eBay

tankedupthreads · ‎08-14-2022

Good morning fellow sellers! Just an update from last weeks post....

Bear with me as I haven't had much coffee this morning and I am ADD, so the post may be confusing.

Info:

Premium Store Subscription

Top Rated Seller

100% Positive Feedback of 3900+

30 day seller paid "Free Returns"

90% of store is and always has been Mens Clothing- Vintage and mid priced brands

Ebay seller for 10+ Years

approx 900-1000 listings in store

List approx 5 to 10 new items daily

Have a 10% off storewide coupon

Run Promoted Listings at 7.

Now you might say, recession. You might say less buyers. You might say big box store overstock, so less sales. You might think just do free shipping (I charge shipping).

*ASP of like minded items are still selling similar across ebay. So my prices are competitive. Like items are still selling at the same rate.

*Looking at "sold" listings of similar items in my store are still consistent across ebay. People with less feedback, higher shipping, higher prices, lower prices, etc are still having sales. So maybe ebay is just throttling stores after a few sales to allow other sellers to get more views?

I have been racking my head these last few weeks with why my store sales and views are way down. This is what my detective work has shown from mid June-July to mid July-Current.

Sales (quantity sold) DOWN 36.5%

-june/july sold and shipped: 140

-july/aug sold and shipped: 87

1. Went from averaging 34% of items sold leaving feedback. Down to 11%.

Detective work says: Less views on days with no feedback= Less sales

2. Went from shipping 2.3 items per week international to .1

Detective work says: NO CLUE WHY.

3. Views within the last month to views previous month down.

Detective work says:

- Promoted listings DOWN 21.7% with the same percentage at 7.7%

- Organic listings DOWN 27.2%

I could go on and on but just wanted to show some real time numbers for those interested.

Things I have tried to boost views/sales:

Shut off promoted listings for a few days. No difference in sales.

Tried adding an additional coupon, buy one, get one 50%. Zero sales from this.

Didn't list any items one day. Zero difference.

Changed shipping to FREE SHIPPING for 48 hours. Zero difference in views.

Changed from Fixed Ad Rate to Suggested Ad Rate in Promoted. Zero difference.

Updated all listings to include every Item Specific out. Properly. Correctly.

Conclusion. Spent 20 minutes writing this from my notes taken of specifics over the last few weeks. Still won't change the fact that ebay's cossara, cassini or cotana or whatever their search is named now is jacked. It won't change the fact that sales and views are down. And it surely won't change the fact that any higher ups will read this.

I just want you all to know that if your sales and views are down, you aren't the only one. If your sales are up, I am happy for you! Are you doing anything different than I have shown up top?

Remember, we are all in this together folks. As a seller, since most of our friends and family do not understand what we go through, I am thankful for these boards to vent a bit and maybe get an answer or idea or two.

Thanks for reading and enjoy what is left of this weekend!

J.

tankedupthreads · ‎08-14-2022

Oof.

Forgot to add about Best Offers:

June/July: 93 offers received

July/Aug: 32 offers received

Of course, some were low as usual, some were denied, some were accepted. But still. I thought these numbers are very important in the overall scheme of things.

slati_2013 · ‎08-14-2022

Would it be a bad thing if eBay does indeed spreads the wealth around? Buyers have their own reasons why they will sometimes avoid a seller with a better price and order from another. Feedback for example. Speed of delivery. Item location. And yes, people are now trying to buy only what they need. Hopefully by the holidays, things will pick up again.

powell-memorabilia · ‎08-14-2022

The international sales slow down I get. Imagine having $200 per month in home energy costs go to $800. That is what many Europeans are dealing with. And, officials and experts are telling them to prepare for even higher prices. We often don’t realize how great we have it in the US - our energy prices are absolutely amazing relative to what most pay in Europe and Asia.

tankedupthreads · ‎08-14-2022

Spreading sales around is not a bad thing at all! I hope that is what ebay is doing!

Times change and I think that is what is going on. Cross posting is happening and ebay is being phased out unfortunately. If they can't keep up with the times, they will continue losing long time sellers such as myself.

The competing clothing sites keep getting bigger and bigger while ebay is losing sales to them. I am fine with paying whichever site that my items sell at, so no sweat off my brow.

tankedupthreads · ‎08-14-2022

That makes alot of sense. I couldn't even imagine paying 800, that is more than my mortgage.

Surprisingly, I sell very little to UK. I would say roughly 50% Japan, 20% Russia, and 20% Canada/Mexico, with a few random countries here and there.

powell-memorabilia · ‎08-14-2022

Dutch natural gas (TTF) vs US NYMEX/Henry Hub:

tankedupthreads · ‎08-14-2022

Good lord! Should invest in their stock! **bleep**?!

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎08-14-2022

@tankedupthreads ebay search is far from perfect, but I suspect neither search nor some sort of throttling is really the main issue here. My guess is you hit the nail on the head with this statement (especially as to the type of clothing you sell): "The competing clothing sites keep getting bigger and bigger while ebay is losing sales to them."

tankedupthreads · ‎08-14-2022

I do believe that is a big part of it. I am in the chicagoland area in Illinois and I see poshmark, mercari and even depop commercials alot more (probably because most schools are starting soon).

Whether its youtube, instagram, cable or satellite I have NEVER seen an ebay commercial. They think they are the #1 site to go to for used items.....they are falling behind. The younger generations don't want to deal with the Sh!t search functions, they want it easy. And the other apps have that.

wrong66 · ‎08-14-2022

Looking at your current sales, I know some sellers that would kill to have them.

m60driver · ‎08-14-2022

Sales are down for many reasons including the economy, irrational politics that come right out of the old 4Chan website, Ebay's irrational search engine parameters which place too much focus on promoted listings rather than the search itself, and of course Ebay's failed CEO who is in open opposition to traditional small sellers and who caused the loss of significant numbers of both buyers and sellers by design. Then there are those like the OP, who deals with clothing, arguably the most oversaturated retail niche in the larger market these days, both online and B&M. Traditional Ebay small sellers should be exploring other platforms and also be prepared to completely abandon Ebay at a moments notice as one way that Ebay is doing the CEO's bidding is by permanently suspending small seller accounts for often dubious and spurious reasons.

It is a good thing that I am only trying to make some lunch money selling here and if I have to stop selling tomorrow I could toss my entire inventory in the dumpster and still come out ahead.

wrong66 · ‎08-14-2022

I agree. And it won't be long until if you don't Promote listings, your items simply won't be seen by anybody.

m60driver · ‎08-14-2022

@wrong66 wrote:
I agree. And it won't be long until if you don't Promote listings, your items simply won't be seen by anybody.

The listings can be seen by doing a Google search rather than an Ebay search. But many buyers assume an Ebay search is better, don't find what they are looking for, and move elsewhere, and then slowly rely on Ebay less and less. And I should also note that, in combination with a corrupt search engine, that Ebay's removing many more specific categories throttled the window shopping in those categories.