Recent sales and auction/bin mix
29/09/2008 at 10:38
Recent Sales
Multiple item listings with recent sales are working, and working well. I’ve watched one of my own listings with no listing enhancements (bar gallery) climb the search results pages. A search for KVM returns around 900 listing spread over 18 pages, by the time the listing ended late yesterday evening it was the third highest BIN with four auctions displayed above it.
I relisted the item with one edit, changing from a 10 day to a 30 day listing and within a minute the new listing was back in the same position (currently eighth from the top of the page out of 892 listings). Recent sales is working to gain visibility and the boost does carry over to a relisted item with no noticeable disadvantage to the new listing.
If you have any fixed price listings end which have had sales relist them as soon as possible to keep the search advantage. (The method I used for relisting was to synch in TL, relist from ended items, adjust the quantity down as some had sold, and upload back to eBay.)
The Blend
eBay have changed the order of search results to blend auctions ordered ending soonest with fixed price listings ordered by Best Match. The number of auctions displayed vs fixed price listings varies according to category. What is interesting to watch is, as an auction finishes and disappears from the page of search results, fixed price listing retain their position.
Each auction remaining moves up one auction slot with a new auction listing moving from page 2 to the bottom of page 1. The slots don’t vary so the only way a fixed price listing can move higher up the page is from recent sales or when a higher ranked fixed price listing ends without being relisted.
Featured First
There’s some interesting twists to the new Featured First listing enhancement. Sellers using the feature have reported an increase in questions from potential buyers and sales from the promoted listings. One seller of commodity products who listed a Featured First listing on Thursday, the day of the listing, watched his listing climb the search result pages as sales came in and within a couple of hours it reached the first page of search results with just a couple of sales.
Featured First definitely appears to be working if you can justify the initial cost, but should only ever need to be paid for once. So long as the listing attracts sales it’ll climb to the top of search results where it will retain it’s position naturally.
eBay have stated that “There are two Featured First placements, and the listings appearing in the slots will be picked at random“. These slots don’t appear to be dedicated slots, but are appearing in the space alongside where Featured Plus listings would normally be displayed. Featured Plus listings are only boosted to the top of the page the listing naturally falls on, but Featured First listings are boosted to the top of the first page of search results.
There appears to be a glut of old SIF listings which are being displayed alongside Featured First listings. It’s strongly suspected that these are SIF listings for which the Gallery Featured listing enhancement was paid prior to the 24th September. I wish I’d known, I’d have launched a load of SIFs with the Feature to get a boost in search!
david says
12:24 pm on 29/09/2008
any idea how much you can edit a relisted item and still retain the search boost benefit? Could you edit your relisted item, once submitted, and create a whole new listing?
Chris Dawson says
1:14 pm on 29/09/2008
#1 Simple answer is no.
If you changed the description and/or title to a new product you’d lose any recent sales advantages
Whirly says
1:47 pm on 29/09/2008
I encouraged someone to buy online today and not over the phone,,
that really hurt
Sean Mewse says
3:01 pm on 29/09/2008
I’m lovin it! Both the search and 5p listing fee. But the increase in sales I like even more, long may it continue,
Sean
faculty-x says
4:19 pm on 29/09/2008
i did make this point on another forum
but it did not go down well….but anyway
How are we protected from buyers buying loads from a seller, not paying and then mutually agreeing the sale void
is the item still search ranking improved.
Kate says
7:47 pm on 29/09/2008
I just don’t know what’s going on. CD sales (which are never multiple items, just one-offs) have increased tremendously, to the point where I’m having to let my inventory run down (ie not list any more CDs at the moment) because with a full time job I don’t have time to get the stuff packed up and sent out – at least not if I want to grab a few hours sleep each night.
The jewellery on the other hand seems to have completely died. I actually sold a pair of earrings today, that’s the first since the changes. And yet most of my jewellery items have multiple items, and some have had previous sales.
What on earth is going on? It’s exactly opposite to what I expected…
Andy Toogood says
8:16 pm on 29/09/2008
Does anyone know if you relist using Turbo Lister whether previous sales history is carried through?
Chris Dawson says
8:25 pm on 29/09/2008
#7 Yes it is, but only on the first relist. You can’t launch a new auction but have to go into ended items and relist the item with sales
Hereford United fan says
8:54 pm on 29/09/2008
I would like them to improve UK listings above non UK. That would help me loads. I sell watches and there is loads from Hong Kong to compete with.
Whirly says
9:10 pm on 29/09/2008
#9 drop your BIN price and up your postage, Hong Kong sellers have gotten away with it for years, if you join the club I dont see why you should feel guilty, eBay obviously dont give a duck.
Ed (BuildaSkill) says
6:02 am on 30/09/2008
#9 / #10 – Remember though that Hong Kong’s small and start-up sellers are (like most non-UK residents) probably paying the full 40p (less VAT) per BIN, and have neither the income, nor the savings, to afford the UK’s new shop subscriptions (beyond the basic level).
UK refuses to give overseas shop users the reduced insertion fees, regardless of overseas shop subscription level, and if the seller account is not on the “right” overseas sites, they get no FVF discounts for sales on the UK either, despite previously advertised cross-border discounts. It is only the UK reneging on this offer, all other named sites are honouring it.
Cut overseas sellers some slack – UK is screwing them every which way for fees, and in ways you cannot imagine they are punishing them whilst not using the same measures against UK-resident sellers.
Remember too, a lot of these sellers are also overseas British citizens listing on their home-country site whilst expatriate. How would you like it if you were overseas and began losing privileges you enjoyed when at home, or were deliberately discriminated against back in your own country, just because you weren’t physically there?
I’m very pleased for those seeing an upswing in sales, it’s just a shame the playing field is so tilted against being a global marketplace. eBay UK will be a much poorer place as word gets out and the international sellers stop listing on it.
The site (in terms of choice, and listing numbers in many niche categories) has been in decline for a couple of years already, this latest strategy will simply accelerate that, making space for the likes of Argos, Woolworths, and Tesco to move their inventory onto it. I would not be surprised to see the entire contents of Littlewoods and Grattans catalogues on there by the end of 2009.
Sales to the UK from UK listings was never a major chunk of my GMV, I can afford to lose them. The question is; will UK-residents continue buying from eBay sites other than .co.uk with all these changes now in place?
Ed
keithf says
7:27 am on 01/10/2008
Higher ranked fixed price listings can also end when removed by eBay for policy violations. The listings ranking highest may become more prone for scrutiny with a view to reporting them for a policy violation to eBay.
paul says
8:50 pm on 01/10/2008
We used FF for 2 items… a plier set and a jewellery making kit.
I bought 100 sets of pliers (normally sell 1 set a day… currently selling 7).. the kit is selling 13 per day (previous sales 1 to 2).
Its clear it works and the boost should remain for the rest of the listing (put 500 kits on in one go – thats really hopeful!)
The maths is simply.. first 2 days of each listing covered the costs.. £39 seems a lot for 7 days BUT try it if you have an item you know will sell if promoted
Isabella says
2:40 pm on 03/10/2008
Is there an amount of time specified after the sale of an item, for it to be ‘boosted’ when re-listed?
I’m sure I read that it had to be within a time frame.. thanks
Chris Dawson says
5:10 pm on 03/10/2008
#14 I believe from experience and heresay that recent sales lasts for seven days
Isabella says
6:36 pm on 05/10/2008
Thanks Chris, am sure that’s what I read somewhere..
Stuart says
2:57 pm on 22/10/2008
All I can say is that I must be doing something wrong. I sell watches and since the change my sales have fallen dramatically. I was selling on average between 5 and 6 per day. September 25th couldn’t arrive quick enough for me to get my business running to where I wanted it to be. I was looking to double my average sales. I subscribed to the Featured shop as this was presented as the best choice for my business. I flooded the system with loads of BIN multiple listings (far more than I ever had). The first couple of days went great. Then, as if someone had turned off a light switch, my sales fell through the floor. I checked where my listings were in search results and most of them were on the last pages. I have sold quite a few lower priced items and those listings are at the top, but my higher priced items haven’t sold and are firmly stuck at the bottom of the search results. My prices are very competitive (in fact they’re among the cheapest to be found on UK eBay). My main question is how the blazes do you sell your items in the first place if no-one can see them (I can’t afford to you Featured First and Feature Plus doesn’t seem to be an advantage now, as you only get to the top of your natural page). Please help – anyone!!!!
Chris Dawson says
3:08 pm on 22/10/2008
Stuart – have you tried auctions with BIN?
Stuart says
4:10 pm on 22/10/2008
Hi Chris, thanks for quick response. I haven’t tried that, but it would be useful if you could tell me how that would work. I was looking for hints with multiple item listings. I understood that with ‘best match’, you were better off with multiple listings, as the more you sold, the higher up the search results you were.
My argument with eBay on this matter is that this new procedure definitely favours the bigger sellers, which I’m afraid I don’t fall into (yet).
Things won’t be helped shortly as I go on Holiday on Sunday, which may knock me back down to the bottom again!!! I can’t win
I will be putting some scheduled auctions on, timed to finish when I arrive back. If I relist an auction as BIN, will that hold a more favourable position in the results or will they go back to square one.
Many thanks
Chris Dawson says
4:26 pm on 22/10/2008
#19 List an auction with BIN. If it sells at an acceptable price relist editing into a multiple item BIN and it will have a recent sales value of 1 sale. It might not get you to the top, but it sure won’t do any harm.
The good thing about auctions is as they’re sorted ending soonest they’ll get right to the top of best match at the time they’re due to end so for a short time puts you ahead of the pack
Stuart says
4:41 pm on 22/10/2008
Cheers Chris, will try that. Well done on the 10,000, great achievement