- This topic has 13 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 1 month ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
I was looking at a new eBay Report the other day and I came across an interesting fact about my ebay account. The report is the Listings Quality Report which I didn’t find very useful in itself but on the report it mentioned that my ranking within the categories that I have the most listings. If I’m reading this report correctly, I rank 470th out of 100,000 sellers that are selling Mens Hats – New Condition and I rank 12th out of 73,000 sellers in the Mens Hats – Used Condition.
Take a look and see for your own account and see if you think I’m reading this correctly. The report is at: https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance
Click on the “Download listings quality report” which will create an Excel file
When you open the report, your rankings will be on the first tab:
-
Interesting report, I hadn’t seen that before. I’m not sure what use it is other than a pat on the back, but maybe validates that a seller is doing well. I looked at a few of them, I’m in the top 10% of all the categories shown and in the top 5% on about a third of them. Sales are down though.
-
-
These are interesting numbers but difficult to believe. Is this rank by number of sales? I feel we dont get the number of sales in these categories to earn this rank. I can totally see you being #12 in used hats.
Mens Used hats: Your rank by sales (GMV) value: 435 out of 73,621 sellers in this category and condition
Other Contemporary Photographs: 364 out of 23,427 sellers in this category and condition
Shirts > Used T-Shirts: 996 out of 136,483 sellers in this category and condition
Men’s Accessories > Used: Ties 286 out of 47,016 sellers in this category and condition
Remote Controls / Used : 415 out of 34,399 sellers in this category and condition
Art > Art Prints / Listings condition: Unknown: 1,118 out of 109,452 sellers in this category and condition
Shirts > T-Shirts / Listings condition New: 883 out of 161,923 sellers in this category and condition
-
I had to Google “GMV” because I wasn’t familiar with that acronym. It stands for “Gross Merchandise Value” or “Gross Merchandise Volume” and represents the total value of sales over some period of time (rather than the number of sales).
I wasn’t 100% sure whether those rankings meant what I thought or not but it’s new information to me. If nothing else it’s staggered to know that there are 136,000 people selling used t-shirts on eBay. Next time someone asks why their stuff isn’t selling we can point to numbers like those.
-
It is an interesting number and even more interesting that eBay is willing to reveal some of these overall metrics if true. Starts to give a sense of the size of eBay sellers.
Since some of us seem high on the list of certain categories, makes me feel that most of the 136k sellers(or whatever number) only sell a handful of items. We have a good sized inventory, but its not that big.
-
-
-
Jay,
I’ve always figured the Pareto Principle probably applies to ebay: 20% of sellers drive 80% of GMV. Even so, I was surprised at how high I ranked. But it make me wonder how big the gap is between me and , say, #1? If my sales are “x” in that category, are #1’s sales 5x? 10x? 100x? 1000x or what?
I seem to remember a report put out by etsy a few years back, trying to persuade Congress to do more for “micro businesses” (as opposed to small businesses). I was surprised by the figure they released…something like the average etsy seller grosses $100 , and I think that was a year, not a month. Writing that, it sounds way too low….I wish I had kept the article. But whatever the actual figure, it was so low it really amazed me.
It really would be interesting to see more internal data from ebay. I’ve sometimes mentioned on the ebay boards that I’m a very small seller, (right now I have 700 listings up, which is actually more than usual) and have been surprised to see people responding with: “Small? Not with that many listings!” My guess is the large majority of sellers on ebay, including many who have been on the platform for many years, are actually quite small
-
But it make me wonder how big the gap is between me and , say, #1? If my sales are “x” in that category, are #1’s sales 5x? 10x? 100x? 1000x or what?
This is a very good point. Who knows if the #1-100 sellers are hundred times bigger than us.
I have a feeling we’re rarer than most sellers with a storage building behind our house, but there are the sellers that have twenty employees and a giant warehouse with truckloads of stuff coming in every day.
-
-
-
I think this PDF is 2013 etsy….I don’t see the figure I mentioned, but it is interesting to see just how small the average etsy seller is (or was back then, anyway)
-
Jay, Exactly. I admit, it makes me feel a little better about my biz…..while I am far from the 20 employee size, and have no desire to get that big, I realize that if I ever get up to 5 or 10,000 listings, I will probably be in the upper quadrant of sellers. One of the most common complaints I see on the ebay Boards and various FB groups is about slow / no sales. And we all go through ups and downs, but as you guys taught me…..it’s a numbers game. Get up to a certain critical mass of listings, and you will still have hills and valleys, but critical mass helps to smooth that out a lot. People ask “What should I do to get more sales” and I look at their listings and they’ve got maybe 45 listings, all one offs. They often don’t want to hear it, but the best advice is “List more” Sure, they can run a sale, or send out offers, or use Social Media, all that can help, but nothing can really replace “list more” LOL
get to critical mass, work on improving your ASP, retain strong margins, and it’ll work out….it isn’t rocket science….
-
People ask “What should I do to get more sales” and I look at their listings and they’ve got maybe 45 listings, all one offs. They often don’t want to hear it, but the best advice is “List more” Sure, they can run a sale, or send out offers, or use Social Media, all that can help, but nothing can really replace “list more” LOL
Yeah, this is well said. Obviously everyone can sell how they want, but unless you spend ALL YOUR TIME scavenging for the best of the best, it’s a numbers game. Most listings, more consistent sales.
Even with it being slow now, we’re still selling items everyday.
I guess the thinking is for some sellers “If these 50 items havent sold yet, why would I list more? Sell these first.” I’ve never seen this logic work.
-
Agreed, that logic never works. In the pre ebay days, I was set up in antique malls, and people don’t seem to realize….if you have a random assortment of , say, 50 lower dollar, long tail items in your booth, you are probably going to go broke. You need a critical mass in an antique booth, too. I don’t know why people think ebay should be different.
You can get away with fewer things if you are in a strong niche and/or if you develop a strong return buyer cohort. To ebay’s credit, I think it is finally beginning to realize that one way to help scavenger sellers is to give us tools to develop return buyers.
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.