Sales

[mksports03]

Good morning,  is anybody else noticing sales are really erratic lately,  it has been over the course of the last month.  We know there were changes made mid march to now, but is it just us, or are any others noticing a drop in sales and views? This should be a busy time for us, but no such luck.

[stevemartin60]

Erratic is NOT normal.  Don't buy the lie, people.

[stockgirl12]

Hi there,

I finally got an honest ebay rep.  He told me the reason for the lack of sales is that you need to SPONSER OR PROMOTE your item.  ebay wants you to pay the extra $1 and then you will sell.. 

I don't know how anyone else feels but, that is extortion in my book.   If I am selling a product for $6 or $7.  

Do the math.  Take away th $1 for promoting and let's say $4.50 for postage and then the expense of your store,ink, paper, and the envelope to mail it, it is simply not worth the effort.

I'm in the process of switching to Amazon.

I hope this is helpful,   😞

[inhawaii]

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@stevemartin60 wrote:

Erratic is NOT normal.  Don't buy the lie, people.

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Erratic is not normal?

Your sales should be the same all the time?

Very interesting opinion.

[jasoheat_0]

dont forget the record loss of buyers ( thats 25% loss in 5 years ) that sounds like sears , or GMV ( sales ) are back to where they were in 2013 thats a decade ago , also shrinks market share down 40% , only two thing have been going up AD fees ( which visibility on ads with Ian at the helm have plummeted , they atleast worked when Devin was CEO ) and my sales on other platforms , it appears ebays market share maybe hitting a critical point to where sales will become  less as there are fewer and fewer buyers , and Ebay is going to make you pay for that sale with over inflated PL that take months to sell , well thats my experience and my opinion , but numbers do not lie , ebay is third on my list now , use to be 1st sad what is happening to ebay as a whole 

[starcastle33]

I did the promoted listings at 2% saw a huge spike in views and then after 2 days it plummets to about the normal amount I was receiving.  PL is a gimmick, so I now see it as a very temporary option for a bump then I take it off.  Sales have been terrible.  And they normally are in the summer, but given the quality of items Ive put up over the year and the consistency of price cuts, its just undeniable that ebay is not the unloading platform it used to be, and I see no long term value in participating in their pay to play.  We are all feeling the crunch, so I suppose its a matter of getting used to skeletal sales and possibly exploring other platforms. 

[cambriachick]

Hi mike_jayroe,

I took a quick look at your listings and I find several that do not state in obvious terms, what the item is.

Several books, do not say book in the title.

What is this? If I searched for sports car cards, would this come up?1993 MAXX PREMEIR SERIES WITH MAXX SHIPPING CARTON. Number 026850

I'm sure the afficionados know, but what about gandma trying to buy a present.  I'm just tryingto be helpful here.

[stevemartin60]

Being turned on for a day or two, then shut down for a month or three IS NOT NORMAL, no matter what the cheerleader says.

[fashunu4eeuh]

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@stevemartin60 wrote:

Being turned on for a day or two, then shut down for a month or three IS NOT NORMAL, no matter what the cheerleader says.

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For some, it is “normal” despite what the naysayer says.

Online Retail sales can be cyclical —or not. It depends on a number of factors: what one sells, for how much, where its sold,  shipping costs, who it sold to, etc. There are patterns in e-commerce sales.

Below is a link to an interesting  article identifying the trends in online sales for 2023.

https://squareup.com/us/en/the-bottom-line/reaching-customers/retail-trends

[stevemartin60]

Extremely erratic, as I and many other described, does not in anyway equate to "cyclical."

"Turning in" and "turning off" are far more apt.

[stevemartin60]

on*

[kmaacp]

    WE HAVE HAD SALES DROP 90% IN 2023 AND FOUND THE SEARCH ENGINE IS THE WORST EVER , NOT FINDING ITEMS THE WAY IT DID BEFORE IN THE LAST 24 YEARS OF OUR EBAY EXPERIENCE     ,      I AM ACTUALLY ON THE PHONE ON HOLD WITH EBAY AGAIN AND NO ONE KNOWS WHAT TO TELL US  ,      WE ARE TOLD WE WILL START A 200TH TICKET AND HELP , BUT SENDING THE TICKETS HAS DONE NOTHING , SO  ??????????????    ,   WE LOST EVERY BIT OF OUR INTERNATIONAL SALES WHEN GLOBAL SHIPPING WAS REPLACED BY STANDARD INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING , WHICH HAS ALREADY BEEN CANCELLED AND ANOTHER PROGRAM IS BEING RUSHED TO BE PUT IN PLACE , WE HAVE TRIED PROMOTED LISTINGS AND FOUND IT DOES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO IMPROVE SALES , SO WE ARE ON HOLD ASKING FOR A SUPERVISOR BUT THE REP SAY THEY ARE WAITING FOR ONE TO ANSWER , THE SUPERVISORS ARE AFRAID TO ANSWER BECAUSE THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY ,    AND IF THAT'S THE CASE WE WILL ASK FOR THE SUPERVISORS SUPERVISOR      ,  SO HELP AND CONTACT HAS ZERO INPUT ON SOLUTIONS ,  AS YOU STATED THIS SHOULD BE THE BUSY SEASON FROM 24 YEARS OF SELLING TRENDS , BUT WE HAVE NEVER SEEN SUCH TERRIBLE PERFORMANCE FROM EBAY

[kmaacp]

    THE PANDEMIC CAUSED OUR SALES TO GO UP FOR US , THE NEW SHIPPING PROGRAM WHICH IS EBAY'S BABY KILLED 90% OF OUR INTERNATIONAL SALES   AND WAS SUCH A BAD PROGRAM THAT THEY ADMIT IT HAS ALREADY BEEN REPLACED , BUT NOT YET FIGURED OUT , ESTIMATED  TO BE IN LATE AUGUST  2023 ,   THE PHONE REP I AM ON HOLD WITH ADMITS THIS IS EBAYS FAULT ,      AND THE HEAD OF EBAY'S INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING PROGRAM AND HIS ASSISTANT ADMIT THIS IS EBAY'S FAULT , SO IF THEY ADMIT THIS THEN IS IT NOT EBAY'S FAULT ?    ,    THE SEARCH ENGINE WHICH IS ALSO EBAY'S BABY  IS THE WORST IT'S EVER BEEN ,  AND PROMOTED LISTINGS DID NOT HELP US ONE BIT ,    EVERY LONG TIME EBAYER I HAVE TALKED TO KNOWS THIS IS AN ISSUE CAUSED BY PROGRAMING CHANGES , AND MOST OF THEM HAVE BEEN WITH EBAY OVER 20 YEARS 

[kmaacp]

YES WE SEE THE SAME DATA . YOU ARE 1000% CORRECT 

[siamjane8]

We have seen  a steady decline in growth ever since they implemented more and more AI and search manipulation 5 years ago.  Our gross monthly sales are "locked in" to the same dollar amount to within $200-$300 dollars a month regardless of everything. we sell the same amount now as we did 5 years ago but with 3000 more listings! this is just not organic or mathematically possible without controlling the sales we receive.   We have also grown and matured as a company and are better at sourcing and are selling better and more desirable products and have learned markets better.  Our service is top notch and all metric are perfect........ yet we sell no more than 5 years ago with 5x the listings........ search manipulation and ebay designing search to push promoted listings is killing sales conversion not only for us but across the board.

     Go ahead- just search for a vintage car part for your restoration project and see if you can find it on ebay now/  mostly all promoted listings that have little to do with your search key words- then copy and paste your search into google..... and almost magically the relevant active ebay listings just pop up!   ebay search is a joke

[meoldchina52]

This has been happening for quite a few months, it seems like your selling comes around 1 or two days a week, alnmsot like they rotate people in lists, now would eBay do a thing like that... Just check and see how many items you sell on one certain days each month conpared to every day of a week