Sell through rate declining

[pheno_buys]

Hi guys, 

Just wondering if anyone has any pointers or advice please. My sell through rate is down at 0.5%, I sell used clothing and understand that January is a slow month however in terms of money made I have had the best month to date due to selling higher priced products. I'm wondering what is the best way at maintaining a 1% sell through rate or above? Maybe be items are priced too highly or photos are not up to standard. I really don't know. Any help would be appreciated. 

Cheers

[chapeau-noir]

Well, this is the US boards, not the UK, but as a fellow very small clothing seller, I can say that you're doing incredibly well. 

People have their winter items and spring/summer is a long way away - I wouldn't expect high sales from having so few items up.  I definitely am not.

But if I had your sales, I'd be delighted.  Clothing is very supersaturated.

[pheno_buys]

Hi, thank you for the response. I really appreciate it. I'm a complete noob I thought this was the UK board I'll post on there now. It's such a hard market to get into isn't it? So many different factors to take into consideration

[coolections]

There are over a million of you used clothes sellers on ebay. Unfortunately there is very little you can do. Almost giving them away would be your best option as you need the lowest price available to beat the competition.

[chapeau-noir]

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@coolections wrote:

There are over a million of you used clothes sellers on ebay. Unfortunately there is very little you can do. Almost giving them away would be your best option as you need the lowest price available to beat the competition.

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I would not do this - as @pheno_buys  says, there are way too many considerations to clothing sales than price.

[davescollectables1978]

Stock market, crypto and pretty much all investments are down, prices of everything from rent to food to gas have skyrocketed in the last 6 months. Jobs are still paying the same terrible poverty wages. Simply put, there are gonna be ROUGH times ahead for sellers imo. People are going to stop spending on nearly everything except the absolute necessities if it gets bad enough.

Then, as mentioned above, you are selling in a category with so much "race to the bottom" competition that I don't know how anyone makes a profit even when times/money are good. Up until May of last year, I was surviving off of ebay/Amazon/Offer Up sales alone. Now I have a job and do this part time. My prediction is that online selling, especially for smaller sellers who don't have a ton of capitol for huge bulk purchases is gonna be really, really slow.

[chapeau-noir]

For being such a small seller who doesn't list much these days, I do OK, but sourcing is tough and I have to be picky.  It's harder for certain now, but clothing has been tough for a long time.  I semi-retired from selling it full time mid-2021 - before then I made a good living, but it was a lot of work. 

ETA:  Selection beats out bulk any day, though. 

[axiombody]

As your inventory sells the items that don't sell will sit and will lower that rate.  When you start selling you have a high yield and sales, but the items that don't sell will stay in your inventory and be a negative in your overall rate.  When you list an item they will be more visible in searches then when they have been on Ebay for a while.  0.5% is my click through rate and not much higher than 0.8% as a clothing seller.

[chapeau-noir]

Mine is 1.4% at this time - it has been below 1% before.  When I was full time it was usually just about 1.5-2% and I had very regular sales in a niche and listed/relisted constantly.  I don't think it has ever been any higher than that.  I don't have a lot up right now, though.

Yes, a lot of old stuff just sitting definitely does drag down the overall rate.  I took a break for a few weeks over Christmas and took everything down, tweaked it and did new listings for everything, which is why my rate went up, I am certain.  In another month or so, all the winter will be taken down and I'll have to find something else to list.