Is there something going on with sales?

[krys888]

I went from 4-9 items per day for the past year consistently to the past few weeks of barely 1 or 2 every other day.  

[norskmediashop]

Thank you for the clarification!!! I understand now and had misunderstood but will give that a try. 

[mam98031]

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@norskmediashop wrote:

Thank you for the clarification!!! I understand now and had misunderstood but will give that a try. 

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Good luck.  If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to me.  I'm happy to help if I can.

[vanbergen8614]

I have been moving my vintage/antique items to etsy and have been doing well on that platform.

[futuretomorrow]

@laurabeardsley

Spot on response. Not much I can add to this. eBay was unique in many regards and then they tried to copy a model they were woefully unprepared to mimic. In the future assessment of this platform, it will be noted that a major misstep for example was eBay not buying their own merchandise and building a factory and creating something that was theirs instead of the Global Shipping Program. Walmart for example has stores and warehouses so it was easier for them to copy Amazon. eBay, not so much.

Now to build the trust that consumers associate with Amazon eBay want's to pummel sellers with rules that may work very well on Amazon (they actually don't for small sellers there either) and large vendors but are the death nail to small sellers here already struggling for a multitude of reasons. It's painful to see the platform try to weed out bad sellers and claim to know "what buyers want" by putting everyone in the same bucket when there are endless sellers here that should have been in a separate tier all by themselves. Many of them have helped build the backbone of this company and the little remaining good reputation this platform has yet they are told every other month here's a new metric for them to follow and if they don't they're gone as if the years of work they've put into their small businesses means absolutely nothing.

Just not cool.

[pijjy_marketing]

Okay... firstly, thanks to all for words of encouragement.

Secondly, before I start I feel I need to point out that my listings have been optimised to the nth degree for some time, optimisation has not been my problem.

My sales in October have been 100% down (as mentioned in a previous post), so here is what I have tried in the past week...

I sat and thought about what eBay's game might be and I have to admit it appears I might have over thought it.

Why would eBay want to kill off Final Value Fees by throttling (literally) the life out of sellers? It doesn't make sense as they would be cutting their own throat. But, nonetheless, throttling does appear to be what they are doing and perhaps moreso since the end of July 18. This date appears to be mentioned too many times across too many niches to be coincidental. Plus, I will add here that it is not only sellers mentioning it, it is aBay affiliates too. I am both. Around this date eBay, over night, imposed strict call limits to their API unless developers applied to have their apps approved. They literally just shut off calls after the maximum unapproved number leaving websites/apps unable to operate. Thankfully they did not take too long with the approvals after applications were made. But certainly this meant a huge loss of earnings for affiliates as they were unable to promote seller items. Anyway enough about that for now... Suffice to say that eBay 'throttled' affiliates and their potential to earn for themselves, for sellers and for eBay too. 'Throttling' does appear to be a tool eBay can and do use.

So, putting my 'seller' hat back on (affiliate hat back in the closet), why would eBay throttle sellers and restrict eBay's earning potential??? The answer, I think, is that eBay doesn't restrict its earning potential by throttling sellers... it improves it!

I decided to run a sale through eBay promotions... a 20% off sale across the board.

Result: Three days later... still no sales.

So... Price was not an issue, either that or even with 20% off my potential buyers still thought I was too expensive.

I suspected that price was not so much the issue so..

Next.. I kept the sale running and added all the items to an eBay pay extra final value fees promotion.

and...

Kaboom! My sales were back the same night and have been since.

However...

My sales are back at 20% off and 8% extra final value fees payable to eBay for the privilege.

... Hmm? Means I will have to up my prices a little to cover my losses or accept that a few percent profit on something is better than 100% profit on nothing.

For now the result is basically this... Buyers are 20% a happier as they are paying less and eBay is 8% happier as I am having to pay them an extra 8% on top of my final value fees just to get a sale. Me? Well I am just relieved that I am once again having some kind of turnover.

So.. for all those who haven't yet realised... eBay is quite happy to take your 10% basic final value fees for 30 days and put you at the bottom of the search results (or not at all) without salling your item or they are even happier to charge you 18% and give you half a chance of a sale in return. eBay are happy that their users (our buyers) think they get good bargains at knock down prices and a top notch delivery service thrown in for free. Of course they are, it is a no brainer, it is a sure way for eBay to improve quality standards, reputation and revenue.

The sellers, of course, will have to cover the cost of that eBay and consumer happiness. Even if it means at the expense of our own.

Metaphorically, sellers have a clear choice, pay more rent and be in the mall where the buyers are or pay less and set up shop in a back alley that nobody frequents. The malls have moved their real estate to the net and now they want mall rents in return.

Welcome to Shopping Mall 2.0 and look forward to low rent niche shops in the physical malls as the big boys fold and leave them vacant.

Happy Days 🙂

...

[nowthatsjustducky]

I was getting a little concerned the past few days myself.  But as of last night, it seems like the cork has been pulled and sales are starting to roll in again.  It's not just eBay, but Etsy as well.  So far for tomorrow, I have $292.80 worth of stuff to process, package, and ship.

Who knows what is prompting buyers to loosen the purse strings?  I'm certainly not complaining.  Heck, I thought it was a good sign even 2 weeks ago when I had a $40 sale on my eCrater store of all places (only thing more miraculous would have been a Bonanza or eBid sale).  I suspected that was a portent of things to come...

Hang in there, peeps; better days are a-coming; and just in time for the holiday shopping season.  😄

Ho Ho Ho!

[nowthatsjustducky]

Looks like I spoke too soon.  Just added another $69.95 to the weekend total.  The box of 24 rolls of Necco Wafers that had been lingering for the past couple months just sold on my main account.  😄

[laurabeardsley]

Well, once again if Ebay is going to take the 35 cents to list an item and not let it be seen unless it is promoted for additonal expense then they must tell us and not take our money for nothing in return. This just is not right to pay for something you are not getting anything for. I would really appreciate honesty from them at this point so I could make a rational decision.

[dosprompt]

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Property taxes!

And a glut of too much stuff...

And they want us to buy new stuff, not recycle...everytime someone buys 2nd hand, they are not buying new....and the chinese fill up US landfills....think about it.

Dos

@luckythewinner wrote:

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@krys888 wrote:

I went from 4-9 items per day for the past year consistently to the past few weeks of barely 1 or 2 every other day.  

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There are a vast number of somethings that are constantly going on - or not going on, or changing, or evolving. 

Supply.

Demand. 

Trends.

Fashion.

Demographics.

Price.

Returns.

Shipping cost.

Advertising.

Listing appeal.

Mobile technology.

Traffic.

Competition.

Site changes.

Emotion.

Perception.

Sentiment.

Economics.

Seasons.

Weather.

News.

Any one of these topics could turn into a ten-page discussion of how it affects eBay. If you are looking for a simple answer, I'm afraid you are vastly underestimating the complexity of a marketplace with a billion items.

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[pijjy_marketing]

I think we would get 'something' in return for a basic listing fee otherwise eBay would be taking listing fees fraudulently. But it does appear they have tiered what you get for your money. What I did notice is that sellers don't have a spending cap option when paying for the ebay ads, so a seller can't set a maximum £ or $ total per day budget for advertising. The only two options available are ... set your own maximum percentage for what you are willing to pay in extra final value fees, or, set the amount you are willing to pay extra at 1% above 'trending'.

So, basically, in translation from eBay speak .... "whatever percentage extra on FVF's you are telling us you are willing to pay" or "1% above whatever percentage we (eBay) are telling you that you should be paying". Both methods have no  visible science behind them and both appear nothing more than made up figures with no real basis. With no absolute spending controls it is scary stuff really. Hypothetically, sellers just as well make eBay co-signatories on the company chequebook.

Yes.. I agree it would be better for eBay to be more open about it but I guess they would still like the 35c limited exposure listings to keep rolling in. To be fair, I would if I was them.