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Has anyone noticed an increase/decline in their sales during covid or has things been "normal"?
I am just curious how sellers are doing during the pandemic. I know since the pandemic started and scalpers were taking advantage of the situation selling toilet paper and sanitation wipes that household essentials sales have seen an increase, but I think with stores restocking that those sales are seeing a drop, just an observation is all. Anyway, my question is for those who sell other products besides thing you can find in the bathroom aisle.
I sell video gams/hobby stuff, though I don't do that much because I am not sure if people are online shopping around this time. Any thoughts?
4 comments
kh-cathy
·1 year agoHi everyone,
Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.
Thank you for understanding.
bamacollabs
·1 year agoI can give some input from a seller's perspective who took a hiatus during the pandemic and came back and started again within the last year.
I used the same formula I used pre pandemic (that was wildly successful for me) and applied it to my current pricing. I found the items that Im selling we're not getting even 1/4 of the views as I use to get per item. So I started here and tried to figure it out. Here are the results that I found. Again this would be anecdotal but I fail to believe that I'm personally being persecuted by eBay where no one else is lol. So anecdotal is fac... Well take it as what you will.
I found that in certain categories unpromoted items are being purposefully nerfed and not shown in a fair manner. Meaning that if 55% of people in this category promoted their items then fine let those 55% be higher than mine and the same item for the same category. That's not the case though because Ive messaged other sellers and found out the views they were getting for the same item and if they used promoted or not and overwhelming the promoted items were shown not only ahead but often times unpromoted items weren't even in the same search query. Now this would make sense if I made my own item for the first time but if I'm literally clicking on an existing item and using those exact same parameters for what I'm selling then I can't really make a mistake that would cause me to go down and not be listed in the same search query as the person who used the same already pre-done eBay item with only difference being promoted. I have also used my secondary and tertiary account to try to find my items listed and in some cases they were not listed in the same search query. However, when I promoted it, I did see it in the search query by my second and tertiary accounts. The only difference was I promoted.
In addition, things like sneakers and designer, handbags and designer clothes have not only not stayed the same high percentage profit, but they've actually dramatically decreased because of the bubble that burst in that industry.
So if you keep your pricing even remotely what you had it during covid, never mind all the inflation that's happened for every other thing in your life and everybody else's. You're going to not be able to sell your same items that you sold then because it'll be overpriced. This is a happening because yes, the market did collapse in certain areas but also people don't know the fees are being charged. They don't know how much it's going to be charged so they're listing their pricing so cheap. Not counting the fees that are being charged which brings a usually solid CAPITALIST business owner who is experienced and usually would no fold but he's selling less like u and me and has bills so now his pricing goes down because he needs money. Now 75% of the sellers holding said item price just drops down on that item setting a new price.
Now on top of that, If in my same industry choose bags and fat designer clothes, I use the recommended 10% increase for promoted items added to the additional sales tax added to the additional shipping charge and you add the 15% on top of that, then you add the additional 11% using those same numbers. I'm paying around 40% for an item that I used to could sell faster for 15%.
So unless you Have a firm grasp on math with the added ability to be able to raid through horse**bleep** and fluff and convoluted lists of pricing where you can't find anything on one page, it's on multiple pages. It's never like a balance sheet. Show me a balance sheet. They don't do that multiple different ways. They show how the fees are charged and how much money you're getting in different ways on different pages so it's hard for most to figure the total % they are being charged. It's smoke and mirrors know c until they see it. They'll never believe that they've got a 40% charge if they use the promoted option. And don't have automated bots coming here and tell me how wrong I am when it's a clear mathematical fact of how much I'm getting paid and it is 38 point something percent. On the last several items that I've sold using 10% promoted that was recommended to me and every example I see when they talk about the taxes being charged, percentage on uses a very low percentage and uses a very low number when factoring everything in. It's using 8% listing fee and using a low $50 item but in my industry where I'm selling something at $155 at 13% plus the 10% plus the shipping plus the percentage of the total expense it comes out to 38%.
And to add insult to injury salt to the wound. Whatever you want to say they have a lifting that if I sell an item in this category which is sneakers for under 150 it's 13% i believe but if I sell it for over $150, it's only 8%, well that's awesome 5% difference is cool . Well hold up so fast. It's not really the same because you may have priced your item so that after the total amount charged to buyer is over $150. And yes, that's the way they charge their fees. But guess what? That ain't how it works. That 8% only counts if you charged for over $150 in the listing, not with all fees applicable. Which one would think would be the case because that's how you are charged.
In conclusion, in normal businesses, one sees all this and adds up all these extra fees and costs and simply adds them to cost of goods sold. Well you can't do this in a scenario and be able to sell sell the item. Thus why you are seeing a slowdown in items sold since the pandemic.
And I think they were very wise in the way that they chose certain categories most profitable ones to have be affected and not other categories because now you have other categories who are doing better that they were PreCovid leaping to the defense of eBay. Additionally, the use of bots to also help offset the negative comments means that there are a lot more condescending remarks to your question, things like oh you didn't know how much was going to be charged. What an idiot You are. Anyone who's leaping to the defense of eBay now is because they either are a bot or don't understand that they're doing better now than they were before covid because they've increased wildly the number of customers and you naturally have increased the amount of followers that you have because time equals more followers which equals more people seeing your items. So naturally you're supposed to be selling more but I guarantee you your percentages are nowhere near as good as they were and I guarantee you that if you are selling the same amount now back then you'd be making 15% more money easily
katzrul15
·5 years ago3rd quarter 2020 was better for us than 4th quarter total sales. Not certain if because people bought Christmas early or if they scaled back for the holidays. Jan stayed steady, Feb was up and March was best we had all year. April is way down. 1st 6 days were dismal. Has started coming back, but as others have said, Wants vs Needs.....most probably do not think another stimulus check would happen again in 2021.
We have quarterlys due soon, then May 15th Uncle Sam and Spring installment Property Tax is due by the end of this month. If folks are like us, not a lot of extra this time of year.
Listed a bunch today and revised several also. Time to get the beach gear listed!
bamacollabs
·1 year agoI can give some input from a seller's perspective who took a hiatus during the pandemic and came back and started again within the last year.
I used the same formula I used pre pandemic (that was wildly successful for me) and applied it to my current pricing. I found the items that Im selling we're not getting even 1/4 of the views as I use to get per item. So I started here and tried to figure it out. Here are the results that I found. Again this would be anecdotal but I fail to believe that I'm personally being persecuted by eBay where no one else is lol. So anecdotal is fac... Well take it as what you will.
I found that in certain categories unpromoted items are being purposefully nerfed and not shown in a fair manner. Meaning that if 55% of people in this category promoted their items then fine let those 55% be higher than mine and the same item for the same category. That's not the case though because Ive messaged other sellers and found out the views they were getting for the same item and if they used promoted or not and overwhelming the promoted items were shown not only ahead but often times unpromoted items weren't even in the same search query. Now this would make sense if I made my own item for the first time but if I'm literally clicking on an existing item and using those exact same parameters for what I'm selling then I can't really make a mistake that would cause me to go down and not be listed in the same search query as the person who used the same already pre-done eBay item with only difference being promoted. I have also used my secondary and tertiary account to try to find my items listed and in some cases they were not listed in the same search query. However, when I promoted it, I did see it in the search query by my second and tertiary accounts. The only difference was I promoted.
In addition, things like sneakers and designer, handbags and designer clothes have not only not stayed the same high percentage profit, but they've actually dramatically decreased because of the bubble that burst in that industry.
So if you keep your pricing even remotely what you had it during covid, never mind all the inflation that's happened for every other thing in your life and everybody else's. You're going to not be able to sell your same items that you sold then because it'll be overpriced. This is a happening because yes, the market did collapse in certain areas but also people don't know the fees are being charged. They don't know how much it's going to be charged so they're listing their pricing so cheap. Not counting the fees that are being charged which brings a usually solid CAPITALIST business owner who is experienced and usually would no fold but he's selling less like u and me and has bills so now his pricing goes down because he needs money. Now 75% of the sellers holding said item price just drops down on that item setting a new price.
Now on top of that, If in my same industry choose bags and fat designer clothes, I use the recommended 10% increase for promoted items added to the additional sales tax added to the additional shipping charge and you add the 15% on top of that, then you add the additional 11% using those same numbers. I'm paying around 40% for an item that I used to could sell faster for 15%.
So unless you Have a firm grasp on math with the added ability to be able to raid through horse**bleep** and fluff and convoluted lists of pricing where you can't find anything on one page, it's on multiple pages. It's never like a balance sheet. Show me a balance sheet. They don't do that multiple different ways. They show how the fees are charged and how much money you're getting in different ways on different pages so it's hard for most to figure the total % they are being charged. It's smoke and mirrors know c until they see it. They'll never believe that they've got a 40% charge if they use the promoted option. And don't have automated bots coming here and tell me how wrong I am when it's a clear mathematical fact of how much I'm getting paid and it is 38 point something percent. On the last several items that I've sold using 10% promoted that was recommended to me and every example I see when they talk about the taxes being charged, percentage on uses a very low percentage and uses a very low number when factoring everything in. It's using 8% listing fee and using a low $50 item but in my industry where I'm selling something at $155 at 13% plus the 10% plus the shipping plus the percentage of the total expense it comes out to 38%.
And to add insult to injury salt to the wound. Whatever you want to say they have a lifting that if I sell an item in this category which is sneakers for under 150 it's 13% i believe but if I sell it for over $150, it's only 8%, well that's awesome 5% difference is cool . Well hold up so fast. It's not really the same because you may have priced your item so that after the total amount charged to buyer is over $150. And yes, that's the way they charge their fees. But guess what? That ain't how it works. That 8% only counts if you charged for over $150 in the listing, not with all fees applicable. Which one would think would be the case because that's how you are charged.
In conclusion, in normal businesses, one sees all this and adds up all these extra fees and costs and simply adds them to cost of goods sold. Well you can't do this in a scenario and be able to sell sell the item. Thus why you are seeing a slowdown in items sold since the pandemic.
All this together should be considered predatory