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That’s a great idea to cycle them through algorithym bumps. How do you stay organized with your method? One big perpetual Promotion Campaign and just keep adding the older items to it?
I might try this out. I’m hesitant to make changes heading into 4th quarter so I might wait till the new year but I’m curious to try.
Items in Store: 626
Items Sold: 23
Total Gross Sales: $798
COGS: $51
Average sales price: $34.73
New Listings: 41I couldn’t disagree with you more on the theory of the necessity for Promoted Listings. I’ve maintained my growth on the site without it. I have performed many experiments and here is what I belive based on the results:
(Side Note: I have taken a “bad buy” item and promoted it 100%…still didn’t sell. PL won’t make non-desirable or mis-priced items sell).
When you *first* start promoting, eBay gives you an immediate reward with priority placement that results in a flush of sales. This is where it’s easy to draw the conclusion that PL works. However, over time, those sales even back out to somewhere close to what you used to have prior to promotion. So then we try “turning them off” but sales take a dive and don’t recover. The conclusion made is we need to promote to get those sales. Oh, and 1% used to be enough, but now its 2% minimum…and you are forced to re-consider your rate with every lull, and the suggested/trending rates are now often in double digits.
Here’s what I believe happens: You first start promoting, eBay gives you that immediate boost with the increased Impressions Data to show how PL is really working. Your items are being shown to many more buyers…and the items that would have sold without promotion sell even more quickly. Problem is those impressions are being shown and counted even when you’re not really a direct keyword match to their search. Ebay gets “credit” for giving increased impressions, but eventually the other metrics take a hit…click through and sales conversion rates decline. I have done a bunch of experiments on this and can confidently say that PL will make your ORGANIC search placement tank. Take a look at your “Top Search Slot Impressions” percentage (in the Traffic Section). I sit at 20% with no PL. I have yet to find a pro-Promoted Listing seller who has a percentage anywhere close to half of that. I’ve done plenty of experiments on this…consistently, after starting a PL campaign my percentage dropped to single digits within days. After a few months of PL, sales taper down to relative normal, as long as we’re paying that increased fee percentage. When you try to “shut it off”, you can’t recover because of the damage that’s been done to your Organic Placement. You’re sales don’t come back. Remembering that eBay Promoted items are “tagged” to pay the extra fee a full 30 days after you turn them off, if a buyer previously looked at the Promoted Listing, and taking into account the damage done to Organic Placement, it’s going to take months to recover. Sellers don’t wait that long and feel trapped into Promotions at that point.Week December 4-10, 2022
Total Items in Store: 463
Items Sold: 38
Gross Sales: $1,370
Net Sales: $842
Cost of Items Sold: $60
Highest Price Sold: $149 (vintage christmas tree topper)
Average Price Sold: $36.06
Returns: 0Hope you guys are having a beautiful holiday season. I still take a peek at the forum most weeks to see how it’s going. I am so thankful to you, Jay and Ryanne, for putting out that podcast for all those years. It had so much influence on me when I was a newer seller…choosing the type of seller I wanted to be. Specifically with the emotional and philosophical aspects of the business. I looked forward to listening every Monday morning!
Sales have been okay, but disappointing when compared to last year. I was having drinks with a friend who owns a brick and mortar shop in our town (gift shop along with interior design services). We agreed that it’s not realistic to use the pandemic years when evaluating growth. They are going back to 2019 numbers for charting the health of their business. When I compare my sales to 2019 numbers, it makes sense. I was feeling discouraged at the slow start to Q4. But in November I realized I was having a pretty good November…just not a 2021 November. I’ve got big listing goals for 2023 that will hopefully result in corresponding sales!
Week of March 13-19
Total Items in Store: 437
Items Sold: 19
Gross Sales: $910
Net Sales: $595
Cost of Items Sold: $46
Highest Price Sold: $80 (new in box cookie press)
Average Price Sold: $47.93
Returns: 0Even though I don’t post regularly I still check in most weeks. Maybe there are more like me. Miss the sound of your voices! Sales have been half of what they were last year. This week was a bit better but still well below my weekly average for 2021. I think the postal increases and eBay’s continued push for Promoted Listings placement hasn’t done me any favors. Hope things improve as the year goes on.
Store Week December 12-18, 2021
Total Items in Store: 398
Items Sold: 41
Gross Sales: $2277 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $1574 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: Roughly 10% (a bit behind on my bookkeeping but this is my steady average)I haven’t posted in a long time. But this is the highest sales I’ve ever had in one week and I’m feeling pretty proud. I miss the sound of your voices Jay and Ryanne. I hope you have a Merry Christmas!
Jay and Ryanne thank you so much for all the monday mornings! When I saw that title I knew it was literal. The excitement and passion in your voices for your newer businesses this past year was the way you used to talk about eBay. Can’t say I didn’t see it coming. But I wish you all the success and happiness in the world as you continue to evolve. You have given so much to this community and I am grateful. I’ll miss you…
Hi, Jay and Ryanne,
I was the person who gave you the link about Time Away not being compatible with GSP. When I went on my vaca I adjusted handling time Only…my concern being that if I activated Time Away AND adjusted hadling the ETA would double (taking the automated Time Away window and adding the Handling Time Days increase to it!). I just took a look at your store and it appears that is exactly what’s happening. Example: First Class shipping item “Lot 3 NEW Vintage MAGIC MARKER Large BLUE Ink Waterproof Permanent Ink PEN USA” has a Delivery Estimate of Sat. Aug 21 (shipping to Ohio which would take 2 days transit time). I would advise you turn off Time Away and just stick to extending handling.
Have a great trip!
Hi! I am a week behind on listening to the podcast because I was on vacation last week. I have some input on “Time Away” since I just read the full policy before my trip. I did not end up using it…I just extended my handling time and here is why:
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/selling-tools/time-away?id=5137
“Tip
Whether you choose to allow sales or pause them, delivery dates won’t be updated for Second Chance Offers, digital items, or for items with local pickup, in-store pickup, or Global Shipping Program as the shipping option. You may want to change the shipping format or the handling times on these items while on time away.”I have GSP on all my listings so it basically makes Time Away useless 🙁
Haha. No I’m not asking for your tax info. I mean that since ebay only provides 90 days of info in their reports when do you run them? Example: the link you provided, do you run a sales report every month for your bookkeeping, or every quarter? Is there a report you generate from PayPal and if so how often? Hope that’s more clear.
What kind of glitches are you experiencing with GoDaddy, if you don’t mind getting specific. I am seeing several posts on eBay FB seller groups that the Managed Payments sales $ aren’t matching with GoDaddy as people are doing end of year bookkeeping. Yikes!
Also, Jay and Ryanne in the podcast you mentioned that only 90 days sales info on eBay is available. I knew that to be true, but I assumed once they started Managed Payments that they would have to provide all sales info for the entire year. How could they get away with not providing this? If you could share reports you generate (where and when) so you have complete records at tax time I would appreciate it. (I just recently entered Managed Payments so this will not affect me until next year’s tax time, but I want to make sure I proceed correctly).
Steve List – re: PirateShip “I’ve been getting more and more sales using it and now get 2 or 3 international sales a week.”
How would you connect your increase in international sales to PirateShip? It is not connected to the eBay Calculator and thus that discount would not be visible to, nor passed to your buyer. So I don’t see where you could reason the increase in sales is a result of purchasing the labels from a non-eBay provider.
My numbers for the week of 4/5/20:
Total Items in Store: 224
Items Sold: 18
Cost of Items Sold: $86
Total Sales: $772 + shipping
Highest Price Sold: $185 (Bible Commentary)
Average Price Sold: $42.89
Returns: 0Exciting to hear of your new coffee shop plans!
I don’t post my numbers too regularly, but the podcast mentioned sellers like me. Small inventory, no death pile, quicker moving product. I actually usually do have bins of unlisted inventory in my basement, but it is only to carry me through the winter months (I’m in Northeast Ohio). Buying season for me is early spring through early fall, where I fill up those bins. I time it really close so that it’s just enough to carry me through to March…which usually works great. Except for during a pandemic/shut down all my normal sources of inventory situation! So if I was listing at my pre-epidemic pace now, I would have only about 2-3 weeks of inventory left to list. What I have done is slow waaay down in my listing. Couple things a day. Just enough to keep my account active. Actually, I didn’t list a thing since last Tuesday. (A tornado hit our area on late Tuesday/early Wednesday am. My family of 5 was huddled under our pool table in the basement. Major tree damage and a huge fir tree snapped in half and hit the corner of our house. Damage to the roof but all external, thank the Lord. Power and internet was out for a day. Lots of cleanup and an insurance claim. No eBay happening.) Despite the lack of working on eBay, my sales have remained pretty consistent to pre-pandemic levels. I had one pathetic week about 2 weeks ago, and that was it. Everything went back to usual levels. Nothing I am selling is essential. I’ve recently sold some of the oldest items I had listed! I think I have enough to keep this going at my slower pace for a couple more months. By then I am hoping things will be opening back up so I can start sourcing new inventory. I’m a little concerned that garage sale season will be short and sparse this year. Not sure if people will be comfortable enough to open up their garages and have strangers touching everything. Will they just not have them this year? Will it still be risky to go out and be in contact with people and their stuff through the summer? It’s my main venue for sourcing. I might have to adjust. I have not gotten into estate sales but that would be where I would turn to fill in the need to source new items.
I hate to even say this, but with the percentage of people passing with the virus, there are bound to be an unprecedented abundance of estate sales in the near future.I do take all the basic auto/home office/utilities/internet/phone deductions. In my case it doesn’t really add up to some fantastically high amount.
Curious how much “business” you do on those vacation/sourcing trips? And is it only 50% of your personal part of the expenses that qualify for the deduction? So in my case, if I were to take a trip with a family of 5…one half of the 1/5th that is my expense?
