My sales conversion rate on eBay hovers between 2% and 2.3% consistently, quarter after quarter.
@fbusoni
Just to be clear are you saying that percentage is based on the items you have for sale, vs what actually sells? For a simple example, if you have 100 items for sale you typically sell 2?
When I started selling on eBay in 1998, it was all auctions. I sold EVERYTHING I listed each week be it 20 items or 100. Everything sold consistently all the time until about 2008. I am sure multiple factors subsequently came into play, but it slowly went downhill from there. In 2009, I branched out to etsy, and tried others as well. I did NOT list the same products across multiple platforms, and never used more than three at a time.
While eBay sales continued to decline, etsy sales continued to increase. It was a good run there for quite a few years, and I noticed that my items would appear in Google Shopping within the hour and have an organic google citation within a day. My eBay products had neither. Just like purchasing "key words" marketplaces also paid for "sponsored" Google spots on their shopping platform. Key words are funny, because you will see silly stuff like "buy your atomic bombs on eBay, great selection and prices" and some such nonsense until this day.
Eventually, my eBay sales were minimal but the icing on the cake was my "Dooney Purse" debacle. My sister bought me a new one every year. I hated them, told her not to do this, but every Christmas and sometimes for my birthday I would get another one. I found them heavy, stiff, and it would hurt my hands to dig around in them to find my checkbook or a pen to write with. I did not use them, and after a few years I decided to sell them on eBay. I could not sell these NWTag purses to save my life. I did not list them all at once, but I tried fixed price, I tried auction, best offer, and NADA using an ID from 1998 that had over 4000 feedback for SALES. At the exact same time, the exact same USED bags were selling consistently even though they had rather crappy pictures and lame descriptions with the old "used good condition" mantra. LOL... My prices were LESS for never used product. Two months of this and I was done.
At the same time, my etsy sales were great! Unfortunately, my reward for being such a good seller was to be permanently forcibly enrolled in their new "offsite ad" program. All it took was ONE 365 day period and one penny over 10K$, and you were in for life at an additional 12% fee if someone entered your store from an outside ad, even if they bought something else. The next day I had my first sale under my "reward" program. I sold a rather large bulky product for $86. My take when all was said and done was $8, which did not even cover the cost of the item in the first place.
They sent me a congratulations on your first offsite ad sale message. LOL...all I could think about was I am about to be screwed over big time since 99% of my items are on Google Shopping. I remember being so angry I was talking to my computer screen: Congratulate this! (with my middle finger extended to accentuate my dismay) LOL.
By the next day, I had removed all my listings from there, and continued with my meticulous research on the best value for a website.
So If 2% conversion is supposed to be good, I guess I am doing just fine now in these days and times, because mine is way better than that. My fees are minimal, don't have to pay for advertising (I can submit my own listings to Google Shopping, and they are now doing it for me as well for free).
I believe that in the past "eBay" was the place to go. People still insist it is "the only place that has buyers". That is not true, but you can no longer enter a new marketplace and expect to sell all your products in a week. One, however, needs to be prepared in advance for sudden changes or shifts. Perhaps an exaggerated example, but what if eBay was sold tomorrow and the new owner decided all sellers had to pay a yearly fee of $1000 or hit the road? Being here a long time, never say 'It will never happen to me'.
Diversification is a good thing. eBay was not built in a day, either are those smaller venues. Do not become too complacent. Building a business here can be like building on quicksand.
