An Abrupt and Complete Stop in Sales: Why? What's Going On?

[getitright1234]

An Abrupt and Complete Stop in Sales: Why? What's Going On?

The baby needs formula!

The light bill needs to be paid!

The mortgage needs to be paid!

The cupboards are getting bear!

..........................................................I do not have time for these abrupt and complete stop in sales.   Sheesh!

PS:  I am not referring to this acct. 

[sin-n-dex]

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@turquoisetulips wrote:

That's terrible . However I'm afraid if they ever succeed in raising the minimum wage  to 15 to 20 dollars an hour  then more employees will be totally let go  and the ones allowed to stay will be doing twice the work.  Tulips 

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This is true, and it really will happen.

In my office building we have a cafeteria. When I started working in this office three years ago, there were five people working in the cafeteria, and frequently one would be on holidays. The minimum wage WAS $10.25 in Ontario.

Then Wynn, our premier raised it to $14 (I think it was somewhere in between for a while), and now our cafeteria has three employees, and during the summer there's just two. I'm friendly with one of the ladies who works there because she makes me a breakfast sandwich every morning and she told me since the minimum wage increase her employer is demanding she turn into superwoman.

I don't know if you have this in the USA (it depends how serious your shoplifting problem is in larger stores), but here in Canada you'll have one or two cashiers checking in items, and at a place like Walmart, there's 14 kiosks for you to check in your own groceries and pay for them yourself, with two people supervising. So a lot of people lost their jobs and were replaced by a machine.

Cheers, C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@618unicorns wrote:

I do have some listings that still have watchers but I have noticed some watchers gone on an item that has had a watcher for 2 weeks and I sent offers to every one.  Nothing.  Not one sale has been generated from any watcher in the last week.  Very very odd.  It's almost like the watchers are not receiving my offers?  Usually 70% of the time I would get a sale from my offer or counteroffer.  Nothing for a week??  Something is wrong because by all the comments from others, they have the same issue.  

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Buyers can set up their accounts NOT to receive offers.  So you may be right, your potential buyers may not have seen your offer.  

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Does that make the offer go into cyberspace, or does it mean you don't have the ability to send the offer?

I have watchers show up that I can't send offers to in the beginning, so I'm thinking if you're set up to not receive them I can't even send them to you.

Cheers, C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@uncseniorsportsfan wrote:

My guess is that there was another change in the search algorithms in early July as there was in March.   eBay is desparate to increase revenue so promoted listings have become even more important to their bottom line.  Since Wall Street has not punished the stock for the decline in GMV - sales are less important than maximizing the fees attached to those sales.  

The unfortunate thing is that sellers desparate for sales have bought into paying an extra FVF for promoted listings which shows eBay they are on the right track and encourages them to look for more revenue grabs.   

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I don't think it's "desperate for sales" so much as "desperate not to be here losing money".

When I did the promoted listings in June, in a 30 day period where I get 200K impressions I suddenly got 1.4 million impressions. An increase in sales followed. Not all items are sold from promoted listings, sometimes they buy one token and then look at what else is in the store.

The promoted listings only account for part of the upswing, the other part is sending out several offers a day and having a handful of them buy the item.

Cheers, C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@gamersbaystore wrote:

Inflation is out of control! My mother's $5,000 a month pension check is no longer enough for her to cut the bills. She's planning to get rid of her home and downsize to an apartment because she can no longer afford it. She ended up owing hundreds more on her taxes this year too because of the GOP's garbage tax plan.

Yet, the average American doesn't make anything even close to $5K a month. People are broke, that's why they aren't buying.

Look at the costs of essential goods and services, they have skyrocketed over the last year.

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Canadians would love a 5K monthly pension cheque... My dad retired and got $1700 a month from the federal government between Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security. (Pension plan is based on your income over your lifetime, and $1100 is the current maximum. It's fixed, and will not increase if you collect it for 30 years and the cost of living doubles). Dad gave up on trying to live on $1700 even though his mortgage was paid off. He went back to work part time to make ends meet.

Most of my friends who are average income have a take home between $2000 and $2500 a month. (Canadian dollars BTW).

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@kataggr-44 wrote:

The increase in wages will just be passed on to the consumer unfortunately.

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There's that too... what's the point of a $100 paycheck increase if you pay another $150 in food because the businesses need to make money?

Anyway, I was pretty annoyed when Wynn raised the Ontario Min. Wage by $3.60 overnight. I did NOT get a $3.60 increase. In fact, my company was suffering and I got no raise increase at all. And then as soon as that happened, everything I needed to buy went up in price, and I do NOT do very much discretionary spending. I'm going to point out that I spend $150 a week on food, for myself, because of dietary needs. Twenty years ago $200 was my monthly budget, just for me.

Cheers, C.

[johnrj1226]

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@turquoisetulips wrote:

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@johnrj1226 wrote:

Watch how fast that the  fast food businesses will convert to 100% kiosk ordering & paying and replace those order taking counter/drive-up people that have a tendency to  mess up orders frequently &  consistently.  The technology is  already here & is in  use.  McDs  has been testing the system around the country & read somewhere also in Europe.  We  have one in lil ol' Covington GA & have 5 McDs in the county w/a population of 108K.  Buc-ee's a  smal  but  rabidly growing chain of convenience stores and gas stations located in the Central, North, South, and Southeast regions of Texas and Robertsdale, Alabama have gone to them  100%.

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Of course ,, for most employers  it's going to have to be a balancing game . The mom and pop business especially are not going to be able to afford  to pay their employees the   big increase in minimum  wages that are hopefully not  on the horizon . If indeed this is their future  then they  will NEED to cut costs  which will in turn raise the numbers of the unemployed . That's just how  it works .  Tulips 

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Know what you said very well.  Worked fro 41 years adn  sold equipment to manufactures & warehousing companies.

Recall my first summer job after  high school in 1964 at Ford's s Dearborn Assembly Plant.  Had to walk by  a station where  spot  welding of the 64-1/2 Mustang body  parts together (the Mustang was the first unitized mass produced automobile - 67 cars per hour off the final assembly  line (later to 74 units per hour) at the rate of 67 hours per week - 2 shifts (11. hr each  shift except Sat. only 10.5 hr. w/1/2 hr.  lunch break).  Each station of this  welding process was a human.  Maybe 5 or  6 people.  The next summer I came back and all those spot welding  jobs were performed by machines - just  humans  hanging  the panels.  We called this "automation" (cost reduction & improved quality) guess today it would be called robotics.  Henry Ford's company  allowed me to pay for my college education - room/board, tuition, books an a little play money - like $5 -10 bucks/week.  Worked every summer  thru 1967.  Grateful for this opportunity.  Only buy US made vehicles - Ford trucks, SUV & pass car - 2 Chevy pass  cars.

[mam98031]

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@618unicorns wrote:

I do have some listings that still have watchers but I have noticed some watchers gone on an item that has had a watcher for 2 weeks and I sent offers to every one.  Nothing.  Not one sale has been generated from any watcher in the last week.  Very very odd.  It's almost like the watchers are not receiving my offers?  Usually 70% of the time I would get a sale from my offer or counteroffer.  Nothing for a week??  Something is wrong because by all the comments from others, they have the same issue.  

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Buyers can set up their accounts NOT to receive offers.  So you may be right, your potential buyers may not have seen your offer.  

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Does that make the offer go into cyberspace, or does it mean you don't have the ability to send the offer?

I have watchers show up that I can't send offers to in the beginning, so I'm thinking if you're set up to not receive them I can't even send them to you.

Cheers, C.

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Good question.  Unfortunately I don't know the answer to that.  I would think that it functions similar to an SCO [second chance offer].  If a buyer has their account not to accept SCOs, when you try to send it, it won't send or it doesn't show up as an option to send them a SCO.  I forget which it is as it has been a long time since I've ran any auctions.  They don't work well for me anymore.  They use to, but the last 2-3 years, not so much.

I'm betting you are right!

[gamersbaystore]

Even in the U.S. the pension my mom receives is not the norm. Most retired individuals here live on an average of $1,600 a month or less with social security, about the same as your dad's income. Our 72 year old neighbor gets just $1,100 a month.

My mom got more because of a private pension offered by her employer, which almost no Americans have access to.

I made close to $3,000 a month last year, and it was barely enough to cut the bills each month. I don't see how anyone can survive today. Our money is practically worthless, at least in the U.S anyway.

I'd still be making that $3,000 a month too if the economy hadn't crapped out again. Trump's tax cut gave the economy a boost for one lousy year, at the cost of $1.4 trillion dollars in debt! Now our money is practically worthless because of all that debt, out of control inflation.

[chdmedical]

I am now on my second month now with very low sales. They stopped from regular to almost nothing

[csbbct]

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@movieman630 wrote:
There's something to be said for keeping it simple. I think the IT department needs a little trimming. 

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I don't think the IT department needs to cut staff, they need to re-direct them!  eBay has always been a glitchy system because they have always been in a rush to move on to the latest/greatest "enhancement" to their system without cleaning up the debris left behind from the last one.  Buyers get sick of dealing with a site where nothing works as expected and is constantly changing, but not for the better!  There are many sites where system stability is a priority, but eBay has never been one of them and sellers suffer for it.

[hioctane62]

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@csbbct wrote:

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@movieman630 wrote:
There's something to be said for keeping it simple. I think the IT department needs a little trimming. 

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I don't think the IT department needs to cut staff, they need to re-direct them!  eBay has always been a glitchy system because they have always been in a rush to move on to the latest/greatest "enhancement" to their system without cleaning up the debris left behind from the last one.  Buyers get sick of dealing with a site where nothing works as expected and is constantly changing, but not for the better!  There are many sites where system stability is a priority, but eBay has never been one of them and sellers suffer for it.

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"Glitch" is only eBay's excuse. If all these glitches really were glitches, they wouldn't be financially beneficial to ebay 100% of the time. Like the "glitch" last week that put millions of sellers' dollars in ebay's pockets.

[movieman630]

Another thing I've noticed is that most days that I go without sales during the day ALL my sales seem to come in between 10PM and Midnight. It doesn't make any logical sense unless Ebay is throttling sales and hiding listings. My theory is that the algorithm is set up to hide your stuff for a certain amount of time during the day but allow "open" days to disprove your theory. That would explain days when sales come in all throughout the day like normal. I also think the algorithm uses your sales amounts to tell it when to hide your stuff and when to open it. This would fit others theories that ebay only allows you to earn a certain amount and then turns you off. The only exception to that rule would be if someone buys one of your items from their watch list during your "dark" period. Mind you this is just a theory.

[rschissler]

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@movieman630 wrote:
Another thing I've noticed is that most days that I go without sales during the day ALL my sales seem to come in between 10PM and Midnight. It doesn't make any logical sense unless Ebay is throttling sales and hiding listings. My theory is that the algorithm is set up to hide your stuff for a certain amount of time during the day but allow "open" days to disprove your theory. That would explain days when sales come in all throughout the day like normal. I also think the algorithm uses your sales amounts to tell it when to hide your stuff and when to open it. This would fit others theories that ebay only allows you to earn a certain amount and then turns you off. The only exception to that rule would be if someone buys one of your items from their watch list during your "dark" period. Mind you this is just a theory.

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If you're going to make up such crazy theories, maybe you should also explain why eBay would do all this?

[baantiques]

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@beautifulbeauty2012 wrote:

eBay is intentionally hiding listings from potential buyers "for better shopping experience". It is now included in User Agreement.

Looks like the platform is coming to its death - no sales for me either, and it is not just a typical summer slowdown - I had never seen anything like what`s going on on eBay recently. New algorithm and force of GTC (which is also correlated to no or slow sales) are the reasons for no sales on eBay.

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Yeah, and meanwhile, I have a saved search for a black tailgate for a 2009-2014 Ford F150, and what shows up in my inbox?  A link to new listings that "fit" my search criteria, which consist of pretty much every color of tailgate EXCEPT black, plus emblems, etc, and the usual assortment of Chinese **bleep** completely unrelated to tailgates or Ford or F150s.

If this is how search works these days, no wonder no one can find our stuff.

[turquoisetulips]

That promoted listings money train is going to run out for ebay if sales continue to lag and more sellers continue to leave. They have no choice but to either start advertising, or let their platform fail. djdaniel 

Of course , and so its difficult to understand e bays reasoning .  As another poster pointed out  the promotional fees are beginning to be a waste of money and effort . If everyone has been paying them then how  do they give  any particular seller an edge ? Were all back to square one on a level playing field  except now  we've been paying  to be there . I'm sure the top brass made an extra bundle  from those fee's  but now sellers are beginning to realize  the  hard cold facts . I've used the '' Tell us what you think ''  icon  dozens of times  and I've spared no words  in giving e bay  an honest opinion . However  I don't believe they're interested in any honest opinions  because as you can see  the song remains the same .  Tulips