Huge drop in sales since October, 2023!

[mcscher301]

My sales have been practically non-existent since October of this year. They were consistently good or better than good for years. Now I don't even get questions about almost 500 items that I have posted. I'm horrified!!!!

Is anyone else who was consistently selling having an extreme drop in sales and even inquiries in the past few months?? I even sent a ton of SEND OFFERS and PROMOTED LISTINGS.

[lvchickie29s5]

Same here!  Something is going on with Ebay but I can't reach anyone at the office to ask!!!!

[mcscher301]

I called Ebay about 2-3 weeks ago and asked if there was something wrong with my account, The woman,USA, was very nice and told me there was nothing wrong with my account. She suggested I send offers and promote listings. The next day I had 3 sales but then it went down to nothing again. I have since been sending offers and promoting listings...but nothing. The only one that is profiting is EBAY! If you google Ebay and Etsy you will see that they are having layoffs. I still think that when a buyer searches there is a hierarchy list where a seller's site appears and I don't know how that works. I've never experienced this in the past and I've been selling for 25 years. The longest I have gone a few times over the years is almost 2 weeks without a sale. I have been experiencing this since the beginning of October.

[allthings-collectible]

Yes, these are scary times for sellers. If you've read the boards during the last year, then you would know that things have changed for all sellers, many of which have also experienced significant drop in sales. However, I think its too early to panic.

The "sending offer" option seems to have lost it's newness, and has now become more of a buyer tool to leverage pricing, than a benefit to sellers...as predicted.  Also, avoid the knee-jerk urge to raise your PL rates when sales are down. eBay is counting on sellers to increase their PL percentage as a response to poor sales, knowing there is no guarantee of a commensurate ROI.

I personally use PL, but only use the minimum of 2% in order to protect my margins. 

[sakic92710]

My monthly sales dropped drastically over 2 years ago & never came back.  Cancelled my store & removed all listings.  I put a handful back on & had 1 sale.  Undecided on my 2024 plan.  Hope you can enjoy your holidays!

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Jewelry sellers who have seen a drop in sales are among the most frequent to post here about their sales drops.

Either there is an excess of supply or a lack of demand. As for reasons, one of the least likely is an Ebay malfunction.

I can tell you that I made a recent jewelry purchase, which is uncommon for me. I made it on Invaluable for substantially less than work by the same artist is selling for on Ebay. Just one data point.

[gail5176]

Yep sales are not great-I still say economy is to blame for it-most normal folk struggling to pay their day to day expenses don’t have money to spare. I also feel though eBay has lost its attraction to buyers-many different places to shop. Unless you’re looking for specific items -other places to buy-with free shipping-reduced prices. Faster turn around.

[gail5176]

Too much price variance on jewelry-rarer pieces use to bring higher prices-now there is always someone selling same item for give away prices. I watch my fave sellers who list buy it now jewelry -and that jewelry does not sell for the whole year. Sales are down, and honestly I don’t think it’s going to ever go back to the glory days of years before

[inhawaii]

Yes i would get ahold of ebay immediately and ask them why your sales are slow. Perhaps they can get to the bottom of this.

[mcscher301]

Thank you for your response. Do you know if you can remove a promoted listing once it is listed?

[dbfolks166mt]

     I had noticed a gradual downward trend in sales way before the pandemic surge and had already diversified across multiple platforms, some by choice some because I was force to by eBay's constantly growing list of prohibited items and the VERO program. Like about everyone else I experienced a surge in sales across all venues during the pandemic and like most sellers that surge has started to subside. What the pandemic did do was create an explosion in the number of ecommerce sites that are out there and buyers taking advantage of the diversity. 

     My October was a little slower than normal but had a surge in November and am currently shut down till after the new year. I continue to sell quite a few items on local forums where I, as well as the buyers, don't have to worry about shipping issues. A lot depends on what your are selling and constantly rising shipping costs are also playing a role in ecommerce sales. Most of your items are in highly saturated categories where competition on eBay is heavy not to mention the ecommerce market place in general. 

[allthings-collectible]

Absolutely. You can do that in the edit feature. 

[wheredidiputthatremote]

Same. It's like the 4th quarter never got started. Hope something gives soon. 

[obob501]

If a seller hs a exclusive item sales are pretty much steady until all your watchers figure out how to get that item and then compete againnst you with a lower price .

Ex:

I was selling an exclusive item here on ebay with only one other seller selling the same item and then my watchers saw how well it was selling started selling it my sales tanked.

So I put it up on Facebook  Marketplace and in  no time sold 60 more and only pay 5% fee.

Ebay is oversaturated  with sellers selling the same item  and your profit margins are shrinking.

[sumsum70]

                      So I put it up on Facebook  Marketplace and in  no time sold 60 more and only pay 5% fee.

                      Ebay is oversaturated  with sellers selling the same item  and your profit margins are shrinking.

If a buyer can get the same item without paying extra to cover eBay's costs, that is what they are going to do. So eBay loses buyers to other sites and comes up with the brilliant idea of trying to charge sellers even more. That strategy can't possibly work, it just makes prices even more attractive on those other sites.