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09/27/2017 at 1:08 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 328: Chaos vs Stress, There is a difference in life and business #23349
I still don’t know much about Mercari, but here’s another take on their shipping options:
How I Save $2 on Almost Every Mercari Sale (And It Only Takes 60 Seconds)
09/27/2017 at 12:48 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 328: Chaos vs Stress, There is a difference in life and business #23346BethGreen, I don’t know anything about that website, so I won’t comment on that for now. I’ll just say that its in ebay’s financial interest to get us the best deal they can, because it would increase sales and thus increase ebay’s FVF revenue (even if it would take a small bite out of their FVF on shipping). So I’m not convinced that they haven’t tried.
09/27/2017 at 12:45 pm in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 328: Chaos vs Stress, There is a difference in life and business #23344Jay, I’m just a very small seller (planning to ramp up in Q4 if non-ebay circumstances don’t intervene.) I often go months between returns. My return rate is very low. My items are generally one-offs, antique, collectible type stuff, used clothing, pretty much typical scavenger inventory. As a scavenger, my mark up is usually pretty high, which means I can cover the cost of the occasional return without any real trouble.
I have high blood pressure controlled by meds and am improving my lifestyle, losing weight etc. I mention this because I like to reduce my stress. When I see the seemingly endless threads on the ebay boards (and even here) about buyers claiming INAD to get the free return shipping, and sellers fighting the INAD claim, etc. , well, for me, it’s worth it just to avoid those situations…saves me time and stress. If I ramp up and find returns becoming a problem, I would absolutely re-evaluate, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.
09/27/2017 at 11:09 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 328: Chaos vs Stress, There is a difference in life and business #23341BethGreen, Just a couple quick comments. I haven’t watched any of his other videos, but this one is definitely filled with misinformation.
Postage Cost, I suspect ebay has tried to get a better deal. With all the pressure on USPS, I’m not sure it’s an easy task.
Free Return Shipping. I’m a small seller of used stuff. I’ve been offering free return shipping for several years. It has worked out fine, and I don’t have to deal with the remorse buyers who file INAD claims just to get the free return shipping. That alone has been worth it LOL I think fear of what might happen is what actually prevents most small sellers from using it.
I’m not getting the credit you speak of, so I really don’t know what to say about that. Are you saying this is something ebay gives you monthly? I do get occasional listing “promos” but these are hit or miss, and the number has diminished.
We have basic stores. We’ve talked about this new offer ($30 for one month of Premium) and will probably try it. We haven’t used our Q3 Shipping Supplies credit yet, so we’re trying to figure out if we opt in now (before Oct 1st), will we also get the larger shipping credit for the end of Sept (still Q3), plus use the larger Q4 credit in October? That would leverage the savings.
We see it as a trial run. IF it works for us, we’ll move to Premium on a yearly subscription plan ($59.95)/month. The way I figure it, leaving out the free auction listings (which we rarely use) and the possibility of getting listing promos (not dependable), the break even point is around 450 listings per month. (Not in store at any one time, but total per month, including relists). I think most months we’ve been in that neighborhood, and we want to ramp up for Q4, so I’m hoping we can get past—way past—the break even point in October. God knows we have more than enough inventory to do that, it’s actually listing it the hard part for us.
09/27/2017 at 8:39 am in reply to: Scavenger Life Episode 328: Chaos vs Stress, There is a difference in life and business #23336ChristineR, PLEASE read my posts on our Promoted Listing thread, I eventually watched the video. It is filled with misinformation. In my opinion, you would be better off not watching it at all. I DO think there may be some glitches with the rollout of the new merged tool. I’m still waiting for ebay to give it to me. But his biggest error is about the fee. There is NO fee to use it. He is confusing it with Promoted Listings.
I’ve actually been begging ebay to give me the new tool, in part because there’s so much misinformation about just what they are doing. But eBay is eBay, and I’ll get it when they damn well feel like giving it to me, and not a moment sooner LOL
Do a search on “Arctic Cat Smiley”….mine is the ceramic kid on the snowmobile that is fixed price, not auction. Do you see a strike through, and some indication that it has been discounted? As far as I know, that’s what MM looks like now in search, and will look like once it’s merged with the new tool. eBay might add something else, but I don’t think they are taking this stuff away. But again, as I’ve been saying, I don’t have the new tool. I’m not aware of any bump in search placement, other than the fact that thew lower price might give it a bump…but that would be true if you simply revised the listing by lowering the price. Your watchers and some other viewers usually get an email telling them the price has been lowered.
I’m not sure about the value of store categories (although keep in mind, with some tools like MM, you can put store categories on sale…which can be useful). I don’t think the cats show up on mobile listings, so that reduces their value. I have them and frankly it’s on my list to revise them and simplify them. But my partner has no cats and does OK, so I’m just not sure how important they are.
Store name? I don’t think its a dealbreaker (unless the name is something offensive). I think if you are trying to brand your business, it becomes important.
Marjean28,
Thanks…I corrected the double commas in my header. Good catch!I tend to agree that Promoted Listings (which you do pay a fee for) are better used for items in crowded categories. I’m playing around with them with my stuff, but I see their usefulness as more of a way to get people to my store rather than to make the sale of that item. I need to do a better job of selecting which items to use.
Items don’t necessarily stay in a promoted spot in search results for very long. Here’s a summary from ebay’s PL Product Manager about that:
“If the item has tons of impressions and no clicks, that may be a candidate for demotion from top of search placements to middle and bottom. If the item has a lot of impressions and clicks but is not converting that too may result in a demotion. Currently our thresholds are really low so an item must be performing terribly in those placements in order for it to be demoted.
This holds same for single or multiple quantity listings. We have been given premium placements in search and we can only keep them if we deliver the same or better results than Best Match.
Please keep in mind there are other placements for promoted listings than just search results (such as related items module on item page, My eBay, Browse pages, etc.). These other placements will continue to deliver visibility to your item even though they may have been demoted from top of search placement.”
I just did a search for two of my items, one with the old MM alone, and one with MM with Sales Event…BOTH show up in search results with the strike through. So, his big objection, that there is no strike through, seems to be wrong. However, as I’ve said, ebay has not seen fit to give me the new combined tool, so I can’t say for sure what that looks like in search results.
OK…watching the video…a few things…”most people search low to high when they’re buying”…NO, they don’t. I forget the exact stat ebay had provided once, but the huge majority of people go with the default Best Match. The Video guy DOES use low to high. He concludes that most people do. They don’t. As J and R say: “Remember, you are not your buyer.”
He’s now pointing to a listing in search results with “Extra 15% Off” and is critical of Sales Event because it isn’t specific. I don’t think that listing is a “Sales Event”. It’s one of the tools in Promotions Manager, but I don’t think it’s Sales Event. Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell because he never scrolls down far enough so that I can say for sure.
OK, now he’s saying Sales Event costs money. NO, it doesn’t. Promoted Listings have a fee if the item sells under stated conditions. But as I’ve said, Promoted Listings is an entirely different tool. But none of the Promotions Manager tools has a fee, including Sales Event. This guy has NOT done his homework, and he’s giving out misinformation. He’s disappointed in eBay, I’m disappointed in his video. Now he’s talking about the limitation on how many can be listed at once with the tool, but he doesn’t explain that there are DIFFERENT limits depending on HOW you select the items.
It’s a confused mess. Nice guy, I’m sure he is doing well as a seller, but too much misinformation for me….
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This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by
MyCottage.
OMG< that’s hilarious!
I should probably add, since I’ve seen some confusion about this: there’s NO fee to use any of the Promotions Manager tools, including Sales Event and the new Sales Event + Markdown. There IS a fee for sales made through Promoted Listings (under certain circumstances).
OK, here’s a link to a screen shot of a MM listing followed by a Sales Event listing. Notice the Sale Notice above the image, and then the offer below that to add more Sale items to checkout (along with a link to see all sale items) (I only put four items on the Sales Event, because it’s really just to illustrate the differences for you guys).
I hope some of this is making sense?
If the Sales Event I created a little earlier today actually goes live, I’ll try to do a screen shot of that as well….so you can SEE the difference between MM and Sales Event. My MM sale ends tomorrow I think, and I’m not sure if the Sales Event can start before the MM ends or not. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Ok, hopefully I’ve done this correctly. Here’s a screenshot of my storefront showing the “On Sale” tab and the strike through pricing I’m talking about.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by
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