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From eBay Stores Forum
This Is Odd...Anyone Else Having This Going On ?...
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000388797&tstart=0&mod=1182367316265
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bribaiki (1041 ) Jun-20-07 08:51 PDT
I know that this is not something new, but on top of sales be extremely poor I am noticing something that has been reported before...all month my sales have been horrible, I can now see why. Any measly sales I have been making are all coming from the same area.
Started the month on a dismal note...I think I had 1 sale maybe. Last week any sales I made all came from the West Coast, mainly California, one in Arizona one Nevada. Week before was Texas. This week we have moved to the Mid states...Illinois.
I have had this happen before...the sales were really good then, but still all coming from one area of the country.
So, it seems like a double whammie going on here. Invisible as it is with stores, poor sales and I suspect that in part due to only certain areas seeing us at a time. I find it more than a coincidence...looks like manipulation to me.
Madame Kazoo Kitty
"Look into my eyes...you will obey those that wear Fruit Helmets..."
Proud member of the Fruit Helmet Club since 5-31-07
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monkey*see*monkey*do (Private ) Jun-20-07 11:04 PDT 1 of
Bri - you know the answer to that.
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thewoodlandgirl (Private ) Jun-20-07 11:44 PDT 2 of
yup, regional selling has been going on strong for over a year now. Usually it doesnt effect sales that much though, cuz one way or another something sells.
I think its more the pulling of Google adds that is doing it!
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sandrarn83 (2688 ) Jun-20-07 11:49 PDT 3 of
woodlandgirl you know that's correct. I get a TON of CA buyers and they all can't have their preferences set on "seller geographically closest". I appreciate the break on shipping fees with my free shipping offers but again I knew it relates back to search manipulation by Ebay. Now that's one place I would like to see in person is the "finding" team and their data.
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oas3 (14199 ) Jun-20-07 12:00 PDT 4 of
bribaiki thats how the rolling blackout sales work. List 4 or 5 thousands different items and you will see the pattern. When you get into the thousands of items listed minor problems that affect sellers with few items listed really get magnified with the more listings you have in place. Right now and for the past week there is a huge time difference in emails. I get a paypal payment in for a item that sold I wasn't aware it sold gets boxed and somedays already in the postal system before a ebay email comes in showing the item was sold..
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monkey*see*monkey*do (Private ) Jun-20-07 12:04 PDT 5 of
I want to throw in the possibility that Google ads were also somewhat responsible for geographical sales outside the US. Maybe even domestic.
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thewoodlandgirl (Private ) Jun-20-07 12:07 PDT 6 of
That could be a possibility.
I have yet to figure out how its done. Cuz I get the same search results if Im signed in on my CA account or if I browse as a visitor.
Unless it reads your isp and knows your the same person?
I have yet to see the regional selling on a search, but as a seller I know it exsits.
I get more CA sales than I have in my 6 years on ebay put together.
Also Texas and Florida.
I never sell to the midwest. I find it hard to believe people in the midwest hate my items?
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rustyaccents2 (995 ) Jun-20-07 12:10 PDT 7 of
Yep Madame Kazoo Kitty its been going on for a while. Someone mentioned this in a post last year and it got me to thinking. So I started paying mor attention to the region from which my sales were coming. I even mentioned it to another seller friend of mine. They hadn't noticed until I mentioned it and come to find out it was also true with their sales. The only time I see any difference in sales from various regions in the US is if I have a sale from a previous customer.
Generally around the 1st of the month, most all my sales are from my home state (Texas) with a few spread out from other Central States.
Sad but yes its happening.
This time last year for me sales were good but I'd only been back selling for about 1 1/2 months. This month so far stinks, only 17 items sold. At this point, May of last year (my first month back) will be better than June of this year.
I am trying something new though. I have no items in Core, only in my store. I'm testing just to see how sales are without any Core items and yes I know core items pull buyers into your store. I generally list my big sellers in Core all the time however, I'm headed to a show this weekend and supply for my big seller is very very low so I figured this would be a good time to test sales in my store only.
Just my .02
GayNell
Rusty Accents
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catbooks1940s (1168 ) Jun-20-07 12:21 PDT 8 of
i've been seeing the same thing as y'all for the past year. it started around the same time ebay took store out of search. maybe a month or so later.
i can see it even with having few listings.
prior to whatever change they made, i would sometimes get sales in the same area/country, but it happened within the realm of coincidence. entirely different thing now.
monkey, ebay had been buying adwords for a long time, so i don't think that's related.
we did not agree to pay for our listings to only be shown in rotating geographic areas. we paid for our listings to show up regardless of geographic area. we're paying the same price for LIMITED exposure and were not informed of this.
woodland, if you have cable or dsl, you have a static ip number. that's how these things are tracked, by ip number. so ebay would know it's you (or your geographic area), no matter how you're signed on.
i have dial-up, which is a dynamic ip. i get a different ip when i sign on. isps buy banks of ip numbers, so there is a finite number of them available to me.
joan
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