results of a sale
I was disappointed that August was turning into a bust, not the surge in book sales like in the past. I tried doing some systematic repricing but I got so bogged down that I put it all on sale at 10% off, not expecting much. Turns out it has been a pretty good generator of sales, an uptick from what I was getting. I did a second sale after getting more listed. Some of my pricier books are selling. I am surprised because in the past running a sale didn't amount to much. Somewhat more are just selling, not getting offers first.
Just sharing a little good news for once.
23 comments
12345jamesstamps
·11 months agoYour one of the better sellers who actually know how to write a 'title' without putting in words like old, vintage, great, incredible and so on.
So many sellers just don't know how to write a title.
Just thought I let you know.
I thought about the 10 % or so off but decided to go with 'Free International Shipping' in my titles on selected items.
onefootflipper
·11 months agoKnowing how to write a title doesn't help much when you are trying to sell a book that other sellers have for under $5 shipped and you want $14.50.
I have looked at Keziak's store many times and that is their major problem. They aren't off by 10 percent or 20 percent but are often off by factors or 3 or more.
They seem to get some great sales though. I don't know if all the bad prices I am looking at are old listings and they are selling all the newer stuff they list or if they guess all their prices and only the ones they guess correctly ever sell.
They have $1800 on a rifle repair book that the competition has $300 on and Terapeak says has never brought more than $367.
They have $162 on a textbook that has sold one copy in the last 5 years and that was under $10 shipped.
If Keziak really wants to move the old stuff then they need to reprice everything or drop everything 20 percent per month until it is all gone, discarding anything that drops below $2.99 plus shipping. I usually suggest only a 5 or 10 percent drop per month but when you have items that are off by 600 percent then the drops need to be more dramatic.
Yes, I am a horrible evil person for pointing this out and wanting Keziak to succeed.
12345jamesstamps
·11 months agoIt was just a general statement as a seller one who knows how to write a 'title'...had nothing to do with 10% off and such by the way.
It is nice to see sometimes someone who does a post or responds to a post on what they sell and such...as to their expertise as oppose to 'clip and paste' the laws of eBay😎
keziak
OP11 months agoI don't think you are horrible, I hope I can take well-meaning advice though to be honest I'm not su re what to do with it. When I list I do research prices (I don't guess) but I'll be danged if I can figure out repricing. It's so much easier on Amazon because it shows current prices per condition.
Right now I am trying the sale and also doing a lot with offers. I will work on researching prices for the older stuff on a continual basis and probably weed out a fair number of books for price collapse.
onefootflipper
·11 months agoKeziak, any sort of regular price drop system will usually, eventually fix all pricing problems. You eventually end up with a competitive price or it eventually drops to the point where you remove the items.
A regular price drop system is even more critical in books and media because those are both in decline markets where the average sale price just goes down every year.
Media in general is also very susceptible to rather fast and permanent price collapse of individual items. A tiny downtick in demand for the item can send the price plummeting to the point where only the charity media sellers can afford to ship it out. I don't think I have ever seen any title climb back out of that hole.
A lot of my book and media research has also shown me that most buyers are not condition sensitive collectors, at least not with low end stuff. If you study solds on most cheaper books you will see that the solds mostly hover around the current cheapest copy on the site, with few paying up for a mint or new copy.
keziak
OP11 months agoI think t here is a question about what is "low end stuff" in books. For many books the lowest condition copies are very low but not the better condition copies and lots of them sell for more. I've made the choice and plan to stick to it to not price my books at the lowest price for any condition. I suppose I would say my strategy is to list enough to kick out the volume and income I want without worrying about selling every last copy over the course of about a year. Using the sale seems to be helping with that. Offers are also important. I will make deals but not sell at very gutted prices.
onefootflipper
·11 months agoAh, I guess we look at it differently. I never want to price anything up in a declining market. What can happen is that the price will keep degrading and now that near mint copy is worth less than what a low grade one was when you originally listed the book.
keziak
OP11 months agoyes, the race to the bottom is definitely a phenomenon but not for every book. Or, I would hazard, anything on the site.
Ideally I would make sure that every book I have at all times is priced in line with current copies at the given condition. But I can't think how to do that without a massive investment in time combing back through everything all the time.
chapeau-noir
·11 months agoI've never had luck with coupons, and I've tried them on three different sites over pretty good periods of time. Maybe it's what I sell? I have repeat customers so not sure what the deal is.
Totally worth trying, though, because results vary.
tobaccocardyahoo
·11 months agoI ran several 10% off sales this month and have gotten better results than are typical for my sales.
There is one category which all of my listings are on sale on at 10% off which only gets orders when there is a sale. And that category is on sale every month.
Buyer psychology is a pseudo-science, kind of like any form of psychology.
meme6253
·11 months agoGreat to hear that worked for you this time around!, It's weird how things go sometimes, It's just like something sits & then you raise the price instead of lowering it & it sells, You just never know.
vintage-camerastuff
·11 months agoI do a 10% off sale on a monthly basis. Always helps boost sales. Some months good and some great but always get an extra increase. keep trying new things. You never know what will work until you try.
natoman777
·11 months agoSo last year I started doing 15% coupon on all my items up to $50. It has increased my sales quite a bit. I run it for 2 weeks and then pretty much that day do a new one. A few times I have forgot the old coupon went up for a day. I wonder why my sales have slowed down and every time it is because the coupon ended. I still give out offers also. Hope your sales continue to pick up!
keziak
OP11 months agoI haven't tried using coupons. Is it basically just a different way to offer the same discount or are there features of it that I am not aware of?
mamacassidy
·11 months agoI edited this post. I went back through creating coupons on the seller hub and answered my own question 🙂
keziak
OP11 months agoI actually thought that was the point of a coupon, not to give it out to everyone because that seems like a sale to me.
I don't know though.
jonathanbrightlight
·11 months agoIt can be done either way.
I would also think it made more sense for a coupon to be private and just to use a sale event for public discounts, but perhaps there's some psychology to some customers preferring a coupon to a sale?
keziak
OP11 months agoIsn't it an extra step to have to copy/paste the coupon code into the order versus the sale simply being a smaller price?
not sure.
powell-collectibles
·11 months agoPublic coupons should show up automatically if the purchase qualifies for it. I almost always have a coupon running – it is a coupon for a certain percentage off for a certain number of items or more. Probably 20% of my orders – maybe a little bit less – qualify, and I’ve never seen an order go through that didn’t have the discount app applied.
natoman777
·11 months ago@keziak So I used to do store sales. What happened with that is that if I lowered prices, tweaked things, when the sale was over my entire inventory was messed up price wise. A public coupon is automatically added to the order when someone buys it. It is a very easy process and for me it has been the best option. I do NOT do promoted listings.
soh.maryl
·11 months agoGood for you! Hope this trend continues on into the future for you!
1786davycrockett
·11 months ago@keziak
Glad that that's working for you!