My Sells are Terrible. Anyone Else having slow sales?

[dm772012]

Just wondering if any other sellers are having slower sales then usual?

This time last year, I had great sales. Heard that Ebay has so many more

vendors and sellers than we have buyers. I don't know about the promoted listings?

Haven't clue what that means? I've have more returns lately than ever before.

2 of my sellers wore my item and damaged the pristine designer shoes. I lost money

with free shipping coming and going. Couldn't relist my shoes, but the disonest

buyer got to wear them for special event and returned damaged and got full refund.

I Sold designer pair sunglasses and after 10 days the buyer emailed: oh I thought they

were different style? I provided 12 photos. She sent them back wrapped in newspaper.

OF COURSE, THEY ARRIVED DAMAGED...She got full refund! Needed to vent about buyers that abuse our merchandise. This is how I make my living. Time for real job :))) that pays better

[ozarkjoe]

I'm doing OK about the same as 2 years ago but I had to double my listings and move up to a higher priced store level.  I like to think I get a little better at knowing what to list over time.

[wa.streetrods]

Hello, Im not a big seller, however I do ok for my needs...

And , yes my sales have been very low for about 3 weeks now. 

Im sure that part of this issue is my own fault, failed to show up for work

AKA diddn't make enough new listings...

However that is just part of the issue here, I dont know if I have ever had numbers

this low in the last 2 years.

Perhaps this is because of  the holiday gift purchesing season...what I sell which is

mostley used vintage car, truck & motercycle parts, not the best stocking stuffers

what with the smell of oil and all, lol.

I think I should list some gift type and or seasonel items.

A reguler Job? I think I will show up for work a little more here and get out of this 

temperary lull.

Daniel

Vancouver Washington State USA

[annabelles-attic]

Bad for the last three weeks.

[inthepastcollectibles]

I am not lazy or anything else, nor do I believe the sellers here are and that's why they are on eBay.  Do you ever wish there was a button at the bottom of a post for "unhelpful"??  I do......!!!

I find most sellers on eBay work very hard to do what that do and many are underpaid and underappreciated.  As far as sales go, I was slow from October to the 4th of November, but sales have picked up and I am on target for my monthly average.  There is one consistency I do see from many of the postings of people who are saying their sales have died (other than all of them being eBay sellers) and that is most of the seller's lack variety in the types of things they sell.  From looking at many of the poster's listings they sell only one "type" of thing, i.e.; just clothing, just fishing lures/equipment, just camera lens/equipment.....etc.  If you get out "competed" in your category, you have no backdrop to fall back to....... 

It takes more work and more knowledge to diversify your selling items (unless you become a dropshipper and that has it's own particular headaches), but I have found (for me) counting on "one" particular type of product leads to lapses in sales and rollercoaster rides in earnings from day to day.  All it takes is another seller to sell it cheaper and/or offer free shipping and the loyalty of many customers are gone like the wind.  Unless the item is singularly unique....price is the lowest common denominator for most customers.   The Goodwill (who gets it's items for nothing) and mass liquidators, who only pay their distributers paltry percentages of anything that sells (which means they can sell it for whatever and make profit).......make if terrribly difficult for the average Joe/Josephine to compete when they have to put dollars out to make profit.  BTW Both the Goodwill and mass liquidators are here to stay on eBay, as well as China, so you really need to find the niche that stands out from anything they might sell.

[keziak]

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@sbaron1153 wrote:

its called the new age of lazy people. nobody wants a real job anymore thats why so many people are selling on ebay moreso then ever before and why jobs like uber, doordash etc are thriving because nobody wants to have a real job anymore.. the only way ebay will ever recover is if over 60% of people that are selling on ebay  quit selling .. there are far too many sellers of the same products that no one can compete anymore. that is the brutal reality . until a lot of peope give up and stop selling everyone will suffer.

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I thought that might happen at the River when they adjusted their fees for Fulfillment by Amazon to skyhigh for everyone used to "parking" goods there. Would people just gut it out or retrieve inventory to somehow store locally? This was followed by other changes effecting what one is allowed to list. Would people quit en masse?  From what I can tell, there are still zillions of sellers there.

[nawlinsron2]

In the words of the immortal Yogi Berra...
"It's too crowded...nobody goes there anymore."

[jbbowers12012]

also very slow here in new jersey,  down by at least 40%. starting to feel a little "snake bit"......just hanging in there & hoping things will pick up..... good luck & hang in there everyone.

[palmdaleprincess2012]

My sales are in the toilet too, maybe 2 this month.  Doing much better on betsy.

I believe ebay does not show my listings and I'm sure there are many other small sellers that they are pushing out with this method as well.  People have been reporting this for a couple years now and it wasn't affecting me, but I guess it's my turn now.  There's probably an algorithm the bots use and I can't see my way around it.  I'm closing my store at the end of the month.  I'll use the 50 free listings and in  the spring have a couple yard sales to reduce my inventory.

[calistas_closet33]

Me too..suddenly cut in half, by 10k..used to sell upwards of 20k a month, and nothing has changed on my end.  I think something is seriously wrong and fortunately i can return my merchandise and I am listing thru holidays and returning simultaneously because i will need a real job in Jan now. 

[nawlinsron2]

ebay stock is on a downslide for the last weeks...wonder if some brokers have discovered these boards?

[cj-autopartsllc]

Completely agree, sales are way down.  I urge everyone to please do a random search for your items on eBay, and try searching multiple ways using multiple keywords found in your listings.  There is a GLITCH in eBay search functionality, and I've read on multiple other community boards dating back to at least April of this year.  The issue has been apparently reported to eBay technical team by multiple sellers, but to this day there is still an issue with the search function.  For example, I have a front center bumper listed for a 1966 Cadillac.  If I search for 1966 Cadillac bumper, the listing appears...if I search for 1966 Cadillac front bumper (which is how I would search if I were a buyer looking for a front bumper), the listing is not found...now if I search for 1966 Cadillac bumper front (just a different placement in the word "front"), the listing is found... I called eBay today & got one representative that told me because I have "front center bumper" in my listing title, that I would have to search exactly those words in that order...uuuhhhh no, that's not how a search algorithm is supposed to work.  I called back & spoke with someone else, and they supposedly filed a report with the technical department...but I'm afraid that it will just go into the abyss since this has apparently been ongoing for months.  I urge each of you to be vigilant & check that your listings are actually showing up in searches, and my guess is that most of you will find this to be the case that it's not actually showing up depending on how you type in your keywords for the search.  If that's the case, PLEASE call eBay & report it...if they get innundated with calls relating to this technical "glitch" hopefully they will put it on their priority list to fix.  I know others feel it is just a poor economy, and depending on what you're selling, that may be the case, but I believe in most instances it is actually a problem with eBay itself & how searches are being executed utilizing the keyword algorithm.  I don't think it's a coincidence that sales started to tank after eBay started making all sorts of changes to their policies all at once (such as active content, http, links, etc.)...I believe they screwed up something in the search algorithm when enacting these new policy changes.

[leftcoasttrading]

This should tell you everything.

This year's numbers:

51.9%    Down  You

8.9%      Up  Market

[soft_treasures]

I have gone in the hole 90 a month as I was holding on to hope, I have done nothing different than lower my prices. I cant go any lower as most of these are new items. But NO sales.?? or a couple a year I am down 96% and I am now stuck with thousands of dollars inventory and in the hole 1000 in fees this year.. I did not relist much new so I wonder if relisting just gets held up in cyberspace where they have to scroll through a zillion things.. I have tried searching my items and unless I put the exact title I cant find most of them

[pageka-2007]

I am in the same boat with the rest of you. My sales are down over 50% of what they were last year. This is the worst year I have had since I started selling in 2011. I have started looking for a job. I was making a decent income selling ebay but not now! I blame all the changes ebay has made since September. I was doing better than this in July and August! Ebay's changes I believe has killed a lot of our businesses. As soon as I find work I am hanging up Ebay.

[mksports03]

Sales and views are terrible the last 2 days, how can we have great sales one day and then no views or sales for 2-3 days after, should be our busy time of the year, but sure hasn't been the last couple days.