Crazy Slow Sales. Can't live off of this anymore.

[serpentine21]

I am currently experiencing horrible views and sales. I have about 410 items listed and I am lucky if I even make one sale a day. My ebay and Etsy shops were my only source of income and I always did really well. I always made enough money with those two shops alone.  Last year was the slowest year I have ever had on both platforms.  I had the slowest and worst holiday season ever. I even went seven days without a single sale on ebay, which has never happened to me before. It was the first time I did not qualify for a 1099-K for my taxes, because I did not make enough money.  I noticed the sales decline last year and I started donating plasma twice a week to make up for the losses. I can't do that now because my husband is deployed and I have no one to care for my son while I donate. I recently started petsitting on Rover to help with the losses this year. I love dogs, and I enjoy doing this, but it really sucks to have to add on another job just to maybe make as much as I used to make with ebay and etsy alone. Are you guys experiencing this as well? I am 100% sure allot of it has to do with the horrible inflation right now. Because literally everything costs more, people don't have the expendable income to spend on non essential items, like what I sell. For those of you who sell on other platforms, are those platforms doing better than ebay? Which do you recommend? I appreciate your help and input.

[gurlcat]

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@dottie1986 wrote:

This might sound a little creepy, but where I live in SWFL, the pooper scooper business is amazing.  I ran into a man that had a sign on his truck so I stopped to talk to him.  Makes a sense if you have one or more dogs & either don't want to pick up after your dog  r  have physical issues that limits you.  Of course, you always have too many inconsiderate people that figure they'll just leave it until someone steps in it.  Just a thought--I've even thought of it myself.

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LOL, I recently saw the 'King Of The Hill' episode where Bobby starts working for a guy who does that (uses a custom vacuum device) and lives in a giant mansion because his business is so good.  Super fun episode but I figured the dog poo cleanup thing was a fictional business that Mike Judge invented purely for the absurdity of it!!!!!

[chapeau-noir]

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@inhawaii wrote:

I say it's a combination of your pictures AND what you are selling. 

Those picture look so unprofessional. 

Used granny panties?  Really?

You want better sales, sell better stuff. 

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It's the market. 

I also agree that different things sell on different platforms now - eBay is a good generalist platform, but it has been a long time since it has been good for everything.

[sakic92710]

It is getting quite sad when I have to bust my *** to generate as much cash as possible at the flea market on Sundays so I know I'll have a good week.  Sold $700 last week.  A better total than the previous 2 Sundays.  Live in a small city of 140,000 yet I can sell more there in 7 hours than I can in a week on eBay??  When there are 1000 fold more eyes on my items here than in the FM??  I had 31 sales there last weekend.  Trouble getting 10 a week on here.  More interest in my items in this small city than across N. America & Europe, etc?  Makes absolutely no sense.  Overall, most of my better items are even listed here.  LOL  I've had 4 sales in the last 4 days.  I had a short spurt last weekend with 9 sales on Fri/Sat.   Those never last very long then back to disappointment.  Good luck to all.   🙂

[gurlcat]

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@serpentine21 wrote:

No. Why is this so hard to understand. I used to make a killing. I did fantastic before this horrible inflation. Now I am no longer making a killing.

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There is a weird phenomenon that happens a lot in these community threads where people will feign abysmal reading skills for the sake of being snarky, as if that's an esteemed goal.  
That said, I believe you are too married to the 'inflation' explanation, considering how many well-rationed opinions and bits of advice have been offered, snark replies aside.  Lots of us sell things you might call frivolous or at least not crucial to daily living, and lots of us are doing very well despite inflation (which is far from "horrible" at this time, but the media is using it as outrage red meat, exaggerating the effects of cherrypicked consumer items, ones whose real pain affects only the people who purchase them the most).    
You are welcome to disagree and elaborate if you like, but remember to explain how the inflation isn't harming my sales of costume jewelry, collectable coins, war memorabilia, etc. or lots of other sellers' frivolous items.  And if, somehow, your sales ARE uniquely affected by inflation, then what good would it do to try another platform or try anything for that matter, when you are truly helpless against macroeconomics? 
As for the kink clothing stuff, no judgement from me, but has it occurred to you that maybe there are a lot more sellers offering it than there used to be?  Heck I just heard of it for the first time recently and thought it was kind of brilliant in a way, maybe even worth trying myself, lol.  So who knows how many women had the same lightbulb go on but went beyond 'maybe'?  Namely, women stuck at home over the period of time in which you have observed your sales decline, women needing side hustles to make ends meet, women gaining weight from being stuck at home, when suddenly this solution to insufficient cash and copious too-small clothing comes to them, like a big pervy miracle, LOL!!  

[gurlcat]

Oh and I forgot to say: I think your photos look GREAT, and your figure makes me sick with envy.  

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@serpentine21  Looks like you sell in a particular niche (with some other stuff as well). I'm not familiar with your niche (although I do know there's a very real market for granny panties, and it isn't generally grannies buying them). But I'd like to add to what gurlcat said. She said:

"You are welcome to disagree and elaborate if you like, but remember to explain how the inflation isn't harming my sales of costume jewelry, collectable coins, war memorabilia, etc. or lots of other sellers' frivolous items.  And if, somehow, your sales ARE uniquely affected by inflation, then what good would it do to try another platform or try anything for that matter, when you are truly helpless against macroeconomics?" 

Because you are in a niche, I would suggest that you start by looking at other sellers in that niche: check out their solds. Are they doing well, or doing poorly? If some are doing well, what are they doing that is different from what you are doing? Look at everything: photos, titles, price, descriptions, return policies, shipping etc. And then look to see if you can tell: are they using Promoted Listings? Are they running sales, maybe sending out coupons, have they revamped their store layout to use some of the new features? 

You can use Terapeak too. Do searches for some of the type items you sell, and check the solds to active listings numbers, look at the sales graphs etc. And again, you can look at the solds and try to figure why the items sold.

When sales decline, for some reason many ebay sellers usually assume outside forces are at work: something like inflation, or something like ebay is hiding my listings....but we are all selling in a competitive market, and , aside from the general ups and downs of any business, the main reason is likely to be one of two things: 1. demand for your merchandise (especially compared to available supply) has gone down or 2. your competitors are doing a better job of converting viewers into buyers. (And because you appear to sell only on this site, it is worth asking yourself: If demand has declined , is that overall, or has it declined on this site because the buyer base for this stuff has shifted to other sites? But before I'd worry about that, I'd want to determine whether demand has really declined here, or is demand still high, but your ebay competitors are the ones supplying it.)

Anyway, just my thoughts, which may or may not interest you....

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@serpentine21 My apologies....just realized you did say you sell on 2 platforms, not just ebay. But my advice for ebay remains the same. I don't sell on the other platform, so I don't know if you can do something similar there (look at competitors sales, etc)

[rabites-n-chocobos]

This is great advice. Advice from Downunder-61 should never be ignored.

[rabites-n-chocobos]

My clothing items sit for weeks, but electronics fly off the shelf in a day or two.

[serpentine21]

Good to know. Thank you.

[serpentine21]

Thank you so much for your reply and insight.

[serpentine21]

You are too kind. 🙂

[rabites-n-chocobos]

I just looked at your store, and I have a question to ask you. I recently bought a Daisy corset, I believe its a Daisy corset Lavish dress (https://www.sexyshoes.com/collections/all-plus-size/products/lv-339?variant=10334121689145). I haven't taken pics yet, would you look at my pics...you seem like an expert in this area.

[rabites-n-chocobos]

**bleep** photo, but you get the picture.

 

[domin-tomas]

I sell on other sites. I list on ebay but don't expect to sell here that much. When I do sell something on ebay I consider it a bonus. Ebay used to be the go to site to sell but it is now turning into the next Myspace.