Very Slow and/or NO Sales

[dusabwl]

Are other small sellers seeing low sales (and views) in 2021? I had a similar (lower) number of sales YTD in 2020 which I figured was due to COVID, but I'm 50% down from the number of sales (not $$, but that's another story) vs. 2019 YTD. I have lots of items listed, however I'm also seeing low views. And those with high views aren't selling, even with me lowering prices weekly. Not sure if it's my particular items, or whether other small sellers are also seeing lower sales in 2021. What am I missing? Advice on what I can do differently? Thanks in advance for any insights.

[jayjaspersgarage]

Same situation here.  I know I list in low demand categories but I have a record of plenty of sales.  It's probably just timing.  School is now started in many areas.  The state of the world is deteriorating every month.  I'll leave it at that for now.

Look for what actually sells and try to source it low enough to sell for a profit.  I'm digging through old dead inventory and finding some decent items to list this week.

[careumind]

You're not alone.

Exactly same here.

What is worse is there are more and more cheap scams going on in this bad time.

We have almost 20% orders are coming from cheap buyers wants free items utilizing eBay's loop holes.

[Anonymous]

My sales are so bad, I pulled all but one auction. Working and getting nowhere stinks. I'd rather give the stuff away, at least you get some satisfaction that way. I am SO tired of representing eBay in an honest and forthright manner and getting nothing for it, and I be danged if I'm going the dishonest route.

[chapeau-noir]

Your sales seem to be coming in clumps.  Are you listing in clumps or on a consistent, if possible daily, basis? Very small sellers like ourselves have to be very consistent.

[Anonymous]

You have 11,000 items and have only sold around 800???? Dude. That goes against all logic. And your items,  titles and descriptions are proper, too! Do like I and many others are doing...pulling our items out of here and sell somewhere else. These corporate clowns are happy with their salaries and could care less about increasing sales and all. Heck, compare eBay's stock to Amazon.

That should tell you. It's amazing how kissing feet to climb the corporate ladder can utterly screw things up.

[yuzuha]

Looking at what you've sold in the past, almost all of your auctions have ended with only one bid. That to me is a big sign that the auction format isn't really suited to what you're trying to sell, and you'd likely have more luck listing things for fixed price.

[ksedar]

Me too!  I did so good up until about a month ago and I swear my store has fallen off a cliff.  All through 2020 I could barely keep up.  Something happened over the summer and the sales have almost stopped compared to other summers too.  I list, tweek, send offers and promote daily so I don't know what happened but none of the things I am trying is working now.  Now I don't even get the views I used to.  Something has changed ever since the spring update.

[chapeau-noir]

Poshmark and Mercari have fallen through the floor, too - it's not just here.  A lot depends on what you sell - right now it's Transitional season for fashion and generally pretty slow.

[dusabwl]

Thank you for checking my sales; I'll look into fixed price (as well as buy-it-now) listings as the uncertainty of auctions may have lost their appeal to buyers. I've used the auction format with good success in the past (especially leading into the holidays), and I guess I'm just looking for the bidding wars of the past!

[dusabwl]

Thanks, I'm a small seller and usually have 30+ listings consistently (altho I'm always saying that I gotta get off eBay due to their fees). Appreciate the input!

[chapeau-noir]

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@dusabwl wrote:

Thanks, I'm a small seller and usually have 30+ listings consistently (altho I'm always saying that I gotta get off eBay due to their fees). Appreciate the input!

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It's important to have daily activity of some sort - it's an important metric for placement.  It's better to list say 3 things daily than 10 things once a week, for instance, if you're a small seller.  It depends on how much you have.

And yes, I would change things to fixed price given that most auctions end at one bid - you can always start items out on auction for the first go round, then change them to fixed price when you relist if they haven't sold. 

[dbfolks166mt · Accepted solution]

     A lot of things have happened over the last couple of years. Competition in ecommerce being a big one. COVID drove an explosion in ecommerce and buyers are looking across a lot of sites to find the best value. A lot of states passed ecommerce sales tax laws which while not much puts them on the same playing field as B&M stores. COVID restrictions eased and a lot of people that had been sitting in front of their computers shopping simply went back to the B&M stores or got it delivered from a B&M store.

     Shipping costs and problems have increased and in an instant gratification/receipt environment buyers want it yesterday. I have ordered stuff from Amazon at 8 AM and had it the same day by 4 PM often at a lower price than I could find it anywhere else. In their second quarter report eBay reported a significant drop in their active buyers, no details on that, it will be interesting to see the 3rd quarter report. My sales on eBay have been kind of slow but I am doing just fine on a lot of local person to person (P2P) venues. Smaller buyer base but I can list the items at 15% less than I have to list on eBay since there are no fees or shipping costs and most transactions are in cash. 

     Only time will tell if things pick back up but for one I don't expect things to be as they were before when eBay and Amazon pretty much had a quasi monopoly on the ecommerce market. 

[dusabwl]

Thank you for your input. I'm struggling with shipping costs that keep going up with the USPS, but if I don't maintain both the # of sales and $$ amount, I'll lose my USPS discount. I guess the whole "auction" format isn't working anymore, especially with the "i want it yesterday" mentality you've mentioned. I'll have to check out fixed price and BIN listing, and also list more on other platforms since buyers and sellers save on fees and taxes (for now, anyway)!

[strugglinlikeyou]

You are stating "no returns" in your listings that I have checked. Exactly opposite of a "come on".