Yes, you should be concerned and should be cross-listing onto other sites as fast as possible.
There's a lot of folks around here who will insist nothing's wrong and will brush off the current state of eBay as completely normal despite people who are just starting to cross-list to Mercari/Poshmark suddenly having better sales with less active listings while accounts with thousands of listings on eBay are receiving repeated "no sales" days.
I am hoping the third quarter reports are so terrible that eBay is forced to change management because this site isn't going to survive at it's current rate. eBay is bowing it's head to Poshmark and Amazon and practically asking for them to take it.
Yes, here is what I did. I placed my store on "Time Away" on Aug 31st. HOWEVER, I allowed sales throughout the term. When saw the impressions disappear (along with my sales), I immediately ended Time Away. I did this 2-days ago and have not seen much activity yet.
I have used "Time Away" multiple times with allowed sales, and every time I did, I always got a few sales daily. This time, it appears that the "Allow Sales" function failed. I contacted eBay and the rep agreed this needed a ticket. I'll let you know how it goes 😉
@pls-consignments It would have been helpful if you had shared this context with us when you posted, as it is clearly a significant factor, without which, you simply turned this into a pointless guessing game.
WITH that context, yes, it sounds like there might have been a problem with Time Away's proper functioning.
Yes, here is what I did. I placed my store on "Time Away" on Aug 31st. HOWEVER, I allowed sales throughout the term. When saw the impressions disappear (along with my sales), I immediately ended Time Away. I did this 2-days ago and have not seen much activity yet.
I have used "Time Away" multiple times with allowed sales, and every time I did, I always got a few sales daily. This time, it appears that the "Allow Sales" function failed. I contacted eBay and the rep agreed this needed a ticket. I'll let you know how it goes 😉
@pls-consignments
I recently did the same thing on ca for 5 days. Left the option to purchase ship on return. During those 5 days there was basically zippo for traffic.
1. I'm guessing you ended a PLS campaign before going into the Holiday weekend?
2. Only you know whether you should be concerned or not. Personally, I would not be. For my store, I would expect impressions to plummet without PLS, and views and sales might decline as well. Labor Day weekend is usually not a "big" weekend for my kind of stuff, because people are enjoying the weekend, not shopping online so much. Which is why I ran a markdown sale and PLS over the weekend, and did manage to get a few sales. But basically, the combination of ending PLS and holiday weekend? I would expect that to put a drag on things.
3. I don't consider a few days to be a very reliable indicator of anything, since its the bigger picture that matters, not whether the first couple days of the month were bad or great. And that is especially true when dealing with long tail, single quantity listings, many of them very far out at the end of the long tail (as many of mine are).
Never look at short term data. Focus on, at a minimum, 60-day sales data and ignore views and impressions. I have many sales of items that have few views, sometimes no views before they sell. I do track my monthly average net profit margin.
It's mid Sept and this has been my absolute worst selling month so far. I've been selling for a year now and have many more listings and have an eBay store now but suddenly mid Aug and even more in September, my sales have just stopped. I went from selling 25-30 items per week to only 2-3 items. I've been adding lol stings but rarely have offers to send or offers sent to me , much less actually buying. My inventory is actually better than ever and I price super competitively so I've no idea what the problem all of a sudden is. Im
"In all seriousness though, you need to source/sell better items.
The stuff your trying to sell is not good, slow sell thru, low asp etc...
Focus on sourcing better quality items that people want & that sell for a better asp."
I expected that there would at least be one person who would advantageously attack my store items instead focusing on the anomaly. I've been doing this since 1998 and have sold over 25K collectible items....even things YOU would think have no sellable value. Yet, I average 3-5 sales every single day, which is all I expect to do with what I have. Personally, I will not criticize someone else's inventory since each seller has their own expectations.
It is slow sell through, it is by no means a necessity and sales are usually volatile.
Bringing it up seems appropriate to me.
Month to date at this time of the month is too soon to conclude there is a problem. There could be.
I can see signs of negative trends. More disturbed by my drop in average sale than I am in number of sales. Drop in average sale means Ebay and USPS take a larger percentage of my revenues. It also means that things are unlikely to be improve without an improvement in the economy.
Many small business people know that the numbers the government provides no longer tell us the health of working families and small businesses.
All I did was point out the fact that the items your trying to sell have a very slow sell thru, low average sell price & are NOT in crazy demand.
Do you have an issue with other criticizing you? Because I don't and regardless of expectation, I prefer when people that are doing better than me criticize me/my store so that way I have another angle to look at, without getting upset or angry, and can get better in the long run. Yes every seller has different expectations but that doesn't mean we can't try and help you by criticizing you and pointing out possible issues with your store that could be leading to slower sales. I'm sorry if you can't take criticism but it's not a bad thing and is nothing that you should get upset or angry about. Take it, look at it and maybe sometimes the person that is criticizing you is right and you may benefit from what they said. Getting upset and angry about it is just plain childish.
Not to mention you left out a key component to why your traffic went down in the first place which was using the "time away" feature.
I don't know why your getting upset when you even said yourself that "Yet, I average 3-5 sales every single day, which is all I expect to do with what I have." So you're expecting more when you go on vacation/time away and cannot fulfill orders as you normally would? The amount of time you've been selling things on a website has nothing to do with anything, just because you've been on eBay since 1998 doesn't mean or say anything. It's like saying, "I've been cleaning floors with a mop and bucket for 25 years and have way more experience than you".
Whoa....easy big fella! Who said anything about attacking ME? I certainly didn't. If you did, the tone of my response would have been different. I said you "attacked my store items". I was hoping that you would address the elephant in the room than look for an opportunity to critique my store. Whether I'm selling Gucci bags or sidewalk gum, the traffic chart would still look the same.
This discussion has gotten a bit heated and off topic. Please remember that, while it is fine to disagree with others, discussion should always remain friendly and respectful as required by the Community Guidelines.
Please bring the discussion back to the subject established in the OP.
No, it looks like someone went on vacation and came back late yesterday. Store must have been put on time away mode before they left and turned back on last night.
I'm not seeing what there is to be concerned about. Most people spend Labor Day weekend having one last hurrah before the summer ends, not sitting around inside shopping online.
September 3rd. I had a run on vintage 1930s replacement headlight lenses. I probably didn't ask enough but I asked plenty and sold them and that's what matters.
We are only 5 days into September so what would be your concern? Only you can answer your own question based on you extensive experience selling on eBay. Every seller has their own gauge. I seldom look at any of the metrics my only focus is actual sales and as you should know by now those go up and down all the time.
aldelbertmatthew
·2 years agoYes, you should be concerned and should be cross-listing onto other sites as fast as possible.
There's a lot of folks around here who will insist nothing's wrong and will brush off the current state of eBay as completely normal despite people who are just starting to cross-list to Mercari/Poshmark suddenly having better sales with less active listings while accounts with thousands of listings on eBay are receiving repeated "no sales" days.
I am hoping the third quarter reports are so terrible that eBay is forced to change management because this site isn't going to survive at it's current rate. eBay is bowing it's head to Poshmark and Amazon and practically asking for them to take it.
jarrot
·2 years agoThis place is dead in the water no sales fees and more fees and is more we have you money is you need it faster is a noder 1.5 %
anjofak
·2 years agoI wonder how much it would cost to hire a flash mob to stand around ebay watching through the windows...hmm
herway
·2 years ago🤣🤣🤣
that would be fun to watch...
whattheactualfox
·2 years agoNope because sales fluctuate all the time
robbie31415
·2 years agoThis thread just feels like I should put my store on Time Away and continue to post here claiming I've been shadow banned.
Misleading, and intentional withholding of crucial information to paint a false narrative.
pls-consignments
OP2 years agoYes, here is what I did. I placed my store on "Time Away" on Aug 31st. HOWEVER, I allowed sales throughout the term. When saw the impressions disappear (along with my sales), I immediately ended Time Away. I did this 2-days ago and have not seen much activity yet.
I have used "Time Away" multiple times with allowed sales, and every time I did, I always got a few sales daily. This time, it appears that the "Allow Sales" function failed. I contacted eBay and the rep agreed this needed a ticket. I'll let you know how it goes 😉
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·2 years ago@pls-consignments It would have been helpful if you had shared this context with us when you posted, as it is clearly a significant factor, without which, you simply turned this into a pointless guessing game.
WITH that context, yes, it sounds like there might have been a problem with Time Away's proper functioning.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·2 years ago@pls-consignments
I recently did the same thing on ca for 5 days. Left the option to purchase ship on return. During those 5 days there was basically zippo for traffic.
-Lotz
theteamsetguy
·2 years ago@pls-consignments ,
Just like I suspected.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·2 years ago1. I'm guessing you ended a PLS campaign before going into the Holiday weekend?
2. Only you know whether you should be concerned or not. Personally, I would not be. For my store, I would expect impressions to plummet without PLS, and views and sales might decline as well. Labor Day weekend is usually not a "big" weekend for my kind of stuff, because people are enjoying the weekend, not shopping online so much. Which is why I ran a markdown sale and PLS over the weekend, and did manage to get a few sales. But basically, the combination of ending PLS and holiday weekend? I would expect that to put a drag on things.
3. I don't consider a few days to be a very reliable indicator of anything, since its the bigger picture that matters, not whether the first couple days of the month were bad or great. And that is especially true when dealing with long tail, single quantity listings, many of them very far out at the end of the long tail (as many of mine are).
m60driver
·2 years agoNever look at short term data. Focus on, at a minimum, 60-day sales data and ignore views and impressions. I have many sales of items that have few views, sometimes no views before they sell. I do track my monthly average net profit margin.
isaiah53-57
·2 years agoLooks like its your turn...
tsme35
·2 years agoLooks like my sales, down 60% for September, I usually do good on holidays
jwsa-45
·2 years agoIt's mid Sept and this has been my absolute worst selling month so far. I've been selling for a year now and have many more listings and have an eBay store now but suddenly mid Aug and even more in September, my sales have just stopped. I went from selling 25-30 items per week to only 2-3 items. I've been adding lol stings but rarely have offers to send or offers sent to me , much less actually buying. My inventory is actually better than ever and I price super competitively so I've no idea what the problem all of a sudden is. Im
laststopgeneralstore
·2 years agoIt's off center in my honest opinion.
In all seriousness though, you need to source/sell better items.
The stuff your trying to sell is not good, slow sell thru, low asp etc...
Focus on sourcing better quality items that people want & that sell for a better asp.
pls-consignments
OP2 years ago"In all seriousness though, you need to source/sell better items.
The stuff your trying to sell is not good, slow sell thru, low asp etc...
Focus on sourcing better quality items that people want & that sell for a better asp."
I expected that there would at least be one person who would advantageously attack my store items instead focusing on the anomaly. I've been doing this since 1998 and have sold over 25K collectible items....even things YOU would think have no sellable value. Yet, I average 3-5 sales every single day, which is all I expect to do with what I have. Personally, I will not criticize someone else's inventory since each seller has their own expectations.
Have a great day 😉
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoYour inventory has some similarity to mine.
It is slow sell through, it is by no means a necessity and sales are usually volatile.
Bringing it up seems appropriate to me.
Month to date at this time of the month is too soon to conclude there is a problem. There could be.
I can see signs of negative trends. More disturbed by my drop in average sale than I am in number of sales. Drop in average sale means Ebay and USPS take a larger percentage of my revenues. It also means that things are unlikely to be improve without an improvement in the economy.
Many small business people know that the numbers the government provides no longer tell us the health of working families and small businesses.
laststopgeneralstore
·2 years agoAttack? How exactly did I attack you?
All I did was point out the fact that the items your trying to sell have a very slow sell thru, low average sell price & are NOT in crazy demand.
Do you have an issue with other criticizing you? Because I don't and regardless of expectation, I prefer when people that are doing better than me criticize me/my store so that way I have another angle to look at, without getting upset or angry, and can get better in the long run. Yes every seller has different expectations but that doesn't mean we can't try and help you by criticizing you and pointing out possible issues with your store that could be leading to slower sales. I'm sorry if you can't take criticism but it's not a bad thing and is nothing that you should get upset or angry about. Take it, look at it and maybe sometimes the person that is criticizing you is right and you may benefit from what they said. Getting upset and angry about it is just plain childish.
Not to mention you left out a key component to why your traffic went down in the first place which was using the "time away" feature.
I don't know why your getting upset when you even said yourself that "Yet, I average 3-5 sales every single day, which is all I expect to do with what I have." So you're expecting more when you go on vacation/time away and cannot fulfill orders as you normally would? The amount of time you've been selling things on a website has nothing to do with anything, just because you've been on eBay since 1998 doesn't mean or say anything. It's like saying, "I've been cleaning floors with a mop and bucket for 25 years and have way more experience than you".
Good Luck, Have a good day friend.
pls-consignments
OP2 years agoWhoa....easy big fella! Who said anything about attacking ME? I certainly didn't. If you did, the tone of my response would have been different. I said you "attacked my store items". I was hoping that you would address the elephant in the room than look for an opportunity to critique my store. Whether I'm selling Gucci bags or sidewalk gum, the traffic chart would still look the same.
kh-gary
·2 years agoHi everyone,
This discussion has gotten a bit heated and off topic. Please remember that, while it is fine to disagree with others, discussion should always remain friendly and respectful as required by the Community Guidelines.
Please bring the discussion back to the subject established in the OP.
Thank you for your cooperation.
johnrj1226
·2 years agoDo what this guy does (did) -
theteamsetguy
·2 years ago@pls-consignments ,
No, it looks like someone went on vacation and came back late yesterday. Store must have been put on time away mode before they left and turned back on last night.
Looks good to me.
yuzuha
·2 years agoI'm not seeing what there is to be concerned about. Most people spend Labor Day weekend having one last hurrah before the summer ends, not sitting around inside shopping online.
baantiques
·2 years agoI had my best sales day in 7 years on Sunday.
safan80
·2 years agobaantiques
·2 years agoSeptember 3rd. I had a run on vintage 1930s replacement headlight lenses. I probably didn't ask enough but I asked plenty and sold them and that's what matters.
dryophelia
·2 years agoWhat's wrong with this picture?
Is it the font, @pls-consignments
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoWe are only 5 days into September so what would be your concern? Only you can answer your own question based on you extensive experience selling on eBay. Every seller has their own gauge. I seldom look at any of the metrics my only focus is actual sales and as you should know by now those go up and down all the time.
pls-consignments
OP2 years agoAre we looking at the same thing??