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Sales DIED in the last month... what happened???

I saw an incredible drop in sales in March. I cannot figure out what has happened. The change was so drastic it is almost catastrophic. I see a lot of talk about GTC and I even thought my listings were being hidden somehow but I did some searches on a different user ID and there they were right as they should be in search results.

 

Its not like people's appliances suddenly stopped breaking... also, the quality of the buyers I DID get last month was awful... it was a lot of scammers trying to pull fast ones (buyers choosing Local Pickup to get free shipping/buyers returning their old/installed parts/buyers from other countries buying under a Domestic address then saying they need it shipping out of country to avoid paying international shipping/etc)

 

Very confusing how such a drop off happened so suddenly. I understand there are ups and downs and have been selling on this platform for nearly 20 years but I have never seen anything so drastic and sudden as what has been happening the last 4 or so weeks. It is very concerning. I sell products that are one  a "need" basis and make sure when listed my items are the lowest price that exists online... anywhere. The "need" is there 100% so I am confused as to what is happening. Items that I would sell 5-10 weekly for months just suddenly died... as did everything else.

 

What are your sales like for March? Up? Down? Non existent?

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Re: Sales DIED in the last month... what happened???


@weschurch wrote:

@sharingtheland wrote:

 Ebays failures have single handedly built Amazon. 

 

Um, no.  I don't agree with this statement.


When Ebay started rolling out terrible changes sellers were looking for other venues. Thats when Amazon was just starting to become popular. Tons of inventory was moved to that site over the next few years. 

 

I can speak for myself when I tell you personally I was doing in the ballpark of 400k a year in sales back then and I switched over because I got tired of Ebays garbage. I know LOTS more did the same. I'm only 1 of many


Did you find a better place to list your items and make a $400k yearly? Me, i used to make $160k on eBay, but since beginning of 2019 sales has dropped drastically, so i'm in urge to double listings somewhere else, to recuperate turnover

Message 76 of 95
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Re: Sales DIED in the last month... what happened???


GTC change happened..They have destroyed the website and all of our sales with this...My sales were great in March before this started..Then as soon as they rolled out this out??  Bye Bye Sales!!! 
Message 77 of 95
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Re: Sales DIED in the last month... what happened???

Same here. I am doing great at my store that is not eBay. I have been moving all of my eBay inventory over to that store because customers can actually find it and buy it.
Message 78 of 95
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Re: Sales DIED in the last month... what happened???

Yes, over-protecting buyers and under-protecting sellers is not a good business model, and they swear by it. It eventually backfired.
Message 79 of 95
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Re: Sales DIED in the last month... what happened???

Hi gang...I finally decided to close my eBay Store TODAY, April 30th, but before I did, I decided to call eBay "one last time", to see if there was ANY indication from the higher-ups that they were going to get rid of the GTC Fiasco, and let things go back to the way there were, and OF COURSE I was given the same old spiel that they're "taking notes", and "will pass them along", blah, blah, blah.. same old story. As you can imagine, the eBay rep was very careful not to say anything which might even imply that things would ever change for the good, and although she seemed to feign a little bit of sympathy towards sellers' plights with never-ending listings, and items never selling, she nevertheless invited me to end my Store, so;...I did! ..Even in spite of them immediately assessing me an 'Early Termination Penalty', for doing so. **bleep** eBay, squeezing me for every last nickel they can, and I hope it's the LAST nickel, too!  Smiley Mad

Message 80 of 95
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Re: Sales DIED in the last month... what happened???

Agree. Once my auctions end this week I won't be on here to browse as a buyer. I used to get all my dad's books and beauty items. I'm even going to remove my quick button on the top of my browser.  I gave ebay a chance since January with all the changes and it's too time consuming and fee heavy to sell small anymore. I originally sold stuff on here to support my son but he is grown up and now it was just money for extras. Going to stick with my local groups instead.

Message 81 of 95
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Re: Sales DIED in the last month... what happened???

OP here

 

Wanted to give an update. In April I saw a rebound back to "normal" for a few weeks and again my sales have died. This week I have sold ONE item so far (one item in 4 days). No offers, no questions, nothing. It is very similar to what I saw in march when I originally posted... actually this week is worse. I usually sell SOMETHING even something small everyday or at least get lowball offers/questions. Is the site down? Checkout not working?

 

How is everyone else doing out there? Good? Bad?

Message 82 of 95
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Re: Sales DIED in the last month... what happened???

Up here too. Chugging along as expected.

 

To the OP....

 

The fault may be in the products being sold and their pricing.  Nah...wouldn't be that now would it? Of course not.

Message 83 of 95
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Re: Sales DIED in the last month... what happened???

I do my best to make sure I have the lowest price on the site for these products. I cannot be lower the the used prices, but i do not sell used I sell new. Its def not that. My prices are insanely low, lowest in the industry ANYWHERE. People's appliances always break and I sell OEM products from major manufacturers... so its puzzling when my sales were steady for months and months then drop off a cliff. Thanks for your sarcastic reply, though. It was very helpful 🙂

Message 84 of 95
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Re: Sales DIED in the last month... what happened???

@partsman330    Wrote: " ... What are your sales like for March? Up? Down? Non existent?"

__________________________________________________________________________________

Good questions and based on selling in collectibles categories I'll respond this way:

1. January - February - March 2019:  these three months out sold the same 3 months over the last 3 years.  Order volume (number of orders) up 50%-60%.  Dollar volume up by over double.

 

2. April 2019:  April also out sold the previous three Aprils but by much lower percentages.  April "averages" as the 8th best selling month.

 

3. GTC comparison:  I am giving GTC 3 months to see if Fixed Price listing sales remain constent, increase or decease.  I picked 3 months because when  they announced the new GTC mandate I gathered sales info by format for Jan-Feb-Mar this year.  54% Auction - 46% Fixed Price.  April's numbers were 62% Auction and 38% Fixed Price GTC.  

 

Regards,
Mr. Lincoln - Community Mentor
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Re: Sales DIED in the last month... what happened???


@binderzz wrote:

...4-1-2019 11-06-06 PM.jpg


I can make a hat, a brooch, a pterodactyl!

 

And Leroy is getting LARGER!

 

To the tower, Rapunzel, Rapunzel!

 

Macy's is having a sale!

 

If you have seen the movie, you know what I mean!Smiley Happy

Message 86 of 95
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Re: Sales DIED in the last month... what happened???

  eBay Marketing Pullback Causes Q1 Sales Drop By: Ina Steiner

Sponsored Link

Incredibly, eBay's top executives admitted they had expected the sales drop that the eBay Marketplace experienced in the first three months of 2019, saying it was caused by a significant reduction in marketing, primarily in North America. 
 
And despite the decline in dollar sales for its sellers - even as many paid more for visibility - eBay itself experienced a 4% increase in revenue (on a foreign-currency neutral basis) thanks to seller fees.
 
Here's how sellers fared in the first quarter in the aggregate:
 
- US GMV (the value of items sold on its marketplace) dropped 6% in the first quarter, year-over-year.
 
- Total GMV was down 4% - a decline of 1% taking into account the impact of foreign exchange.
 
eBay CEO Devin Wenig explained to Wall Street analysts on Tuesday's earnings conference call that its own revenue growth was partly driven by Promoted Listings - sellers were "flocking" to Promoted Listings, he said. 
 
"In Q1, we had more than $800,000 active sellers promote over 200 million listings. This helped drive over $65 million of revenue this quarter, up nearly a 110%."
 
While that's a win for eBay, it's the result of sellers having to compete more fiercely for sales, finding themselves having to sacrifice profit margin by paying for visibility through Promoted Listing ads.
 
I found the above on E Commerce Bytes & wanted to share with those of you who have not seen it----VERY INTERESTING
Message 87 of 95
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Re: Sales DIED in the last month... what happened???

@kittykat.949   Yes, that was very interesting ... the next quarter eBay will be touting their increased revenue because of the new GTC mandate whereby they are benefiting from Sellers having items automatically Relist twice in any month with 31 days or when Sellers accidently forget they have more monthly GTC listings then their pre-paid insertions.

I don't buy their comment that they expected a sales drop ...

 

Regards,
Mr. Lincoln - Community Mentor
Message 88 of 95
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Re: Sales DIED in the last month... what happened???

Both Wenig and Schenkel characterized the change in marketing expenditure as a "significant reduction."

For sellers expecting change, brace yourself: Wenig said the "GMV to Revenue gap" would continue. In other words, eBay will make more money from sellers for each dollar of sales. Basic math means that will make eBay increasingly less profitable for sellers.

eBay didn't mention the new Good Til Cancelled (GTC) mandate, nor did it receive any questions about it during the call. It's not clear if the company had signaled to analysts the topic was off limits, or if analysts don't consider it material to eBay's financial performance.

eBay did raise the issue of Managed Payments. Wenig said he was "delighted" with eBay's progress in taking over payment processing and announced it is expanding the program to Germany.

The above was also in that same article But I did not include it earlier as I did not want people all over the countrys heads to explode
Message 89 of 95
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Re: Sales DIED in the last month... what happened???

Amazon and Walmart are putting a hurting on stuff with free shipping and 1 day at that. 

Message 90 of 95
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