The US fee and listing changes are to take place on the 16th September, but they’ve already started tracking recent sales.
The most significant change is the introduction of 30 day Buy It Nows, and although this listing format is not currently available US sellers can start to take advantage and this is how:
- Recent sales will be used as a measure of a listings popularity, listings with recent (last seven days) will be given a boost in Best Match search results.
- Listing a multi-item, 10 day listing on eBay.com now will ensure it’s live on the 16th. If it has sales between now and the 16th it will be advantaged over a similar listing without sales.
- Waiting to list on the 16th will automatically mean your listing is disadvantaged as it won’t have any recent sales.
- Recent sales are rolled over when a listing is relisted, even if you relist a few days later.
- When you relist it will be possible to edit the listing to the new 30 day Buy It Now listing (You can’t keep the recent sales boost if you make major changes such as to title, category, condition, or increase the price).
Recent sales tracking has started now for eBay.com, it’s time to ensure you have multiple item listings for each product and ensure that in the future if a listing ends with sales that it’s relisted rather than launch a new listing for the same item.
This change is currently for eBay.com only. I’m guessing that recent sales tracking will start a week early in the UK which means listings with sales from the 17th onwards should be relisted rather than a new listing launched.
26 Responses
Thanks for your information!
Is it justifiable to run multiple-item listings now for the sake of Best Match advantage? It costs lot more than the new effective rate. Under the new pricing scheme, that type of listing will be charged one insertion fee regardless of quantity, though the FVF I will assume will remain unchanged for the time being.
There’s math to calculate for these few days if we take on their recommended strategy.
Sorry, one question….
Is it true now this mysterious Best Match algorithm will not consider the ending time factor anymore when the Recent Sales factor is in place? If so, there’s really no difference between 3-day, 7-day or even 30-day listing.
At the moment it’s a half way house. What I would recommend is multi-item listings of small quantities (or single item listings) but as soon as they sell relist from the sold listing to keep the recent sales boost current.
Once the new fee structure comes in keep the current listings until they sell but roll them over into larger quantity multi-item listings as you relist them.
I’m not sure about the relevancy of 3, 7 or 10 day listings or why anyone would want to make use of them in the future when there is no price difference. Why would everyone not just list 30 day listings if time ending isn’t considered (or is it?).
The one and only reason I can see for using shorter listings is if you use listing enhancements as they cost more for 30 day listings.
So what is to stop a new phenomena that I see potentially rising up to take advantage of the new search algorythm?
Shill buying…
And a second point:
I am not sure I understand why Ebay would want to place those with the most sales over those with least, most shoppers search by price and quality of seller do they not?
How many the seller has sold, is not necessarily an indicator of that, more an indicator of who has the most stock, is it not?
Is this just Ebays way of advantaging the big sellers over the little sellers?
Mark
You mean there are actually people STILL selling on Ebay?
LOL, what a joke!
Check out the videos, at my website listed!
Hmmm, where’s the website?
Oh, well…here it is…
https://www.youtube.com/user/Paypalsgoindown
Does that mean that (currently core) buy it now listings that are live on 24th will be subject to the new, higher buy it now charges?
*confused*
It’s just another way of disadvantaging people like me. Certainly with CDs I can never put more than one on a listing, occasionally I might have 2 of the same title but chances are the condition would be different (being second hand CDs I note any marks on the CD or artwork) so I would need separate listings anyway. I am less likely to muddle them up by only having one listed at a time – I would hate for someone to buy an “excellent” condition CD and I mistakenly send them one with a few surface marks or a crease in the booklet.
I just have to rely on my 100% feedback and low prices – if that stops working I won’t be able to sell at all. It’s a shame as business has really picked up over the last few months – almost more than I can cope with.
So anyone know how this affects the ‘sell similar’ option?
I list all my items by using the ‘sell similar’ as opposed to using ‘relist’
Will the sales tracking monitor ‘similar’ items (i.e. exactly the same listing) as the same item – as as a different one?
#10 It makes a HUGE difference.
If you use relist the original (Parent) item the relisted item (Child 1) inherits it’s recent sales from the original listing.
If you relist item the Parent a second time (creating item Child 2) then it doesn’t inherit recent sales.
If you relist item Child 1 then the new item (Grandchild 1) inherits the recent sales from Child 1 but the sales from the parent don’t carry over.
If you use sell similar to create a new listing it’s effectively a new Parent and inherits NO recent sales.
& what if you list from your SMP template?
#12 Relisting from an SMP or TL template inherits NO recent sales as it’s effectively a new Parent listing.
Thanks Chris. So from this point forward it isn’t really worth listing multiple copies of the same item?
Chris – Seems to make alot of extra work if your selling lots, as it would mean that “automation rules” would no longer make sense.
#14 eBay are saying there’s no point listing multiple copies of the same item unless they’re auctions. If they are fixed price items pile them all onto the same listing.
#15 Automation rules where you list an item when one ends, or at set intervals no longer make sense. Either relist the sold item or add more inventory to an existing live item.
Thanks again Chris.
So listings no longer move up the search results page? I create multiple copies of the same listing for exposure reasons.
If I only list the item once every 7 days it surely will gain less exposure – at least until the 24th?
So I guess it also makes the stock control aspect of SMP obsolete as well. Looks like there is some room in the market for some new back end management tools (somthing which intergrates with sage would be nice).
#17 Up until the 24th ending soonest is still the main sort criteria, but I’d be starting to get multiple items listed ready to take advantage of recent sales once the changes occur
Nightmare!
I know that they keep trying to find ways of reviving auctions, but for some items auctions no longer work. Certainly they have never worked for jewellery, and they don’t work any more for bog standard CDs. It’s only the rare ones that people are prepared to wait a bit longer for.
So I’m going to end up at the bottom of the heap below all the big sellers – no more exposure than current shop listings, but for 3 times the price!
Gee thanks for nothing ebay.
There’s another big question I have.
How can we use automated listings now, if we need to effectively relist the same item?
Marcus I imagine that the idea is to use “good till cancelled” and top up the quantity as you go along.
Thanks Jimbo.
HI Chris
Where did you get that info from? (the child inheriting the sales record of the immediate parent once)
I am only asking cos I haven’t read it anywhere which suggests I’ve missed some vital page or workshop
Thanks
#24 It’s hidden away on the eBay dev blog, I’ve not seen the information widely available on more general boards or workshops.
To be honest recent sales only carries over from the previous seven days sales, so any re-relists of the original listing are likely to be outside the time frame pretty quickly anyway
Still interesting though – thanks for the heads up – I was convinced I’d missed something I should have read 🙂