It’s a fairly
common question to the eBay seller maybe you just had a bunch of listings end
yesterday and you’re wondering should I relist? The answer is yes but… as with
most things with eBay there are no simple answers. Relist and relist an item until
it sells or simply set it to good until canceled and forget about it? Neither is
a good approach, at least not without a tweak or two. Maybe try “sell as
similar”? This is another option but again maybe there was a good reason why it
didn’t sell in the first place: bad description, photo or simply just listing
in the wrong category at the wrong time.
So what is
the real difference between relisting and “selling as similar” and when should
you use each? Well the big difference boils down to how eBay’s search engine Cassini
sees the listing. When you use the relist feature you are taking all the
existing information and history both good and bad on a particular item and
carrying it forward with the posting. This means if the item did not sell
within a month or two this item will be fairly low in the search rankings. At
this point a good option would be to try to “sell as similar” but make sure to
go over your listing and revise as necessary. Did you skip over a field or two
when creating the listing? Forget to put in measurements of an item left out a
close up picture of a tag or a design on the item? Chances are a successful revision
can lead to a sale. First and foremost, the path to sales starts with creating
a listing which includes all item specifics, clear pictures and competitive
pricing. There are certain circumstances
in which relisting is preferable, for instance when the listing has either a
lot of watchers or the listing has multiple items good sales history in this
case is a big plus. “Selling similar” while seeming to be the same is quite
different and Cassini sees it very differently as well. Selling similar is
creating a new item and even if you change nothing in the listing the Cassini search
engine will treat it exactly like a brand new item, boosting it in the search
rankings. Now this is a big help but again we have to circle back to this
important question why didn’t it sell in the first place? Again we need to ask
was this an effective listing? Maybe not enough item specifics in the
description or perhaps too loaded with irrelevant keywords? Check that listing
again before posting and make those needed revisions once every t is crossed
and I dotted then go for it.