 Welcome back to the channel everyone, and you're here with oh you are and that is a prime example of how things are going on eBay at the moment soon, you think they're going great Something jumps out at you, but hey here. We are again so cancelling my second store Why? good question for the last six months obviously we've all been struggling on the platform and I myself am not Outside of this impact as a seller I have been running two stores my second store has been my experimental store my testing store Which I've been using for trialing different techniques whilst at the same time Moving certain products across to niche the second store Lower sell itself through rate items Niche items etc that I want to be moving across into a bracket of its own and As such obviously the impact of that is it doesn't get a lot of sales Unfortunately with the platforms Changes shall we say It has put a financial struggle Against myself and the survival of the second store to the point where I have had to supplement the Expense for the second store from the profits from the first store. I can't do it anymore I I can't continue to run that business plan of supporting the second store From the first or I I've literally Over the last month or so changed the strategy for them to become Individually self-sustaining businesses as such Even though I Utilize the second store for testing from the first for the first store Before rolling out on any techniques that I may find successful I have Now reached a point where I cannot sustain that second store now my second stores listing capability is Almost as high as my first store so I could pretty much in principle double But With the reduced amount of sales that the platform is Serving up shall we say at the moment? I can't do it. I just can't do it. So I'm having to cancel my store subscription For my second store. I will leave the account as active But I have ended all my listings Now I I don't know if anyone else has Been through this Or has an opinion on how they would handle it But it's as I say it's been six months. I've tried to sustain it I've tried to support it and Underpin it from profits from the first store But I can't continue Sinking money into that second store when it's not Giving anything back. I've literally had Zero sales on my second store for about six weeks Literally and it had 260 listings So I have ended the listings. I have cancelled the subscription. I will look at Hopefully in the future revisiting that second store Initially, I'm thinking around springtime and Maybe if the platform starts to gain momentum or the business starts to gain momentum again I can then readdress it All the listings that I've taken off of my second store Similar items that would of in time been moved across to the second store from the first store I've also ended from my first store now this has Extremely reduced the amount of listings I have I've probably removed About 500 listings from a total of somewhere between 8 to 900 listings A lot of my products are Multivariation, so it's actually a lot more items than just 500 listings. I have Initially bundled up or I shall start again. I've I've Refotographed Rebundled recreated listings To cover all 500 items Which is why I have not for the last week or so puts much if any content out there So I apologize to everyone if they were expecting anything last week We will get back on track now So we'll get more content getting up there and we'll get that supplied ASAP now with those bundles it's curious because I've got 500 items as I say I've Refotographed Rebundled I've even packaged ready for shipping so I literally don't have to spend that time at the other side of the fence Which you can see a lot of it behind me here on the shelf Now There are about 12 items in each bundle and within 24 hours 36 hours of Relisting those bigger bundles. I've already sold one So you can look at it as I've sold one item one listing or you can look at it as even though I hadn't sold anything on my second store for six weeks within a day, I've sold 12 of those listings, but in one bundle so Yeah, I can live with that if that's the way it's got to go But it is on my first store my main store Which may have had an impact. I don't know Both businesses or both stores had identical information So it's not like That should have had an effect. Maybe the fact that I've had my main store open for four years could have had an effect It's difficult to work out and sometimes it's it's hard to make those big choices and those big changes but something had to happen and Around this time once I'd removed all of these listings repackaged and Relisted or created new listing should I say I Had noticed a massive increase in impressions on my main store now Initially, I had also obviously prior to removing these listings on the first and second store. I'd also Done a lot of work in the metadata on the existing listings on the first store my first initial thought was this is the Outcome of that Metadata improvement and listing improvements But it seems Jeff also over at Haver herself had a similar Observation on his impressions around the same day and my impressions have stayed up there since whether that is just a platform thing it could be that the platform is Pushing more impressions out there now It could be that the AI has now Started to settle in certain areas of its programming and it's managing to push more there Or it could be that there are more bios searching for those terms at the moment But Jeff sells a lot of different items to what I sell so I don't think it's probably the latter it'd be interesting to know if anyone else has noticed the increase in Promoted in in impressions and promoted impressions. I promote everything across my store I It's marketed in it's marketed. It's Calculated into my final profit margin, so I accept that as part of my business plan Not everyone's business plan is the same But for me it works or it has worked Also as a knock-on effect of this Yesterday, I had my larger sales day in Probably about a month and a half came out of nowhere Which was surprising again great happy for the sales Hopefully that's going to continue on the impressions have For the last four days have been the highest impressions. I've had in four years literally in four years It's curious That it suddenly spiked And it can only be platform-based in my calculations. It could only be platform-based. I can't see their overnight and sustainably since overnight being a huge increase in buyers suddenly Searching the platform I could be wrong. I could be wrong. I mean, let me know what your thoughts are It'd be nice to know who else has noticed similar patterns and What their observations are and what their full processes are going forwards For me though, I am down to one store we have to accept that sometimes Expansion isn't always a sustainable all the right option Sustainability is hard enough, especially in the current climate. It's difficult. It's difficult now With the economy. Yes, okay pays a part plays a part, but I People are still gonna need and want items still people are still gonna have money that have money Those that don't have as much money will be looking for bargains those items that they want or need Are still gonna be wanted and needed So the platform is is always gonna have those sales and those needs for and for those listings Whether or not we are priced in the right bracket or if we've got our listings in front of the right eyes That's the game isn't it? You know, that's the game of getting results and We're constantly trying new things. I mean, I know I sound a bit down. I do apologize I don't mean to be it's been a hard week. It really has been a hard week It's taken. It's tall. I've literally been doing You know, my brains not even working. I mean, let's put it this way I've been getting up by about five five fifteen each morning And I'm not getting to sleep until about twelve half twelve at night And I've been doing that. Well, I've been a form of that. I've been doing ever since day one but to this extent This last week has exhausted me but You got you know when you're self-employed and it's your business. You've got to put the hours in whatever the business needs That's what it means. I Will be working on trying to reduce that as we always do but you know, it is what it is So, yeah, so let's see let's see what else you want to discuss today Yes, bundling up the networks. He's starting to work and that's interesting If that is a pattern that continues I may well continue to source these products further down the line and Package and list them in the same manner It's possible I suppose that The increase In sales or the spike in impressions, etc could be because the items I've ended are lower priced and Now I've bundled them up into a higher price that the The higher Listing price on the average listing price should we say Has had a knock-on effect for the average selling price Which it then has had a knock-on on the sell-through rate and so on and so forth. It's possible It'd be great to know the answer to that one. Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing for sure But we shall see, you know, see if that pattern continues to grow and continues to move in the direction that I need it to It's frustrating and a shame that I've had to close down the subscription on the second store It's gonna mean that if I do want to test anything out. I'm gonna have to test it on my first store I'm not gonna risk listing stuff on the second store Just for testing at this point, I think I need to think of the bottom line and the margin that Even though yes, I want to help the community I can't financially afford that second store at the moment But I will always be testing. I will always be crunching numbers and I will always be supporting my fellow seller reseller in the community and Hopefully everybody will do the same for everybody and myself as well So yes Yes Sales have improved That's a good sign What we are noticing. I think with the impressions though is for a comparison twice today This morning before even seven o'clock. I had two separate sales and and both of them within 60 seconds of The cha-ching showing up on the phone. So let me know that I had a sale. I also then had the notification Bell ring to say you have a message for cancellation. I think what's happening here is they're pushing more impressions after the sale So obviously once you've gone to your basket, you've made your purchase I think it's then pushing other items. So it's throwing up more impressions and Unfortunately, I think In a negative results the items that is pushing to people are similar or same items that are cheaper Which is resulting in the instantaneous request to council Which I really hope they're not doing because that is going to be very frustrating and time-consuming and Just mentally exhausting if that's going to become a pattern I know eBay want to get more impressions out and we want to take those impressions, but if you're not serving The right impressions to people at the right point They shoot themselves in the foot again and it is It's becoming a repetitive cycle I Mean I don't about yourselves. I mean if you've experienced anything similar. Let me know, you know put it in the comments below It's it's all well and good to say, you know, just just accept the cancellation move it on Just carry on ignore it forget about it and move on It can be difficult. It can be difficult especially when that negativity is Is on the back of other possible negativities such as lower sales such as lower impressions such as Time constraints for trying to increase Your profitability on your platform trying to spend time researching for sourcing times trying to spend time Breaking down what's going wrong Trialing and erroring bit having the patience to wait for results to figure out The next move I know we're all in the same boat and that's business. I guess and I've always want to hold myself accountable for everything that affects my account Or my sale should I say more precisely? but Sometimes I think it would be easier and I know they won't do it, but I think it'd be easier if eBay were more transparent For example, when somebody goes to cancel an order that they've just purchased Instead of just saying request to cancel Maybe they have a drop-down option for us to see which is changed mind Found cheaper Ordered by a mistake or whatever those options are to at least give us Some avenue as long as they choose the right option and don't use their own Thought process of all I don't want to say it's this I'll say it's this But let's just say that they do put the right choice down at least it would give us an idea of an understanding of why things are happening in the way they are a Little more and not allow them to press ok to cancel or request to cancel until they've chosen an option I mean give them a box to say sorry About blah, maybe put a personal note in if they wanted and we know they're not going to always do it But again, it's more information the more information you can gather from The other side of the fence then the better your understanding of the impact of your business Or why things are happening and impacting your business in the way they are your thoughts Any ideas you think may benefit I know we are just Throwing spitballed ideas out there and these are may not necessarily be things that eBay would even consider Which we know this is the case, but at least if we could discuss ideas We could maybe put those across to them at some points and then if enough people put their point across maybe if it's Something that would benefit eBay. They may consider it in the future maybe it's always maybes, but If you do nothing, you'll get nothing if you do something You might see something and it's the might that's we're hanging on to we might get sales. We might get impressions. We might get better support from eBay in processes I Mean the changes that have happened of late. I mean, it's some of them are just crazy. I mean we've seen the feedbacks Having pictures why why would you need pictures on a feedback? You only need pictures in a case if you were raising a case for a return So you can as a buyer to put their point across from the buyer side This is what I've received or this is the quality of it or blah blah blah This is the damage etc etc so that it can be looked at as a visual case. You don't need visuals on a feedback There's an item number there you can click on your item number and you can see the listing and you can see all the pictures there The feedback doesn't need pictures. It's it's just far too open to interpretation. I Mean, I'm sure I'm not the only one. I've seen so so many over the last four years. You see so many seller buyers that Scam the system. I had one recently that eBay looked after me for thankfully, but they were They placed an order Within two days Once the item was shipped they then requested to cancel said I don't want it anymore Can I get my money back? Well, yeah, sure once you get the item you can send it back and then we'll cancel give you a refund One hour my money back now. Well, it doesn't work that way You have to wait till you get the item and then when they receive the item They'd realize that they would I don't pay for returns. I will not pay for returns at least that's my process at the moment I don't think it makes any difference. If they're buying it. They should be keeping it Unless there's something wrong with it and that's fine. You can return it if there is something wrong with it Because we'd have to pay for it then anyway, and this is what this customer had found They obviously know the system. They know that if they do buyers remorse, they're gonna have to pay for the return If they find something wrong with it, I pay for the return so Yeah, so the item basically they Received it and then when they received it within moments it was an item return raised and It was an inad And I was like, how is it an inad, you know, I mean it's exactly what it's listed I'm very careful with my listings and They said oh, it doesn't fit and it's poor quality and The picture they'd uploaded Was a two inch square corner of the entire item You couldn't even see the full item And then there was nothing wrong in in the two inches you could see anyway One it was still in the original packaging unopened To it was exactly the same Item as was in the picture So yeah, so they game the system eBay did look after me. They refunded me the return postage I still have the item. That's great. I can relist and resell. That's not a problem But the these are the situations and this is the point the case is where you need the picture What if they'd have put that picture up on your feedback? What benefit would it have been? You know, I mean or it there's also the issue where if somebody wants to be really Arsy as it were they could put another picture from elsewhere of The same product That maybe wasn't of the same quality and they could do that to you they could do that to your feedback And I think eBay need to monitor that a lot closer because I mean at the moment we have no control We have no face-to-face communication for feedback. Anyway, it's all done online Everything's online now you can you can so much of the eBay platform is not even human to human I mean how much communication can you have in a conversation in a couple of minutes and Resolve an issue whereas if you're doing it by a message You're waiting 48 hours for the response of from the first sentence It's just ridiculous But hey, you know, I mean that that's just one Area that they're looking after buyers should we say or giving buyers a bigger expanse of interactiveness on the platform to their experience You can't give them negative feedback Why the heck not If they were scamming you surely you would be able to or something similar You should have just as much right to give them a response to back up your story You don't want to be doing it on your feedback Because it sounds petty You know on your when they put feedback on your on your item they purchased from you You have the option to Counteract that feedback and put something on there, you know But you're gonna be careful what you put on there because you don't want to sound petty and sort of When when other buyers come come to look at your listings, sorry I Appreciate at the end of the day I mean what the platform is looking for buyers wants to give the buyers the best experience give them the most interaction on the site and on their Their purchases and their their thoughts on what they've purchased etc. I get that and that's that's great But maybe there should be a You know, I mean as I'm thinking it I see it's something that would never happen. It would just become a ranting platform, but maybe there should be a seller focused side of a Feedback as far as they should be a Like you can click on feedback and see everyone's interactions What it is what you serve feedback as a seller feedback as a buyer feedback left for others, etc But maybe there should be an option for sellers So a feedback section for sellers where sellers can see other sellers experiences from a transaction Does that make sense? So like the eBay community page, but just for sellers Feedbacks on transactions. So if you have a trans a feedback option you can feedback on say a buyer that's This is a great seller or buyer. Sorry or Be careful with this type of customer That will try this this and this so that is best practices for sellers as well to see the pitfalls So that you can see Aspects of the process obviously I think you would probably have to make sure you can't see the buyer's name So I force flat already doesn't it really? possibly something along the lines of This situation and you could give the listing but you could hide the The buyers details so that it was literally showing you your listing And they're from there. You could have a comment section after the that section showing the listing possibly saying I have experienced this with a seller They have tried to do this X Y and Z. This is how it played out be aware of this type of issue maybe you could in future deal with it in a certain way or Have a section where you could say you can ask for other people to comment what would be the best way, you know so they could see more detail of The journey of that particular transaction. I don't know maybe that's a bit Unproductive I don't know but I think so similar to like what we do here, you know So where we communicate with each other we comment on our experiences We say certain things have happened and then we get feedback from Our comments from other YouTube seller sellers on YouTube Let's say how this is how I dealt with it or maybe you want to try and deal with it this way or be careful It is be careful of that. Sorry very dry throw today So, I mean, maybe that could be of benefit, you know, I mean again an idea You know just an idea that might work for putting out there that could benefit some more people There are too many sellers on the platform. I get it but I Get it, but And we work that eBay are working to filter out the the less desirable sellers for sure unfortunately through The way the platform will be going forwards. We're going to lose reputable sellers that just can't either compete or because of the way The system is now or aspects of the system that it's just not going to allow them to be Successful or profitable going forward. So there will be less competition I get it Selfishly that is a good thing As a community, it's a shame that there will be good reputable sellers that just can't continue I do hope they have managed to find a way through and if they can't find a way through They do eventually come back if that is what they their dreams and their goals are It's a struggle for them, you know, I mean, of course it is That the platform is geared to buyers. We know this But it's biased buyers They have zero respect to sellers As far as the comparativeness of their respect to buyers They always Side initially on the side of the buy it. It's like the customer is always right And I think you may have taken that way too much to heart way too much to heart because as we know Customers not always right. We're all human. We all make mistakes and we're all susceptible to The possibility of doing something wrong whether it be by accident or on purpose and the system needs to be neutrally placed not By a biased you can still retain your buyers without Kissing their backsides Just be professional You know so we're coming up to the end of The quarter four now to be fair Depending on what you sell this could be the most busiest time Or it could be the most dead time for you now I think it depends on the products that you're selling. I think it depends on your geographic placement Quality of your account There are lots of aspects that will play into this I Generally find it does slow down around a few days prior to Christmas I'm very sorry It does slow down a few as I say a few days prior to Christmas But as soon as Christmas is I get sales on Christmas Day I get sales on boxing day and it just keeps going and that's great The kind of products I sell generally are evergreen They're also the type of products that people will buy post Christmas Which is good So I'm hoping for a great Q1 for 2024 and I'm going to keep pushing forwards for that and we're going to keep hoping for that I've not written off the remainder quarter four. I'm still hoping that things continue growing in the meantime and Stay sustainable. I need some stability and I think that is a big thing that we're missing at the minute Is there just is no stability the sooner eBay manages to? settle The ocean of the platform the better but hey This is eBay and this is what we want to do. So all these things come into play So yes comment below if you have any thoughts any questions Hit the like button if you like the content and obviously if you're new to the channel subscribe if you want future content around This type of thing and in the meantime, keep it real