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why sales slow down: The real answer for small sellers dedicated to one product type

I first posted this close to 7 years ago, in response to the thousands of small, low volume sellers who watched sales figures fall through the roof in the first quarter of 2013.  Many of those sellers brought their concerns here.

 

......time to post it again.  Feedback dictates who your buyers are (and who they are not).

 

Over the past 7 years, I have noticed that sales spike only when a consistent flow of feedback is received by buyers who are buying runs of listings contained within one product category (sold by low volume sellers who don't have multiple category items or cross-branded listings).  Once the feedback stops coming, Cassini will send your newly-listeds to the dark corners of the search results.  What's left for relist, will never be seen in a search result, no matter who looks for it.  YOU won't even find your own listing in a search result, believe me.

 

But here is the real catch:   While all this is happening and your sales plummeting, you'll notice that nearly 100 % of the buyers you sold to, and who never left you feedback...have FAR less feedback than you do. 

 

This is a pattern I have seen over and over and over, in my ten years of ups and downs selling on eBay.  It can't be just a bunch of uncorrelated variables, bad luck and happenstance (market forces, product disinterest)....it's the metrics programmed into Cassini.

 

Hope your buyers leave you feedback for every transaction - you'll find it very hard - as a small seller - to get ahead if they don't.

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why sales slow down: The real answer for small sellers dedicated to one product type


@password9019 wrote:

Once the feedback stops coming, Cassini will send your newly-listeds to the dark corners of the search results.  What's left for relist, will never be seen in a search result, no matter who looks for it.  YOU won't even find your own listing in a search result, believe me.


I challenge anyone to give me an example of an item I cannot find in search through Price, Newly Listed, or Ending Soonest. 

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why sales slow down: The real answer for small sellers dedicated to one product type

I don't think feedback has anything to do with it - it's related items within a category or cohort.  For instance, if I sell one computer mouse, chances are I'll sell another shortly thereafter.  I sold a keyboard a few days ago, and then a keyboard bundle a day later - I don't have much computer stuff listed right now, I sell mostly clothing, but the one item sold lifted others in that category in search.  It's one function of a relational database. So you were right about like items in a run of listings until the feedback part - barely 30% of buyers internet wide even bother with feedback.

 

New listings are indexed irrespective of feedback, what has sold in that category, etc.  There may be a lag in their indexing, but they don't get sent off anywhere on the outset. 


When you dine with leopards, it is wise to check the menu lest you find yourself as the main course.

#freedomtoread
#readbannedbooks
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why sales slow down: The real answer for small sellers dedicated to one product type

I don't think it is a question of whether you can find the item - I think it's a question of whether the average buyer is shown the item based on what they use to search.  

 

As for the OP's post I really don't think feedback has anything to do with being seen or not.   Based on my experience - the accounts with the higher feedback percentages have fewer sales, and the account with little feedback has better sales.  And three of my accounts are dedicated to one or two product types.  

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why sales slow down: The real answer for small sellers dedicated to one product type

unless I do a verbatim search - all 80 words in exact sequence, none of my relists ever come up in a search result, using just exact match keywords .  No lie.

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why sales slow down: The real answer for small sellers dedicated to one product type

Feedback DOES have a lot to do with it. I have been selling scale items for 10 years (and occasionally mixed in with other products), and I have noticed that every time the selling starts getting good (mind you, I rarely list over 100 items at once), and I'm doing 20-40 per month, it all comes crashing down after I start noticing my buyers have extremely low feedback (relatively speaking), and that virtually all of them got their item - BUT failed to leave feedback, DOZENS UPON DOZENS of what I like to call, "useless buyers". Most of these buyers are fairly new to eBay, as well....They come once, they never return again. As a result, my newly listeds become relisteds, and they don't sell. And the cycle of stagnation unfolds.

I have seen this pattern over and over, it's a true thing. Once eBay reelgates your items in a search result to only those who are new to eBay, and who don't use eBay hardly at all - or for whatever reason, don't sell and hardly buy - you start losing traction.

When my sales are steady, and volume is moving out consistently, I'm telling you right now it's because the people transacting with me are frequent buyers ....and they always leave a seller feedback- AND most of them have roughly the same OR higher feedback than I do. When that goes away, so do sales. It's a fact, trust me.
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why sales slow down: The real answer for small sellers dedicated to one product type

Believe me, don't believe me.  I've only noticed this pattern over and over for many years.  And I'd find it hard to believe that a seller selling like I do - mainly one category, small inexpensive stuff to the collector market, low volumes at a given time, upswings and downswings -  hasn't seen slumps occur in the face of the SAME correlated variables taking place.  It's how Cassini works, and it's a huge part of the matrix programmed into it, to maximize sales volume for eBay and Paypal...and weed out small sellers selling to others as well, who make eBay no money. 

 

Here's a more detailed look at what I am talking about.  Mind you, I have posted these figures in the past, at different times in my sales history,  when my sales go from $200-300 a month, down to less than 8 % of that range in successive following months- per month:

 

Buyers past 30 days who have made purchase, gotten item, and left no feedback: 

 

325

375

799

75

622

57

108

184

0

525

480

283

291

80

98

 

These are the feedback numbers for ALL buyers who failed to leave me feedback as a seller.  NONE have a higher feedback than me.  I am currently waiting on just one single buyer's fb, who has a 1000+ fb (higher than my own).  Only one.

 

Folks, I have seen this pattern over and over when sales nosedive.  This is real material evidence as to why feedback determines who your buyers are, and who they aren't......and mind you this is the latest round of useless buyers...there have been a couple dozen others in the past six months also...all left no fb, all have less than I do.  These buyers kill me, they really do. 

 

FVF's aren't the whole explanation either, mind you.

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why sales slow down: The real answer for small sellers dedicated to one product type

how can all these low feedback buyer numbers linked to no feedback left be a coincidence?  Can't be.

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why sales slow down: The real answer for small sellers dedicated to one product type

I think I know what it REALLY is. 😏

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why sales slow down: The real answer for small sellers dedicated to one product type

@ password9019 "Hope your buyers leave you feedback for every transaction - you'll find it very hard - as a small seller - to get ahead if they don't."

Are you saying that the less feedback you get from buyers vs sales (AKA Sales ratio to feedback ratio) will drop you in searches? I'm a bit confused, as feedback is not supposed to count against the seller (unless it's a red donut).

Buyers are leaving less and less feedback as time goes on, can't make them give feedback. I don't even worry about feedback anymore, I give it first to every buyer, but I rarely check to see if they reciprocated.



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why sales slow down: The real answer for small sellers dedicated to one product type


@password9019 wrote:

Cassini will send your newly-listeds to the dark corners of the search results.  What's left for relist, will never be seen in a search result, no matter who looks for it.  YOU won't even find your own listing in a search result, believe me.


You would need to give us one item you cannot find so we can search for ourselves and show you the item is either not hidden, or it is just a made up thought of yours.

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why sales slow down: The real answer for small sellers dedicated to one product type

I get feedback from probably less than a quarter of my buyers.  Doesn't seem to be affecting my sales in the slightest.

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why sales slow down: The real answer for small sellers dedicated to one product type

@luckythewinner 

I've been asking for months and no one has ever stepped up to the plate. They prefer to post without facts and expect people to just believe and join the conspiracy bandwagon.

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why sales slow down: The real answer for small sellers dedicated to one product type

@yuzuha:

Same here, I don't think it makes a difference at all whether feedback is left or not. Heck, at the holidays I get brand new 0 feedback buyers who buy and are never seen again. I have a hard time believing algorithms are caring if buyers leave FB or not.
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why sales slow down: The real answer for small sellers dedicated to one product type

Yep, same here.  I had at least five of those over the holidays myself.  They came, they bought one thing, and they'll probably never buy from me again.

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