Power Sellers Unite

antiquetoys · Joined: 25 Jun 2009 Posts: 17

Has anyone else only had their eCrater store items upload to Google 2 times since mid-March or roughly 1x/week?

My items used to upload fairly consistently on Thursdays and Sundays, but not now. I have double-checked and done searches just in case the tab for the Google feed upload status in my eCrater admin isn't correct. Unfortunately, the tab status has been correct and my new items added do not appear until shortly before the feed tab is updated.

A related question....do existing eCrater store items that have not been manually edited/updated fall off of Google shopping after about 30 days?

To be safe, I started manually updating each item about 1x/month since there isn't an Update Store button. It is a time consuming task, so I was curious if this is necessary.

shopnowbuynow · Joined: 02 Sep 2008 Posts: 13

I have notice that too. Over the last 3 weeks my Google updates have been inconsistent with the last one taking over 2 weeks to be uploaded. Now it seems like it is only done on Sunday.

antiquetoys · Joined: 25 Jun 2009 Posts: 17

It was about 10 days between my last upload on March 28th and the previous one around March 18th.

I don't see any news on eCrater or the forums about delays or new upload schedules. I had hoped that eCrater partnering with Google would result in increased upload frequency.

hotnana · Joined: 02 Feb 2008 Posts: 875

I don't think the update tab in our dashboard is always correct. Mine has almost always updated twice a week, but last month mine didn't update but one time.
I've given up on trying to figure out what is going on! :wink:

strikingedeals · Joined: 22 Aug 2009 Posts: 98

Mine is also updating only once per week.My last feed of thursday never went through.Very sad.

Normally the sunday upload fails if thursday one go through and vice versa and I am adding new items daily.It started happening from last month.

http://strikingedeals.ecrater.com/

Jerryb · Joined: 15 Mar 2009 Posts: 444

Ranking on goggle products and showing up in google products are two different issues but could be related? I have not ever had a problem with my items showing up on google products no matter how stale the items are.. they are all there ... just try to find them. As more and more utilize the Godhead Google Products Services i notice the chances of appearing in a decent ranking is slim.

I'm not sure it matters that much if uploaded once or twice a week, Ebay does in within a few hours. I suspect with all the new items on ecrater it has become a major chore. Be careful what you ask for when you want these alt sites to get big.

A classic example is Delcampe. I and many others have just removed our stock and months of hard work due to their horrid server problems that cannot handle all the free listings they have (30,000,000) Of course there is always the lame promises of things getting fixed some time in the future (delcampe) You going to tell me they did not see this coming? perhaps warn the gold members before the annual fees were collected?

Overall I will still give ecrater an A+ which coming from me is saying something. :-)

antiquetoys · Joined: 25 Jun 2009 Posts: 17

I didn't have an upload Thursday either.

My eCrater store has only had 2 verifiable uploads to Google since March 18th (today is April 3rd)

hotnana, "I don't think the update tab in our dashboard is always correct."

That is why I mentioned I have been doing daily Google searches for my items since the delays began.

The Google searches confirmed my eCrater upload feeds are not occurring 2x week as they had been.
This included a 10-day period between feeds.

I prefer knowing what the schedule is so I can plan and add listings on eCrater accordingly.
I truly hope this is a temporary situation.

love2shop · Joined: 31 Mar 2008 Posts: 680

My last feed went through on 3/28. Sometimes I find my items just in a Google "Web" search, and not in a "Shopping" search, and then a few days later that same item will be in the "Shopping", and no longer in the "Web" search.

I try to check my items once a week by going into "Shopping", and entering eCrater then my store name ( ie: ecrater ilove2shop4u), if I'm looking for a certain item I'll add that also. Most of the time Google will show 2 to 3 more items than what my eCrater feed status says.

I still get a lot hits on items that have not yet fed into Google. Yesterday I set up 3 new items, and this morning, 1 item had 2 hits, 1 had 9, and the other had 25. Last week I sold 2 items that had not fed to Google.

I agree that a little more information on how it works would be helpful, but as long as I'm getting sales I'll be staying with eCrater.

knappschiles · Joined: 25 May 2005 Posts: 4035 Location: Wi

I think for those items that have not fed to Google yet, it's people that found something and then decided to see what else you have in your store.

Around the end of Jan I set-up a lot of new varieties in my eCrater store over several days. When I was working on them I would often see several "hit" on an item I had just listed earlier that day. Obviously not in Google yet. But someone checking out more of my listings.

My listings don't change all that often, so as long as eC gets the stuff up at least every month I'm happy.

My Jan sales at eC were a bit slower than last Jan. But Feb and March were great this year.

Carol

pie4himm · Joined: 21 Mar 2007 Posts: 406

thanks for the heads up, I will be sure to avoid eCrater now, and I am in the market looking for another selling venue other than eBay and i-Offer

IllinoisGal · Joined: 01 Jun 2007 Posts: 203

From what has been said on Ecrater forums it is being uploaded but the information coming back from Google is not right or in sync. I have sent an email to admin to see if they can find out what the problem is.

I'm still have great sales though so far 3 sales in three days. Spring and summer usually aren't my greatest selling month so I'm very happy so far.

bgnagn1 · Joined: 08 Aug 2006 Posts: 683

I don't pay close attention to the Google Feeds but I guess mine hasn't been uploaded since 3/28 either. It doesn't seem to affect my sales though so I'm not worried about it.

I do hope they get it figured out and maybe I'll get even more sales 8)

antiquetoys · Joined: 25 Jun 2009 Posts: 17

pie4himm,

Do not avoid eCrater - It is a fabulous site and is 100% Free :D

Let me put this topic into perspective and explain...

The upload feed subject is simply an extremely infrequent irregularity. Uploads have been like clockwork every Thursday and Sunday.

I literally cannot imagine having a store anywhere other than eCrater! It is an established, stable, reliable and very well managed platform. My products consistently rank at the top of both Google shopping and web search.

eCrater is also a simple, fast and easy-to-use site. These are probably just a few of the many reasons why it ranks #2 in listings on the PSU site count and continues to steadily grow. I forgot to mention that I registered on many alternate venues 2 years ago, but eCrater is where I settled and plan to stay.

knappschiles · Joined: 25 May 2005 Posts: 4035 Location: Wi

Yes, a burp in the Google feeds now and then is no reason to avoid eCrater. And is better than iO that I don't believe has a Google feed at all.

My sales at eCrater have been consistantly better than any of the other alts I've been on the last 2 years FOR ME. About double my next best alt site this year.

I know not every site is the same for every seller. But if you haven't tried eCrater, don't knock it without even giving it a try.

Carol

IllinoisGal · Joined: 01 Jun 2007 Posts: 203

I just got an email from admin that they upload every Wednesday and Saturday even if it tab does not reflect that it was uploaded which is what has been posted in the eCrater forums.