Sudden Sales Plummet

[worldwide_windfalls]

I've had the oddest several months, with NEARLY NO SALES. That's become a trend this year.  

eBay once outsold my own website and Amazon. Now eBay's a distant third. I'm hoping the eBay Open will answer some questions for me, but that's not the route it's taken in prior years.

I've optimized listings, experimented with different kinds of promotions, tried listings with many and few photographs, removed listings for a week then relaunched them, tried different keywords, used Terapeak, and more.  Some tactics have worked for a week or two, the others have not.  All listings are within the same product category. 

Is anyone else facing this challenge? Do you think it's temporary or permanent? Do you have any suggestions?

[mr_lincoln]

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@myfrugalboutique wrote:

Yes they have tumbled. My sales are usually consistent month to month, week to week..not getting rich but steady. Now they are down 50%. I promote, have sales, make offers, do everything we are supposed to do, and nothing changes, Oh for those who say the market is “oversaturated” I am still selling the same mix as I was. 

Ignore “the economy folks” ( naysayers) I believe this is a problem with eBay. They have tweaked things so much that it is certainly not helping. I don’t know what to do, but I did want to reassure you that you are not alone. 

I was looking for a specific tote bag, and my searching on Google brought up more results on eBay than the eBay search did.  Something is broken, and they need to fix it. 

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@myfrugalboutique   I find it amazing that many Sellers are saying pretty much the same thing and have been for quite some time ... your post parrots some of mine and mine extend back to early 2022 ... I have questioned how sustainable selling on the venue is with its current strategies that seem to be geared for the really big sellers and not the rest of us.  

I learned years before selling on eBay and in the industrial equipment world that the Sales Department WAS the frontline and when they told Home Office of needed changes Home Office had the choice to comply (and ultimately increase sales) or ignore the folks in the trenches day to day and make their glass palace decisions when sales slowed ... 

So for internet sales, when changes are made that negatively affect the sales people the end result is not good ... back in the day when we would hear that such and such a company was struggling AND that they let sales people go to help with cashflow we knew it was the kiss of death for that company.  While sales people were and still are some of the highest paid people around there is a reason for that ... THEY GENERATE BUSINESS!!!!!  Without generating business ANY company is doomed to fail ... it's business 101 and some of us lived it in the real world (in our other professions).

In any event, the Holiday season is just around the corner so it will be interesting to see what happens ... 

[zamo-zuan]

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@worldwide_windfalls wrote:

I've had the oddest several months, with NEARLY NO SALES. That's become a trend this year.  

eBay once outsold my own website and Amazon. Now eBay's a distant third. I'm hoping the eBay Open will answer some questions for me, but that's not the route it's taken in prior years.

I've optimized listings, experimented with different kinds of promotions, tried listings with many and few photographs, removed listings for a week then relaunched them, tried different keywords, used Terapeak, and more.  Some tactics have worked for a week or two, the others have not.  All listings are within the same product category. 

Is anyone else facing this challenge? Do you think it's temporary or permanent? Do you have any suggestions?

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Welcome to the club. We used to have a support group that met every Thursday, but eBay no longer generates enough sales to keep the meetings going.

On a serious note, we've faced this since February of this year. Feb-April is the busiest time of the year for Motors/Auto parts, and it completely flatlined for the first time EVER. No matter how much we spend in promotions, listing changes, price reductions, etc... ABSOLUTELY NOTHING makes any difference.

We've also had an overwhelming amount of tech issues this year, which I believe likely is causing the issues in the first place. If their traffic and ad pages are not in sync/adding up correctly, then we can be quite confident there's a problem. I was in contact with several eBay reps regarding this, and they had ALL suddenly ghosted me after making promises to connect me with others who would be able to help.

I sent them evidence that was literally organized by folder with explanations of the different issues, so they are definitely aware of the problems. Being ghosted has been quite a strong indicator that either they are aware but aren't able to fix the issue as the tech team always claims 'everything is fine' (even if you can reproduce the errors), or they stopped responding because they can't put anything in writing. Based on how the conversations with the reps I spoke to went, and how they spoke COMPLETELY different on the phone compared to over email/in writing, I'm leaning towards them not being able to put anything in writing.

Our business has been absolutely ravaged by these issues. We've very few employees left, and had to cut hours of everyone, including management. And as mentioned, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING improves our traffic or sales. Even if we do a substantial decrease in price and increase to PLS/PLA, the bar literally does not move. Traffic doesn't budge, sales don't budge. This has something we NEVER experienced before.

At this point, I'm losing hope. This is the first time that major issues like this persisted MORE THAN SIX MONTHS. It's coming up on eight months now. So I'm starting to think this is going to be permanent. 

The status of eBay this year is truly a shame. They've gone far beyond the worst I've ever seen, not only in terms of performance, but also in terms of tech issues and lack of support - which was ALREADY an area they were extremely weak in.

[norskmediashop]

ebay is dead, something has been turned off. Were down 65% from this same time last year, with only 1 new order yesterday since the weekend and nothing since....its not the economy when other platforms have a normal flow of orders coming in daily.

[zamo-zuan]

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@myfrugalboutique wrote:

Ignore “the economy folks” ( naysayers) I believe this is a problem with eBay. They have tweaked things so much that it is certainly not helping. I don’t know what to do, but I did want to reassure you that you are not alone. 

I was looking for a specific tote bag, and my searching on Google brought up more results on eBay than the eBay search did.  Something is broken, and they need to fix it. 

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You can see the same drops in categories of products that are necessities and not luxuries. It's definitely more than just the economy. This is besides the fact that eBay's market share keeps getting smaller and smaller, which itself is an issue eBay is responsible for.

And eBay's search is an obvious issue that those of us who search our own products could see for ourselves. As much as people claim "I can still find your items" when searching directly for it by title and multiple keywords, that doesn't mean there's not issues with the search as it quite often leads to completely irrelevant products, and you could see extreme changes in the placement of PL/etc.

Coincidentally, we can look up the top 10 sellers in our category (as there's not many who manufacture and/or import directly from manufacturer - and therefore only a handful of sellers have competitive prices) and their performance has ALL dropped, and the search placement of the top sellers has dropped, while sellers with HIGHER prices and WORSE offerings have moved to the top.

They've quite obviously mixed up some variables somewhere, based on the inconsistencies in traffic/ads and search results. But it has been absolutely impossible to get them to fix this, and the tech team gives bogus excuses that could be debunked.

The last response I got from them was a joke. I had sent in images showing the ad page and traffic page statistics not matching and/or giving impossible results (such as totals of organic/promo views going ABOVE 100%). They had claimed the inconsistencies were "due to the changes in how they tally 'clicks' on the ad page - any interaction with a listing such as a bookmark or view of the seller count as a click IN ADDITION to views".

Okay, so based on that explanation, if "clicks = views + any other interaction", then if 100% of our items are promoted, it should be literally IMPOSSIBLE for traffic page views to be HIGHER than clicks. 

Well guess what? I showed them evidence that the page views ARE HIGHER THAN CLICKS! This should not be possible based on their definition! Yet it's happening on eBay for months, and they ghost when you bring this issue to their attention.

A lot of eBay's functionality is broken, but they refuse to admit there's a problem, and/or don't have the capability to fix it.

[myfrugalboutique]

I totally agree, and as much as we all want to “fix” it..we didn’t break it. A lot boils down to corporate greed. 

[myfrugalboutique]

No kidding, a support group for frustrated sellers would do us all good. No joke. 

[myfrugalboutique]

I had two orders today with free shipping. Didn’t make a dime. 

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Your business appears to be selling in the high priced segment of a niche market.

I am not sure that Ebay was ever the place to sell in the high priced segment of a niche market but you claim your sales history has been good, so it must be.

I would expect that your sales would be subject to social, economic and calendar influences. My sales are also discretionary sales and I am seeing a lot of volatility in them, but am meeting my sales goals, but I have many more choices, a more diverse mix of products, and am adding more lower priced items to help meet the goals.

I analyze the heck out of everything, including the economy. I do not trust expert interpretation of economic news, I look at the numbers and decide which matters. IMO the economy is totally trashed. It does not matter who is to blame. The bright spots don't matter much. Hard times are here and ahead for many people including small businesses.

[mr_lincoln]

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@myfrugalboutique wrote:

I totally agree, and as much as we all want to “fix” it..we didn’t break it. A lot boils down to corporate greed. 

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@myfrugalboutique   BINGO!  That is the most frustrating part and as @zamo-zuan mentioned up thread they tried everything they could think of after their sales flatlined during their normal busy time ... so WHO was getting all of the sales??? 

I have done a lot too as well as tested PLS but nothing has put sales back on a growth curve ... in the last 18 months only 2 have set new sales dollar records ... that's not only NO growth but a decline in sales ... I have pushed more inventory to other venues in the last 2 years than any other time during my selling on the venue ... while things do sell they sell too slowly, sell through rate is key for growth and when it slows down cashflow suffers.  

[worldwide_windfalls]

Not at all. 

[worldwide_windfalls]

Yeah. I don't know why I have a store. Years ago when eBay first announced stores they made them accessible from the home page. Now I throwing money down the drain.  Thanks!

[lawnmowerpartsstore2]

Sudden Sales Plummet

So does it help to keep adding inventory ?

[mr_lincoln]

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@lawnmowerpartsstore2 wrote:

Sudden Sales Plummet

So does it help to keep adding inventory ?

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Hi @lawnmowerpartsstore2 

A lot depends on what one is adding ... but say the items do sell then adding more increases the statistical chance that something will sell.   

[worldwide_windfalls]

What you say is true, there are cheaper readers all over the place.

But I'm not competing with "4 pairs for $5."  I've been selling upscale reading glasses online for 24 years. My website attracts surgeons, Hollywood powerbrokers, attorneys, and such. They buy brands. And I'm not sure they're affected by the economy.

This is an eBay thing.  My website's average purchase is just over $70, hasn't waivered, and the lion's share of my sales come from there. When I was "invited" to sell on Amazon I quadrupled my volume though my Amazon volume has decreased steadily over the years.  Too many of the manufacturers have jumped on that bandwagon. 

But eBay has always been a steady producer until earlier this year.  I understand optimizing listings, experimenting with both kinds of promoted listings, listing with many and few photographs, removing listings for a week then relaunching them, trying different keywords, using Terapeak, and more.  I've put a lot of work into eBay with no results. 

I'm on the verge of dumping eBay since it seems to have dumped me.  

[worldwide_windfalls]

There's only one other seller that carries my primary brand. We both sell a specific brand of Italian glasses. I'm friendly with a lot of people in my category but don't know the fellow/company with whom I compete on eBay. 

You may be right.