My Sales are going down at Night

[brandoutletuk]

I have been selling ebay for the last 2 years and over those years, our sales had been increasing month by month. 

Last few months were even better as our sales were averaging from 8 - 15 sales per day. 50% of the sales were happening after midnight (UK Time) which means most of those sale were either coming from late shoppers or international buyers.

Unfortunately, in the last 2 months my night sales has decreased a lot and has stopped to sale after midnight. 

I wonder what could be the reason behind it. How would the buyers suddenly stop buying the products.

Note:

I list items daily. I was getting 8 -15 sales per day while I had 350 items listed. Now that I have around 850 items, I should be better sales but that's not the case.

Let me know if any of you also had this scenario or have suggestions on what could have gone wrong.

Thanks

2. 

[ads*and*ends]

Just curious, have you raised your prices since you were selling 8-15 per day? Also, I'm not familiar with the shoe market, but have you mostly sold the ones in higher demand and are now left with items less sought after?

Not trying to insult, you obviously know what you're doing and have been successful at it. I don't usually sell multi-variation or items with multiple quantities, though I have a personal theory that GTC has ruined/slowed down many sales...however in my calculations, it shouldn't be happening nearly as drastically for multi-quantity listings.

[coolections]

Yourself and 6,000 other people are selling Nike and Adidas trainers. With that said, Ebay moves you up and down the ladder of best match. My guess is you used to be higher up the hierarchy and now have dropped some. If everyone always stayed where they are then only those with lowest price (that's what buyers normally search), and those currently on top would get sales.

[brandoutletuk]

@ads*and*ends  thanks for your insight.

I have been selling the latest trainers which can rarely be found in stores in UK or other markets. Also, my prices are very competitive to my other competitors selling similar products. 

If you search for any new listing it will be the latest Nike/Adidas releases which I am pretty sure no one else would have their hands before me. And if they do then I have people working continuously  to keep our prices better than our competitors. So I think that shouldn't be an issue.

[brandoutletuk]

@coolections thanks for your insight.

However, I think that shouldn't be a problem for my store. We keep close eye on all our competitors and there is a very minimum chance that any of our competitor selling same trainer would have lesser price than us. 

And about ranking with best match, if that's the case than we should still be on the top coz I can see all our items displaying way up on top (if not then on the first page).

[ads*and*ends]

Are you seeing a decline in impressions/traffic stats?

[brandoutletuk]

Thanks again for your insight 😉

At least I know that I should keep a close eye on my impression reports.

However, I checked and my impression/views/conversion reports look ok.

Please find the attachment of the report from Dec - March. Looks ok to me. 

Please let me know if you have further suggestions.

Thanks

[duncanvr]

Have you had an increase in returns? Check your service metrics. If you have fallen on the metrics numbers this maybe why you're suddenly lowered in search results. Are you running promoted listings? Maybe crop some of the backgrounds the shoes being more prominent in the main image. Try a 15% off all items in store sale. Why have feedback set to private? This can scare a few buyers away. Your items show 11 other cheaper shoes from other sellers before your description.

[pburn]

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@brandoutletuk wrote:

50% of the sales were happening after midnight (UK Time) which means most of those sale were either coming from late shoppers or international buyers.

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As a UK seller, you might want to also check the UK discussion boards--if you haven't already--to see if any of your fellow sellers have experienced a similar decline in late-night sales. Posters on ebay.co.uk may have come up with some suggestions on why this might be happening.

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Discussion-Boards/ct-p/13

Good luck to you!

[brandoutletuk]

@duncanvr thanks for your input.

However, all the recommendations from you are mostly to be tried to increase sales. And most of them are already intact for my account. However, my concern is my sales after midnight is gone null. This unusual situation of no sale after midnight for quite a long time makes me believe there's something else happening in my account or ebay in general.

Notes:

• My returns metrics hasn't changes, inf act it is better than before.
• I have few discount promotions in place however, I have recently left out putting % promotion in each listing as I think that doesn't help in listing impression. I have tested it and any popular item is still popular without promotion. (however, if you have better insight on this then please do share)
• 15% off isn't an option for me because the profit margins are significantly low.
• Feedback are public. Have I missed anything that you are saying my feedback is set to private?
• About ebay showing recommendation near description or any other areas, I don't see an option to remove them. I have had tried to removed it as this is surely will divert my potential buyers. But I could find any solution to this and left as is. (Please help here if you know of a solution).

And thanks for your help.

Cheers

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

Apparently you run all your listings as private listings?

[duncanvr]

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@brandoutletuk wrote:

@duncanvr thanks for your input.

• I have few discount promotions in place however, I have recently left out putting % promotion in each listing as I think that doesn't help in listing impression. I have tested it and any popular item is still popular without promotion. (however, if you have better insight on this then please do

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The fact that you have left our putting a promotions % could be the actual problem. Popular item still needs extra ads. When you place everything at 1% promoted listing you get a 2nd placement ad of your listings on eBay in other sellers listings. The higher % you have towards trending rates the more you are likely to get seen. I'd therefore recommend at least 1% promoted on everything its hardly much cost added per sale and you only pay that tiny fee on what sells if buyer actually clicks the promotion ad. But you get the extra placement. I looked at your feedback yesterday and it was all set at private on the right edge of the feedback screen.