In 2018 eBay has added to its policies that it will decrease the organic traffic to dropshippers. This shocking new provoke a lot of eBay sellers to give up on dropshipping.
Don’t worry, we got your Back!
In this article, you will understand how eBay actually detects whether you are a dropshipper or not. You will also learn how to “unflag” your account. Since the decreased traffic may cause a decrease in sales, we will guide you on proven eBay strategies that would increase your revenues up to 7x.
What eBay flagged account means?
eBay has announced that it will detect dropshippers and flag their accounts by decreasing their organic impressions on their search results.
This is not officially announced but they have updated their eBay policy that they would not tolerate dropshippers. You can see how one of our Trackerbot Sellers share its account performance.
On a daily basis, it is fine if you have a drop in sales in certain days because online purchase behaviour varies but if you have a significant decrease in your Listing Page Views or Sales without changing your strategy – be sure that your account may be flagged.
DONT PANIC!
Almost all of the dropshipper accounts are “flagged” especially those who have been operating for a while.
Everybody who is a dropshipper has to accept the fact that his account would be flagged. The secret here is how to change the strategy in order to be profitable making a significant amount of sales.
There are too many dropshippers out there in eBay and they are making some updates on the system to adapt the eBay search algorithm and all the dropshipper’s supply. Dropshipping is one of the biggest online trends and eBay does not want to kill it since they are creating millions of dollars (and sales) every year from dropshippers. Anyway, they have to update the platform in order to improve the user experience of the buyer (this doesn’t mean that they do not care about the sellers).
How does eBay detect whether you are flagged or not?
It is not officially stated how actually eBay do this but since this is an algorithm for millions of dollars and there are hundreds of software engineers staying behind it, it is not hard for them to detect whether you are a dropshipper or not. If you are a dropshipper – your account would be flagged but as we mentioned below – ALL THE DROPSHIPPING ACCOUNT ARE FLAGGED and this doesn’t stop them from making money.
The question here is:
How does eBay detects whether you are a dropshipper or not?
The Answer is:
There are a so many ways eBay can detect it but here we will state some of them:
3rd party API integrations - True or Myth?
There are tons of speculations about all the API software that dropshippers use and thus eBay detects them.
THIS IS NOT TRUE!
If using the API software is such a big problem, eBay would restrict them. Since they are still available for all eBay sellers. Of course, eBay it is one side that eBay knows which software is being used from dropshippers but most of the API software are available for non-dropshippers as well.
Anyway if you consider API integration with eBay for such an important part, Trackerbot provides both Trackerbot with API and Trackertbot NON-API solution for your tracking uploader.
It is up to you which one is suitable for your business. Our opinion is that automation is a very important part of your dropshipping business in order to achieve scale, so you should not worry about it.
Items you are selling
One big thing that eBay recognises dropshipper – this is the items they are selling.
When you browse through the search and find a competitor of you – in most of the cases you have a lot of items that you both are selling right?
It is not hard to detect who is a dropshipper and who isn’t, especially when you are using Amazon as the main supplier because it is so easy to re-sell from there.
Detecting whether you are a dropshipper is not that hard as you already know, so you should not worry about it. Searching for new suppliers and possibilities, however, could give you a huge advantage in front of your competitors and you can make more profits from a single sale. This would slow the process of your account detection.
Copy - Pasting eBay Titles and Descriptions
We all know that dropshippers are stealing titles and descriptions from other dropshippers. Also copy-pasting from Amazon would result in same text. eBay can detect repetitive texts and can easily find out that you are a dropshipper. So create unique titles and description (as long as the listing allow) in order to have lower chance to be flagged.
Shipping your items from different locations
Once you upload the trackings eBay know where you send the item from. Different sending locations is a pure sign for them that you are not sending the items from your home or company address but you are most likely a dropshipper.
How to "unflag" my eBay account
The answer is – YOU CANNOT!
Should you worry about it?
– NO!
Since your account is flagged – this is not a huge problem. The eBay system indicates that you are a dropshipper and you should be fine with that. Some simple tricks and changing your strategy and your account is in the game.
Can eBay Flagged account still be profitable?
The answer is:
–YES, YES, YES!
Flagging your account doesn’t make it unprofitable. These are just some algorithm changes that you have to adapt to – It is so simple 🙂
Don’t panic! We have a lot of work to do.
In the next chapter, we will explain to you some key strategies in order to improve the performance of your eBay Account.
4 Pro strategies to optimise your store and increase traffic
#1 Diversify your suppliers
Using Amazon for your dropshipping business would not only dive you into the biggest competition but also would increase your risk. Why?
If you are using just one supplier and something happen to it, you have a high chance of ruining your online business. Our advice is to use as many suppliers as possible in order to decrease your risk and get a large variety of products.
Of course Amazon products are getting the highest volume but adding extra suppliers could increase your profit per sale (even you can sign a custom contract with a selected website would).
#2 Automate as many processes of your business as possible
Maybe you have heard this before:
Automation is the key to achieve scale!
Since the online ecosystem is so fast-changing – whoever adapts first – he wins.
There is one simple rule: Speed over quality.
A lot of people would argue against this statement but let us explain…
You see how fast all the ecosystems are changing. All the players update policies, rules and requirements – Amazon, Paypal, eBay, Walmart and all the other which is OK since the industry is improving. Thus you have to adapt As fast as possible to those changes. Here is the simple key to success.
If you have a huge amount of products, a large variety of suppliers and have automated a big portion of your business – it is just a matter of time to make a huge amount of profits.
Here, with Trackerbot you automate a large part of your business and focus on the important tasks that matter.
If you still do not want to use API integration we can offer you Trackerbot NON-API which does the same job with 2 simple clicks.
Keep in mind that some of the features in Trackerbot are not available in the NON-API version since we cannot connect to your eBay account to execute the tasks.
#3 Optimise your titles
This is probably one of the most important things for your E-commerce success.
Here we will explain your specific strategies with which you can boost your sales.
The most important thing as a seller is:
Think like a buyer – If I needed an item – how would i start searching for it?
Matching your first couple of words with the search query of the buyer increase your chance to be featured on the top of the page. So think like a buyer and use related keywords.
In Trackerbot we have a FREE unique feature – Tittle Builder with which you can search for relative titles, keywords and much more.
#4 Increase the account stability
Maybe you have heard this before, but you have to keep your account above standard always.
eBay wants from sellers to cover selling performance such as:
- Good Customer service
- Low Return Rates – (VERY IMPORTANT)
- Accurate Shipping time
- Almost no unresolved cases
Pro Tip: It is not officially stated, but the better your account performance is – the more traffic eBay “sends” you as a seller. Why?
If there is a satisfied customer, the chance of returning back to the platform is huge. Therefore eBay wants to push sellers who provide good product + service to their buyers.
Benefits of this eBay update on flagging dropshipping accounts
There are several benefits for dropshippers that we came out with this update. Since a lot of people thought this is the end of the dropshipping era – dropshipping will always exist – it will just change its behaviour. Here are some major benefits for dropshippers.
– The bad dropshippers would give up
Since this is a major change to the eBay algorithm, a lot of people would give up when they see the first decrease in their sales. The upward and downward trend would always be there since you are in the market. The best dropshippers handle all the changes and adapt to the new policies.
– New Strategies for Dropshipping
Flagging dropshipping accounts would push sellers to change their strategies. This will force them to get out of their comfort zone and start discovering new ways of improving their eBay business.
– More tools for automation
Finding new software could save a lot of time from doing manual, repeating and boring activities. This will help you scale your business and decrease the time spent on the platforms.
Like every business, there would be some difficulties, but dropshipping business would never end. The rules are just changing and we have the adapt to them. The faster we adapt to them, the better we became as sellers.
We hope that you find this article useful and will help you improve your online dropshipping business.
Are you ready to apply the strategies we talked about?
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