Navigating the bustling marketplace of eBay requires not just a keen sense of what sells but also a strategic approach to how you list your products. With millions of buyers and sellers interacting daily, standing out becomes a matter of employing smart, efficient listing techniques. Among these, the Good ‘Til Canceled (GTC) and Out of Stock (OOS) on eBay options stand out as pivotal strategies for sellers aiming for both visibility and sales sustainability.
Let’s explore what these two features exactly are and how these benefit merchants like you.
Understanding Good ‘Til Canceled Listings
First introduced in 2014, the Good ‘Til Canceled listing type has become eBay’s standard for all fixed-price listings. The Good ‘Til Canceled (GTC) listings are fixed-price listings that last until all the items are sold, or until you end the listing. The listings feature a start date and a rolling date. The dates assigned roll forward by 30 days when the listing reaches its end.
The platform observed that Good Till Canceled listings presented an estimated 30% lift in sales. Thanks to their ability to keep static URLs for products. In doing so, these URLs maintain their SEO rankings, sales history and buyer engagement over time.
Good Till Canceled listings can coupled with Out of Stock on eBay, which allows your listings to remain active even when your inventory hits zero. This means that important listing metrics and your visibility in search results will remain more or less the same.
How does the Good ‘Til Canceled listing work?
Good ‘Til Canceled listings are designed to be just that – active until the seller decides to have them ended or the inventory runs out.
These listings bring the time-tested advantages with them. From keeping a continuous online presence for your business to maintaining a steady SEO ranking over time, your products enjoy uninterrupted visibility because Good ‘Til Canceled listings automatically renew every 30 days.
Understanding the Out of Stock on eBay
As eBay continues to innovate and provide sellers with tools to optimize their listings, the Out of Stock on eBay (OOS) option has emerged as a crucial feature, particularly when clubbed with Good ‘Til Canceled (GTC) listings.
How the Out of Stock On eBay Works?
eBay introduced the Out of Stock option as a way for sellers to keep their listings alive even when they hit zero inventory.
When Good ‘Til Canceled is active, the listing stays up on eBay but is hidden from search results to limit any sales that the seller cannot fulfill due to inventory issues. However, its real value is that it retains the listing’s sales history, and search rankings, setting the stage for a quick return when stock is restocked.
One of the most significant upsides to the Out of Stock on eBay is its quality of preserving the item ID. The original eBay Item ID is maintained, allowing sellers to keep a detailed history of their listings.
By combining this feature with the Good ‘Til Canceled listings, sellers no longer have to start from zero every time they restock an item. Instead, they can build on the existing foundation, leveraging their historical performance metrics to ensure better visibility and sales potential.
Benefits of Combining Good ‘Til Canceled Listings with Out of Stock on eBay
With the strategic integration of Good ‘Til Canceled (GTC) listings with the Out of Stock (OOS) option, eBay has created a powerful framework for sellers who are committed to securing peak performance and sustained sales growth. Combining both the options, i.e., the GTC and OOS bring in a listing where you get a continuous presence of the product along with enhanced SEO. But that’s not it, you also get to preserve the sales history and buyer trust. You’ll in detail how these work in the upcoming sections.
Continuous Presence and Enhanced SEO with Good ‘Til Canceled
Introducing a static URL with the Good Till Canceled model is a game changer from an SEO perspective. Normal listings lose all that juicy SEO buildup they’ve acquired when they end as they lose their URL. GTC listings, however, retain their URL. This means SEO authority, along with sales history and buyer engagement metrics, remain even after 30 days.
Coupled with the Out of Stock (OOS) option’s inventory flexibility means now that all those listings can either accumulate those benefits (like link authority and keyword relevance) or at least retain them. The result is that your items start getting more views on eBay.
Preservation of Sales History and Buyer Trust
Another notable gain is the preservation of sales history and the resultant benefit to buyer trust. Good Till Canceled listings inherently allow for the buildup of sales history, reviews, and buyer engagement metrics.
As listings accumulate views, watchers, and sales over time, they signal reliability and popularity to potential buyers. This, combined with the sustained SEO benefits, makes for higher visibility, and therefore more sales potential.
When coupled with the Out of Stock on eBay, this history is maintained even in the absence of stock, so that when the item is restocked, it continues to rank well within eBay’s search algorithms. This saved history does not just help maintain visibility; it also helps to perpetuate buyer trust, as listings can show a consistent track record of sales and positive feedback.
Best Practices for Good ‘Til Canceled Listings
Mastering the art of Good ‘Til Canceled (GTC) listings on the eBay marketplace means more than setting your listings and forgetting them. Leveraging the full power of GTC requires sellers to take advantage of a different set of best practices. These not only optimize listing performance but also chart the course for long-term success. Here are several ways to get the most out of your Good Till Canceled listings.
#1. Optimize Your Listings for Search
Optimize your listings for eBay’s search engine, Cassini. It is an important part of optimizing a Good ‘Til Canceled (GTC) listing. This involves using relevant keywords whenever possible in your titles and descriptions. You also need to use high-quality images, and accurate item specifics to make your listings visible to potential buyers.
#2. Monitor and Adjust Pricing Regularly
Prices on the eBay marketplace can fluctuate based on demand, competition, and the time of year. So it’s important to regularly review and adjust your prices. Doing so keeps your Good ‘til Canceled listings competitive and attractive to buyers. eBay provides pricing recommendations that can help, and you can also keep an eye on your competitors to find the sweet spot for your pricing strategy.
#3. Encourage and Manage Customer Reviews
The trust and credibility of your listings are affected by customer reviews. Good customer reviews significantly boost your listings’ credibility and trust and thus increase their appeal to prospective buyers. So, always prompt satisfied clients to leave positive feedback and immediately address any negative reviews – and turn them to your advantage!
Managing Inventory and Out of Stock (OOS) on eBay
As an eBay seller, maintaining a healthy sales cycle is key to your success. And, your inventory management plan plays a key role in this cycle, especially when Good ‘Til Canceled (GTC) listings and the Out of Stock (OOS) option are included. Here’s how to handle these situations to keep your sales going and your customers happy.
1. Anticipate Inventory Needs
Stay ahead of demand by keeping an eye on sales trends and seasonal demand. Use eBay’s analytics tools to know what is selling closely and restock inventory accordingly. It won’t be long before your best sellers in the previous quarter go out-of-stock just as the holiday buying frenzy begins.
2. Optimize Your Inventory Distribution
Selling across multiple eBay regions is a part of growing in the marketplace. It involves managing multiple important aspects like listings, inventory, and orders. To ensure accurate inventory details are available across all eBay accounts, you must optimize your inventory synchronization.
Multi-channel inventory management software can help you list and sell through multiple eBay seller accounts. It allows you to synchronize your stock levels across all of your sales platforms and thus prevent out-of-stock incidents.
Conclusion
Utilizing Good Till Canceled listings along with the Out of Stock option is a powerful way to increase the visibility of listings. It keeps important sales history and strengthens SEO on eBay. This unique inventory management method does more than simply solve SEO issues. It allows you to use eBay to drive as much traffic, sales, and profit as possible.
Start using the unique inventory management strategy for eBay. You can achieve it by combining Good Till Canceled listings and the Out of Stock options work together.
eBay is a vibrant marketplace, but inventory can be challenging. Utilizing a multichannel listing tool to list products and sync inventory between your store and eBay can be useful. It’ll help you with increased sales, and continued success. You can take advantage of the dynamic inventory management power of Good ‘Till Canceled, and Out of Stock (OOS).