

    All that being said- i love ebay and what it has made possible for small businesses to spring up 

[selsa84]

I had some really good luck at that Casino. Beautiful place, good fishing too

[trip98]

About hidden items as a buyer I can confirm this happens. On this selling ID searched for my favorite very specific  maker name, cotton shirt  in black (no longer made). I found one I liked in a group first 10 misc items shown. I put it on my watch list only, no cart. I realized that I searched it on this ID not my buying ID, so  I longed into my buying ID from a different browser and put in the exact search terms and the shirt did not populate,  this specific item has maybe two or three listed on ebay at time....tried a few different way to search it...  thought  maybe it had sold.... went back to this ID and it had not sold. I copied and pasted the exact title on my buying ID and sure enough I found it and bought it. This happened in May '24.

[fbusoni]

Understood, and thank you for your lucid observations.   I suppose I am trying to distinguish between a universally applied filter or set of filters that affects all selling activity, as you (and I previously) discuss, versus an eBay effort to single out individual sellers for punishment, which is a recurring theme on these boards.

Regarding seller growth... I do not know what the truth is.   Once I started selling in multiple categories, my revenue grew exponentially.   And things improved for me even more once I designated all my listings top rated plus.   These days, my listings -- regardless of category -- are consistently at the top of the search results queue.   Now, that's MY queue , searching from my zip code.   My listings could well be placed differently on someone else's computer screen who uses the identical search terms as me but who lives in another part of the country, or who conducts their search an hour later.  It's all unknown.

What I do know is that in my case, paid returns and a 30 day return policy are considerable force multipliers.    I know that many here do not like the idea, but there is no question that the little blue icon that displays next to a listing is a draw for buyers.  I do not buy much on eBay, but when I do, my eye always looks for paid returns.   That is what consumers expect these days.  

Thus I can only wonder about those sellers here who are dismayed that they get returns, "despite the fact that I say NO RETURNS in my listings!"  eBay has made "no returns" a very uncomfortable position to hold onto.   Those sellers are inviting INADs and SNADS.  Almost hanging out a sign and asking for them.

Amazon in the last year I believe started conducting video interviews with prospective new sellers.  

eBay would be wise to do something similar, in addition to making paid returns mandatory, in my opinion.  I think a lot more sellers would notice a positive difference, algorithms or no algorithms.  

[deltilogical]

"Here's a pic of my sales as of recently"

Crimony thats just about exactly what mine looks like. 

[deltilogical]

" The sole focus is to make money for shareholders."

People forget this.  And every quarter they have to do it again. 

[femmefan1946]

only to have to sort through pages of unrelated junk from China usually never finding an item I know is listed.

My method for avoiding that is to use Highest Price including Shipping as my default Search. That knocks out most of the misdescribed cheap garbage. And it is faster to drill down to my price point than to slog up through hundreds of trash listings.

two halves, new and used maybe?

New and Used are two Item Specifics that are in the left hand column.

But then we get into New Old Stock- like a never used Studebaker piston.

Using my phone is generally more aggravating then its worth most of the time

I agree.

But as sellers we have to be aware that over half of buyers apparently don't use computers any more.

It's been my observation that the more times I do a particular Search, the more different items I see.

That is, if I search "maquette kaylee" , which is one I might do, each time I run that Search I will see a mixture o repeats and new listings.

It's my guess that this is partly because there are so many "matching" items that eBay does not repeat those which the customer has already seen - and apparently rejected. For that reason, I Search with the Watch button close at hand, because I might not see it again.

And partly it is part of the programming that moves around what and where is being seen. I've had a run of sales lately to Arizona, which is pretty thinly populated and which doesn't get a population bump in summer from snowbirds.  So my guess is that eBay is showing my listings to the AZ customers this week.

In a more active category, that might move around more. (Poorly described. Sorry.)

Now that doesn't help the Searcher who is in AL and looking for a common if much desired stamp like the Penny Black if my listing is being shown to buyers in AZ .  But their third Search may show it. Or they may buy one from james12345.

[costkos]

I speculate that a lot of it has to do with updates and upgrades to the website. They most likely update x amount of accounts at a time and depending on what day someone's account gets updated.

[fbusoni]

So to summarize:

• Selling ID did not show item.
• Buying ID did show item.

Have you tried it more recently?