Items sold info

[Ninaross Designs]

I've had several friends look at my store and a question keeps coming up that I can't answer. They want to know why is the info regarding
"items sold" made public. This comes mainly from three friends who work in marketing and social media and they claim that this can be a double edge sword for the seller since the public has a "herd" mentality...they may see that your store gets lots of views, but if there are no items sold for whatever reason, then this may make them (the buyers) question buying from you.  I don't have an answer and I do know that lots of e-commerce sites for sellers let you see how many items have sold, but maybe they have a point...not sure!  Anyway, they claim that when you have your own website, the info about how many items sold is not made public unless you place a "sold" notice on your items. Any answers, or do any other sellers have this concern?   

[Ninaross Designs]

Did this question stump any of the people at icraft...or "crickets"...anyone out there ? I'm waiting to hear from someone at icraft to get some feedback on my question!

[Red Rock Designs]

Hi.  iCraft is based in Toronto, Ontario and currently there is a city-wide power outage because of an ice storm we had last week.  It's reported that power is expected to be restored on Dec 29 or 30th.  Some people have power on & off, but not permanently yet.

From my own research, and I'm not in marketing or sales by trade, I learned that the information of Items Listed / Items Sold is used by Google Analytics and e-commerce sites for stats on e-commerce, online revenue, and online marketing.  It's not necessarily for the seller's use, even though it does affect the seller.  And I think you're right, it is a double-edge sword.  

I do know that when you have you're own website, you can choose to show Sold items, as you say.  But you are also responsible for reporting your own income to your own government revenue agency.  Online marketplaces have to show their stats for each member, including items listed, items sold....I think online marketplaces have more financials to produce to government agencies because they're essentially "the middle man" of brokering items from a seller to a buyer.   It's likely an easy way to stay financially transparent, by having individual shops showing their own stats.  That's what I think anyway...I'm no accountant either!  But I am self-employed and have learned how to stay transparent for myself.  

Bibi  

[Ninaross Designs]

Thank you sooo much for your feedback...very helpful!