I listed one item this morning and 10 minutes later, I was in page 6!! Some shops came along and listed several items in big batches, one after the other knocking my work away. Batches like 40 and 50 items. And then they repeated this kind of play.
In football, if one player is trying to score and other players knocked him 6 meters away, it would be penalty and red card. Unfair play could be a yellow card. Second yellow card becomes red and you are sent off. And you can’t play in the next game.
Yes, but it is not fair to relist dozens of items all at once. Many sellers (myself included) make one-off, handcrafted items that take many hours to complete. We can’t all manage to maintain levels of stock at 50+ items, even if we have bought Plus membership. Even Plus members are adversely affected by other sellers listing/re-listing many items in big blocks. To coin another old English sporting phrase - “It’s just not cricket!”
I disagree there, Lizzie. This is a business site and people need to do what is necessary to pull in business. As long as it meets the site’s TOU then I think you need to just roll with it. Many people on this site support their family on the proceeds and if they are able to produce quality handmade items quickly, I say more power to them! It may feel that you are being marginalised but I think they may just be more efficient than others, myself included, who treat their shop as a hobby…There is always someone out there who does things better and more efficiently. I think all we can do is to learn from them.
Some shops are listing more than once. I believe with the Plus Account you are only allowed to list once a day, according to Folksy?
I saw a shop listing at least 4 batches. One of the batches was 70 items. Total listed items that morning were 170. I looked at her shop she had 160 products. So she listed some items twice…
Is this the kind of behavior buyers want to see here? It’s not only us, sellers, using the site.
Unprofessional play will be booed by fans, the club, the media and even the referee. If a scout is watching, you will not be getting a transfer. I will not be buying tickets to support a team who plays like that.
I’m sorry, I’m not sure what the complaint is here. Are you angry that people with a larger stock base are listing their items? Do they not have just as much right to list as you? Or are you wanting people who make their items in quicker times or supplies shops, like me, for that matter, off Folksy?
Hello to all, this is my first post, I feel your pain as most of my items are one of a kind and take many hours. I am always thrilled to see one of my items near the top, but it never lasts long and is quickly consigned to page 100 and something! The system does seem a little unfair to small sellers.
I will sit on the fence on this one, as I can see both sides of the story. I would love to get onto the home page but like others I cannot make fast enough to afford the Plus account…on the other hand, if I COULD afford it, I would probably be multi listing as well…
I just have to grit my teeth and hope for sales…
By the way can someone tell me…is the plus account for 6 months or a year?
It is not about whether I make my books “better”, though there are ways to be more efficient, I’m sure.
I don’t “treat my shop as a hobby”, but neither am I able to produce dozens of items in a short period of time.
However, this is not the point I’m trying to make. The re-listing system allows sellers to re-list each item once per day. But some sellers list dozens and dozens of items at once. It’s not only frustrating to sellers with smaller inventories, who would like to see their listed/re-listed items sit on the first couple of pages for more than a couple of seconds; it’s also counter-productive from the point of view of sales. As a Buyer, I find it very frustrating if I want to look at “Recently Listed” items and all I see is pages full of items from one shop. I know that other buyers find this frustrating too. If the “Recently Listed” pages are supposed to be there to encourage buyers to browse and make purchases, then I think it is fair to have some kind of limit to the number of items listed by any shop, at any one time - Because of the fact that a big flood of items from one seller will drive the buyers away from “Recently Listed”.
It is about business sense - for all sellers, not just those will small, or large inventories. A department store does not fill its windows with items from only one department or concession. Neither should Folksy.
Please may I join in, I have a plus account and list lots and lots of items, as my items come up for relisting I click relist, but did not know there was a facility for listing lots of items at a time, or is this not what you meant please?
@Glehcar, with a plus account you can relist your items at any time (and you can without one, but you have to pay listing fees) without paying a listing fee. You can relist an item once a day, buy you could relist it 365 times in the year a plus account is paid for if you wanted to.
I relist 4-6 items at a time when I relist. The plus account pays for itself if you have more than 56 items and relist each one a minimum of 4 times a year, so relisting a few every days when you have a plus account is worthwhile.
I was also going to sit on the fence for this one but I think you have made some really good points there @LizzieMade. It is kind of a pointless tab to have for buyers sake if it is over flooded with one/ two shops.
I wonder realistically though how many people actually buy stuff from that having looked at the list? I kind of get the feeling with Folksy that the front page is all well and good but really your sales come from people being sent directly to your shop from elsewhere on the web.
Maybe the people who make the front page or who regularly relist could clarify whether this actually improves your sales? Say if you go a week without relisting does that effect your sales?
I wonder whether buyers actually look at the FP or the Recently Listed feature (which I didn’t even know existed until now)? As a seller, if I want something I use the search facility and have bought loads this way, but I would never just browse not having any idea of what I was looking for. Perhaps non-sellers do?
As for relisting, I only ever relist the items that have expired so am probably not doing the best for my little shop - most of my sales come from the forum anyway.
