When working longer, harder, and smarter bears you no fruit! Staying motivated as a Seller?

[getitright1234]

When working longer, harder, and smarter bears you no fruit!  You got to then consider am I experiencing: interference.

Is my store open?

Are my lights on? 

Am I being punished?

What in the world is happening when your sales just completely disappear.    Is it time to get even more creative and find a different game plan.

I have been selling an eclectic mix of goods for nearly 8 years and I feel like I am still  bumping my head against a glass ceiling, now even worse, a concert slab.  The glass ceiling at least had me looking upwards.  

The only other time in my life when I felt no matter what I did, no matter how much time and effort I put in, it still meant and yielded nothing, is when I worked under a narrisstics.     

I use to be so exciting with the though that "I" could control my income and quality of life as a Seller.  Things are very different, I have slowly come to the realization there are actually systems in place for whatever reasons that have stunted my progress.  

How are you staying motivated as a Seller?

[whatmorefabric]

It is about adjustments.    Things are selling on line and if yours are not,  than you need to look at what you are selling.    I use to sell kids clothes when the Boutique Clothing for kids was the rage.    The Great Recession took hold and I changed to kids vintage toys,   sewing patterns and 40's and 50's vintage ware.    I than moved into fabric.   Do you research trends,  what is selling ?    My daughter is selling sweat pants at an unreal rate.    She even conned me into making some for her to sell.

the days of slapping something up on the internet are over.      You have make a name for yourself,  sell on several sites,  use advertising.     I  have an internet site that I pay Google Ads to promote.     IF the cost of promoting and fees are killing  your bottom line,  the problem isn't with the sites,  but with your business model.     If a certain fabric is searched for,   my multiple sites come up near the top.

People buy for either price or uniqueness.   I  buy fabrics that no one else has.     I do not buy from the major wholesalers and I do not buy what Fabric dot Com,   can undercut me on.

I am doing well.    I just moved into a larger warehouse that will let me have walk in customers as soon as the virus lifts.

I read a lot of articles and looked at a lot of You Tube Videos

[gamersbaystore]

Well,  in my opinion $400 of fees on $1,300 in sales is a ripoff. ebay charges these whack fees, then gives us a coupon for free shipping supplies that don't even exist. They've now gutted their shipping supply store to practically nothing. The coupon is worthless.

My family sells pet supplies here as well, most of which we've now pulled from the platform because of the ridiculous fees.

Just because you're making a profit doesn't mean you're not getting robbed, the fees are unjustifiable in my opinion.

[jameshen1]

Then I suggest you find somewhere with less fees and sell there.

I personally quit selling and closed my selling account on here months ago.  But it wasn't due to ebay's fees.  Where are they less that gets the kind of traffic ebay does?

[frock_my_world]

I feel you about the glass ceiling/cement ceiling.  It seems to be the days when I'm putting the most into my business, in whatever capacity that may be on any given day, that I can feel myself feeling the most frustrated when I have a string of just lousy days of sales. 

But then something clicks and I have a string of good days and sometimes those are days when I have done virtually nothing related to my ebay business. 

For me, I HAVE to focus on the BIG picture in terms of sales.  I cannot let a string of a few days bring my motivation down so low that it impacts my ability to continue to focus my efforts on improving my current listings, continuing to provide excellent customer service, and continuing to source quality inventory.

I focus only on quarterly numbers now.  And I have yet to have an entire quarter where I was not profitable and certainly not a year where I was not profitable.  And when I say profitable, I mean a good bit more than just clearing a net profit, enough to continue to keep me motivated to press on, kwim? 

Take a day or two completely off OR take a day or two to just bust out a boat load of new listings.  I wish you well and for great sales to come your way!

[gamersbaystore]

Exactly my point. We aren't allowed to name alternatives here, but there's one that's starts with an S and ends with a Y, and its associated costs are less than one third of ebay's. And according to media reports, they are presenting an enormous amount of competition to ebay, and are gaining a remarkable share of e-commerce sales overall. The benefits are not just lower costs either, but having your own website and store.

And as of recently, its now free to advertise in Google shopping, though you can still pay for promoted placement if you choose.

As for traffic, I actually bring way more traffic to this platform from social media than what it brings to me. Which is cool, as I'm sure some of that traffic converts for other sellers, and I'm all for supporting others. But if I left I'd be taking that traffic with me.

[dhbookds]

Exactly my point. We aren't allowed to name alternatives here, but there's one that's starts with an S and ends with a Y, and its associated costs are less than one third of ebay's. And according to media reports, they are presenting an enormous amount of competition to ebay, and are gaining a remarkable share of e-commerce sales overall. The benefits are not just lower costs either, but having your own website and store.

Then why don't you try there?    You seem to be more than a bit unhappy with ebay.......how many other places have you tried?  Frankly, depending on news stories as an indication of success for an individual seller may not present the most accurate picture........but on the other hand you never know until you try.

As far as the 1/4 million dollar seller.........don't you think it a bit odd to take that many sales to figure out you aren't making any money? 

[funkyfreshmike.2013]

When i devote positive energy to my account, things pick up a bit.  Admittedly it gets difficult to always have that mindset but positivity is the key. 

Two things i have learned:

-Keep listing

-Everything sells eventually

[chapeau-noir]

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@gamersbaystore wrote:

Exactly my point. We aren't allowed to name alternatives here, but there's one that's starts with an S and ends with a Y, and its associated costs are less than one third of ebay's. And according to media reports, they are presenting an enormous amount of competition to ebay, and are gaining a remarkable share of e-commerce sales overall. The benefits are not just lower costs either, but having your own website and store.

And as of recently, its now free to advertise in Google shopping, though you can still pay for promoted placement if you choose.

As for traffic, I actually bring way more traffic to this platform from social media than what it brings to me. Which is cool, as I'm sure some of that traffic converts for other sellers, and I'm all for supporting others. But if I left I'd be taking that traffic with me

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If you're talking about Shopify, you have to drive your own traffic there.  What's driving their success is efficient tools geared towards those who wish to create and promote an independent website, it's not a marketplace with built-in traffic.

[gamersbaystore]

My statement was a matter of opinion about ebay's fees. Regardless of any alternatives, my opinion remains the same. Why don't I try alternatives? I am.

And no, my friend is not quote "A 1/4 million dollar seller." That's the sales he did last year alone right before he closed his store here.

[stephaniesmidnightboutique]

Hello again,
I thought of a few more suggestions - to help MOTIVATE you and maybe turn around the slump you're in.
These are all suggestions based on NOT knowing what type of items you sell - which is fine. I think they can apply to a lot of sellers in your current mood.

1. Do you need to clean / organize some part of your work area?
(Desk, mailing station, photo area, storage, etc.)

2. Have you been meaning to implement a NEW SYSTEM of any kind?
- an updated inventory number system? a new labeling system for your inventory? different way of storing?

3. Do you need to create/organize any of your paperwork?
- receipts, accounting books, folders, tax info, etc.

4. How about a SUPER cleaning - in your work area.
- Anything need a good dusting, vacuuming, desk wiped off, windows cleaned, light bulbs changed?

5. Have you claimed all your free shipping supplies as a seller? Depending on your store level, you are entitled to a certain $ of FREE shipping stuff. So check if you are owed free stuff on the site. i REALLY like their tissue paper and i like the round ebay stickers. But there's a whole bunch of different things you can get.

6. Review some existing listings and "fine tune them"
- reword the Title, change the main picture, see if you've made a MISTAKE on it (missing size, wrong size, weight etc.).

7. END a batch of listings - and THEN re-list them.
- it makes an old listing NEW. It appears again as a fresh listing. Rather than let it sit stale, with HUNDREDS of looks and NO sale - end it and let it start all over. It appears higher up in results, alerts as a "new listing" - stuff like that.

8. Do you promote your listings?
- that option where you can pay a %fee. I started doing that approx 1 year ago. oops - it's cutting off my reply!

[stephaniesmidnightboutique]

Yes, so true. Keep listing & it sells eventually.

[gamersbaystore]

So true, and for which I am well aware. I would agree that driving your own long term traffic isn't easy, but I did it, and I believe anyone else can too.

You only get out what you put in! I spent years and thousands of hours producing content just on youtube alone. If people want to build an audience on the web, then they will just have to work for it like I did.

And that's just it, there is no built-in traffic, its either something you pay for, or you worked to earn. Even your social accounts take time and energy to build a following with.

Look at all the people who pay Google for advertising to promote their products and services, including ebay. Yet, Google promotes my content for free, they then pay me for it every month too. Again, I earned it.

Not a bad idea to advertise either, but advertising alone doesn't drive long term traffic; rather the production of informative, useful, and entertaining content does. This is part of the reason ebay struggled so badly to rank for so many years.

Making a sale isn't just a matter of driving traffic either, its a matter of building relationships with people. People are more likely to buy from those they know, like, and trust, regardless of price or what competitors have to offer.

[yuzuha]

If you're not making any profit due to fees, the problem isn't the fees, it's a combination of your own math and what you're selling. What you're selling is priced too low, costs too much to acquire, has too little demand, or a combination of the above. I walk past a lot of stuff when looking for things to resell because it simply wouldn't be profitable after all of the associated costs are figured in.

Your FVFs should be factored into your prices you ask for your items so that you're still making a profit even after them. They shouldn't be a "loss" to you; they should be considered a part of the initial cost of acquiring the item for resale just as much as the price you paid to buy it is. For example, I bought some things to sell the other day: the retail price was $20 but they were on clearance for $5, so if I make a probably over-generous estimate for total fees at around $2.75, that means I will be clearing a $12.25 profit on each one I sell, which is an amount that is acceptable to me. I sell one and already I've covered more than half the cost for my Basic store for a month with that single sale.

Your problem is that you are paying a huge amount in listing fees but selling largely very low-priced items. It's going to be a lot harder for you to cover the cost of your store plus the extra listing fees when it's going to take so many sales just to be able to do so. The only way that's going to be sustainable is if whatever low-cost item you're selling is either extremely popular or commonly bought in bulk.

[onlinecentral]

Evaporation Rate = The percentage of your inventory that is sold in a period of time.
Theoretical-Seller has 1,000 listings and 142 sold
14.2% quarterly for 90 days
4.7% monthly for 30 days
I invite other opinion posters to share their monthly and quarterly percentages.
Maybe that would convince you to sell different items in other categories.
Here is a cut and paste for you other sellers to add your percentages.
% quarterly for 90 days
% monthly for 30 days

I respect the good advice you have posted on other threads.

[chapeau-noir]

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@gamersbaystore wrote:

So true, and for which I am well aware. I would agree that driving your own long term traffic isn't easy, but I did it, and I believe anyone else can too.

You only get out what you put in! I spent years and thousands of hours producing content just on youtube alone. If people want to build an audience on the web, then they will just have to work for it like I did.

And that's just it, there is no built-in traffic, its either something you pay for, or you worked to earn. Even your social accounts take time and energy to build a following with.

Look at all the people who pay Google for advertising to promote their products and services, including ebay. Yet, Google promotes my content for free, they then pay me for it every month too. Again, I earned it.

Not a bad idea to advertise either, but advertising alone doesn't drive long term traffic; rather the production of informative, useful, and entertaining content does. This is part of the reason ebay struggled so badly to rank for so many years.

Making a sale isn't just a matter of driving traffic either, its a matter of building relationships with people. People are more likely to buy from those they know, like, and trust, regardless of price or what competitors have to offer.

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Shopify and eBay (or other marketplaces) are different scenarios, though - Shopify may be posting higher numbers, but it is not a marketplace.  That's all I was saying.