You are right on, I am glad that we are finally realizing what eBay changed. Luckily in the last year I started to cut back from 1000 listings planning on growing indefinitely, to cutting back to 700 listings and shopping with sell through rate in mind. I need to get my store back on track and I think your recommendations are an excellent blueprint. I wish eBay would tell sellers what their plans are instead of ripping the rug out from under the huge sellers that profited from massive listing totals.
I think 90 days and older is when the item gets stale in my experience. So those tend to be the ones I pay attention to. I still do think eBay likes an active store and I notice my sales become more consistent when I am. The one thing I don’t agree with is that sell similar doesn’t work. So I stopped doing it for about 6 months because there was all this talk about shadow bans. So I decided to give it a whirl again this week. I optimised the title a little bit, but not much. I’ve seen immediate sales on those items that had previously hung around. So I am now actively ending and selling similar and seeing a lot more interest in those items - and sales.
@@polish_pete_uk my apologies, I misunderstood what you meant. I thought you were saying even that didn’t work anymore. Yes, this has really shifted some old stock for me this past week of trialling that.
It used to be: the more you sell, the more you sell. Sometime a few years ago eBay and Etsy decided that they didn't want it anymore. I have no idea what they are trying to do. BTW... "glitch" is something that lasts a few day. Anything that is not fixed after weeks or months are intentional.
I totally agree 100% with you Pete, especially #2. That was my suspicion that my longtail low-cost items that went stale might have been blocking traffic to my store. I was stuck with no sales & only 3 watchers for a 10 day stretch. So 72 hrs ago, I started deleting those items out of my store, I'm up 2 sales & 20 watchers! And the traffic that is bringing me those sales and watchers are on higher-value things in my store 🤔😁 and the items that I removed no problem I cross listed to other platforms.
Great video again Pete and I totally agree with all your points. I have also noticed something else thats happened since begining of September and running some testing myseklf to gauge the results (I have put a couple of vids up on it so far) there should be a resulyts video for it within the next week if I can get enough data together. We have all got to work together to support each other in this changing platform. keep up the geat work Pete :)
I'd like to add that if you have a multi quantity listing and you have sold one of the items, eBay will always push that listing regardless of age because of the positive track record. You have basically summed up what I have come to the conclusion during the past couple of months. Excellent tips!
Thank you. Great insight. It's hard to make these changes when my store is 20 years old, but looks like I will have to make these changes becaues things are so slow.
I completely agree with your analysis. I have 10,000+ item store. 90% of my stock is made up of long-tail items. In the past, I used to regularly sell items that had been listed for years, but now they are almost invisible, and the items that make up the other 10% of my stock (multi-item listings) are not making sales as frequently as they used to. I was going to give it until after Christmas, but I’m going to take drastic action next week. I’m going to end 95% of my listings (after saving them to a 3rd party app) and focus on the few multi-quantity listings that sell multiple times a week. Each month I’m going to max out my auction allowance with the best of the ended items. Fingers crossed!
@@rickrickscum2714 Price isn’t a factor. Many of the items I sell are one of a kind. In the past it was just a matter of listing it and allowing the right buyer to eventually find it. Now, even if the perfect buyer searches for this item with the perfect keyword query, they are not finding them. At the moment, selling long tail items on eBay is unsustainable in my opinion.
Hi Pete, great video, very interesting and good to know your background. I’ve been a subscriber for a while now. I have a very small shop, only just over 100 items. I list 1/2 a day! However after a few years now of doing this I do have stale items. Can you explain maybe in another video about how you take down old (Summer/winter) stock and manage to keep it for 6 months (?) before relisting it? If you save back to drafts they will be deleted after 90 days so I can’t see how you do it? You mention scheduling? Sorry, I feel I must be missing something that it patently obvious but thought I would ask. Thanks again for the fantastic content.
I just list that item, and I schedule it for a later date. It's then in your scheduled listings, so from time to time, you have to reschedule them for the later date. You can do that indifinitely. There's a video for you: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jtTm-RoFviU.html
Really appreciate this information ! Agree. I have been doing your solutions starting auctions, sell similar, moving photo's, changing title...but I was waiting only a few day to relist. I am a part time small seller with 75-90 items. I sell everything (very few clothing) vintage, MCM, estate sale finds. I source what I'm able to get in South Georgia.
Such a difficult situation for those who sell in the more competitive areas of ebay. I sell in niche areas mostly (fine jewellery / antiques) and haven't experienced the same sales drop others have. Perhaps ebay also likes me because I am happy to take less of a profit in order to sell more quickly, so I rarely have items that sit for 90+ days. I can kind of relate to what ebay is trying to do - there's a tonne of things on ebay that stand a low chance of selling, so doesn't make fiscal sense for them to show them high in searches, BUT... they're not educating sellers on how to better ensure sales / telling us exactly why listings are dropping out of searches etc. Let's hope Q4 brightens for everyone!
Good point... I find first few weeks of Q4 for thought-through gifts is good, and also last week before xmas ("oh wow! Must get something! Jewellery!") is good, but otherwise, not so much! I always thought "maybe they're buying cheap clothes for xmas parties" etc... but now, I wonder!
Glad I found you, you are a wealth of knowledge and clear communication. Much success to you and many thanks, Pete!!! Please share your opinion on the following: I use Web Interpret, a third party that replicates my US ebay listings to ebay UK, ebay AU, etc. so my 3000 listing store shows actually 15000 listings. Do you think that this gigantic number divided into several ebays (UK, AUstralia, Germany, Europe etc) are weighing down my US store or does the ebay algorythm considers it separately by eBay store? Because the total listing number shows combined, 15000 plus listings...thanks!
I am a small seller (don't throw things at me)..You're right. One thing I did do was take down all of my listings and sell similar BUT with new photos and new descriptions written for a robot to read, NOT a human, and my sales immediately became consistent again. I'm not trying to cheat the system, just give it what it wants!
Yes, I know. I advised that as well to one of sellers with massive shop, but even in my case, to take down 1500 listings, rephoto and relist them, thats a month of work, 8h a day.
Thank you for this idea, Sibby. I call myself a "hobby seller". I sell things of my own mostly that I want clear out, but also a few unique items that I think are of interest to collectors maybe. I have absolutely not been selling much at all. I have not in months, actually. Still, I don't want to give up. I get a little happiness buzz when I do sell something. So, I think I'll start trying out your method over the next several days. Again, thank you! ❤
Such great points and certainly food for thought. Not sure about the "not going crazy listing every day". Mmmm. I still think Ebay wants us to list every day, but maybe better quality or higher priced items? I have recently gone to listing every other day for personal reasons. I've sunk 35%. Same items just list once every 2nd day. Also Pete are you saying we should do a brand new listing for items we end and not do end and sell similar? Thank you for your valuable insights.
If I only knew what to do with end and sell similar... I dont know. Hopefully will figure something out. For.now, I change few things here and there, before I sell similar.
So I tested sharing my items on social media and 21 clicks on my item did put a dent in my eBay views so that doesn’t work! eBay is broken PERIOD! A FART IN A BROKEN LIFT cracked me up I’m still laughing 😂 😂😂
Things are crazy. Some things don't even get seen. Sometimes that can't be found. Weird. I haven't been able to find the right groove yet. This is my first year, and it's wild. My first couple of months were so hot, and now a few days could go by without a sale. I've tried removing everything and revamping them, which was very time-consuming. I do try to use suggestions from others but uuugh. Very interesting thanks for your wisdom.
It's so weird. It seems like they punish you for random things that you don't know why but maybe it really is the site just struggling & the economy. My figures are decent I think for the time spent lately but the past few days have been pretty terrible. They did some really cool things for me which sucked me back in now it seems like they're taking that out on me with sub par sales. Stuff was moving like crazy awhile back when I was busy working on cars & the house hadn't touched ebay in a month or longer much. Not much new listings just daily check ups. App was even out dated. I get these troll like messages on random items that just seem like they're ebay themselves screwing with me. It's super annoying but when I look at my monthly dollar amount I really should just be humble and wait it out, maybe in a few days 6 items will fly off my shelf & good ones too. 30 day 90 day always looks good but seeing my store drop off a cliff after hitting a new high last January was really frustrating. I swear though it's always right after those annoying questions that these dry spells happen. I be nice and answer anyways briefly but somewhat ignore because what they asked is already on the listing plain as day, I keep my listings very near and brief intentionally, unless the item needs more.
Great insight thankyou truly you would have a great career as a data analyst .Do u think ebay is pushing everyone for shop subscription as 300 free auction listing and also secures eBay a solid monthly return on subscription? It's sad for people with over a 1000 listing so much extra work . I think I'll research more using terapeak to find high ticket items in demand. To be honest stale listing cost us storage space to . For auctions what day and time do you think works best ? I have moved over to jwellery selling due to storage issues lol family are fed up with clothing in the house .
I don't know if ebay is pushing shop subscription. I think they are pushing quick turnaround. They don't want long tail items. I list my auctions at 7pm on Saturday. Some people say that Sunday is better. I always had better results on Saturdays. I was thinking about costume jewellery, but I think it's even more saturated than clothing. Also, I have no good source. Back in the days, you were able to buy massive lots on Ebay, but now there's less and less, and they are more expensive. But, to be fair, you need one good item, and the price of whole 5kg lot is paid.
Hey btw loved the songs you should sing for us more often haha. Hey to add to your algorithm theories, here in the states people are saying it’s as if the American mid west places a little better than those on the coasts. I realize your in Poland but I’d imagine the algorithm in similar in each country
I sell in UK. Country is small enough for postage to be the same, wherever you're sending to. Delivery times are the same as well. I don't hink it's the case in Europe. But thanks for the input.
People are cash poor these days. Savings accounts are dwindling. It's less liquid than in years passed. Hobbies and unnecessary spending are the first to get cut out of one's budget.
Yes, but ebay's algorithm has changed anyway. One has nothing to do with the other. I have just pushed my sales 20% up month on month, adapting changes to satisfy new algorithm. It's only less than two weeks, and I wouldn't be surprised by two zero sales days next week, but still, I can see a move in good direction.
What do you think about delisting and relisting stale listings using a 3rd party software instead of through Ebay's sell similar? Maybe Ebay knows the stale listing is the same because people are using sell similar through their website instead of another software?
welcome to my world - I am doing relists every day - intertwined with new listings - I have ~2000 listings I assume they have a signature on the listings (crc or another hash etc - that they know its not a duplicate but damn close) - but the issue is now I have to increase my average sell price as I am not making enough / hour so that changes my buying habits to get better items
I'm not saying you're wrong. But what you fail to address is that if you only sell one type of items such as postcards which are obviously almost all long tail items then all of your competition is in the same boat that you are. So unless all of the buyers in that category go away then eBay has to show somebody's listings to buyers. Maybe they don't show your listings but they have to show somebody
There are youtubers reporting that sales have dropped even in the very small niches, where theres a handful of sellers. And nobody's stuff is visible. Customers can't find anything. Like there was nothing listed.
I have notice about a month ago that I think the system is overloaded with new sellers because everywhere I go for example thrift shops brick and mortar everybody is checking there items with there phones even if I go right when stores open especially Goodwill store theres either nothing there or people are grabbing them like a pigeon go for the last of there food i am probably in correct but everyone is jumping on the band wagon because they see a lot of you tubers showing folks how ez it is so again i am just speculating its over flooded with people listing and listing and not listing it incorrectly that is my opinion but you sound right.but u have to work for everything perhaps you can start a new platform and we all pitch in and be a happy family of sellers and call it "What I Got" lol Thank you for all of your videos thats a great scenario or formula of what your saying
Interesting theory about overloading, but I think they can afford most powerfull servers that are available. Maybe algorithm doesn't manage to index everything. There may be something in it.
I think this theory has some merit. People are hurting for money and many more people than in the past are flooding ebay with stuff around the house items, items they get from tag sales. Thrift stores etc. It's causing too many items to be on ebay, but not enough buyers to purchase them. Also, something is wrong with calculated shipping costs shown to buyers. There are so many ridiculous prices to ship things now ( ie, shipping a shirt for 18.50) when you write the seller, they come back with....I had no idea ebay was showing that cost. Ebay needs to fix that issue too. That will increase sales as well.
I do think, since Covid, a lot more people moved into reselling. Ebay is awash with items (it would be interesting to know thw numbers). I also believe people do not spend anywhere near as freely as they used to. Money is tight. You need good quality items that people want.
I know the numbers. It is exactly what you're saying. On Friday, there will be follow up to this video, and I'll say the numbers. In my opinion, at the moment, Ebay has enough of items and sellers. Their problem is that buyers leave to other platforms. In UK that would be Vinted.
Great Video Pete you r right and I wish you luck i only have about 100 items ad I have went even up to 11% promoting and still no sales in 2 weeks so promoting is not helping happy selling 😂 thanks
I find that there's absolutely no correlation between promoted fees and sales. All I sell is the youngest items, if that makes sense. If anything, considering the amount of items and their age, I can definitely say that even if I up my promoted fees, sales stay the same. For sure they are not going up significantly. And higher than 7% was always not worth it for me.
What will you do when Vinted will block you overnight. Like it did to me. Ebay anual revenue is 10bn dollars. What's Vinted? 99% of sellers that will go to Vinted, will stay on ebay, just crosslisting. It's not easy to finish a company that takes more money every year, than some small countries GDP.
Can you use Posher VA in the UK? It automatically lowers the price for you so you don't have to do it manually. I haven't paid for it yet, but others seem to have success with it.
Czesc Pete, Images, I wouldn't change those, I would add more. ebay has increased the number of possible images, so Cassini should like that too. When I end listings, I also try to add article specifications that may still be missing. I think it's nonsensical to pretend it's a new listing, but to really improve the ended one before sell similar. I agree that ebay no longer wants you to produce only listings 24/7. I am convinced that ebay has been flooded with offers the past years and the change in algorithm is the answer. Listings need to be more perfect than before. Instead of producing tons of new listings, you should improve the old ones and add new ones when the sales start. Furthermore, I believe that a mix of high and low priced items is a good idea to push the sell thru rate. Tons of high priced long tale items doesn't seem like a good idea.
The most people is browsing ebay on evenings during weekend. I've seen it some time ago in an article. I've tried whole week, bit only evenings. Saturday has worked best for me.
I promote very few items. I list about 5-8 items a day and sell about 4-8 per day. The trick is to list what people want to buy at a good price. Took me an embarrassing amount of time to figure that one out.
You are so funny! Screwed if you are a crazy lister 😂 I noticed I only get views on 1 in 6 items listed! After 2 weeks I may as well delete and sell similar … but my great in demand items are selling on other platforms but not eBay.., I think AI is in charge and it’s not making sense at all.. I have done EXACTLY what you are doing for the last 5 months! Exactly! I have sold some older listings this way! BUT there’s more going on right now and thinking too many changes has broken eBay.. they warned of this years ago with changes but these new CEOs don’t get it.. Stores in US are not discounting seasonal items they are holding them back for next year .. that’s a huge change!! So not much in clearance to pick up for big profit! In uk you can keep inventory in the waiting to list .., but in US we have good weather year round in the country somewhere do I can sell summer stuff for people going on vacation to Florida! I have 2 shops also .. my old store doesn’t work well and is dead but my new store is busier .. two stores are very different in set up.. why I don’t know!
Hey boss, if you don't mind my asking, how many items do you feel are optimal for a store to have? I'm at 4300+ and have been killed since March 23rd and now, the day after Labor Day (seems they made yet another change that killed sales more). I'm certain long tail, selling books and records which I have no problem selling on all other platforms other than eBay. What you said makes a lot of sense and I'm going to start downsizing for a few reasons, but I'm wondering what you think the optimal number of listings is per store. I'm going to start taking down 50 items a day and changing the way each looks, then doing the sell similar. Then I'll take what hasn't sold down on day 88 and do sell similar with the date they drop being past that 90 day point, unless you meant I'd have to wait 90 days to list again. I'm at $53,000 in value. I'm going to drop the value of my top $20,000 by 40% and reinvest the sales money in inventory for my antique booth I have and other products I can sell locally. All the merchandise in my eBay store has made my money back many times over, so I'm not really worried about 'losing' anything as I have nothing to lose. I also have more than $100,000 in inventory I could list if eBay worked right (their loss). I will still continue to add new listings but my main purpose of that is to get new customers whom I can send flyers in their orders to follow me on my other platforms where they can actually find my items (and at a cheaper price). I wish you the best friend. What you've said has hit literally every problem I've had as a long tail store. I have been shifting business since early April so I'll be fine, but I do want to streamline the eBay store as much as possible and downsize it due to eBay's choosing not to show my items. What I don't get in eBay's logic is that they say your items aren't selling, so they change the algorithm to not show your items. Meanwhile, before they did this, you sold the items (regardless of what they think). So, by not showing my items, they create something where they can say, "See, your items don't sell." Idiot logic. BTW, they won't discuss why you had sales prior to their changes for say, um, 24 years. Multiply that by millions of sellers and you see the stupidity that is inherent in the current eBay Management. I don't see eBay changing for the better until Jamie is fired and given his $20 million or whatever to go away.
There's no such thing as best number of items. All Ebay wants now is items selling quick. They won't change it. It's a corporation. If they have invested millions of dollars into it, it'll be easier for them to lie to themselves that it's working, than to admit it's a waste of money.
Complete factless nonsense.....look at the terrapeak numbers. There is no overloading of items......Users are back down to pre pandemic numbers and items listed are back to pre covid levels as well. Everybody has NO CLUE without ebay actually coming out and providing some answers for the massive decline.
@@polish_pete_uk I’m taking your advice and refreshing titles and pictures. Also gonna take some old stuff down. Actually contemplating shutting it all down and redoing everything 🤷♀️
@@polish_pete_uk Listing impressions down 12.8% Click through rate down 0.0% pts. Listing page views down 13.7%. Sales conversion rate up 0.8% pts. Aug 16- Sept 15. Had a good weekend last week, crickets all week this week. Was wanting to add more listings but I’m not sure it will help. I really feel like I need to start over.
All that is happening is as you said ebay is losing revenue and the only way to get your items seen now is pay a percentage extra for promotion/ sponsored . I know people will probably say why should I pay more and yes I agree but sadly this is the way things are now on the good side there are a lot of other selling platforms just cross list everything.
It’s terrible that people have to pay there fees and now this extra as well it’s just not a level playing field anymore when wotnot takes off in the uk it will be another hit to eBay
All resellers schould cross list and slowly gradually leave ebay until they get the message. If all resellers did this ebay would have 2 change the algorithms
Ebay started as a free marketplace... and grew beyond anyone's imagination....BUT... that all stopped about 10-12yrs ago... (a 20yr seller here).... since then they have employed different measures to 'control' sales, search and views... picking winners and losers along the way....because they could! ... No other reason ! Just because you 'can' do something does not mean it will improve anything if you do. All the effort to "control" the market through whatever methods always fail in the end. Progressives... never understand or accept this because it undermines their ideological premise.... They truly believe they 'know best', and the ends justify the means. This is an ideological battle and those in charge have been indoctrinated through their education to think this way and use whatever power and tools they have available to that end..... We're screwed. It's so bad now that whatever they do to 'fix' one problem creates five new problems they won't learn of for weeks or months... In Texas we say it's like trying to 'get your biscuits and gravy to come out even'... it can't be done.
I'll counter that theory by saying: if it's a free market, they can do whatever they want, and anybody saying they can't is trying to controll the market. I don't believe in free market. There's no such thing for decades. Every government in the world is controlling the market, and in my opinion it's not a bad thing. Semiconductors, rare earth metals, green energy, and few more. These have to be controlled. If not, we're asking for trouble.
@@polish_pete_uk I'm not denying what is... I'm opposing it. It is an historical fact that the more control is exerted, the fewer individuals experience true success. And those who control the system pick the 'winners and losers' ... it's an unavoidable consequence of human nature combined with fundamental Communism... Coming from the Eastern block I'm sure you're aware that what is 'honest and fare' always gives way to corruption and it's philosophically justified by the 'winners'. However, focusing on Ebay, more than global economic theory.... Initially, in 1995, ebay was an 'auction' site. There are few things more free than that concept. Courts have consistently used the auction model to determine 'actual value' at any given moment. Ebay had rules against 'shill bidders' and sellers who reneged on a final bids considered too low, etc. And auctions are fine if you have items that are 'rare' or the demand overtakes the supply. But to make way for more mundane items people would buy if given the chance, that evolved over time to make way for fixed price items and the 'store' model. When I started selling, over 20yrs ago, item's in stores weren't even displayed in the 'search' unless there were fewer than 10 similar items listed at auction on any given day. You literally had to run auctions in hopes of luring buyers into your 'store' to view your other merchandise which could not be seen otherwise. Later that moved to 20 items and eventually auctions were displayed at the top of the search and fixed price/store items were below to 'scroll'. Now, it all runs together unless you 'sort' for one or the other. Later, ebay began 'pushing' with the searches and controlling what was seen, and unseen. THEY DENIED IT... BUT WE ALL KNEW IT MUST BE TRUE FROM EVEN THE LIMITED DATA AND EXPERIENCE WE HAD, AND IT WAS... Listers were no longer even guaranteed their items would ever be seen. And that evolved to where we are today... trying to navigate a system which is literally rigged against us, and they don't see that as a 'problem'.... but it is. The buyer(shopper) doesn't get a true search of what is available.... only what the 'system' allows him to see, and the seller is left guessing how to get seen.
