Are You Keeping It Fresh?

As ebay has evolved over the years, nothing has been more frustrating and upsetting as the Cassini roll-out.  Sellers saw their sales take a serious nose dive.  Some sellers never recovered and have moved on to other venues.  But those who have stuck it out and adapted are starting to see a return to profitability as ebay continues to be a great source of revenue.  The problem is, if you don't understand the new playground, you are not going to make it.  So what exactly do you need to do?

As with any online selling venue, change is inevitable.  How we handle that change is what separates the wheat from the chaff, as they say.  Whining and complaining in every online forum and facebook group you can find will do nothing to turn things around for you.  It will just frustrate you and make others think you are just a chronic whiner.  But there is hope if you can adapt and change.  But this will require you to retrain yourself with new selling habits.

Gone are the days of fancy layouts and jazzed up titles.  No more of the java script rotating banners, etc.  No more wordy business policies at the bottom of your listings.  No, what ebay wants now and what Cassini wants is simple, plain and easy to read listings.  Ebay is targeting the mobile platform very heavily and if your listings are full of fluff, it's not going to get exposure like your mobile optimized competitor.  Your items are going to fall down the search rankings and become relegated to the bottom of the list for eternity.  You need to change your listings and make them for the mobile platform.  Get rid of the tri-color text, get rid of the rotating banners and anything else that does not pertain to the listing.  If it doesn't look good on your phone, then it won't look good to Cassini!

Once you have your listings optimized, this now becomes a game of outsmarting Cassini.  And yes, it is possible!  Gone are the days of relisting every single item.  The ONLY time you should be relisting is if you have a multiple quantity item that has had sales.  This is because the item will carry over it's sales stats and keeps your rankings.  It does no good to relist an item that has very little traffic.  Your listing is going to carry over and Cassini already knows it's not popular, so back to the bottom you go right out of the gate.  Instead, use Sell Similar.  But don't just sell similar, make sure you change at least one thing in your listing.  It can be a word, or adjusting an image contrast by 1 or anything that makes it different than the last time it was listed.  Why?  Because when you change something on a sell similar, Cassini now thinks it's a brand new listing, and you jump to the top of the search.

It really is that simple!  I have been using that strategy for about 6 months now, and have seen my sales increase month over month.  I do a lot of experimenting and I track my metrics to see what works and what doesn't.  There are other ways to increase your revenue, but that is a topic for another day.  In the meantime, try these changes and see if your sales don't start creeping up.

You're welcome!