Has anyone else had a slowdown in people purchasing items? Is it because of tax time?
Just curious. It been like 2 weeks since I’ve had anyone purchase anything
20 comments
Just curious. It been like 2 weeks since I’ve had anyone purchase anything
ourfinefinds
·2 years agoMy sales have steadily declined to the point I have considered closing my store. With all the discounts I must give to make a sale and all the fees I am not making enough anymore to keep the business going. We have been on ebay over 20 years but the throttling of sales by AI and the constant problem buyers that ebay will do nothing about makes it virtually impossible to have a profit making business. There are also the many glitches I notice in ebay software that they never fix.
Sales in the past couple days have been terrible and it is like we are not even being seen anymore. Rant over.
reallynicestamps
·2 years agoHow do your sales in March/April 2024 compare with 2023? 2022? 2019? (We skip the pandemic buying surge of 2020 and 2021 as outliers.)
There are ebbs and flows in retail that can be seen on an annual basis that cannot be determined on a weekly basis.
annabelles-attic
·2 years agoI haven’t sold in a long time here. My spouse had put a few things up on here and no lie some took a year or more to sell. Still has a few things up here. Must be going on two years now. Anyhow I decided to start selling again on here. And boy did I notice a difference. I have been on EBay since 1999 so I am kinda surprised. Some of my listings no one looks at them. So I’m really surprised as they are name brand items and I don’t think I am way out of price range. Seems like nothing is moving. I must have just came into it again at a bad time. I don’t know. Economy? Inflation? I know it’s killing everyone with prices just at the grocery stores. So.
mam98031
·2 years ago@annabelles-attic
Not everything has a market / interested buyers. But you have some really cute stuff.
I would suggest using the ISBs [item specific boxes] more. The search engine on Ebay also searches those boxes, so it can help how many people actually see your items.
I would also suggest that you spend a little more time with your Descriptions and add more information. For example on that tote bag listing. No where do you state the size of the tote and that is an important piece of info for buyers. Also other listings it may be helpful to include measurements.
I would suggest not putting your handling time in your description area, because if you have a need to change it for any reason, you have to update all your listings one by one. There is a specific field for handling time on the shipping page, so buyers will see it.
This is a statement you should take out of the description of listings that you have inserted it "I am sorry I do not do returns and I do not do discounts after one receives their item." Again, a return policy has it's own field on the shipping page. Besides make sure you understand what a No Return Policy actually means. It does mean you can refuse to take a return on something that a buyer files a claim for, but if it is a Not as Described or damaged item, you can not refuse to refund them. If you do, the buyer can ask Ebay to step in and they will force the refund.
The only type of Return Request you can actually deny if you want to is a properly filed Buyer's Remorse Claim.
I wish you the best of luck in your sales.
timerovertreasures
·2 years agoSo I just had a buyer message me saying they had a product in their cart and could not remove it at all. They apologized to me because that wasn't item they wanted and I guess they were worried it would be unavailable to others since they couldn't remove it. I told them not to worry and that they hadn't purchased it. Said it has literally taken them hours of trying to fix it and nothing is working. Something is definitely not right and it is impacting the website and shopping cart.
I got a very vague response from askebay on Twitter when I brought up the subject of buyer disruption.
I'd say not being able to add an item to your watch list is kind of a big deal which does result in issues with sales.
mam98031
·2 years ago@timerovertreasures
Your post starts about one problem and ends talking about a totally different one. Are you having both issues or was it a typo?
rockyroadtradingpost
·2 years agoWhat a nice buyer!
gloryglorygifts
·2 years agoCan't say that I have.
lux.ra_14
·2 years agoThe real reason sales are slow: Unknown and unknowable.
Most "reasons" are just speculation based on the natural desire to assign causality.
Tax time? Probably not. According to CNBC, 75 percent of tax filers expect a refund this year. And 27 percent of those people expect their refund to be bigger than last year. If tax season was a relevant gauge, sales should be up instead.
mam98031
·2 years agoYou can dismiss all the posts if you like, it does not mean that nay of us are wrong. It only means you don't believe anything anyone has said.
From experience [over 25 years of active selling] tells me that Late December, January and most of February are my hottest months for sales. Summer time is really slow, August usually being my worst month of the year for sales. From March until late April, sales are slow, likely due to many concentrating on getting their taxes done. They don't start shopping again until they are comfortable about whatever their tax situation is for the year.
For me that has held true almost every one of those 25 years with the exception of the Pandemic years when my sales were fantastic year round.
Often times how sales stack up for any given seller is going to be dramatically different from category to category. They certainly are not the same across the board. That would make no sense at all. There are lots of variables.
Oh one other thing I've noticed. When we are in a presidential election year, that will typically affect sales the closer we get to November. The uncertainty of it all can be very stressful for some and make them want to hang onto their money until they have a better feel of what the future has in store.
luckythewinner
·2 years agoMy sales across my six selling accounts have been picking up since the beginning of the year.
mam98031
·2 years agoI historically always have a slow down in sales from about mid March to late April. Once people figure out what their tax impact is to them, then they are more comfortable to get out and spend money.
But there is something else significant going on this year that will affect sales. The Presidential election. Historically in an election year people like to hang onto their money as much as possible because of the uncertainty the election brings. Once we know who the President will be, things will typically calm down. This year is like no other with everything going on. So the closer we get to the election, the slower sales is likely to get.
toytrekker
·2 years agoVery very poor sales. However February and March were all time record high. But this is unreal how slow it is.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoThis is a daily complaint for the last 15-20 years I've been here - sales are always up and down. Pick your 'reason' according to one's own personal beliefs, but it doesn't matter. It's a big world and there are always 'reasons'.
We can look at what we're selling and see if there are any changes we can make, though. You, like myself, sell in incredibly over-crowded categories so it's not easy at the best of times.
@pls-consignments I only have a few things straggling along right now (going through reflooring of our ground floor and I can't get anywhere) but my sales sometimes look like yours - just wild!
pls-consignments
·2 years agoWe are one week in with the Buyer Service Disruption WITHOUT an update. Go figure. My sales have been all over the place. Perhaps you've experienced something similar
For example, I had 2-sales on Mon, 12-sales on Tues (10 of which occurred between 4:00-8:00pm PDT) and only sale today. Figure that one out.
auctiondibs
·2 years agoSomeone mentioned that there is a "Buying Service Disruption" issue right now with eBay. My very last sale was April 12th, but I was able to buy from someone else here today. Go figure.
Here are the eBay status links where eBay stated that there is a "Buying Service Disruption" issue since April 10th.
https://www.ebay.com/sts
https://www.ebay.com/sts/updates/2
gurlzroc
·2 years agoI don't usually post but I haven't had any sales since April 10th.Hmmm.
timerovertreasures
·2 years agobrightlightbookseller
·2 years agoAgreed, it'd be nice to have some detail. Right now we have no idea how much if any impact this is having on our particular sales unless potential customers reach out with an issue, which they haven't.
john_wade
·2 years agoThe economy combined with jitters about the Middle East combined with paying taxes. I'm surprised it isn't worse. I pray for a good solution to problems for myself and others that are hurting. Very few sellers on the internet are not affected. I had a good March but April has not been good so far.