Help. Sales are unbearably and my biz is practically at a halt

[uniquevisit]

I take advice from eBay to help my sales and I am so slow it has become unbearable.  eBay suggested free shipping, 30-60 day return, 1-day handling time and best offers.  I did it all.  I continue to get slower and slower.  I am talking less than $100 days.  Oh, I also do the promotion to eBay.  So basically I am on negative.  WHY!!! I have 100% with over 1000 positive reviews and THOUSANDS of new, desirable items. It was never enough money for me to make a living so I continued to dig why.  Instead,  the sales get worse and worse.  I do not want to offer all of those perks plus promotions make no money and have no sales.  I can't even source at this point because my storage is a full capacity because of the thousands of items I have.  Is this fixable?  It makes no sense with all the work I put in with posting consistently and a lot.  

[jeweloftheheart]

I have been selling on eBay for 15 years. Ups and downs were normal and predicatable and survivable. Since October with the huge changes to the site, the sales are horrible. Many site issues. No matter if all eBay requirements are followed, the visibility and sales are down nearly 80%.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@jeweloftheheart wrote:

I have been selling on eBay for 15 years. Ups and downs were normal and predicatable and survivable. Since October with the huge changes to the site, the sales are horrible. Many site issues. No matter if all eBay requirements are followed, the visibility and sales are down nearly 80%.

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A very valid point; there are lots of site changes happening now, and usually when that happens, sales go down or grind to a screeching halt.

[karthok.of.daolodus]

I see very high prices, common brands that are already saturated, and off-season clothing, OP, just looking at the first couple of pages in your store. 

IMHO, I'd get rid of all the FREE returns 60 days, etc. and concentrate on price checking your items and sourcing in-season stock for clothing and in that regard paying attention to brands. As said upthread - all of these suggestions benefit eBay, not necessarily the seller. 

Also, you've got some great books, but the book market has been smothered by the huge booksellers - I used to sell books here and no longer really do so because they don't move. 

Honestly, I think this is solvable by looking at what you're actually selling and for how much, rather than just trying to follow eBay's 'recommendations' - remember, eBay itself doesn't sell anything, and TBH, I'm not sure how much they know on the subject - they provide a space for US to sell things and the tools to do it. 

Anyway, my 2 cents. 

[karthok.of.daolodus]

Also, I take returns in my other store and have rarely seen them impact my sales when they're just for stuff like fit (clothing). I really think part is the ups and downs of retail and what one is actually selling.

[uniquevisit]

I have plenty of summer and golf clothes. When I pull my site up books are first.  I need to see how it can be reorganized 

[uniquevisit]

Wow!  I hope they will fix that.

[uniquevisit]

I agree with you. I need to go back to lower price and charge for shipping. Etc

[jam_stuff]

My EBay sales crashed in May and continue to do so in June.  Went 10 days without a sale in May which had never come close to happening in previous 5 years.  Month of May was preceded by a nice increase of Jan-thru-April 2018 versus 2017.

Products look fine, prices are good.  Viewers & watchers seem constant  I feel like something has changed considering the Jan-thru-April period was so good.  

Did something change with EBay, or is it me ??

[retrose1]

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@emerald40 wrote:

On the first page I see flannl shirts and heavy long sleeve shirts.

Who do you think would be buying these items now?

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I totally agree. 

OP, I sell clothing on ebay and phase most of the winter clothing off and give it a rest during spring/summer months and bring it back around August.  I leave a little on for workers who have to deal with air conditioning.

As was pointed out in another post, you are selling in an oversaturated category and there is plentyout there of what you are offering.  While ebay promises a lot if you do xxx, you have to remember that you are not the only one that is doing everything possible to get your stuff at the top of the search, and there isn't that much room at the top of search so some sellers stuff is going to be left out.

Now, here is what I think your biggest problem is......Your prices.  Most buyers have come to realize that ebay sellers are hitting up clearance racks of last years markdown stuff and then dumping it on ebay at almost full price.  The stuff is out of style, which is why it didn't sell in the store at clearance markdowns, and so the stuff that is still sellable sells and everything else is left to get relisted...and relisted..............and relisted, getting even further away from sellability.

I looked at your first couple of pages and even at half off AND free shipping, the prices are still high, especially for fall/winter items.  My search results come up with newly listed first so the merchandise on your first pages is long sleeves and flannels.  And with over 2000 items listed, I am not going to bother hunting around, hoping ebay's search will show me what you have available.

You should pull the fall/winter items and pull some of the things that have been getting relisted for months and give them a rest.  Rework them a little while they are offline and when you relist them in a few months, they will seem new and fresh.

Also, I haven't see this noted.....ebay will lower listings that are listed GTC every time they are relisted in search results, if you are using that option, it is part of what is killing you.  And if you rest listings long enough, they fall off ebay's radar and are no longer in ebay's system so ebay can not apply the same criteria and do GTC policy to constantly relisted items.

[penguins_dont_fly]

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@emerald40 wrote:

On the first page I see flannl shirts and heavy long sleeve shirts.

Who do you think would be buying these items now?

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Besides the whole Southern Hemisphere?

People in Alaska 🙂

On the other end of the US ... I'm down in the Keys right now .... yesterday it was rainy and cloudy. I had to get my hoodie out of the truck to sit at an Oceanside restaurant for dinner.

Also, people up in the mountains, people in damp climates like Seattle ...  People who work in air conditioning set to "meat locker" 🙂

[fashunu4eeuh]

Just a bit of info on Australia. I lived there for two years and you wouldnt believe how expensive things are compared to here. It is within the realm of reason that folks Down Under would pay the int’l shipping and the 10% tarrif. Cuz it can sometimes come out cheaper than buying retail locally. I did the majority of my clothes shopping online from the US and had it shipped while i lived there. Designer duds are even more pricey there than here as well. So just some food for thought.

[albany_sellers]

The same thing happened to me last week. I almost ALWAYS have multiple sales a day, the out of the blue I went 5 days in a row with nothing before all of the sudden breaking records.

If eBay says they are not blacking people out, then they are lying. I don't for one single moment believe that they do not throttle sellers.