I've been selling for just about 2 years now. I found my niche, developed my business model, refined and worked it. I was doing about 2.5k per month in sales on about 150 listed items, with the usual variation - seasonal and otherwise. I had 100% feedback and repeat customers.
Ebay wanted Free Shipping, I give 'em free shipping. Ebay wants 1-day shipping. I give 'em "epic fast shipping" to quote one customer. Ebay wants Free Returns, I give 'em free returns. Ebay wants Guaranteed Delivery, I give it to 'em. Whatever direction ebay wants to go in, I try to adapt and make it work. So far, so good.
So naturally, it was time to expand. As I sell mostly men's clothing, maybe 'summer slowdown' wasn't the best time to expand, but I increased my listings about 40 or 50 percent in July, and sales increased by about 35%. Right on target. I did the same in August, with good results. It was my best month on ebay. Now with the summer doldrums behind us and more listings than ever before in my store, September should continue the trend. Not so fast.
September saw a 25% decline in sales. October was equally bad, and November - which I anticipated as being the best month of the year - has so far been horrible. I'm currently on pace to equal my year-low January sales when I had less than half the items listed. I anticipate doing half the sales of August, or a 50% decline from that month. This is despite loading up with Christmas and winter items - the items that ebay (and common sense) - recommend.
So what gives? I went crazy trying to pin down the reason. I tried listing on a regular basis. I tried binge listing. I kept my account constantly active. I lowered prices. I raised prices. I had sales. Nothing mattered. Am I still top-rated? Yeah. Is my return-rate too high? Ah, my returns are exceptionally low, especially with all the clothing I sell. Can't be that. Unresolved cases? Nope. In three little words, **bleep**?
Looking at my sales on a graphical plot, it was easy to see exactly when things began to tank, the inflection point so to speak. But that still made no sense. Now we all know that a platform like ebay is run by computer algorithms, and these are developed and manipulated toward one end - optimizing revenue from sellers. Nothing sinister about that. We all try to optimize revenue.
Obviously, none of us know the details of how 'ebay' operates, but the generalities are there. We kinda all 'get it'. For some reason, I was dumped into a lower priority 'bucket'. Sure, they give you the occasional 'off-the-charts' day, the same way a casino strings you along until you're just ready to walk away and cut your losses, and then you hit for a few hundred. And you come right back. Until you're broke. Sometimes I get the feeling that ebay is a casino and we're all just hangin in there waiting for a jackpot.
I was going over my messages awhile back, and noticed an offer from ebay to upgrade my store to the next level up. I considered it, since I was paying for insertions each month, and it sorta made sense and I was planning on continuing the expansion. But the subscription fee was 3X what I was paying, so I had to think about it just a bit. Unfortunately, the deadline for the offer was August 28, and I didn't respond in time and the offer expired.
My sales began to decline immediately after that date. Ebay simply dumped me into the 'not worth it' bucket.
Thanks ebay. Two years of representing your company as best as I could, and winning customers with every sale. And in an instant, all that work is tossed into the 'screw you' bucket. Hey, it's your platform, if you think that's the optimum way to harvest revenue from your sellers, more power to ya. But I'm starting to agree with the naysayers - ebay is flailing around trying to compete with Amazon and the new kids, and flailing rhymes with failing, doesn't it.
