The Ebay Conundrum......

thebestnameshavegone

* Good 'til Cancelled listing to preserve sales history.......or relist (or 'sell similar') every thirty days to get a 'new listing' boost?

* Multi-variation listings (with corresponding high stock levels)....or list your colours/sizes separately with smaller stock levels to impove your sales/stock level ratio?

* Include Post and Packing in the price of your product to get 'Premium Service' on your listing......or keep it separate and look cheaper to all the buyers who don't really look at the postage price?

* Change all your photographs to adhere to new 'plain background' policies.......or leave things alone as the new ebay search algorithms apparently don't like listings that have been recently revised?

* Keep scouring the discussion boards here, on TWF and on the Ebay Business Seller boards for ideas on how to boost sales .......or try to get out more??!!

RFW

I'm sure everyone will have different opinions based on their own history.
I'd say revising pictures is probably a good idea, if they aren't compliant the listings will be pulled or have pictures removed so you'll need to revise/relist some time.
Multi variation listings end up with higher profiles in best match than separate listings.
Search/best match changes are on the way in January so there will be a whole new set of different things to worry about.

ballisticbrian

Change all your photographs to adhere to new 'plain background' policies

It's not a choice. Even if it doesn't get picked up for a while, you'll need to adjust the stock level sooner or later which will amend the advert and it will be rejected.

campdave

thebestnameshavegone wrote: »

* Good 'til Cancelled listing to preserve sales history.......or relist (or 'sell similar') every thirty days to get a 'new listing' boost?

I prefer GTC - my GTC listings seem to outperform other sellers of similar items as they are higher in best match

thebestnameshavegone wrote: »

* Include Post and Packing in the price of your product to get 'Premium Service' on your listing......or keep it separate and look cheaper to all the buyers who don't really look at the postage price?

Separate for me, but I don't have a lot of choice - I sell small light items, and often sell multiples which people wouldn't buy if postage was included in item price.

thebestnameshavegone wrote: »

* Change all your photographs to adhere to new 'plain background' policies.......or leave things alone as the new ebay search algorithms apparently don't like listings that have been recently revised?

Plain background isn't a requirement, but "best practice". Graffiti on the pictures isn't allowed. As others said, you're going to have to change them sooner or later anyway.

celestius

thebestnameshavegone wrote: »

*
* Keep scouring the discussion boards here, on TWF and on the Ebay Business Seller boards for ideas on how to boost sales .......or try to get out more??!!

Yes to GTC and multi-variation listings.
I have changed all my items to conform to Premium Service, have yet to see it make any difference though...
Would love to get out more but have a slight obsession with my shop and making it work!

moneypooh

Separate for me, but I don't have a lot of choice - I sell small light items, and often sell multiples which people wouldn't buy if postage was included in item price.


same here...

thebestnameshavegone

Thanks for all your comments - as has been said, there are varying opinions out there!

My photos were never littered with text or twirly borders anyway, but some of my items do look a lot better 'in situ' than photographed in my plain white light tent - will definitely hang on to those for as long as I can, but know that I'm only delaying the inevitable.

I've always used GTC listings and thought that was the best option, but have found by experimenting that 'stale' GTC listings (i.e. those with little or no sales for about a month) can suddenly spring back into life when re-listed. I had a product that had no sales since March, so I ended the listing (even though it had 100+ sales history), re-listed it (using 'sell similar') at the beginning of August without changing a word of the title, description, price, conditions, etc. and have sold an average of five a week ever since. Bizarre.

As for P&P vs 'Inclusive'; the competitors in one of the categories I operate in have nearly all opted to ignore the carrot of a 15% FVF discount and have continued to offer separate P&P. They are not items that lend themselves to multiple sales postage discounts. I went for the Premium Service route and my total price was usually the cheapest compared with with their price + post & packing, but sales still fell (as did ranking position).

I'm still hanging on to my multi-variation listings, but have reduced stock levels to see if that makes any difference - instead of 10+ on each variation I'm only listing a handful at a time. I wonder if regularly updating stock levels counts as 'revising' a listing though...........*bangs head on table*

Luckily ebay is not my main source of income and I can treat it as a challenge, but reading some of the Business Seller Boards on ebay it would seem that many have seen sales dry up alarmingly over the past month or so. Conspiracy theories abound, as does advice as to how to 'Beat Cassini'!