Sales are dramatically lower

[sidexsidevisions]

I use to sell 3-5 items a day (3-6 months ago) and 5-8 items a day a year ago but now I am lucky if I sell one item every 3 days.  Also my listing views and impressions have been dropping steadly for months. I know the market is down a bit but this is killing my business. Has anyone else seen the same thing or is it just me. I have spoke with eBay and they said my listings look good and they do not know why this is happening. 

[shado-x]

Regional Bank runs, during Mega Bank Depositor Month (i.e.; SVB and SI collapsed with others experiencing record withdrawals, but Citi, BofA, CFG and J.P. Morgan have record inflows this week).  eBay conference call mentions a disintegrated buyers period, eBay competitors have it much worse.  Get in-demand products and you'll be OK.

[vintagecraze50]

We are dealing with one of the heaviest inflation periods since the 70’s. People are holding onto their money. Then all this craziness in the world and now this massive bank issue. Our sales are down as well this year. Hang in there and hope for recovery.

[femmefan1946]

one of the heaviest inflation periods since the 70’s.

 Umm- in the 70s mortgage rates went up to 20% or more. We paid 21% on our floating mortgage one month and 13% most months.

Not only is the inflation rate lower than the 70s but it is dropping.

The bank issue came up a few days ago, not long enough to make any difference to retail sales-- although etsy dot com should be worried since they used SVB banking. Sellers there may have a delay in getting paid.

The pandemic surge in online shopping lasted from March 2020 to December 2021 then stopped abruptly, dropping to about 2019 levels.

Many who had ventured into online selling during that period are learning to adjust to 'normalcy'.

OTOH- a lot of buying that used to be done locally and in person has moved to online for the convenience. Personally today I bought a mop and bucket online rather than trudging around stores to find the kind I wanted.

[rugerskick]

There are a number of factors.  Some are ebay.  Some are larger than ebay.  It bites most of us in the bleep.

[vintagecraze50]

Yes, i went overboard on the estimate of today compared to 70’s, not as bad for sure I remember it. But the buying online has decreasd significantly since pandemic frenzy for sure. But has probably dropped even more than prepandemic as well.

[femmefan1946]

I suspect those neutrals (at least one undeserved and one questionable) and negative (sounds like a real fun customer to deal with) may have more of an effect than you think.

When they wear off (in less than six months I hope) your rating will rise and you will do a little better in Search.

I like your illustrations showing where the part would fit. Very clever.

You might try the hack of Closing  older listings for a week or so, then relisting as Sell Similar to get that tiny bounce for Newly Listed.

I find that Promoted Listings, even at the lowest possible 2% rate, do make a difference.

A Canadian seller has been experimenting with PL vs discounts. Annoyingly, he finds the PL works better, at a lower cost, than customer discounts.

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/experiment-with-almost-give-away-listing-pondering-probl...
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[sidexsidevisions]

Even before the pandamic I sold 5-10 items a day. My usual sales this time of year from 2015-2019 were $70,000 a month now they are $13,000 a month.

[**selling**stuff**]

its because search is broken.. do a search for anything.. you get tons of results, but remember the listings you see on the first page of results.. now, go to any other page of results, you will see the same results as you saw on the first page only..  Its horrible, thats why ebay is horrible right now..  its not getting fixed. 

[sidexsidevisions]

Those ratings were undeserved especely the one. But even with my current status I have had way more sales. In my industry it's hard to be rated as top seller since 90% ship within 2 days. Finding people to work is a pain right now. 

[vintagecraze50]

I am watching a national tv program now regarding the economy. The poor and middle class are having a terrible time affording food. Food banks are overflowing with people who were once able to pay their electric bills, rent food etc. As far as I know there are still plenty who are struggling with this now. Thus effecting sales from this demographic on the website. The rich folks who benefitted greatly from the pandemic they can afford the 20 grand trading cards and the 50 grand watches.

[ed8108]

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@sidexsidevisions wrote:

I use to sell 3-5 items a day (3-6 months ago) and 5-8 items a day a year ago but now I am lucky if I sell one item every 3 days.   ...spoke with eBay and they said my listings look good and they do not know why this is happening. 

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The past is history, unfortunately we now need to adjust to the present reality & lower expectations

[chrispass918]

Cool 

[slippinjimmy]

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@sidexsidevisions wrote:

Even before the pandamic I sold 5-10 items a day. My usual sales this time of year from 2015-2019 were $70,000 a month now they are $13,000 a month.

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I spent some time looking at your listings, my knowledge of ATV parts is next to nothing but obviously it's a niche that has demand.

How often do you price checks? I picked a couple of items, one modest value, one medium value, seems to be quite a bit of competition and for those two items I found cheaper listings. In addition I saw a lot of what I'm guessing are lower quality compatible parts at MUCH lower prices.

Perhaps some heavy hitters are trying to take over the category?

[sakic92710]

THEY say people are not spending.  Really?  How many sales are made, per day, on eBay?!  I used to sell at the flea market.  As time went on, sales became worse & I closed up shop.  Yet, a friend of mine just sold $1100 there on Sunday.  What does he sell?  Funko Pops & he was selling small diecast cars.  Do any of those sound like necessities?  People are still spending.  Just have to have the right people looking at your stuff.  I dropped the # of my listings considerably.  Getting stale & 0-1 views.  Need a new strategy if eBay is going to be of any use to me.  Never seen such a dismal decline in trying to sell here.  8 sales was a slow week.  I cannot even get 5 sales a month!  Good luck to all.   🙂