ending old listings to refresh my store

[cambriachick]

Hi all,

Do you think it would be worthwhile to end some listings that have been running for 4-5 months and relist them ?  I think they would get better placement in search results.  BUT I do have a few of those with 10-12 watchers so I don't know if I want to lose that.  Just looking for opinions.

TIA

[nobody*s_perfect]

Those watchers would probably never become buyers. But if you relist, the entry for the ended item in their Watch list will have a link to the relisted item.  They can even choose to be notified when an item is relisted. 

When a potential buyer sorts their search results by "newest first," the fixed price listings are sorted by their actual original listing date, not by their latest rollover date.  So listings gradually sink lower and lower in that particular sort, and will pop up to the top again if you end and relist them.

[monstertoybox]

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@cambriachick wrote:

Hi all,

Do you think it would be worthwhile to end some listings that have been running for 4-5 months and relist them ?  I think they would get better placement in search results.  BUT I do have a few of those with 10-12 watchers so I don't know if I want to lose that.  Just looking for opinions.

TIA

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Ending old listing and relisting them using "sell similar" used to be the way to go. I will tell you my experience. A few months ago I spent days doing this to 200 of my listings. Ending them, tweaking titles, lowering prices, adding free shipping, changing categories if needed, all the things they tell you to do. What that got me was a bunch of time wasted. I didn't get one sale and on top of that I lost all those watchers. But, as the previous seller said they do give a link to the new listings, problem is some customers may not even bother looking for it. 

Now it may be that I did a huge quantity of listings. Some have said bulk listing causes sales to stop for some reason. So I would say if you are going to do it, do a few each day, instead of all at once. I, for one, won't be doing that again anytime soon, because I believe there's reasons beyond our control causing the awful sales. 

[chapeau-noir]

I routinely end listings after about 90 days, or if they have many many impressions and haven't sold.  I tweak them and then after a few weeks relist them as a fresh listing with sell similar.  I once had a bunch of listings just sitting in my unlisted pile that had been getting no action - I tweaked and then made fresh listings and I'd say about half of them sold.

So yeah, I would encourage refreshing these listings and creating fresh listings - your time interval may vary depending upon what you're selling.

Watchers aren't always buyers - don't worry about those, unless you want to send offers to them or something (I do this sometimes on older listings, also with success).

[chapeau-noir]

I agree that keeping your store fresh is important.  When we had actually useful stats (Omniture), I noticed that about 40% of my visitors made repeat visits to my store every 1-3 days, and another maybe 20% looked in once a week, so it behooves me to have something new for them to look at.

Probably I'll do about 10 listings a day - takes a few minutes.

[this*old*attic]

I’m in the other camp.

I sell 4 month plus to year old listings on a regular basis.

It makes more sense to me to just try putting up new listings regularly. Fresh listings are now up without working double on something you’re already selling.

And I do believe new listings increase traffic to all listings, because older items often sell when I put up something new.

[chapeau-noir]

It really depends on the sales category - I refresh contemporary clothing on a regular basis - seasonality if nothing else plays into this - I let long tail stuff run for a lot longer.  If something has many impressions and no bites, though, it needs to be fixed because it's sinking in search.  I agree that if one is really short on time, listing new listings is the better choice, but it's such a small time investment to refresh listings.

[cambriachick]

Thanks everyone who commented.  I think I'll end and relist, opposed to end and sell similar, about 10 at a time and hope that's effective.

[mam98031]

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@this*old*attic wrote:

I’m in the other camp.

I sell 4 month plus to year old listings on a regular basis.

It makes more sense to me to just try putting up new listings regularly. Fresh listings are now up without working double on something you’re already selling.

And I do believe new listings increase traffic to all listings, because older items often sell when I put up something new.

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I'm in your camp.  It happens for me all the time.  I do however try and check my active listings every day.  I'm not always successful, but I check when the ones that are coming up on renewal and decide if I want to end any of them and sell similar or relist if there are watchers.  This process serves me well.

[dhbookds]

Just another thought............depends on your price tho.

I would first send an offer to the watchers of the lowest amt I'd take......IF it's low enough to make much difference.......

[chapeau-noir]

@mam98031 wrote:

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@this*old*attic wrote:

I’m in the other camp.

I sell 4 month plus to year old listings on a regular basis.

It makes more sense to me to just try putting up new listings regularly. Fresh listings are now up without working double on something you’re already selling.

And I do believe new listings increase traffic to all listings, because older items often sell when I put up something new.

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I'm in your camp.  It happens for me all the time.  I do however try and check my active listings every day.  I'm not always successful, but I check when the ones that are coming up on renewal and decide if I want to end any of them and sell similar or relist if there are watchers.  This process serves me well.

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I do that on a daily basis - looking at 'ending today' listings in my seller hub - I'll decide if I want to end them, let them run, rejig and do sell similar or whatever, so it's a pretty continuous process. Sometimes I'll end everything and just let it sit for a few weeks and then sell similar all of it (usually end of season), on sale.

There are a lot of choices as to what to do with stale listings, and again, 'stale' is a pretty fluid concept and means something different for a trendy shirt than it does for a rare collectible.

Often I also do what @dhbookds  does and just send out offers in the last day or two.

Mostly just keep the pot boiling.

[cambriachick]

Unfortunately I've had zero responses to the make offer feature.

[a_sharper_image]

Please let us know what results you see!

[a_sharper_image]

The small # of listings I have where I accept offers, 10% at most, are just as likely to sell at full price. I'd say results are 50-50. Just my own experience in Collectables and usually I do that on rare items, odds & ends.

[chapeau-noir]

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@a_sharper_image wrote:
The small # of listings I have where I accept offers, 10% at most, are just as likely to sell at full price. I'd say results are 50-50. Just my own experience in Collectables and usually I do that on rare items, odds & ends.

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Same here - I don't have high expectations when I send out those offers, but it takes a half second to do it and heck about half the time the prices is right and it sells.  It's another tool in the toolbox.