Drop in Sales

[lcw067ab]

I am trying to understand why my ebay business sales have dropped to almost nothing.  I have great reviews, great products and pricing, but just not getting the business like I use to.  I do good to sell one - two items a week if that.  Use to sell 8-10 per day.  Any suggestions to help my ebay store?  Also, I use to be able to send a quick email to my sold list and now it only allows like 5 per day.  Doesn't help to retain my business at all.  What's up with that?

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

I don't have any market specific advice, as I know nothing about the clothing market ... but I'm going to guess you had a heck of a lot more active listings than your current ~140 when you were pulling 8-10 sales per day. Looks like you did 16 sales this past month so really about 4 sales per week right now?

Generally, listing more items and listing them on a regularly basis helps increase sales. Thats all I've got for you.

Good luck!

[lcw067ab]

Thanks so much for the advice.  I am trying to build my inventory again after a move from Florida to Alabama.  I am listing about 5-10 new items a week right now.  Great advice.  Appreciate it.

[tdl_collectibles]

It looks like about 55% of your listings are auction and not Buy-it-now. When you were selling 10 items per day, was that a similar ratio?  Maybe just my opinion but I truly think eBay is now almost fully transformed to a buy-it-now platform and people just want to buy what they want at the first time they see it. I'd be curious to see if they've done any survey results and asked customers what they prefer....

[tobaccocardyahoo]

It seems that many of the slow sales threads are started by clothing and jewelry sellers.

This does not mean that they are the only sellers experiencing slow sales.

The problem is likely to be the market, not you and not your merchandise, and probably not Ebay.

When I am displeased with my sales, I usually list more items. I have not started a listing binge yet because some how my monthly sales seem to meet my goals. Had a surge early in the month, and am counting on an end of month surge. Call me Pollyanna.

[chapeau-noir]

I wouldn't bother with the auctions. In such a super-saturated market they just waste the buyer's time, and may limit multiple purchases. Since you have a pretty specific market, ease of purchase will help with multiple purchases and repeat business.

Try listing more like 3-5 a day to get some traction. I'm a little small seller and if I fall off listing even for a few days, or list only one or two things a day, my sales dry up. Sales for me have been down lately because I just haven't been finding a lot to list.

[maxine*j]

Just some observations:

Clothing is not just a saturated category on eBay, it is a super-duper-uber saturated category on eBay.

You're running auctions.  Auctions account for less than 15% of the sales on eBay.  People nowadays prefer to see it, buy, get it and not hang around wondering if they won something at auction and, if so, for how much.

When you write your titles, you do not always take advantage of the full 85 characters allowed.

Most of your photos are fine but some are a bit dark and dull, so you might want to pay a bit more attention to how your photos look when posted.

Times are tough for many retailers, on-line and in-store, although that's not much comfort.

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[skate_man1000]

I have zero sales this month on one account. This has never happened in 18 years of being on the platform. Some are saying unless you use promoted listings and even worse the pay per click advanced promoted listings, your sales will slow to a crawl or stop all together. Seems that way to me. 

[sapphire_studio]

Sending messages to everyone who has bought something from you to promote your other items is considered spam, so eBay limiting you to 5 cold messages (where they haven't messaged you first) a day is to prevent that spamming. 

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

It's all multifactorial and nothing in the world is "normal" post covid, week after week news is filled with major issues confronting the USA, Western Nations and a globe.  Economics are ALWAYS reactionary to many many factors which is why those who best understand it have PHD's and Masters Degrees.  There is MUCH more competition for consumer spending and its escalating and will continue to escalate.  Atop all of it the Democrats in the USA have done just a horrid job of actually displaying what has been done and accomplished versus what NEED be done and the other party is dangling it around their necks.  The Democrats are not very responsive to the accusations from the other side as they want Mr Trump to be the Candidate for the GOP as they will beat him and they know it.

This constant baloney going on impacts economics in the layman's thoughts... Fear basically so they tend want shop conservatively not knowing what tomorrow brings... Not that they ever did per se and that's stand true of sellers as well.  I can tell you for some paradigms have changed and they won't be returning back. with many items the "Set you're price of what I think value is" just is no longer going to work.  There is competition among a huge range of products like never before not only here or other online third party environments but via big retailers online as well.  Walmart is killing it online with third quarter online sales results up a whopping 16%.  Walmart has partnered with oodles of liquidators and merchandise delisting warehouses having just built a gigantic facility to spur even more online growth.  Their ship to store model is absolutely booming and the company demands lowest online price from their partners.

For those who don't watch places such as Macy's, Kohls along with many others are being quite aggressive for consumer dollars and according to financial forecasters will be even more aggressive into the holidays.  There's all forms of multifaceted aspects at play right now and they will likely be getting even more complex placing more strain on third party sellers and venues.  Blaming eBay as a sole creator of sales drops is just way wrong and anyone who actually READS financial industry commerce based news and information is quite aware of the environment and its impacts.  They are far far far beyond scope of forum messages and like I said unfortunately the current administration is not touting its economic blaze which is bigger than any point in the last 50 years.  Instead they stay silent so as the guy they want to run for President makes it as they know hands down they'll beat him.  Pretty sad.

[susanb1872]

Your items are displayed very nicely using the mannequin. I only saw one item that needs improving-the Alegria sandals should have the US size in the title and the picture should be turned around so the brand name on the shoe doesn't have to be read upside down.

[jformony]

MY EXPERIENCE AS WELL. 

[fashunu4eeuh]

Looked at your Completed and Sold listings. The vast majority sold with just one bid. That is a strong indication that fixed price will work well for your items. In fact, it should help sales growth. Folks have so many choices and don’t want to wait for the kind of things you have on offer. Auctions work best for rare, one-of-a-kind, high-demand low-availability goods, some collectibles and highly coveted vintage fashion, for example. 

[goldrushfinds]

Your listings only include 2 photos. Add more photos for each item, including the tags. Ebay likes sellers who include more photos.

[sakic92710]

I do not know what the answer is, also.  I used to sell 15-20 items per week, on average.  $400-800; sometimes more.  Now?  Less than double digits per month & lucky to get $200.   This has been the norm for almost 2 years.  If it was the random month here & there, I would chalk it up to ebbs & flows.  This seems to be a permanent situation with no improvement in sight.  I try to sell more using Marketplace.  Although, I tried a yard sale, as well.  A dismal failure.  3 people showed up & 2 bought.  1 lives in my same building.  Sold $55.  Last yard sale, in July, was worse.  $20.  Those I cannot blame on eBay.  lol  Best of luck to you.  🙂