What is the real problem? It is (a) one's items are not, or no longer, in demand, (b) one 's items are facing increased competition, or (c) one's prices are too high. Now, of course, it is possible that one's items are not being shown to potential customers by eBay - I get that - but such a situation is totally within the control of a seller if they understand the basics of how the eBay search algorithm works (primarily, if an item has been sitting in a GTC listing with poor click-through rates and low conversion rates, then end it and relist so that the "reputation" of the item has a clean slate).
Let me give you an example. Last week, I looked at 8 items in my inventory that had been sitting idle with no sales for over a year ... people looked at the item and some had watchers. Now, is it eBay's fault that these didn't sell? I didn't take that perspective. I owned it, and I took action.
- On each of the 8 items, I did some quick market research to see if the items were selling at all, and if so what they were selling for.
- 2 of the 8 items were not selling anywhere so I removed them and dumped them in the Goodwill box
- The other 6 had pricing problems, and they had sat so long on the eBay shelves that they had fallen off the first page of search.
- I ended all 6 listings, and created "sell similar" listings some title changes ... I priced the items competitively (below anything on eBay or Amazon).
What was the result? One week later, 4 of the 6 items have sold.
This!
Small business owners (sellers) have to stay on their toes every day to stay relevant.
eBay is just a giant search engine, geared towards selling stuff, with algorithms driving everything.
New listings get a bump in the search order, listings that get a sale get ranked higher, overpriced listings get dropped lower evertime a sale happens, etc.. It is no longer a "search and find" marketplace.
We've noticed that old listings go stagnant, especially when eBay changes things. We've had listings that you could only find by searching the item #, even searching the exact title would only bring up everyone else's listings. These were usually a "sell similar" or item that hadn't been updated for several months.
Check prices, end listings, and re list them with a fresh template. This will almost always help, at least for us with unsold items.
Adding to your thought:
If sellers really feel like selling stuff, jump through all the eBay hoops, especially the ones you don't like. TRS, 30 day returns, free returns, etc.. They all help sales. Taking offers puts you in a sales class of it's own. Handling time at one day helps quite a bit, and getting items out sooner than later helps exponentially. I've always noticed a small bump in sales when we print labels and the box is in the hands of the carrier same day.
Stay ahead of the game, do your research, serve the almighty eBay, and it will serve you. I like it less than all of you do, but I do like making money (a lot).
Good luck.
