There is a particular number that becomes strangely satisfying when you operate a large eBay store:
active listings.
Five hundred listings feels better than 400. Two thousand feels more substantial than 1,500. Reaching another thousand-listing milestone can feel like undeniable evidence that the business is growing.
And sometimes it is.
A larger inventory creates more opportunities for buyers to find something they want. For sellers dealing in antiques, collectibles, books, ephemera, estate merchandise, replacement pieces, and other one-off inventory, having breadth can be a real advantage.
But there is a point where listing count stops being a useful measure of progress by itself.
You can have more merchandise online than ever before while sales remain flat.
You can add hundreds of listings while thousands of dollars in older merchandise quietly sit untouched.
You can build an impressive-looking store that is increasingly filled with things buyers have repeatedly chosen not to purchase.
That is the inventory trap.
Continue reading “More Listings Don’t Always Mean More Sales: Escaping the Inventory Trap”