Can sellers see who has viewed their listings? (2024)

FAQs

Can sellers see who has viewed their listings? ›

As a seller, you can see how many people are watching your listing under the Watcher column on your active listings page. You can track how many watchers you have on each individual listing, but the identity of the watchers is kept anonymous. There is no way to ID who is watching your sale, or why.

Sellers cannot identify who is viewing their items, but eBay gives sellers the opportunity to send offers without knowing who the offer is going to. If the buyer takes advantage of the offer, then the seller finds out identifying information.

Sellers don't know who is visiting their auctions, but eBay cookies do.

And only eBay sellers can see the number of watchers on their listings.

Listing traffic history report

This report allows you to see the page views for the listing over time, and makes it easy for you to see trends. If the listing has been active long enough, you'll have the option of changing the time period, going back as far as two years.

You can add a "Watch this item" link to show up right on the page of Search results, so you can add an item to your Watch list without opening the listing itself. About half of the items on my own Watch list were done ike that.

A view is when someone opens you listing. A watcher is when someone who has flagged your item to be added to his Watch List. The view count contains only views within the last 30 days. An item can be watched indefinitely.

eBay no longer allows sellers to see the usernames of those following them.

eBay only displays the number of watchers under certain conditions; if it is above some minimum number, and if no other messages supersede the watch count. There are several possible custom messages that might be shown to the buyer, such as "a seller you have purchased from before" or "located near you".

The only thing a seller can see is the buyer's current bid. The buyer's maximum bid is hidden from everyone. Can you see what someone bids in an eBay auction at the last second without them knowing it? No, you cannot see what someone bids in an eBay auction at the last second without them knowing it.

What happens when you watch an item on eBay? ›

You'll receive notifications about items on your watch list by default. For example, you'll receive an alert if a listing you're watching is ending soon. You can turn off your watch list email alerts by following these steps: Go to Communication preferences - opens in new window or tab in My eBay.

It's possible to have more watchers than views, because the page setup for search results can be customized to include a link to put the item on your Watch list without ever looking at the listing.

As you theorized, potential buyers often make offers that are higher than the opening bid, because they hope to get the item cheaper that way than if the auction ran its full time with regular bidding. Thus, many of these offers are legitimate. There are also offers from potential scammers.

There is no way to ID who is watching your sale, or why. Furthermore, watch counts don't provide any social proof or sense of urgency to shoppers.

If your eBay listings are getting no views, one of the primary reasons might be SEO compliance. As an e-commerce seller, you might be familiar with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Unless you post your listing with eBay's SEO in mind, it will be very difficult to have your listing on top of the search results.

I think that you'll find that no one has a magic number. You'll have items with 1,000 views that takes longer than one with just a handful. A lot of views, over a long period of time, with zero sales, just tells me that an item is too expensive.

A seller cannot see what you are watching. The can send offers to buyers there is no way to force a purchase.

You must be an eBay store subscriber to set up a special offer. You can provide an order discount, promotional shipping, volume price discount, sales event, or codeless coupon. Watchers are alerted of these promotions if added after they started watching the item.