penguins_dont_fly is a Volunteer Community Mentor
This is just my opinion ...
Your gallery photos (1st pictures) are unappealing.
Use the unlighted pics as your 1st pic.
Make a cutout of plain white posterboard to go around that outlet for your photos ... The textured wall is making everything look warped and yellow.
Crop your pics so that at least 90% is the item ... some of your (very pretty) night lights are getting lost in the background.
If you are making these yourself, try and emphasise their uniqueness somehow ... "handmade" in the title.
As lucky said ... you are lost in the pack in a category dominated by cheap Chinese items...you need to stand out somehow ...
Good luck
When did your sales drop? The last three months your sales look fairly consistent. What were they before?
I think your prices are fair, I have seen some nice similar themed mass produced night light covers, just the covers, selling for that much.
When you have unique items that aren't cheap junk, visibility is VERY important. If your items are unique, with no competition, visibility is much more important then price (to an extent) there are people who do not want mass produced junk and value unique, but they have to see your nightlights before they will buy them. You can't sell them if no one sees them. For me markdown manager/sales do seem to help and I see you are using that. If you aren't in the top 1000 for best match WITH markdown manager - that hurts.
Your items may be good candidates for promoted listings - I know a lot of small sellers hate them. But IF you wish to stay viable with a store subscription it may be necessary. Maybe consider raising your prices a little and use promoted listings (or not use markdown manager for anything you use promoted listing on) and keep using markdown manager on other listings.You sell the same kind of items, hopefully they will see the promoted item and then browse your store. I would start with a very low number, a couple at most, just to get something on the first page of search, and see if it makes any difference. I am still not sure about the whole promoted listing program (I don't know if I've had any direct success with it). For me, any item promoted and hasn't sold, sales have actually fallen for those items, even an item that was one of my best sellers before using promoted listings. But what is your choice? I would at least consider it before closing your store.
Can you make the covers interchangeable? you may sell multiple covers to repeat buyers if they can change them. If they are interchangeable and you sell the covers people will continue to return just to pruchase the interchaneable covers, and are more likely to purchase the first nightlight. If they are interchangeable, advertise that point.
Some people will say it is the time of year. But I never compare sales month to month... always same month previous years. If someone has been here 15 years, and this is the worst June sales ever, the weak sales can not be blamed on it being summer.
How often do you use markdown manager. I've been researching ways to improve my own sales and saw where eBay says there must be at least two days between putting an item on sale through mark down manager. I know in the past I have run back to back sales (that included same item/listing) and wonder how that affects visibility because sales do seem weaker then normal when I have done that.
Another option may be to close your store and use free listings until your historic good months. I would imagine sales would pick up in autumn. You said sales in other places were good, so maybe putting time and effort in other areas would be more profitable. But IF you have the time, and it is profitable, why not keep an eBay presense.
Whether you keep your store, or not, is only a decision you can make. but there are questions to consider, are your sales supporting a store now? If they do, does the increase in sales from non-store to store pay for the store? IOW, having a store I sell 10 more items, profit from those items pays for store, then maybe keep the store.
eBay is its own economy, was even more so in the past. I loved one of your items, the hummingbird picture one.... my sales are currently weak so I will put off purchasing it, where in the past I wouldn't have thought twice about buying it. Maybe I can in the future if sales improve.... I don't spend because my sales are weak, so your sales drop, in response you don't buy something... another small seller sales drops, so he limits his purchases and the downward spiral of the eBay closed loop localized small seller/buyer economy continues. If you sell items not bought by users who are small sellers/buyers the impact will be much less noticeable.
You've sold 3 since you posted this, and who knows how many more you will sell in the future. I'm still debating the Hummingbird ones. So the major problem isn't the pricing or images or whatever... the problem is the people who would purchase these aren't seeing them. Of course so much goes into search placement every little bit helps (ie better images or sales) and gives you higher visibility.
Now lets see how many new threads pop up with sellers trying to copy this success by getting people to look at their stuff in hopes someone will buy something.
