eBay

charity_scents · ‎07-24-2019

Why do the traffic reports lag so far behind? Today is showing through 7/11. Twelve days behind!
I started a couple of sales yesterday and wanted to view the change in traffic, but unable to compare because statistics are not current. This would be a really good seller tool if it were up dated daily. I tried logging out for a while to see if it would refresh, but no. Any suggestions?

skeenaman · ‎07-30-2019

Good to see an EBay person has noticed this thread. I phoned about the same issue last month (stuck on June 11 finally updated June 27 I think it was). I was told then that it was a programming bug.

It is now July 30, 2019 and my traffic report is still stuck on July 11, 2019. I was hoping maybe it would update on the 27th like last month but no dice.

clu3 · ‎07-30-2019

I asked Ebay if they wanted my fax number until they catch up with the 21st century.

charity_scents · ‎07-31-2019

@clu3 wrote:
Heard from @askebay on Twitter:

"Normally these reports can trail roughly 3-7 days behind. However. we're aware of some latency issues with this reporting. If you send over a DM with your user ID I would be happy to add your account so our team can keep track. So sorry for any inconvenience! ~Kayla"

Thanks for asking Clu. 3-7 days is still unacceptable. Even small e-commerce sites like Bonanza have daily traffic updates with the sources of the traffic and on which items. Ebay should be able to deliver daily results with no problem. If not, then they need to hire better programmers. I'm going to stop there before I start a rant on what ebay should be focusing on. (Opinions are like.....)

dtexley3 · ‎07-31-2019

I've decided that it just doesn't matter how far the charts are behind as I no longer trust their accuracy. Compare your promoted listings impressions to your overall traffic impressions for the same day. On my dashboard the "promoted impressions" are almost 4 times my overall traffic impressions and I promote just under 25% of my listings.

I've come to believe that most of the marketing data coming out of eBay at every level is "adjusted". I wonder how long before the investors finally start to notice.

Member of the Grumpy Old Man crew

clu3 · ‎07-31-2019

Mine are about double. Which makes perfect sense because it appears a promotion just duplicates your listing within the same search. I was sort of hoping promotions might also help with off site searches, but I have no way to check because that Traffic Report isn't up to date.

@dtexley3 wrote:
I've decided that it just doesn't matter how far the charts are behind as I no longer trust their accuracy. Compare your promoted listings impressions to your overall traffic impressions for the same day. On my dashboard the "promoted impressions" are almost 4 times my overall traffic impressions and I promote just under 25% of my listings.

I've come to believe that most of the marketing data coming out of eBay at every level is "adjusted". I wonder how long before the investors finally start to notice.

clu3 · ‎07-31-2019

I completely agree with you, 3-7 days isn't acceptable. Nearly each time I visit that page, I fill out the feedback survey telling Ebay that the traffic is the most AND least useful report because it isn't real time. I can't fathom any reason that data isn't current every single day (and more detailed). Ebay isn't a little start-up, I often wonder if they're paying minimum wage to programming interns.

I see the sales page has been updated, to what degree is that useful? It's sold.

@charity_scents wrote:
@clu3 wrote:
Heard from @askebay on Twitter:

"Normally these reports can trail roughly 3-7 days behind. However. we're aware of some latency issues with this reporting. If you send over a DM with your user ID I would be happy to add your account so our team can keep track. So sorry for any inconvenience! ~Kayla"
Thanks for asking Clu. 3-7 days is still unacceptable. Even small e-commerce sites like Bonanza have daily traffic updates with the sources of the traffic and on which items. Ebay should be able to deliver daily results with no problem. If not, then they need to hire better programmers. I'm going to stop there before I start a rant on what ebay should be focusing on. (Opinions are like.....)

dtexley3 · ‎07-31-2019

@clu3 wrote:
Mine are about double. Which makes perfect sense because it appears a promotion just duplicates your listing within the same search. I was sort of hoping promotions might also help with off site searches, but I have no way to check because that Traffic Report isn't up to date.

@dtexley3 wrote:
I've decided that it just doesn't matter how far the charts are behind as I no longer trust their accuracy. Compare your promoted listings impressions to your overall traffic impressions for the same day. On my dashboard the "promoted impressions" are almost 4 times my overall traffic impressions and I promote just under 25% of my listings.

I've come to believe that most of the marketing data coming out of eBay at every level is "adjusted". I wonder how long before the investors finally start to notice.

Sorry, it doesn't make sense, an impression is an impression, regardless of whether it's promoted or not. If I have 10k impressions for promoted items in a day then my overall impressions should be 10k PLUS the impressions for the other 75% of my items that are NOT promoted. Instead the total impressions are about 1/3 of the promoted. One of the two is WRONG. Most likely both. I've pretty much lost all confidence in the numbers eBay purports to represent the actual site stats.

Are the numbers due to an error or a deliberate "spin" to make promoted listings look better?

Member of the Grumpy Old Man crew

zamo-zuan · ‎07-31-2019

@dtexley3 wrote:
I've decided that it just doesn't matter how far the charts are behind as I no longer trust their accuracy. Compare your promoted listings impressions to your overall traffic impressions for the same day. On my dashboard the "promoted impressions" are almost 4 times my overall traffic impressions and I promote just under 25% of my listings.

I've come to believe that most of the marketing data coming out of eBay at every level is "adjusted". I wonder how long before the investors finally start to notice.

I reported this over a year ago.

Also the Sellers Health team could grant you other charts of your impressions/clicks/sales. They look like a "line graph" and have a deeper look in to the yearly trends.

Part of what I reported isn't just what you mention, but the Sellers Health graphs don't even match the other two!

I was told by the Sellers Health employee that they would need time to look in to what might be causing the issue. I was told a few weeks later that he "did not forget about us and would get back to us".

We never heard from him again.

It really is pretty scary that their own graphs/charts don't match each other...

zamo-zuan · ‎07-31-2019

@clu3 wrote:
Mine are about double. Which makes perfect sense because it appears a promotion just duplicates your listing within the same search. I was sort of hoping promotions might also help with off site searches, but I have no way to check because that Traffic Report isn't up to date.

This is another issue I reported to them. You get 2 impressions, but best case scenario, only ONE click!

This means Sponsored Listings are not only "helping" your metrics, but they're actively contributing to make your metrics WORSE.

The reason being an impression + click is GOOD for metrics, and impression + NO click has a negative effect on your metrics.

greg5000 · ‎07-31-2019

@charity_scents wrote:
@clu3 wrote:
Heard from @askebay on Twitter:

"Normally these reports can trail roughly 3-7 days behind. However. we're aware of some latency issues with this reporting. If you send over a DM with your user ID I would be happy to add your account so our team can keep track. So sorry for any inconvenience! ~Kayla"
Thanks for asking Clu. 3-7 days is still unacceptable. Even small e-commerce sites like Bonanza have daily traffic updates with the sources of the traffic and on which items. Ebay should be able to deliver daily results with no problem. If not, then they need to hire better programmers. I'm going to stop there before I start a rant on what ebay should be focusing on. (Opinions are like.....)

I think eBay's best programmers focus on the system segments that take fees and payments from Sellers & Buyers.

zamo-zuan · ‎07-31-2019

@clu3 wrote:
Ebay isn't a little start-up, I often wonder if they're paying minimum wage to programming interns.

CSR's have blatantly said that the tech team and catalog team are outsourced, and the only contact they have with them is through their messaging system. That's why you can't actually speak to anyone from either of those teams.

If you gave worked with them before and have seen their case information from their JiraP logs (such as if you opened a case through SDsupport) you may have seen their data from those reports, and can confirm for yourself that they are indeed outsourced.

I've always thought it was crazy that both those teams, which are the most important teams to keep eBay up and running, are outsourced.

greg5000 · ‎07-31-2019

@dtexley3 wrote:

I've come to believe that most of the marketing data coming out of eBay at every level is "adjusted". I wonder how long before the investors finally start to notice.

The investors will notice if the Q3 Financials continue to show a declining GMV.

equid0x · ‎07-31-2019

@zamo-zuan wrote:
@clu3 wrote:
Ebay isn't a little start-up, I often wonder if they're paying minimum wage to programming interns.

CSR's have blatantly said that the tech team and catalog team are outsourced, and the only contact they have with them is through their messaging system. That's why you can't actually speak to anyone from either of those teams.

If you gave worked with them before and have seen their case information from their JiraP logs (such as if you opened a case through SDsupport) you may have seen their data from those reports, and can confirm for yourself that they are indeed outsourced.

I've always thought it was crazy that both those teams, which are the most important teams to keep eBay up and running, are outsourced.

This isn't a shocker form me. The rampant outsourcing of literally every IT function to overseas lowest bidders is why I made the decision to leave the IT industry in 2016. A career of being outsourced, laid off, find new job, outsourced again, laid off, find new job, more outsourcing, more layoffs, hostile corporate takeover, join new company, then that one gets bought out and immediately outsources their IT, rinse and repeat every 2 or 3 years gets to be extremely fatiguing after a while. Meanwhile, you never get to move up because you're constantly being bounced around from company to company in acquisition after acquisition or contract to contract and take a look 17 years later and see that you've barely moved from where you started. *sigh*

IT workers really get treated like garbage. I don't envy the outsourced workers.