2021 inflation: Sales down due to shortages/prices going up. Anyone else?

[ridpatri]

End of 2018, 2019 was normal, end of 2020 was even great but nearing the end of 2021, views, sales/sold items are very slow. I sell on a daily to weekly basis but now its like every 2 to 3 weeks. I know a lot of folks are holding onto and saving their $$$ due to high holiday food prices and gas for travel. Has your eBay storefront been affected by the inflation??

[m_pthisandthat]

As stated in my reply to another post my sales are down over 80% and appear to be on a continued downward spiral. Things certainly do not look good or do they appear to be getting better. Worse yet I am not sure what is causing the drop in sales. Is it possible with All the category changes the customer is flustrated when trying to find their item and gives up and goes to another venue? Not really sure. 

[kensgiftshop]

I think we are in for a bumpy ride.

I have a feeling it's going to get a lot worse, before it gets any better.

[ridpatri]

I wonder if eBay has something to do with it. My friend who also sells says she's doing decent.

[ridpatri]

I have a feeling it also has to do with eBay.

[stainlessenginecovers]

What category does you 'friend' sell in? 

[m60driver]

In at least one of your categories, comics, Ebay has increased competition and many sellers have migrated to other platforms and taken buyers along with them.  Many collectibles and vintage categories have suffered from Ebay's  ill-advised reformatting of categories last month that has resulted in a more awkward search option for those who want to browse newly listed items in more specifically named categories.   So yes, many sellers in the various collectible categories have seen sales drop, sometime precipitously.

By the way, are you sure you want to list a $2K item???  Your sold items do not justify taking such a high risk.

[katzrul15]

It is odd - for 1-2 days, sales seem to get on track.  Then it hits a cliff for 5-7 days.  Rinse/repeat.

We will have 1-2 days where impressions shoot way up, views sky rocket, sales occur.

Just as quick, it goes back down, sales tank, etc.  Never had a November like this!

[allstar-comics]

They need to undo the changes from the last update  Put the categories back the way they were.    That is when sales immediately tanked.   It was not a gradual decline.  Stock down so maybe someone will listen.  Not going to hold my breath  Welcome to the "new normal"

[samanthasb0utique]

I really believe it depends on what category you sell in and if that category is hot or not. My sales are through the roof and have been since September. Sales are slow balling and getting greater by the day. This has been the best year I have ever had and I have been selling for about 10 years. I am in the luxury handbag business and my items range between $500-$7,000 a piece.

[katzrul15]

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@samanthasb0utique wrote:

I really believe it depends on what category you sell in and if that category is hot or not. My sales are through the roof and have been since September. Sales are slow balling and getting greater by the day. This has been the best year I have ever had and I have been selling for about 10 years. I am in the luxury handbag business and my items range between $500-$7,000 a piece.

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And luxury handbags is one of the items heavily promoted by e-Bay.  Congrats to you!

We sell in Toys and many other categories.....

Yes, it really does matter right now, which categories.

[southern*sweet*tea]

Of course it is. I don't sell necessities, I sell collectibles.  My sales are way down here, but frankly it's to be expected with the type of things I sell.  I did start selling on Hip earlier this year - I've had one sale in four months there, so it's not just here that it's happening.

As a buyer I'm probably buying 90% less than what I did even six months ago.  I'm holding on to my money to have for those silly and unnecessary expenses like  food, heat and electricity.

[chapeau-noir]

Retail sales are actually up.  The only 'bumpy ride' I see is eBay and even that is probably market dependent.

[luckythewinner]

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@ridpatri wrote:

End of 2018, 2019 was normal, end of 2020 was even great but nearing the end of 2021, views, sales/sold items are very slow. I sell on a daily to weekly basis but now its like every 2 to 3 weeks. I know a lot of folks are holding onto and saving their $$$ due to high holiday food prices and gas for travel. Has your eBay storefront been affected by the inflation??

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I have absolutely no way of pinpointing whether inflation is affecting my eBay business.

[yuzuha]

My sales are about normal. Twice in the past week and a half I've listed something and had it sell within 24 hours of putting it up, so I think it really does come down to what you're selling.