Sales Very Low

[bellafortuna50]

My sales are very low; was wondering if opening a EBAY store would help and promotions. I have a variety of items, antique, clothes, kitchen items, and jewelry.  Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you

[baantiques]

I've found a few things that work for me.

Ebay loves things that sell and hates things that don't sell.  Consequently, ebay loves sellers that have things that sell and hates sellers that have things that don't sell.

1.  List every day.  10 items seems to do the trick but once things get rolling maybe 5 will work.  The trick is to do it consistently.

2.  Get rid of old stale inventory.   Have a sale, combine it in an auction, throw it away.  But get it out of your store.  Forget sell similar.  That does nothing.

New items give you a boost, old items hold you back.  Address both.  I've been doing these for 4+ months now and my monthly sales are up almost 200% and I just had my best sales week since I started 25 years ago.

[coolections]

No, a store has nothing to do with getting more sales. Also you have to make sure you are getting enough sales to cover the cost of the store. You already get 250 free so you would need to boost your store to a minimum of 500 items to even consider a store IMO.

[12345jamesstamps]

Need more items for sale....try to max out how many you can list first. And if you can do that....then do a store.

Your prices are fair...promotion might work on a few...don't do them all...maybe the highest price ones can be listed promoted. Maybe do an auction now and then to get exposure.

[bill.purvis2012]

Not so much the store issue. That completely depends on the number of listings. Here's my advice:

1. Look at your listings and on all those that have a dark gray/brown background use the Ebay photo tool and lighten it. Makes the item pop.

2. Do the end item, sell similar. It DOES work.

3. Consider adding a coupon.

4. Consider doing a Markdown.

5. Always send out offers to watchers. (I get many sales this way)

6. Add new listings often.

7.  Consider Free Shipping. I know. It costs. But, you will sell more even at a higher price. So, up your price and offer free shipping. 

[reallynicestamps]

NO.

Stores have a $25 a month subscription and up to 1000 'free' listings.

If you have 1000 listings then you are paying 2.5c for each listing. If you have 500 listings you are paying 5c per listing. If you have 25 listings you are paying $1.00 per listing.

And the cheaper Starter Store charges you $8 for the same number of listings you get Free without one.

The more (free!) listings you have the more customers will find.

The more listings you have the more you will sell.

And watch what does sell and list more stuff like that.

[bellafortuna50]

Thank you  that makes lots of sense.

[bellafortuna50]

Thank you I will add coupons and I'm working on adding new listings.

[bellafortuna50]

I really appreciate your input Thank you

[onlyavision]

Sell Similar does seem to work. I have sold a few things after I did that.  In fact, I wanted to see where my listings were landing up. The ones that are not getting any looks.  I looked for one thing in particular that never seems to get views, even though I've seen others selling the same item. I signed out of Ebay and then went searching for that item. It was on page 20 of 25!  I signed back in, ended the listing and did sell similar. Signed out again and looked for it and it was on page 1 right at the top.  Now I am waiting to see if it gets any views.  If not then I will just end it. 

[bellafortuna50]

Will start working on some more listings just started by taking pictures. Thank you

[bellafortuna50]

Want to thank everybody got a lot of great suggestions will start working on them today.

[tdl_collectibles]

I'd get the Basic ($5.95 I think) a month store at a minimum. Just having access to the Seller Hub and Terapeak for that cost seems worth it to me.    Even if you do it for just one month to see the Seller Hub, you might decide it's worth it.

Everyone else provided some great advice but I really do recommend that Basic store if you intend to stick with it.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

This is not a critique of your inventory, but I see nothing there that I would expect to be a fast seller.

My own listings have very few fast sellers. I deal with that problem by acquiring items I can mark up a great deal, often enough so I can ignore the product cost when pricing. I list a large number of items, expect slow turns, and have the space to wait for sales.

The basic store not only comes with 1,000 listings, it comes with an additional 10,000 listings in select categories. It makes selling on Ebay an acceptable activity for long-tail sellers, who previously left this site for Amazon, when their low sell through rate had them bleeding listing fees, even with the periodic free listing promotions that Ebay ran.