My Sales have stopped dead! What is going on???

[scorwin814]

I've been selling clothing on eBay for well over 10 years.  This past week I have no sales, no offers not anything!  This has never happened for this long before.  I'm truly concerned. Is there anything else to try besides the obvious, listing, promoting, etc????

[dynastysfashionboutique]

Same....last great sales day last Monday since then barely cracked 100.....today 7.00 ...7,000 items in store not sure what happened in the days since last Monday its not like i suddenly stopped listing ....buyer did show me that my listing said free shipping but when they clicked on it it showed charged shipping...i dont offer free shipping on that item .....went to ebay they put in a ticket and all day since then... yesterday 7.00 so im not sure whats happening now....it is what it is I guess tired of trying to figure out what's wrong now all of the time 

[chapeau-noir]

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@amhsi03 wrote:

eBay has been screwing over sellers since 1995 that’s an even longer time.

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See...I TOLD you people have been complaining about this place from the get go!

[reallynicestamps]

also may I add that eBay does no advertising

I've seen eBay advertising on YouTube and FaceBook - in spite of AdBlockPlus- and eBay is occasionally crosslisting to FBMarketplace.

They don't advertise on TV . If you only watch broadcast TV, you will never see an eBay ad.

They shop on TikTok, Temu, Poshmark, even on Walmart and Target! (of course I don't want to mention the big A!) Oh, and FB Marketplace as well.

I've seen ads for WalMart on TV, but the last ads I saw for AZ were searching for workers when they were building a new warehouse on our Island more than two years ago. PoshMark stopped advertising on cable TV about four years ago.

I've never seen an ad for any of the other companies.

[johnrj1226]

Wouldn't consider  16  items sold in April, one sold  on April 16 as  being dropped dead activity.   There  are only 3,900,000 listings in the clothing  category just for eBay  - lots of other venues too.  Maybe Easter  has something  to do with a  slow down especially - winter type clothing.  When it is June in January your probably in Rio de Janeiro. The last 90 day you sold 105  items -that's just a tad over 1  item  sold ever calendar day.  In April   your sales rate is just a tad under 1 a day and the month  ain't over yet.  Our less than friendly Walmart and every other clothing  store have lots  of clothing at clearance prices.

In  a nutshell it looks like it  ain't  a bad as you think - from my viewpoint.

Sold  stuff for 41.5  years in the  same industry - sales activity goes up and down like a  yo yo.  The only  things that stays constant is  beer  and good whiskey.

Oh as for me that social security  2.9% increase and increase in medicare  that I paid into since I was 16 netted me about a half at tank of gas each month  but was offset by a 50% increase in my co-pays for my  in network   doctors ($30 bucks to $45) - 30 million over  the age of 65  in the US not  counting those that  swam the Rio Grand - thats ~ 10% of the  US population. Insurance  for home, auto, and property taxes .  jumped up too plus   food and other every day expenses   Yep  had to tighten the belt.  Glad  we saved for rainy daysj

[closet_purge]

Same here. April 15 was last good sales day. Since then its 80% drop off out of  no where. Has not recovered. Wondering if the Facebook integration is affecting functionality of the site (check out, cart, payment, etc....) Have heard from many others with multiple thousands of item stores same thing. Economy and tax time could cause a drop off some, but having so many people go to 70 - 80% drop off in sales & offers overnight in many cases looks like an eBay technical issue that they are NOT disclosing or more worrisome don't even know about. 

[mam98031]

Just looking at your sold items show in the past 90 days you get a bit over 200 transactions a month.  Your April sales seems to be in line with that number as well.  Maybe a little behind.  But about half that so far this month.  Certainly not an 80% drop, or at least not one that shows with the records we can all see.

[johnrj1226]

Totally agree

None of this stuff happening IMHO

                                                

[boomss]

I would think with money being tight people would look for used items on eBay and deals. The opposite effect. 

[simply-the-best-for-you]

@scorwin814   As a long time clothing seller, I will just say that sadly, a lot of your brands are not in demand & also your prices are quite high for some of them (and I say this as a high pricer).  Jacyln Smith was a Kmart brand, several of your brands are Target brands, Lands End tanked when Sears started selling them (even though they're good quality), Worthington is Penneys, Old Navy is a discount retailer.  $18 for that Jacyln Smith top is close to what it sold for new. 

I'm in the same boat as you, so I def feel your pain, but if I were you,  I would drop those cheapo brand or drop your prices on them.  Even your better brands are so saturated in the market unfortunately 😞

[onefootflipper1]

And as usual for these threads people give them all sorts of advice, some waste their valuable time examining their store and the original poster doesn't even return to say thank you.

Or, I would even take a "Screw you, I KNOW MY PRICES." At least then I know they read what I spent 20 minutes researching.

[femmefan1946]

Some sellers confuse a drop in the value of sales with a drop in the number of sales.

IE -they sold 100 items last month for $1000, but this month they sold 100 items for only $500.

My sales have a very regular pattern of stalling in April, but last year my January to March busy period extended all the way to July.
Not this year.
I'm back to normal, except that I am selling more overseas and less to the USA. Domestic (Canada) is normal.

My guess is that US residents have finally realized they are going to be paying federal sales taxes on imported goods.

[johnrj1226]

Heck  when I was selling used stuff on eBay cloth, footwers it  was  hot sell for  really good or better - top  name brand stuff as  a buyer I never stopped buying used  clothing not any ole brand -  do like denim Wranglers and Levi jackets older  style.  Been doing it for eons.  Sources:  discount store (Goodwill and the like, yard sales, estate sales etc.

[campanaelia]

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@boomss wrote:

I would think with money being tight people would look for used items on eBay and deals. The opposite effect. 

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Yep , that's exactly what the experts are predicting

I read this article last night saying used clothing and accessories sales should increase due to tariffs and there has been an increase in downloads of ebay"s app.

"Stores selling secondhand clothes, shoes and accessories are poised to benefit from President Donald Trump'strade war even as businesses the world over race to avert potential damage, according to industry experts.

The number of mobile app downloads for nine resale marketplaces the firm tracks — eBay, OfferUp, Poshmark, Mercari, Craigslist, Depop, ThredUp, TheRealReal and Vinted — increased by 3% between January and the end of March, the first quarterly gain in three years, Sensor Tower said.

The firm estimates downloads of the apps for eBay, Depop, ThredUp and The RealReal also surged compared to a year earlier for the week of March 31, which was when Trump unveiled since-paused punitive tariffs on dozens of countries."

Secondhand stores are poised to benefit if US tariffs drive up new clothing costs 

[lilnbigteamsport]

Those 10 points are the best explanation in all the threads - we too have seen the same thing and had an Ebay store since 2004... ever since the pandemic - nothing has ever been the same.

Ebay too doesn't do anything to help... they can't figure out if they want to be a place for "new" items or "garage sale type items" so they're all over the map which doesn't help anybody.

They could have had it all... we thrived in the beginning... but evidently their Management didn't know how to grow.... IMHO

[animal-house-8]

The Consumer Sentiment Index registered at 52.2 in April, down from 57.0 in March. The Index of Current Economic Conditions also decreased, while the Index of Consumer Expectations fell as well.  I on average ship about 8-10 packages on a Monday, this Monday 0. People will buy my stuff in a good economy, people do not buy my stuff in a bad economy. Been like that since 1998, I personally have cut back on my spending to essentials only and it looks like a lot of people are doing the same.