How is business for Spring to Summer?

[vintagemelrose2009]

I had a thread started back in March about decline in sales --- i know there are many variables but we

had our worst April and May has not been that great.  We used to sell about 200 items per month even

slow months but now so far in May we sold maybe 50 items.  I know there are so much competition

but how are you guys doing?

We sell clothes and weather is nice and people are out and about but mobile sales are almost 50% of our sales per e-bay so people should be able to shop any time since most always have phones etc.

I would be curious to know how you guys are doing.  We hardly sell one item some days.  So far no sales today except one early am.  yesterday just one sale.

How are you guys doing?  Thanks for your reply and happy spring.  we are having nice mild weather though we have early June gloom but it usually clears out in the afternoon.  Cheers

[cazjar]

Hi, I have been selling on Ebay for 17 years, This year is the worst i've ever had, some days i'm lucky to sell 3 items, i use to sell 20-30 items a day. there is no reason why, its like someone just clicked the switch to 'off'. I had my worst Christmas in 2017.

Where has all the trade gone?

is it cheap imports from abroad? They sell items for 99p , free postage, how can we compete with that!

Are people not happy with buying from Ebay anymore?

The news tell us people are more likely to shop online and less footfall in our high streets, well people aren't buying from Ebay !

Unfortunately i can't  afford to hang around to find out, so i'm looking to close my business this year.

[lex-talon]

I'm doing alright, actually. Offers and sales almost everyday.

Yes, the weather has been up and down lately here in So. Ca.

I actually like the June gloom days myself.

[orangehound]

Sales were up 25% in April, and up single digits in May so far.  We sell a variety of items on multiple accounts, and probably 95% of our sales are of new or slightly used items.

Is the problem "used"?  I wonder if the declining sales that most people are experiencing has to do with used items.  We all know that the site is flooded with used clothing, knick knacks, and other garage sale sorts of items ... the flood just keeps rising, sellers keep increasing inventory, and buyers are not growing at the same rate.

Used-item shoppers may not be coming here much any longer because eBay seems to no longer market itself as the place to come for used, flea market, garage sale sort of items.  Doesn't it seem like they are wanting to be the deep discount place for new items?

[findingmonkey]

Business is way down. I just found out that across America all stores are in the same position.

The explanation I am going with is that at this time everyone is focused on getting their vacations planned and paid.

[findingmonkey]

Everyone is having trouble right now...try to hang in...things will change

[grannyjo]

My Sales are Way Down.  I normally sell 3-5 items a day. The first 3 weeks of April was normal, then on April 21st, something pulled the plug.  I've sold 7  low dollar items since then.  I'm heading for the POOR house. LOL 

[cs43ls]

Business is worse than ever, as of today I am 21% down from last year and approx. 45% down from the year before. I seem to sell a little only on the weekends, and people often dont pay until  Friday.   I know there is a lot more competition ,especially from the chinese sellers. ( I have trouble understanding how ebay makes money on 99cent items with free shipping ) I think  Ebay rotates what is being shown, because there is simply too much on line for buyers to check out.

       I dont belive the lack of sales has anything to do with vacation planning, paying taxes , etc.  I used to do much better in a much worse economy a few years ago.  My guess is that it all boils down to competition , I made a list of online sales venues that sell the same stuff as is offered on Ebay and I came up with 28, spur of the moment . There are probably a lot more if  I had time to reasearch this further.   

      I am waiting to see the summer update and if Ebay makes further unreasonable demands on sellers, I am going to plan B

[lindyslucky]

We started selling steadily on ebay three years ago.

Many clothing items. We have some now, but all that measuring, people unhappy, my heart sinks. Considering giving the items to a church....not a resale charity....

We have noticed two long time...decades clothing resellers close to us shut their doors. The most popular in town cut her trendy store in half.

Its seems owning a large quantity of clothing is just no longer a desire.

We have read small expensive boutiques are doing ok.

At that time, we were selling auction only, usually whatever could get listed Sunday or Thursday night. Probably no more than 15/20 items.

Had a sell through rate of 20-30% per week.

That seems like a dream now.

Have tried to put up as many possible new different things with the last promo about 40, in a week we sold three. One apparently was very rare, and it was possibly underpriced....oh well.

We went through a completely dead spot in April, with no sales for about 10 days.

Even with a lot more work, our sales are way down, We are now selling many small items, with many shipping is more than item. Dollar sales are way down, and with shipping fees, the number of items sold is no longer an accurate metric for us to consider.

Something Big is going on. We think it's a lot of factors. Social, economic, political.

We agree, ebay does not seem to be promoting the unique, unusual, preowned.

And cost of shipping (with ebay fees.. Give us a promo with 2% fee on shipping and let's see what happens) has wiped out the market for inexpensive things. Along with the Chinese packet that no US seller can compete with.

We are anxious to sell what we have, and step back. (Ok, just bought more this week, couldn't pass it up, but is looking like a long tail item)

Right now ebay seems the best way to sell what we have.

Surely something else will come along. 

I have never worked this hard for so little $$$. I'm not having fun.

[iart]

We're doing well. Not that we couldn't be doing better.

We try to follow most of ebay's new suggestions (like them or not) and add more items as often as possible along with keeping our customers happy. If you're doing the same thing you've been doing for years, that's a big part of your problem. The market has changed. Buyers have changed. Ebay has changed. Sellers need to try and keep up.

Now through the summer is typically a slow time for us. We use it to catch our breath and bulk up our listings for the holiday shopping.

[scalemotorcars]

Down over 50% from last year. Market says it up 10% but Im not seeing any of that. Im actually on my way out. 17 years on eBay and Its just a joke now. Time to move on. 

[vintagemelrose2009]

same here.  the owner has been with e-bay over 10 years --- 10000 positive feedback but we can't sell anything unless we want to give it away -- now free returns effective june 1st.  we are not doing that --- we already get taken advantage by buyers --- we don't need to give them more green light.  what a 

non sense for e-bay to force sellers to do.  makes no sense to sell out its sellers to please fraudulent buyers --- if a buyer is not happy with a purchase, let them bear the cost of shipping back especially to a seller who already provided free shipping one way.

good luck to you.  i keep telling the older gentleman owner not to spend money relisting or buying too much inventory he does not listen but now we are sitting on good inventory no one wants or e-bay does not show to buyers.  who knows.

best of luck to you ......   guess we have to change for the market and company's ups and downs and all the silly programming that does not benefit sellers.  cheers.

[homecareessentialsstore]

Awful, simply awful, sales down nearly 40% now and sliding. For us 40% is £20k a month

My segment is just full of Amazon Arbitrage.

For example, an item we sell now has 100+ sellers. The cheapest (toprated) seller who is eBay's Pick (ie. when you click the other sellers link) is an Israeli account dropshipping via Amazon Prime with Salefreaks. The second cheapest is also a Salefreaks Amazon dropshipper, between them they have helped Amazon sell 300 units in the last 90 days. 

Back in the past we would have had a large percentage of those sales. Multiply that over a couple of thousand products and you see where our sales of gone.

Ebay might as well let Amazon take them over. On the salefreaks website it says: Over 1,000 stores connected, 8M listings and $100M ebay sales in the last 12 months and growing… (this has been on the site for some time so probably a lot more now)

So, $100m worth of sales taken from genuine ebay sellers and given to Amazon. Just plain crazy - who the hell in ebay thought that was a good idea????

What is more is that there are 8million extra listings on ebay - yes 8 MILLION - probably 20 million by now. Millions and millions and millions of cookie cutter listings - using the same (Amazon) pictures, descriptions etc. No wonder customers are asking ebay to make shopping on ebay easier. It has become a joke now. 

Just cut the access to the ebay API for Salefreaks and problem solved.

Until that happens we are done with putting any more effort into ebay. As a selling proposition it is dead.

[rolenboy01]

It's not summer yet so I couldn't tell you.