Slow Sales

[rmorrisvintageandmore]

Sales are not great this month, usually January is a good month for me. Any one else experiencing a major dip in sales recently?  I do utilize Promoted listings, I hate that I have to, but it usually makes a huge difference in sales...just not recently. Any thoughts or ideas to get the ball rolling?

[dbfolks166mt]

@cedarmom-17  From the buyer side, is there a way for you to tell if a seller is in the eBay international program or not? I bought into the EIS program but have a very low threshold for reverting back to my old method of simply shipping internationally myself (particularly to Canada - I only live about 125 miles from the border).

     There is. I took a look at one of your items from a Canadian buyers perspective and the EIS shows up in the shipping line as well as in the details. I would never sell internationally through any other means than EIS. WAY to many import restrictions, custom forms, VAT taxes.............  and way to easy for buyers to scam, probably more so than US buyers due to return shipping costs and other logistical issues. 

[sumsum70]

                                ...changed the way Views are counted

I've been saying for 2 years that this was all nonsense. eBay didn't change the way views are counted, they just made sure nobody got any traffic unless it was paid extra for. And if you were alarmed that you had no traffic, that was eBay's way of making you think you need PL.

I've never done PL. Sold 4 servers on eBay in January. Sold 81 somewhere else. Didn't pay any fees on the 81. The buyers are out there, they just aren't on eBay.

One of the 4 sold servers doesn't even show up when looking at completed items, so it's remarkable it sold at all.  305375978686

[chapeau-noir]

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@dbfolks166mt wrote:

So in 4th quarter last year I decided to STOP using PLS so I did not run my normal 30 day campaign ... care to guess what happened?  I received not ONE but TWO of the messages below:  "We've missed you, try Promoted Listings Standard again"

I was like WHAT???  Oh yes, for those who don't think the programming monitors how Sellers sell they need to think twice.  And the second pic below shows what was sent January 25th, another plug to use Promoted Listings Standard again ... right around the time I would normally run my 1st Quarter 30 day PLS campaign.

I wouldn't make too much of that and suspect that was simply a timed announcement. I get the same thing on Poshmark. They'll send them out periodically. I doubt they're tracking and monitoring you save whether PLS is toggled on or off triggering automatic reminders.

     Strange I have never used PL and have never gotten anything like mr_lincoln posted. 

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Well, no, you wouldn't as you've never used the PL. You might get an invite to use it once in a while, but no one is going to say "come back!" as you've never been.  

[sweepalot]

Very slow month for me. My biggest month ever was last January (2023), and this January was one of my slowest months in the last years. I am not getting near the traffic either. Not a good start to the year. 

[mr_lincoln]

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@dbfolks166mt wrote:

So in 4th quarter last year I decided to STOP using PLS so I did not run my normal 30 day campaign ... care to guess what happened?  I received not ONE but TWO of the messages below:  "We've missed you, try Promoted Listings Standard again"

I was like WHAT???  Oh yes, for those who don't think the programming monitors how Sellers sell they need to think twice.  And the second pic below shows what was sent January 25th, another plug to use Promoted Listings Standard again ... right around the time I would normally run my 1st Quarter 30 day PLS campaign.

I wouldn't make too much of that and suspect that was simply a timed announcement. I get the same thing on Poshmark. They'll send them out periodically. I doubt they're tracking and monitoring you save whether PLS is toggled on or off triggering automatic reminders.

     Strange I have never used PL and have never gotten anything like mr_lincoln posted. 

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@dbfolks166mt 

I just got another one today.  So what are the "chances" that in less than 2 months my account gets 4  arbitrary eBay messages on PLS?  And your account has never gotten any or at least they were infrequent enough that you don't recall them?   It is NOT a coincidence, some simply can't imagine eBay manipulating listings in such a manner that sales are not just throttled but go in reverse.  Truth is stranger than fiction and there is nothing off the table for this venue.  Some "get that" and others don't.  

[chapeau-noir]

😲  I think I'll bow out on this one.

[genv]

Your Sales look great to me.

[chapeau-noir]

@dbfolks166mt Thank you for checking!  I looked around but it's good to have some confirmation.

That rate to Canada is on par with first class international USPS.

[cedarmom-17]

Maybe you could ask the US seller how they plan to ship. However, in a fast bidding situation this isn't always possible. Sometimes sellers are away and can't respond in time. My items from China usually arrive within 2 weeks. I've found China shipping is cheap, items well packaged and sellers honest. Items from the US take 3 weeks or longer because of the International Hub and the shipping is expensive. I also had an order mixed up at the hub in Illinois. The ebay agents tried to blame it on the US seller but he told me what happened and I believe his honesty. The parcel had been opened up and the shipping label was from the International Hub. I note some US sellers are saying their sales are down. I'm a 20 year customer with 100% feedback and I will no longer order from the US. I feel very sorry for US sellers as I would very much like to support them but their International hub is slow, sloppy and expensive.

[chapeau-noir]

@cedarmom-17  Those were all reasons I wouldn't use the previous eBay global shipping program.

[mksports03]

Our sales the last 3 months have been down 50% from prior years.  We did a reset, put items on sale, offered different promotions, all to no avail.  We are putting in a lot of time for no results.  We have been selling on ebay since 1998, and understand buying and selling trends.  But the last three months have been hard to figure out.  You could say people had to pay taxes, or inflation, or vacation time, etc, etc,, but all those things have been there year in and year out.  Would love to hear other thoughts or solutions. Thanks and have a great week.

[the-hook-and-the-loop]

Do you see a large drop in your traffic and impressions? What I'm seeing is eBay closing the spigot until I pay 15%+ in promotional fees + the normal 13.25% so once they see you're willing to give them 30%, magically you get SOME traffic. Still not the same traffic of years before. But there are many reasons for that. This is a multi-facetted-compouded F'up.