Low Sales

[diverse_tattoo_supply]

I've read a lot of Post on slow sales I just want to offer my opinion. I believe there are several factors in play with slow sales. 1. Interest rates I believe a lot of people are holding back on using credit cards. 2. Inflation the cost of living expenses. Gas, Food. Rents  Hi interest rates on home owners. 3. Taxes local property taxes in my area have gone up. 4. Promoted listing, because there is pressure for sellers to use promoted listing. Cost for selling are higher, therefor cost of products are higher. 5. Saturated products  After covid it seems more people have been turning to online sales saturating the platform. I tried all the suggestions to increase sales including promoted listing at a rate I could afford without marking up my prices to high. Nothing seems to work my sales continue to drop. I began looking into other means of creating income.  Built and published my new website and I am finishing adding products and once I feel it is okay to sponsor the site with Google. I will do that and I hope it works. I also created accounts in other e-commerce platforms to increase sales. Note is how bad things have become for my business only relying on the eBay store. Is in the last 2 year I basically thrown away over 3 thousand dollars in inventory, and this year I stand to throw out a lot more inventory. I basically do not purchase inventory as much. I hope things turn around and i hope this helps and I would like to hear other sellers thoughts.

[ckimodog]

@diverse_tattoo_supply 

Thanks for your post.  There are so many reasons and factors as to why sales aren't what they used to be, yet so many of us still hang in there.  I applied for EBT last week.  However, I continue to persevere and hope that things will turn around for all of us who continue to do our best, yet little comes from it lately.  At least for now.  Keep the faith, friend, it's all I can advise. 

Happy Holidays 

[luckythewinner]

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@diverse_tattoo_supply wrote:

I've read a lot of Post on slow sales I just want to offer my opinion.

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My opinion is that ecommerce has exploded over the past 10 years, and eBay has been diluted by competition because people have dramatically more options for online shopping these days. 

For new items, most manufacturers now have an online presence for direct sales which makes it hard for sellers paying 13% on the entire order to compete. 

For handmade items, there is a site that has impacted that niche and taken market share from eBay. For records and CDs, there is a site with a vastly superior catalog and structured data that is taking market share from eBay . Etc. Etc. Etc. 

[deltilogical]

I tried to buy a simple item but after 2 weeks it still hadn't shipped - I clicked the nonreceived button and like magic suddenly the item shows it entered the mail stream.   Is it a business model where a certain percent of buyers won't complain if their item doesn't ship and the seller gets to keep the funds?  

[diverse_tattoo_supply]

Thank you for your replies I to cut back on many expenses and plan on selling my home in the spring if things don’t look up. It is sad and for me a life changing event. If for some reason I figure things out I will share what I learned. Thank you.

[psfhobbies]

Sales after thanksgiving def down this year then in the past years.In fact everything is down ...beginning three years ago ..My suggestion is to VOTE Next November 

[laststopgeneralstore]

My opinion is that it's just business. At the end of the day regardless of what type of business you have, you're going to have constant ups & downs, slow times & great times etc... More so with eCommerce in general & even more so with reselling pre-owned items.

I say this all the time, focus on the things that you control instead of spending all your time, energy, stress & money into the things that you will never be able to control. Adapt, change & move forward. Take accountability and realize that what you were doing a month, 1 year, 5 years or 10 years ago may not be working now.

Keep in mind that as time goes on, especially now, the generations that used to love buying old collectible stuff or older knick knacks & stuff like that is quickly fading away and is being replaced with the new generation that has a much different taste in consumer goods than the older generation did. With that you're losing an entire buyer base combined with A LOT of competition(wasn't their before) and the new generation coming in with completely different taste.

It's our job to be the best we can be and have the best items we can get that people want. This is why having good items is extremely important yet everybody points the finger at eBay when they have a slow day/month/quarter. Yes their are issues with eBay but in my opinion, when it comes to our sales, it's at best 10% of the problem. The rest is on us sellers and that's that.

[clown_car_driver]

Thank you for your replies I to cut back on many expenses and plan on selling my home in the spring if things don’t look up. 

The housing market is floundering now ... by spring it'll be 2009 all over again.

Hope you have lots of equity ... 

[inhawaii]

My humble opinion.

Slow sales = Nobody wants to buy what you are selling.

[sakic92710]

Good morning, J-dude.  lol  The seller has over 34,000 feedback. I believe someone wants what they are selling.  😛

[dhbookds]

I echo @laststopgeneralstore  focus on the things that you control  and it sounds like the OP is trying to do that.

But will also add that many sellers have gone thru changing their product type because of oversaturation, changes in demand, etc. Hard to do, but it can be done. 

[laststopgeneralstore]

I also forgot to add that if you're selling on this platform and you've been sourcing the same types of items and continue to source the same types of items despite seeing a decline in your sales over *insert period of time* and your traffic remains steady and/or normal then the issue isn't eBay, it's the seller and/or what you're selling, your listings, prices, customer service, handling time etc...

Their is a reason why stores periodically pull certain inventory from the shelves that they used to sell all the time or seasonal inventory. We've all had that 1 thing that we would purchase at our favorite store and then one day you go and it's just gone and your like "why would they get rid of that, it was such a good item, they just didn't have enough", Most likely it's because it didn't meet a certain metric for that business and it was more cost effective to get rid of it; find a new product that's more desirable and that more people want that will sell better and replace it with that. If more sellers would adopt that mindset, they'd be better off and most likely improve their overall business. This is exactly what happened to me and I managed to change it all around for the better. Took some time, effort, work and sacrifice but it worked.

I see it all the time on these boards just looking at peoples stores that mention slow sales. You start researching what they're selling only to realize that the sell thru rate is extremely slow and/or non-existent. Combine that with an incorrect price, bad listing, photo's or even worse, being able to purchase said item brand new for the same price or cheaper without having to wait.

The ol' adage "time is money" has never been more prevalent with people than it is now. People want what they purchased and they want it immediately.

[anjie234]

@inhawaii 

       My humble opinion.

       Slow sales = Nobody wants to buy what you are selling.

While slow sales could very well mean that nobody wants to buy what you are selling,

I don't know that it applies here, as the tatoo and piercing market is BIG!

In fact, I read a recent article that said related business are booming where other

businesses are struggling. And, as someone else has said, this seller has over 34,000

feedback ratings.

Also curious how you would respond to the sellers who post that they are selling

fairly well to very well on other platforms... indicating a desire for their product.

Always appreciate your words of wisdom!

[redlinear]

Competition / Over saturation.   
Regardless of how eBay is operating right now with Promoted listings, Item Specifics, Skewed Search Results. Basically, Your items not being seen where you think they should?   Reduce the competition and they will be seen.
The competition will start to decline the year after the $600 1099 threshold goes into enforcement.
AND, over the next few years the competition will decline due to Promoted Listings, Item Specifics, Search Results.
   If you can wait it out, it'll get better.
Well, as long as the buyers don't get sick of it and leave also. 

[lindascollection2022]

I think it is time to leave ebay, ebay is out of the time, the wathers are mostly not the buyers but resellers , the selling fee is much more expensive especially for international selling and ebay does not protect his sellers.