Sales Slump

[jlstoner]

Is everyone here in the US experiencing a HUGE downturn in sales?

I used to do $3K a month, but the last few years sales have slumped by 2/3's or more.

I have increased item levels by more that double, to no avail.

I wish there was a real competitor to ebay.

[rosszonebricks]

There were a few 'known issue' days that impacted buyer's ability to buy anything but those are resolved.

After that, the usual:

• Sales go up and down throughout the year.
• People are returning to shopping in person, so the 'covid boom' for online sales in general has slowed.
• In general, people have less and less to spend on nonessentials.
• What sells and what doesn't changes.  What sold well for years or decades can suddenly become something few to none are interested. (Beanie Babies, we are looking at you!)

[whatmorefabric]

It isn't ebay.   

You are selling collectable tools,   and younger buyers don't collect very much.    Try expanding what you sell.   I use to sell Vintage Fabric and patterns.    I would get up to 150.00 for rare McCalls 1930 patterns,  now I can't give them away. 

Place what you are selling in the very beginning of the title and use more words in that title.

Add more item specifics and get rid of most of that fine print.      All your rules are meaningless,    confuse  Google and Ebay search and are a turn off.

Use calculated shipping instead of the refund.    High shipping costs are a turn off,  even if you refund.

Every site has a slowing of sales.    There are still way too many sellers across the board and fewer buyers.    The younger generation does not shop like the Boomers did.    They do not care about owning a 100 pair of shoes.  

[orangehound]

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@jlstoner wrote:

Is everyone here in the US experiencing a HUGE downturn in sales?

I used to do $3K a month, but the last few years sales have slumped by 2/3's or more.

I have increased item levels by more that double, to no avail.

I wish there was a real competitor to ebay.

---

It is well known that eBay is getting fewer sales ... it is documented in their quarterly GMV.  And, I've noticed that the sales velocity has decreased (takes as much as twice as long to sell compared with, say, 5 years ago).

But, a 67% decrease?  No ... not anything close to that.  If an item is in-demand and priced fairly, it is selling, and you don't need to use promoted listings.

There are several changes I can see with both your inventory and the way you list, improvements that I believe would improve your sales.  But, you aren't asking that question, and I know people get offended when others criticize the way they list, so I'll not go any further.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

You have gotten two previous responses. Neither is wrong but they need not be relevant to your situation.

Ebay's GMV drop is attributed by Ebay to a decrease in NEW mass market product sales.

Ebay is still the best venue for selling many types of collectibles.

Traditionally, I have dealt with sales drops by adding more listings, and sales drops during times of economic stress by adding lower priced items (not price cutting).

Today, some of us are selling similar impressions to the past, similar views and fewer sales. This suggests that either our buyers already have the item, cannot afford to buy, or are buying from the competition on Ebay.

I see a drop in external views, and that always hurt my sales.

In the past I would have added more listings (I have lots more inventory) but due to personal issues, I will not be adding more. I expect my sales to be off, until I find some good news when I read the morning news.

[dbfolks166mt]

     It depends on if you are just asking about eBay sales or the bigger picture. Competition is spreading out the wealth and both buyers and sellers are exploring other venues. I diversified across multiple platforms and venues quite some time ago and from the big picture perspective my sales have not decreased all that much but what has shifted is the percentage of sales I have on eBay compared to other platforms. At one time eBay constituted about 90% of my sales by volume, that percentage is now down to less than 20%. 

     I have a feeling that Temu is going to have an adverse impact on all of the US ecommerce sites. They are advertising EVERYWHERE and rapidly gaining a foothold in the ecommerce market. The following information is from Sensor Tower as of 10 February 2024. 

     "Temu is now the second-most popular shopping app in the U.S. as measured by monthly users, behind Amazon. Its U.S. mobile app monthly active users jumped 950% year-over-year in the last three months of 2023, when its digital ad expenses increased more than three times. "

[chapeau-noir]

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@rosszonebricks wrote:

There were a few 'known issue' days that impacted buyer's ability to buy anything but those are resolved.

After that, the usual:

• Sales go up and down throughout the year.
• People are returning to shopping in person, so the 'covid boom' for online sales in general has slowed.
• In general, people have less and less to spend on nonessentials.
• What sells and what doesn't changes.  What sold well for years or decades can suddenly become something few to none are interested. (Beanie Babies, we are looking at you!)

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All very true except one thing:  people don't collect as much "stuff" as we did before - travel, events and experiences are booming.

Many people, not just GenX/Boomer types, are getting rid of "stuff" and living lighter, and we have so.much.stuff in this country. A lot of items are growing longer tails.

But OP is doing well for what they have listed (genre) and how much!

[pcobra93]

YES....the worst I have ever seen in fact.