Very Slow Sales November 2019

[rapidresol]

We have been selling on Ebay for 15+ years now, but since March sales have struggled.  Ebay seemed to make changes to the search engine meaning items we had sold hundreds of units of were no longer selling.  They became almost invisible. 

Today we only had 8 sales on EBay.  A few years ago we were averaging 50 a day.  

I would be interested to hear how other sellers are doing at the moment?  I am extremely worried about the way things seem to be going!

[punkiesplayhousellc]

I’ve been gone for a month. Best decision ever! Smart people have already left or do leave soon. This is not ebay as we knew it. It’s easy for the cheerleaders to come in here and say they sell 50 items a day and everyone who don’t has no clue what they’re doing 🙄 Don’t make it true. I come here for entertainment now. (Sorry, not trying to be amused by others pain but at what point do you realize that this is not a viable selling platform anymore and go elsewhere). Can’t blame ebay. People keep paying them for store subscriptions for absolutely nothing. They have no need to change

[kathieskorner]

They have no need to change.

That is the crux of the matter.  As long as sellers continue to pay store subscription fees and promoted listing fees as well as offer free returns, free shipping, and accept "best" offers - then it is not eBay taking the financial hit - it is the sellers with declining sales.   As long as eBay can keep investors happy with their bottom line and selling off their assets - investors will prop up the stock price, and all is well in ebay's world.    The current board of directors seems to be intent on breaking up ebay and selling off the parts so there is no incentive to do more than the absolute minimum to keep the marketplace semi-operational until a buyer can be found.  

Perhaps 2020 will bring us "ebetsy"  although etsy's management seems as intent as ebay's on destroying their marketplace with nonsensical changes.

[mam98031]

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@punkiesplayhousellc wrote:
I’ve been gone for a month. Best decision ever! Smart people have already left or do leave soon. This is not ebay as we knew it. It’s easy for the cheerleaders to come in here and say they sell 50 items a day and everyone who don’t has no clue what they’re doing 🙄 Don’t make it true. I come here for entertainment now. (Sorry, not trying to be amused by others pain but at what point do you realize that this is not a viable selling platform anymore and go elsewhere). Can’t blame ebay. People keep paying them for store subscriptions for absolutely nothing. They have no need to change

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That is insulting.

[funnymouse]

We sell on another well known site as well as Ebay, I have over 4k items and our sales are nearly at nothing....it is not just Ebay, it is everywhere.

[jonesrj8691]

Will be moving to new platform In the new year. eBay is failing its sellers.  eBay can loose our 15 000 + fees per year. Becoming a joke to sell on this platform.  Sad 

[mam98031]

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@jonesrj8691 wrote:

Will be moving to new platform In the new year. eBay is failing its sellers.  eBay can loose our 15 000 + fees per year. Becoming a joke to sell on this platform.  Sad 

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Your sales would have to be north of $100,000 a year with an Anchor store.  That is a lot of sales to give up.  

Are you starting your own website?  What are your plans for next year?

[aliceinabundanceland]

I really picked the wrong time to start selling again 😞

I quit my job in July and went FULL IN into ebay, store, research, listing, improving photos, listing upgrades, promotions, and all I have had in the last couple of weeks are crickets. I REALLY wanted to make this work, but good god, it's a graveyard. 

I'm currently experimenting with other platforms, but I just don't know what to do. I'm disappointed and sad.

[the.curious.fat.cat]

In the last week I work so hard and tried to fix all Item specifics that were missing (and still got some missing, nothing works).
Caleed twice to CS. 

Listed over 20 new items (some pre-owned but "new" to my store).
Sent offers.
Promoted listing above average rate. Nothing.
Lowered the rates of the promoted listings. Totally stopped the promoted ads.
Refresh al my listings twice.
My prices are lower than competitors on almost all of the items I have.
I see items similar to mine sold recently, usually for higher price, so I guess there is some demand for them.
I have fair amount of views but no sales.
What am I missing here?

[nilis13]

having same issues - alot of us are and alot of us are aren't- who knows anymore - 

[rockmineralshop]

i don think you are missing anything, i did the same, 1 order in two weeks.

its dying on here, my friend has 5000 dvds sales almost dead, i had 800

had to sell them on craigslist, as wholesale lot, sickening.

[the.curious.fat.cat]

I'm sorry to hear that. My mindset was "I can't sell it if it's not listed / more listings= more selling options". 
I wish there were other venues for me, but I'm from Israel and we don't have those other platforms, plus I really wanted it to work (ebay) and put a lot of effort into it.

And It really is confusing me because I don't understand what can I improve to make it work. 

[turquoisetulips]

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@lostweekendshop wrote:

Slow start to the year and I hit some slow spots when I wasn’t listing much. Been listing more consistently for the last month and it’s been paying off. October was my best month this year and November has already seen 8 sales for me, which is a lot since I’m not a volume seller.

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I'm not either . I never have more than 120 items for sale . Right now I think it's at 89  . I had a pretty good week  but I'm worried I'm just being lulled into a false sense of security .  😞   Tulips 

[aliceinabundanceland]

It sucks. I do think something is up. I've been doing much better with local marketplaces lately.

[turquoisetulips]

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@punkiesplayhousellc wrote:
I’ve been gone for a month. Best decision ever! Smart people have already left or do leave soon. This is not ebay as we knew it. It’s easy for the cheerleaders to come in here and say they sell 50 items a day and everyone who don’t has no clue what they’re doing 🙄 Don’t make it true. I come here for entertainment now. (Sorry, not trying to be amused by others pain but at what point do you realize that this is not a viable selling platform anymore and go elsewhere). Can’t blame ebay. People keep paying them for store subscriptions for absolutely nothing. They have no need to change

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I sell here and then branched out several months ago  and it was a good move .  . I can no longer rely on just e bay . I think those days are over . E bay keeps making too many changes that make buyers and sellers  feel  confused . Add that to the fact that they simply refuse to spend a dime on advertising  just makes  slow sales something  to be expected. Tulips 

[rockmineralshop]

I tried a varity of things, including, changing titles, with more keywords, 

submitting my ebay store to various website submission services, even 

lowering prices below all competetors, accomplished nothing, so took all 800

movies sold them on craigslist, now have various collectible items i obtained over 

the years, with few wholesale lots of dvds, 1 order in last 2.5 weeks, and closed my store,

which i believe puts you at the bottom of ebay priorities, just my opinion.

Suprised you dont have other platforms to use like craigslist, or amazon, or even 

bonanza? Hope it works out for you somehow.