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!

[mam98031]

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@aliceinabundanceland wrote:

I can't even pay my fees right now. It's like I'm paying for nothing at all. 😞

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You didn't set aside money from your November sales to pay for your November fees?  If not why? 

[hotheadsgolf]

Yes same for me also, this will be my worst sales year ever after selling on EBay for 10 years now. No matter what I try to do I just can not seem to get over the hump. Some thing has definitely changed over the past 5 years when I call they always say the same thing that we cant always show just your listings we have to make it fair for other sellers selling similar items ( what show all them )  I always tell them to let the customers decide what they want to purchase, they are becoming a socialist site.

[mam98031]

You have a store, have you tried running a sale?  Sometimes that helps.  I ran one last week and it really helped.  I'll probably start another one by early next week.

[greenbraindesign]

I posted on another feed that is almost the same as this one.. Sales are slow slow slow.. A buddy and I looked at what we could see on google and a few other search engines, most of my items did not even show, they showed 10 to 20 searches down and many did not show at all. If you have a rare item it will come up on google due to low number of that item.  Called ebay, she could not find my items on google search, this is huge. Then I changed my prices and got up in the morning. Checked again, my item was about 13th down the list, I had the lowest price, about 10 of the items in front of me were from china,  not sure how their listing are put before mine or the others with lower priced items.   

Called ebay 3 times due to low sells, every time I call them my sales go up for 2 days then dive again, so they are doing something to give me more exposure when I call in.. 

It is ebays responsibility to advertise and bring exposure to our listings, that is what we pay them for. This is not happening anymore.. We noticed the larger sellers are getting much more attention and the smaller sellers are not getting the exposure while ebay changed something in March to may last year..   

If you see people blaming the economy that is not the issue, there is something majorly wrong here.. I have had a ton of low ball offers this year compared to previous years..  Lots of scammers, dishonest buyers.  

It is December 6th, 1 sale today! No sales on 4 or 5th. 

[aliceinabundanceland]

Same

[aliceinabundanceland]

You're absolutely right and we sholuld have. I won't bore eveyone with all the details, but is is definitely our bad. 😔. However, I still feel as though we're spending a lot for nothing. I realize this doesn't excuse our obligation to pay the fees, it's just not working.

[mam98031]

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@greenbraindesign wrote:

I posted on another feed that is almost the same as this one.. Sales are slow slow slow.. A buddy and I looked at what we could see on google and a few other search engines, most of my items did not even show, they showed 10 to 20 searches down and many did not show at all. If you have a rare item it will come up on google due to low number of that item.  Called ebay, she could not find my items on google search, this is huge. Then I changed my prices and got up in the morning. Checked again, my item was about 13th down the list, I had the lowest price, about 10 of the items in front of me were from china,  not sure how their listing are put before mine or the others with lower priced items.   

Called ebay 3 times due to low sells, every time I call them my sales go up for 2 days then dive again, so they are doing something to give me more exposure when I call in.. 

It is ebays responsibility to advertise and bring exposure to our listings, that is what we pay them for. This is not happening anymore.. We noticed the larger sellers are getting much more attention and the smaller sellers are not getting the exposure while ebay changed something in March to may last year..   

If you see people blaming the economy that is not the issue, there is something majorly wrong here.. I have had a ton of low ball offers this year compared to previous years..  Lots of scammers, dishonest buyers.  

It is December 6th, 1 sale today! No sales on 4 or 5th. 

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There is no single answer as to why some small sellers are experiencing slow sales and others are not.  But every year it is like this for some members.  Not necessarily the same members every year, but similar issues shared every year.

Now I did not say that to minimize your slow sales or anyone else.  That is always an important subject and deserves to be addressed.  

I must say that looking at your sold items appears that November was a good month for you.  December seems to be starting slowly for sure.  I hope it picks back up for you very soon.

[mam98031]

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@aliceinabundanceland wrote:
You're absolutely right and we sholuld have. I won't bore eveyone with all the details, but is is definitely our bad. 😔. However, I still feel as though we're spending a lot for nothing. I realize this doesn't excuse our obligation to pay the fees, it's just not working.

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I sure hope I didn't make you feel bad.  That wasn't my intention.  I know all to well how expenses can exceed the available cash and how tough it can be to make everything work.  Whatever is going on for you I sincerely hope it improves very soon.

[vintagesun]

This isn't a direct reply to OP, just a general reply. I'm sure I'll be tared and feathered, but I can't help but feel like most people who are complaining have a few issues going on that are pretty noticeable.

1) They are selling items with obviously little to no demand

2)They aren't improving their sales tactics.

Unless you have items that are in high demand, you can't snap a couple photos with your phone, use the same price as the same highest sold item, and then sit back and expect sales. Today's online market is highly competitive and requires daily interaction with your listings. It also requires creative marketing and a lot of hustle to compete . I've noticed most sellers need to just putting ONE SINGLE LAMP/LIGHT near their items and it would improve their sales. Nobody's going to purchase something with garbage photos unless they're looking for it dirt cheap.

The market has also changed in the past 5-10 years, so a lot of older sellers need to change up what they're selling.  Selling old costume jewelry isn't going to make you a whole lot of money on here when the average person can buy $5 good-looking stuff from reputable companies or just go to Salvation Army and have a huge selection for cheap that they can physically touch and see before they buy.

October & November were the best months I've had in the 2 years I've been selling. I'm up 12% in sales in the past month. But I've also spent every day working on my store. I've spent lots of time figuring out the best system for what I'm trying to do to maximize profits and draw eyeballs to my products. I find myself up until 2-3AM some nights working. If you want to make ebay a business, then that's what you have to do to compete now a days, and just like anything else in life, you get what you put in.

[aliceinabundanceland]

Thank you! 🙂 I actually had a convo with a local online seller yesterday who is the dad of my daughter's friend. He was very helpful and encouraging and I'm going to get back on the horse today and see if I can't get things back on track. I guess complaining and feeling sorry for myself doesn't work either. 😂

[mam98031]

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@aliceinabundanceland wrote:
Thank you! 🙂 I actually had a convo with a local online seller yesterday who is the dad of my daughter's friend. He was very helpful and encouraging and I'm going to get back on the horse today and see if I can't get things back on track. I guess complaining and feeling sorry for myself doesn't work either. 😂

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Well Please share.  Helpful hints are always appreciated.  I'd love for you to share.

@aliceinabundanceland 

[kathieskorner]

The market has also changed in the past 5-10 years, so a lot of older sellers need to change up what they're selling.  

I've been in the resale business for 35 years - the market is always changing.  Very little of what I sell today are items that I sold in the past 5-10 years.  I have rarely sold "in demand" items - I don't pay much attention to what is "hot" today because it in all liklihood won't be "hot" tomorrow.   

I tend to sell items that I know something about - costume jewelry. designer brands, and women's clothing do not fall in my areas of knowledge.   I made a lot of money on eBay prior to the recession (despite my lousy photo skills) and the change in ebay's focus to new merchandise.  After the recession sales had been slowly growing again year after year until I hit the brick wall of March 2019 - every month since have been 20 year ebay lows.   

While all small sellers have not been as affected as I have - there are far more here on this board with the same complaint than any of my previous 19 years on ebay.    I suspect that ebay's 2019 algorithms favor those with free shipping, free returns, best offer, and promoted listings over both best match and lowest price.   Adding new listings no longer seems effective either - where newly listed items used to account for 40% of my monthly sales - it is now less than 10%.   

If by sales tactics you mean playing eBay's games of more money for eBay,  I'm not that desparate for sales.   I believe offering good quality items for reasonable prices should still result in sales.  

[yuzuha]

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@kathieskorner wrote:

I suspect that ebay's 2019 algorithms favor those with free shipping, free returns, best offer, and promoted listings over both best match and lowest price.   Adding new listings no longer seems effective either - where newly listed items used to account for 40% of my monthly sales - it is now less than 10%.   

If by sales tactics you mean playing eBay's games of more money for eBay,  I'm not that desparate for sales.   I believe offering good quality items for reasonable prices should still result in sales.  

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I don't offer free shipping or free returns.  I don't use best offer or promoted listings.  Many of my items are in the mid to high price range compared to the competition... and yet somehow my sales have been remarkably steady for almost six years now.  The majority of my inventory turns over within the first 6-12 months of being listed.  What that tells me is that my sales are due to what I am listing rather than to any sort of algorithm favoring me, because I don't use any of the things that supposedly get me higher placement in search.

[aliceinabundanceland]

He's been selling for at least 10 years and I guess what one would call an "old school" ebay seller. He thrift shops, checks out what's selling and pretty much just goes with his gut. He also does Amazon FBA and has encouraged me to try that also. As my phone was silent yesterday, he sold over $100 worth of stuff in the hour and a half I was there. His bread and butter is used appliance parts and T-Shirts.

[mam98031]

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@aliceinabundanceland wrote:
He's been selling for at least 10 years and I guess what one would call an "old school" ebay seller. He thrift shops, checks out what's selling and pretty much just goes with his gut. He also does Amazon FBA and has encouraged me to try that also. As my phone was silent yesterday, he sold over $100 worth of stuff in the hour and a half I was there. His bread and butter is used appliance parts and T-Shirts.

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I've been selling here for 20 years.  But your friend must be a much larger seller than you or I.  To use Amazon FBA you need to carry enough stock and have a great profit margin because FBA is an additional fee whether the inventory sells or not.  It is awesome that he is doing so well.  I'm Jealous!!!!