selling

[mksports03]

Morning, I recently contacted ebay(the 22nd of april) about lack of sales and views(no international sales in a year and little or no views and sales between 8am and 8pm daily), the rep talked to the solutions dept, they told me I was getting overlapped and should reset my account/store.  We did the reset, she said it would take a few days to take affect. My question, has anybody else done the reset and how long before seeing results? Thanks and have a great day.

[klhmdg]

I think the CS person was blowing smoke....

I think it has more to do with Auction items.

Most sales are BIN anymore. People do not want to sit and wait days when they can BIN.

[ten_o_nine]

the rep talked to the solutions dept

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lol, the solutions dept

[brightlightbookseller]

The rep didn't talk to anyone but you.  There is no "Solutions department".  Your lack of sales is rarely if ever eBay's fault, though there is a buying issue that's been going on (the actual nature of it is unknown to me) that may be affecting everyone's sales relatively evenly.  It's not why you have zero sales though.  Look at your items, prices, etc, to determine the real reason for that.

[orangehound]

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@mksports03 wrote:

... the rep talked to the solutions dept, they told me I was getting overlapped and should reset my account/store.  We did the reset, she said it would take a few days to take affect. My question, has anybody else done the reset and how long before seeing results?

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The "theory" behind a reset is that a seller's inventory and/or account is seen negatively by the eBay algorithm, and thus visibility in search results is suppressed.  (The legend goes on to promise that a reset is some magical thing done by eBay customer service, or via gaming the eBay algorithm by doing a bulk edit of all inventory).

If such a thing were true, then after this reset, you should soon notice a significant bump up in your visibility traffic on the traffic page ... doubling ... tripling.  Did that happen?  When looking at your traffic page, did your impressions skyrocket?  If so, you might be blessed - others have realized that eBay's customer service did nothing other than tell them a fantasy to get them off the phone.

That's not to say that there aren't ways to prompt eBay to increase visibility and impressions of your listings ...

1. New listings have increased visibility ... by ending an old listing, and relisting it, you will increase visibility.
2. Regularly adding listings seems to increase overall visibility of your inventory.
3. Lower prices
4. Pay eBay to increase visibility using promoted listings.

One other thought.  You can't sell what people don't want.  Having eBay shelves full of dust-gathering inventory can feel like sales are not what they once were.  Why?  When you list (a) desirable items with (b) undesirable items, the desirable items sell quickly and you feel like you have sales momentum ... but eventually, all you are left with are undesirable items on your shelves, and sales plummet.  It isn't because eBay is failing you, but because you have an increasing inventory of (b).  Unless you are comfortable with having an inventory of long-tail items waiting for that rare buyer, you have to have a strategy for dealing with these items (trash, donate, fire-sale, auction, etc.)

[hartungcards]

Rep: "Where are you going for lunch?"

Solutions Dept:  "McDonalds"

Rep: "Can you pick me up a Big Mac and a large fries"

Solutions Dept:  "Will do."

Rep: "Thanks"

[redmodelt]

Can't add anything except that I like the boarder on the thumbnails, they should stand out from everyone else's.  

[kensgiftshop]

There is no magic reset button, it's just something they tell you to make you feel better and get you off the phone quicker.

[yuzuha]

The lack of international sales is most likely simply due to the cost of international shipping these days.

I used to be able to get small items shipped to me EMS from Japan for $20. These days it costs $39 to ship that exact same size/weight item. That's nearly a 100% increase in price.

[yuzuha]

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@orangehound wrote:

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One other thought.  You can't sell what people don't want.  Having eBay shelves full of dust-gathering inventory can feel like sales are not what they once were. 

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This is the big one. If people don't want what you're offering, then even offering it for $5 isn't going to make it move. I know; I have a few duds in my store that have been sitting around for ages even priced at $5 or less.