Will eBay ever fix its listing View counter?

[1avid_collector]

...or is that too much to ask???

Absurd level of incompetence IMHO!!!

[duncanvr]

One of mine got 6 views I refreshed and it went back to 1 view The worst part is I use the view count to determine price and title changes. If its not accurate then I can't tell if the listing generated views or not. I don't see why its taking them so long to fix these glitches lately.

[futuretomorrow]

Would you mind sharing the logic behind why you use views to determine pricing and title changes?

I have 1 listing in particular where I've sold 1,264 pieces to date just on eBay alone. The views? 34,565. It's not even close to proportionate. I have a few listings like this and there were others as well that I've now removed but to me views never were a good conversion KPI's of a products saleability so would love to hear what your strategy is.

I know from over 2 decades in web design and advertising this is why sites moved away from "views". The early counters were cheesy and they weren't doing a whole lot. For eCommerce, Metrics like "bounce rate", "watchers", "followers", "user sentiment" and "abandoned carts" are vastly more valuable than "views". "Views" can trigger several types of false positives such as a user not being clear on what the thumbnail image or photo is (poorly taken photo) so they click but had no intention to buy. They could also just be curious, which is a huge issue in conversion. We're curious by nature.

Now, you're not going to add something to your cart or watch it, follow a seller, start talking about an item with your friends or here etc., unless the "intent" is more strongly suggestive of buying behavior. These metrics lead a buyer deeper into a sales funnel and potential sale versus the reasons I mentioned for "views" and ones I didn't can again trigger false positives.

Do you see an immediate uptick in sales and make more money when you change the price and title? What's the % conversion rate after you've done this and how long does the effect last?

[dirk12955]

One of my better selling items had over 100 views and 11 watchers late last night.

This am the view count has dropped to 58

My second account still has zero views. Just zeros and dashes

[password9019]

There's nothing broken- HELLO!

You may want to check out the thread I began the other day on this, as it pertains to throttling.

Just because something is turned "off", doesn't mean anything became damaged.

Nothing's broke, it's simply that your so-called "view counter" is off. Why? Because your listings are in a section of a data center that mainly has its connection to the internet shut off. There is entry, but not so many exits (per the fact that your listings are stored in a 'cold zone' whereby they may only be seen sporadically throughout the week, if at all. Depends on who's at the master controls, and switching things on and off.

Maybe eBay is saving on electricity bills....or maybe you're just not important right now (as opposed to foreign goods flooding eBay), so neither are your listings.

You've been given a back seat, but nothing is "broke". eBay would not have that.

[1avid_collector]

Re: @password9019 wrote:
...per the fact that your listings are stored in a 'cold zone' whereby they may only be seen sporadically throughout the week, if at all. Depends on who's at the master controls, and switching things on and off.
Maybe eBay is saving on electricity bills....or maybe you're just not important right now (as opposed to foreign goods flooding eBay), so neither are your listings.
You've been given a back seat...

Those of us who are heavily dependent on our eBay sales as a primary source of income should be absolutely outraged that we have been "given a back seat"!!!

I don't know about you, but when I pay for a 10-day listing I expect 10 days of consistent visibility of my listings -- minus, of course, some portion of the first 24 hours while the listings are "indexed" so they can be found in Searches performed by prospective buyers.

The line of thinking that justifies eBay shortchanging listing-visibility at their own whim is indicative of the wrong-headed nonsensical ethics perpetrated by nerds who understand programming code but are oblivious to the simple concept of fair play, of the difference between right and wrong.

The misbehavior of the view counter only makes it more difficult to know whether or not our listings are even being seen by those searching for the items we are selling. When I see zero or very low-count views for days on end -- especially on items that usually draw substantial view counts, considering the niche-market appeal of my items -- I get nervous about this. I depend greatly on my eBay sales to help pay my mortgage, keep the electricity, phone, internet, water, gas, etc. on, and to pay my credit card bills.

When eBay goes all flaky on me and bends or breaks the rules of fairness and reliability it presents a serious threat to my well-being, my credit rating, and numerous other aspects of my life. You see, I'm not a millenial-age programmer/punk/gamer with a six-figure income and not a care in the world. I'm a retired 70-year old living on a extremely limited budget.

Of course, I don't expect the fat cats at eBay to give a hoot about any of this -- wealthy and selfish corporations seldom give a thought to those less fortunate in life. I expect a bunch of happy-camper fanboys and fangirls to chime in next with their pathetically-useless comments...

[password9019]

"When eBay goes all flaky on me and bends or breaks the rules of fairness and reliability it presents a serious threat to my well-being, my credit rating, and numerous other aspects of my life. You see, I'm not a millenial-age programmer/punk/gamer with a six-figure income and not a care in the world. I'm a retired 70-year old living on a extremely limited budget."

________

Love it.

...but please don't shoot the messenger.

[1avid_collector]

Thank you for your comment!

I try not to "shoot the messenger" unless the messenger seems to be supporting a ridiculously-lousy policy. And I especially resent goody-two-shoes members who vigorously defend the worst of eBay's behavior (not you, BTW)!

[uncseniorsportsfan]

I guess I am one of those goody two shoes - age 73 also retired - with four ebay accounts.   While the listing view counter malfunction  bugs me - it does not seem to be affecting my sales.   Prior to the view counter bug - my May and June sales dropped a little as is normal for those months.  Sales started picking up after July 4th - as they have been for the past decade. 

Now I don't sell either new or high ticket items, but my profit margin on what I sell is 65-75%, so I add an average of $400-$500 to my retirement income every month no matter what changes ebay throws at us or what glitches appear.     Diversification and selling items with little competition works for me, and I never have more than a few hundred dollars total invested in inventory.   Returns are rare and  no more a problem today than they were 5 or 10 years ago. 

As has been noted many times on this board - many things on ebay - the good, the bad, and the ugly - are often related to what you sell.    Don't expect ebay to protect you - they have always claimed to be "only a venue" - it is up to each seller to do what they can to protect themselves within the framework of ebay policies. 

[password9019]

if you know what this is, it explains a lot in terms of this discussion.   Just think of the name.

[1avid_collector]

Re: "Don't expect ebay to protect you - they have always claimed to be "only a venue" - it is up to each seller to do what they can to protect themselves within the framework of ebay policies."

It has often been pointed out on this forum and elsewhere that eBay's Seller Protection is largely a sham.  There have been so many cases where eBay has protected obviously dishonest buyers at the expense of honest sellers that it would be completely incorrect to say that eBay is only a venue.

Re: "While the listing view counter malfunction  bugs me - it does not seem to be affecting my sales."

The problem is that when the view counter is malfunctioning (or simply "disconnected" as indicated in a previous post) sellers never know for sure whether there are unexpectedly no or low view counts due to listing-visibility issues, or due to expected seasonal variations. The ambiguity is quite frustrating to those of us who are very dependent on our eBay sales.

The artificial limiting of listing visibility by eBay or eBay software -- if that's what's going on here -- will always be completely unacceptable to me. Buyers are always able to limit the Search results themselves by using the parameter choices at the left of the Search results without eBay doing it for them, i.e., by resorting to overly "clever" Cassini algorithms trying to think for us. IMHO machines and software that pretend to be human are to me usually far more annoying (and potentially dangerous, e.g. self-driving vehicles) than they are helpful.

Further, it never ceases to amaze me how many people completely miss the point of a post and instead rattle on about their particular success on eBay. I for one have no interest in how successful other sellers might be despite eBay's ongoing bugs and arguably seller-adverse policies -- this thread is not about that.

For what it's worth, I have experienced excellent sales figures (albeit sporadic at times) in a highly-competitive niche market despite view-counter/watch counter issues that spring up from time to time. But that's not the point either, is it?

[1avid_collector]

A sailboat? You really lost me on that one...

[newview]

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@1avid_collector wrote:

A sailboat? You really lost me on that one...

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It’s a “junk”.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junk_(ship)

[1avid_collector]

Yeah, that was exactly my first thought but I was not sure if that meant the view counter is junk, or that this thread is junk. Maybe it's just me, but I've always preferred precision in communications, not vagueness or obscure references. Nevertheless, I fully agree that, given the way the view counter is currently behaving, it could certainly be regarded as junk.

[1avid_collector]

And yes, the lunatics have very definitely taken over the asylum as witnessed by the current state of politics and political statements in the US. Perfect example: Congresswoman Maxine Waters. <sad grin>