eBay Sell through rates decrease and listings increase

I recently read in one of the many newsletters that I subscribe to that eBay sell through rates have dropped due to the new fixed price listing specials and length. While the number do show a decline in sell through, you have to look at this realistically.

When eBay announced the addition of Fixed Price 30 day listings as well as the 35 cent listing fees, the total number of listings shot up. Everyone was taking advantage of it. So, yes, your sell through rate will more than likely descrease as the number of bad listings go up.

eBay probably more than cover their expenses on this marketing tactic as every seller switched to the FP30 format. Looking at the charts on MedVed you can see how the number of listings dramatically increased. The numbers of listings sold via BIN dropped because now most listings are selling through fixed price.

More Competition for Getting Noticed 

It stands to reason that the more listings, the more competition there will be to get noticed on eBay. You’ll definitely need to begin some off eBay Marketing as well as improving your listing titles and descriptions. I cover several off eBay marketing strategies in the Top Seller Coaching series that have helped my clients over the years. It’s interesting to see that many have been mostly unaffected by the increase in eBay listings. I have to assume that is due to the traffic they are receiving from outside of eBay.

Remember, eBay is more than just selling, it’s like any business. You must market yourself and your products if you wish to stay ahead of the competition and survive. You must set aside a marketing budget each year and that budget should be made up of pay per click ads and also include your time or your employees time for putting off eBay marketing in place. Many of those methods are free, but a person’s time still has a cost associated with it.

Good luck with your eBay selling.

Jeff