Significant Drops in eBay Impressions and Organic Page Views: A Huge Problem

[retro-treasureparadise]

Since April 6th, my eBay impressions have dropped significantly from an average above 1 million to around 500k, and now they hover at around 600k. Despite contacting customer service, I received an unhelpful response that everything looks fine. Frustratingly, I have continued to upload new listings every day, but sales have still decreased. On April 25th, a new issue arose where my organic page views showed 0, which is clearly not accurate. I reached out to customer service, but their response was again unhelpful and similar to my previous experience. These ongoing problems have made me feel unstable and unsure about eBay's reliability. I am now considering moving to another platform, but before making that decision, I want to know if others are facing similar issues.

 

 

[hk-resale]

@zamo-zuan @valueaddedresource @blacktopautoparts 

Any thoughts on our Promoted Listing Standard Data?  Our numbers are inverted compared to Zamo-Zuan's graphs.

Impressions, Clicks & Sales:

[oldedale]

We had steady daily sales until eBay went to ITEM SPECIFIC SEARCHES. We averaged 2K month for 5 years. After the change, sales decreased to 800 month. 2022 was down -55% from any previous year. 2023 sales, if traffic stays at this low level, 2023 annual sales will drop another -55%. 17 years selling on eBay, we were successful until ITEM SPECIFIC SEARCH. TRS 17 years.

[oldedale]

We also see huge drops in traffic impressions from a certain date onward. 40,000 impressions for weeks, drops to 20,000 or LESS from one day onward. example 40K until 5/1 then traffic drops to 20K and stays at lower rate. The day EBAY pushes out quarterly updates. This has happened every quarter for 2 years.

[nells250]

YES, I did for some, but NO RESULTS.  Most of the time I don't list high dollar items, so ANY additional fees are a burden.  And when I DO list more expensive items, EVEN ONES THAT HAVE SIMILAR EXAMPLES LISTED BY OTHER SELLERS, they don't sell.  I usually try to list those items LOWER that other examples and STILL they don't get hits or bids, while the others sell.  There's something wrong there...

[stacy_1971]

This makes me want to do a 100% promoted item just to see what happens 😄

[thevegasbroker]

Hi there,

I also seen a 50% decrease in traffic the last 30 days which never happened to me. I bet you it is connected to the new paid ad marketing that eBay recently introduced. 

[stevemartin60]

Has anyone seen any communication from eBay of any type--email, PM, notice on this mssage board, newspaper ad, skywriter, carrier pigeon--  giving us any idea what the h#%^ is going on?

Thanks in advance.

[siamjane8]

Ebay has never been transparent or forthcoming with any information.......they deny responsibility and redirect blame to sellers.   

     It is a shame, because as far as customer service goes- when a company admits an issue and is working towards a solution, it builds respect and trust with the customer.... when they deny and divert blame it is off-putting and undermines the relationship.

     Just look what happened to Bud Lite- they screwed up royally and made a huge advertising mistake- instead of admitting it early on and addressing the issue head on, they watched as the company's net worth quickly dissolve- loosing billions.   First mistake was pushing a political/social agenda on its customers who simply wanted to buy beer.  Second mistake was not owning the bad decision and apologizing which would have earned the respect of the customer base they were losing.  Now the damage has been done and they are not recovering.

     Ebay should take note: all we want from ebay is a competent & functioning selling platform that helps buyers find our products.  We need a rock solid search engine that shows people all the relevant listings and not PL that have nothing to do with search.  We need the basic functions of the site to work without myriads of glitches.  We need transparency when changes are made so we can adjust our businesses.

[zamo-zuan]

What is frustrating in this case is yet another decline (compounding the drop that already happened) occurred right when the page was "fixed" and switched up completely from the last chart overnight. 

Still in a position where all I could hope for is this is addressed and fixed sooner rather than later. 

Things were flat lined at that time, (or should I say, flat lined ALL YEAR during the busiest season of the year for this category) now EVERYTHING is red:

This year has been ridiculous. EBay, please get the tech team together and get this fixed already. They can easily reproduce the problem when views are not adding up between the traffic, ad, and charts. It's not like this isn't an issue that occurred multiple times in the past, they should already know what needs to be fixed!

[dhbookds]

@zamo-zuan 

did you see Brian B's answer ?  Message #290.............he's saying the traffic metrics are correct.........

[zamo-zuan]

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@dhbookds wrote:

@zamo-zuan 

did you see Brian B's answer ?  Message #290.............he's saying the traffic metrics are correct.........

---

Yes I have followed up on that with Brian B, which is why I've shown the examples that the traffic/ad/reports are not even matching.

Unfortunately this isn't really a new experience with the tech team, as they have had a long time habit of claiming things are fixed when they aren't. Many eBay reps I've spoken to have pushed to get things fixed only to have the tech team repeatedly say it's either fixed or not an issue.

I'm just hoping there's somebody out there that can get the tech team in to gear and hold them accountable. If the pages aren't even matching, that's a clear sign of issues. And when traffic/ad statistics are not even read correctly, it's IMPOSSIBLE for the algorithms to work correctly.

[nilis13]

Definitely not fixed along with everything else.

[etrusca]

Thank you Zamo for continuing to share the facts, hold the mirror up and for trying to help Ebay see the severe situation that many of us are experiencing which isn't just the traffic report inconsistencies but the drastic decline in sales and functionality of the website.

i have literally had one - two sales a week for the past month with many being under $20, most coming late at night from mwest or california.... curious, as if i had two hours of viewing- despite all the views or previous watchers which declined after relisting multiple times. 

 i had my church fair mother's day wknd member / vendor booth where we sell nice things,  5 of us in business offering contemporary, handmade or my antiques & vintage, brought mostly silver vtg purses & jewelry. 

i made more sales in 7 hrs in rain than 3 months on ebay - majority were ebay listings  $10- 50 each. had to give church 20% , no booth fee. Having to end those listings affects my standing but one has to sell to eat & keep business alive!

i just don't know what to make of this situation, it's beyond comprehension when all their  effort is going to extraneous programs and initiatives to make a questionable percentage instead of focusing on core platform health and sales. i have not found any site functionality improvement  in 2 months , only more complications - dangerous roller coaster.

24 loyal years on Ebay and now i don't feel rewarded for all my effort, dedicated customer service & as a trained professional in the field , patience with the hiccups that have turned into gross malfunctions & negligence. 

All  i have ever wanted is to make buyers happy, do well and be part of Ebay's once iconic & unique complexion & success. 

[mybigsale]

@zamo-zuan 

@etrusca 

...24 loyal years on Ebay and now i don't feel rewarded for all my effort, dedicated customer service & as a trained professional in the field , patience with the hiccups that have turned into gross malfunctions & negligence....

I have been on eBay for over 20 years and have been a Top-Rated seller since first qualifying years ago. I don't agree with all of eBays rules, I do follow them. At this point, I do not expect eBay to be responsive to the needs of sellers. I suspect some of the report issues are by eBay deliberately fixing numbers to show sellers numbers eBay wants them to see. I do believe if serious "glitches" are found and eBay wants them fixed, they will eventually be fixed.

The only "reward" I want (and it's not really a reward as eBay would benefit the most) is for eBay to streamline a path for sellers' feedback to be part of the process for eBay improving eBay. Instead, it's an uphill battle with sellers needing to "push" on eBay support and eBay moderators who then need to push their way on up to eBay management and development. Currently, only the most serious of "Glitches" will make it through - as eBay currently doesn't have a clear path to address user/seller concerns with the eBay platform.

I do appreciate all sellers who have the conviction and dedication to push eBay platform concerns up the eBay Hill to try and get issues resolved!

[stevemartin60]

Suppose the CCP secretly had bought out eBay.  Just bare with me a second.

 We know elite capture has already happened in D.C., and a lot of farmland  is gone, too.  Why wouldn't they be buying out corporations with our money spent on their trinkets and trash all these years?

If that were the case, we would have seen an explosion in foreign sellers and rock bottom, sweat-shop prices over the past few years.  We would see domestic, long term American sellers getting intentionally short shifted... maybe even shadow banned and "switched off." We would see totally non-responsive "customer service," etc.

All in preparation for the great reset, CBDC, and social credit scores...