Sales

[mksports03]

Just had our bank account charged because we cannot sell enough on ebay to pay the bills. Did ebay make changes that would hinder views and sales. We know how it works, we have been on here since 1998, but the last month both sales and views are at near nil.  Is it us, or changes ebay made, or another reason. Thanks for input. Have a great day.

[kelekt]

yep...same here. near nil. I'm not a big seller but stuff always sells little by little...till now. nothing. deadsville. 

I think it's lots of things but search is BAD. search is pretty much useless so any hope is lost if potential customers can't even find what they want. I don't have a lot of faith in this site till something major happens to fix search (+ a million other things they need to change IMO).  sigh. it's a bummer tho. like many others I miss the old Ebay.

[fbusoni]

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@mksports03 wrote:

Just had our bank account charged because we cannot sell enough on ebay to pay the bills. Did ebay make changes that would hinder views and sales. We know how it works, we have been on here since 1998, but the last month both sales and views are at near nil.  Is it us, or changes ebay made, or another reason. Thanks for input. Have a great day.

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I just looked at my sales for July and they were the lowest of any month in the last few years. 

Views are about the same as always.

I am still selling, but last month was an identifiable dip for me.

I think that many sellers here are experiencing a slump of some sort.  Hard to know the reason -- fluctuations are common in the weather, the stock market, and on eBay.

What is clear is that eBay is tinkering around with artificial intelligence; combine that with its emphasis on ensuring a level playing field for all sellers and not giving any sellers any particular advantage over any other, and there is certainly room for all sorts of (un)intended consequences.

I know nothing about sports apparel, but -- no offense intended -- to my untutored eye, your prices seem quite high.   If you are simply keeping up with the market, or even undercutting your competition, I have a hard time seeing anyone who, for whatever reason, happens to be watching their cash flow, spending that much money for a discretionary purchase like a jersey.   regards

[chevymontecarlo88]

Seeing the same and hearing the same from friends that sell in similar categories.

Hang in there and good luck.

[baantiques]

This is something that happens periodically, often after a "seller update" or other major changes to the site.  It takes a while to settle down and get back to normal.  I usually take the time I'm not using shipping to get rid of dead inventory and mark stuff down.  That usually helps in the long run.

However, this time appears to be different.  It's gone on a lot longer and sales keep dropping.  The weird thing is my views seem to be back up where they usually are but no one is buying.

I'm going to break out some of the good stuff I have in reserve and see if listing any of it makes a difference.  

[luckythewinner]

 Did ebay make changes that would hinder views and sales.

eBay makes hundreds of changes to the site every day, and I'm sure every one of them affects some sellers in some way. 

Is it us, or changes ebay made, or another reason.

Your question seems to be based on the erroneous assumption that there is one reason for why your had a bad month.

Just had our bank account charged because we cannot sell enough on ebay to pay the bills

We have no idea what you mean by "pay the bills". Are you talking about store subscriptions? Final value fees? Shipping labels? Refunds? Listing upgrades? Insertion fees, Promoted listing fees? Inventory costs? 

What does your accounting and/or budget have to say about what happened? 

[meme6253]

Same Thing!, Pretty Disgusted

[m60driver]

 There are multiple factors that are causing many of us to see significantly lower sales.  There is the economy with sustained inflation for food and insurance, there is Ebay itself, including the previously mentioned issues with search, changing tastes in buyer behavior, and for this small time part-time seller, sourcing issues.   Over the past few months I have seen a 30% drop in sales.  This past weekend I had all of two sales. 

[reallynicestamps]

Your subscriptions are billed monthly, but your payments are transferred weekly.

If sales are slow, you could switch your Managed Payments to a monthly payment, preferably a few days after the subscription fees come due.

Or you could downgrade your Store, reducing your monthly fees.

I did this with a Premium Store where the product (books) stopped selling. Although I have more than 1000 listings, the promotional 10,000 more than covers any "excess" listing fees.

And remember that eBay has a 30c-40c "service charge" on every payment, in addition to the percentage fee. On a $2.99 item that could be enough to eat up all profit after your costs.  Would those pocket schedules be more useful as "gifts" with more profitable sweaters? Or might they sell as bundles?

And of course, how do your sales compare in number and in value with July 2023? 2022? (skip the pandemic outliers) 2019?

[stuff4divas]

@mksports03   yea, lots of complaints of this nature, do a community search to see

[chapeau-noir]

This is a daily complaint and has been for years.

[onefootflipper1]

July is often one of the slowest months of the year for online sales. People with money are spending that money on vacations. 

Many people are having serious problems paying their bills right now, and the spending of those that are not can still be effected by the stories of the problems of others. 

The stock market is busy doing a nose dive, which can effect the spending of the upper 10 percent.

Finally, you really only sell one thing. Sports apparel. That makes you extremely vulnerable to changing trends in the market.

I am not counting the 1.99 shipped old sports schedules you have, you likely clear about 65 cents each on those after all expenses are accounted for, and are giving you a less than minimum wage return on your time spend dealing with them.

With all that said, lowering prices always works. Price sells.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

The markets and the world have made significant changes which could affect your sales.

Could affect them for a while longer.

[titipeo]

The markets are changing, look at the parking lot of local malls, strip malls, stores, they have certainly decreased the amount of foot traffic they used to get from years before. Competiton is tough and will stay like that. You have to adapt and keep current with what sells and doesn't sell. This is nothing new, and the question will keep repeating itself every day, month, year. 

Good luck.