eBay

vintageista · ‎03-16-2019

I had 2 very strong sales days at the beginning of March but since the 5th of the month my sales have been extremely below normal for my selling record. eBay's statistics show:

Sales down 31%

Listing Impressions down 65%

Page Views down 71%

This obviously shows that my listing are not being seen, but I have no idea why. I have about the same amount of listings I have had for several years, new listings most everyday & reduced prices on many items. No bad FB, a couple of returns, but no violations, etc. Basically nothing has changed on my end, but for some reason eBay has lowered my visibility.

I tried Markdown Manager for a couple of categories and had almost NO response, I am TRS & 20 year seller, but something has changed drastically. I mostly sell clothing & I KNOW that is a competitive category but my sales have been pretty consistent for a long time, why the sudden drop-off?

Anyone else experiencing this same kind of thing since the beginning of March? I am searching for answers so that I might be able to make adjustments somehow. With the coming of the GTC listings being forced upon us, I know there is going to be even more drop-off & I am starting to panic! I depend on this income & have no other options, I do a little on Betsy and have tried the River but due to what I sell, that really does not work for me. Too old now for a real job and SS just isn't enough!

upthreads_3 · ‎03-21-2019

I'm confused. When GTC kicks in, does this mean that our FREE INSERTION FEE deals will be suddenly void and we will be charged again every month?

I have not been listing much in Feb and March, even though I accepted FREE LISTING offers several time.

I have not listed anything NEW in 4 weeks yet I see my 50 FREE LISTINGS eaten up day by day. Is ebay using these to Re-list already Free-Listed items AGAIN??

They really would see us sell for 99 cents with free shipping rather than make a decent profit, wouldn't they?

But then, the House always wins:/

turquoisetulips · ‎03-21-2019

@vintageista wrote:
I had 2 very strong sales days at the beginning of March but since the 5th of the month my sales have been extremely below normal for my selling record. eBay's statistics show:

Sales down 31%
Listing Impressions down 65%
Page Views down 71%

This obviously shows that my listing are not being seen, but I have no idea why. I have about the same amount of listings I have had for several years, new listings most everyday & reduced prices on many items. No bad FB, a couple of returns, but no violations, etc. Basically nothing has changed on my end, but for some reason eBay has lowered my visibility.

I tried Markdown Manager for a couple of categories and had almost NO response, I am TRS & 20 year seller, but something has changed drastically. I mostly sell clothing & I KNOW that is a competitive category but my sales have been pretty consistent for a long time, why the sudden drop-off?

Anyone else experiencing this same kind of thing since the beginning of March? I am searching for answers so that I might be able to make adjustments somehow. With the coming of the GTC listings being forced upon us, I know there is going to be even more drop-off & I am starting to panic! I depend on this income & have no other options, I do a little on Betsy and have tried the River but due to what I sell, that really does not work for me. Too old now for a real job and SS just isn't enough! OP

I'm in the same boat and since I rarely sell anything I can't even afford to buy a paddle 🙂 . March has been dismal and just like you I don't understand why . I've done everything possible to boost sales from creating new designs of my jewelry ,, adding more listings [ I now have more than ever before ] , using the promotions , free shipping on most items and free 30 day returns ,, but nope nope nopitty nope . While I was listing more stuff tonight I asked myself ''why'' ? and there I had me . I told my husband if things don't pick up soon I might just need to give up here and go on the road as a traveling salesman [ woman ] . He said he'd miss me . So I don't know the answer ,, possibly diversify AGAIN ? It helped the last time I panicked so it might help again . Who knows ? 😞 Tulips

demyan1978 · ‎03-22-2019

I have the same. One day I have sales and then I need to wait. March is very bad. Hope I will have more sales on March.

coolections · ‎03-22-2019

Posters have came here saying the same thing as you but with just a different date in their title for over 10 years now. For some, yes there was a drop, for others things stayed the same, and for some sales have increased. It all depends on what you have listed, what your prices are compared to other sellers, and the demand for the items you list.

sakic92710 · ‎03-22-2019

2 weeks ago, I had about 18 sales in 1 week. I've had 12 since then. Guess that was my week to be seen by more members. Posted over 50 new listings this week with hardly any views & not 1 sale from the lot. This site is just depressing now. Really difficult to sell anything over $40-50. Just getting crumbs. 100 $8 sales would be fantastic but, it takes 2 months for that to happen! lol Good luck to all. 🙂

shoptalkid · ‎03-22-2019

@vintageista wrote:
I had 2 very strong sales days at the beginning of March but since the 5th of the month my sales have been extremely below normal for my selling record. eBay's statistics show:

Sales down 31%
Listing Impressions down 65%
Page Views down 71%

This obviously shows that my listing are not being seen, but I have no idea why. I have about the same amount of listings I have had for several years, new listings most everyday & reduced prices on many items. No bad FB, a couple of returns, but no violations, etc. Basically nothing has changed on my end, but for some reason eBay has lowered my visibility.

I tried Markdown Manager for a couple of categories and had almost NO response, I am TRS & 20 year seller, but something has changed drastically. I mostly sell clothing & I KNOW that is a competitive category but my sales have been pretty consistent for a long time, why the sudden drop-off?

Anyone else experiencing this same kind of thing since the beginning of March? I am searching for answers so that I might be able to make adjustments somehow. With the coming of the GTC listings being forced upon us, I know there is going to be even more drop-off & I am starting to panic! I depend on this income & have no other options, I do a little on Betsy and have tried the River but due to what I sell, that really does not work for me. Too old now for a real job and SS just isn't enough!

Yes. My sales graph shows a big spike on one day only in March. Why on THAT day only? Everything must have been working correctly (checkout, site, etc.) that day, because there have been multiple site issues all month long. Needless to say, it' very discouraging for sellers and buyers.

previously known as boardnpostsid

turquoisetulips · ‎03-23-2019

@joesoucie22012 wrote:
And then the puppy will turn into a kitten....

Reminds me of the lyrics in ''Bungle in the jungle '' by Jethro Tull . '' He who made kittens put snakes in the grass '' Tulips

myjunqueyourtreasure · ‎03-23-2019

@upthreads_3 wrote:
I'm confused. When GTC kicks in, does this mean that our FREE INSERTION FEE deals will be suddenly void and we will be charged again every month?
I have not been listing much in Feb and March, even though I accepted FREE LISTING offers several time.
I have not listed anything NEW in 4 weeks yet I see my 50 FREE LISTINGS eaten up day by day. Is ebay using these to Re-list already Free-Listed items AGAIN??
They really would see us sell for 99 cents with free shipping rather than make a decent profit, wouldn't they?
But then, the House always wins:/

The GTC would only apply to any listings you relisted on March 18th and after so I don't see why you would be seeing your freebies eaten up, unless you already had them set to auto relist?

Reality is the leading cause of stress.

kias · ‎03-23-2019

There's a glitch that c/s rep told me they have been working - I couldn't log into ebay via mobile to buy or sell since thursday night. I'm west coast my seller friend east coast can't log in either. She was pretty panicked about her orders but I told her to just use paypal to print her labels. So this is day 2 now - so perhaps this isn't just happening to the 2 of us. I was never happy with mobile - it lacks so many features. Sure hope they have it up soon.

davewearsredsox · ‎03-23-2019

It started the 9th for me. Sales took a nose dive. Down 50%... The last 5 months were great and this one started off that way. But since the 9th I am only selling 8-12 items when I have been averaging 25-30 a day.

myjunqueyourtreasure · ‎03-23-2019

It's not just the app either. Some users can't use IE or FF to log into the ebay Home page.

Reality is the leading cause of stress.

lost-lizard-trading-company · ‎03-23-2019

My sales from March 1 through 18 were a big, fat zilch. Then the 18th rolled around, and sales are back to my normal. I've only relisted 2 as GTC and all the rest are 30-day FP. Anyone else seeing a spike later in March?

timetitans · ‎03-23-2019

I don't think I've ever posted on the message boards. I've lurked at times like now when I get panicky about no activity. I've been doing this a long, long time. This account dates to '04 but I've been on eBay since I was a teenager in the late 1990s. Since best offer has been an option I don't believe there has ever been a stretch like this where I've had no best offers at all; no low-ball offers or realistic ones. It is jarring. The typical solution for me has been to auction; auctioning tends to bring in offers. But for 12 days I've had 0 offers. Granted my asking prices are high; but that has never stopped either realistic or low-ball offers from coming in before. And this is after putting a number of pieces to auction. I'm scratching my head here.

kathieskorner · ‎03-23-2019

I am a retired accountant - a numbers person who has almost 19 years of listing and sales data for eBay and other sites I have sold on. March has always been one of my two strongest months for sales. So far I have two sales on this account - only one since I encountered the IE eBay home page problem on the 5th which has yet to be addressed by eBay.

Looking back on the past years - my lowest sales total for March was 10 in 2008 when I decided to split my inventory into two accounts. My second lowest March total was 21 - normal March sales thru 2018 have averaged 32 sales with an average of 198 listings.

I have 20 auctions expiring tomorrow - not one bid - half have no traffic according to eBay's stats. This is even a five weekend month which is usually good for sales. The technical issues board is filled with posts, but except for one eBay post which admitted there was a short outage - eBay refuses to admit there are problems, and nothing seems to get fixed.

I really don't believe the dramatic drop off this month is any normal fluctuation in sales - I think this latest seller update has created technical issues that eBay's incompetent IT staff can't handle which in turn is affecting traffic and sales - especially for those who do not already use GTC with listings accessible via Google.

goldrushfinds · ‎03-23-2019

Vintageista - I agree with your analysis. Something is up with Ebay and they won't admit it. For the past week my sales have fallen off a cliff. No activity of any kind. I have heard so many excuses for the absence and inconsistent nature of sales, but I have had enough. There is no way to run a viable business, with so many ups and downs. I great sale day is nullified by a string of **bleep** sale days. Always another excuse (listings take a turn on server, slow time of year, always a bad month, tax time). Well if there are this many reasons for sales to tank, then I'm out. Thanks but no thanks.