Very Slow Sales

[thatsjagged]

Hi!

I have been selling on eBay since 2020. I have been very blessed that it has kept me so busy in the past that I no longer needed to work out of the home.  In 2020, 2021, and even 2022, sales were relatively good. Some weeks I could even make over $1000 a week!  Now in 2023, sales suck! This last month I made just under $700 a month.  I am selling 2-3 items every few days, instead of 10-12 items a day. I even have more merchandise than I ever had before, yet I cannot get the sales I had just a year before. I have discounts and buy one get one 50% off but it has not really helped.  I am confident that this is due to this ridiculously horrible economy, and I hope for everyone's sake it will turn around.  Please tell me if it is just me, or if this is a common thing that happens when you sell on eBay. I noticed that Hobby Lobby looks like they are also struggling. I have never seen so many items on clearance after the season is over. They were trying to sell all the merchandise that they didn't sell to make room for the Halloween and Christmas items. 

Also, I have had more added fees that keep being taken out of my account for extra shipping costs and miscellaneous fees that I feel are ripping me off blind! I carefully weigh and measure everything I send off, and I notice that they keep adding shipping charges for underpayment through the USPS. I am barely selling anything and now the little I make, they are taking! I mail almost everything Priority Mail. Any advice would be great.

I believe we Sellers need to stick together!

Broke in Huntsville,

That's Jagged

[bubu-luba]

I just used that link to look at my account and both options were activated.

I did not know this box was automatically checked for me. I would have never used this option.

I had dozens of items on auctions this weekend with dozens and dozens of watchers but only received bids on four items. I think the reason for only getting a few bids is because the boxes were checked on my behalf.  I do not care if someone does not pay for an auction, I will deal with this if it happens, but I think being required to provide a payment method before bidding has put people off from bidding. 

Someone doing a snipe bid may not even know about this until the attempt to place a bid.  By this time, it would be too late to provide a payment method.

[laststopgeneralstore]

You need to charge more for shipping and stop shipping everything priority(typically the most expensive route).

Make sure you start charging enough shipping the customer to not only cover the label cost but also cover the fee's, boxes, polymailers, tape, labels, printers, time, fuel, storage, etc... etc...

Easiest and most fool proof way to do this is charge calculated shipping and add a handling charge. That's what I used to do until I moved to clothing. I used to do calculated with a $4.00 handling charge at at a minimum and that covered all back end expenses & fee's.

You're losing more than you think on the shipping end. Start charging more and try and get more items that sell quicker for better prices.

[ed8108]

Declining sales, is the new reality

It's not only the present economy.

Ebay's focus on increasing revenue for itself, has helped in motivating sellers to raise prices & higher prices likely encourages more than a few buyers to look for lower prices outside ebay.

Adapt as best you can

[dbfolks166mt]

Have you opted out of the Auto-pay ebay added in your buyer requirements?

If you're not aware, Ebay opted all sellers into the auto-pay w/o even letting them know. I would recommend turning off the requirement at the bottom of the page in the link below, but that's up to you. Many buyers are refusing to bid or make offers because of this.

https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements

     It appears there are two pieces to this option. Not only does the seller have to have the option checked in their account settings but apparently eBay has placed certain buyers into the test pool also but I am not sure how they selected those buyers and I don't believe the buyers have the option to turn it off or opt out. If they deploy this as the standard the uprising may escalate. 

[dbfolks166mt]

     Others already mentioned the pandemic wave that you rode when you first started selling and how that wave has subsided. The other thing that happened during the pandemic was there was a HUGE explosion in the number of ecommerce sites and both sellers and buyers began to diversify across multiple platforms and venues for selling and buying their items. 

     I diversified across multiple selling venues long ago and while I used to sell about 90% of my items on eBay that percentage is down to under 20%. I sell a lot of items through local venues where there are low or no fees, the buyer does not have to worry about paying for shipping or having the item lost or damaged in transit. My risk is minimized as far as returns and shipping issues as well. 

     As far as buying I seldom purchase items on eBay these days simply because I can find it cheaper elsewhere either online or more likely in a B&M store. 

     As far as shipping others have already suggested you quit using priority mail as your default shipping option. That used to be my default also simply because of the insurance coverage on priority mail. With the introduction of USPS ground advantage, which also comes with insurance, I have since switched over to that as a default although I still offer the buyers the option of selecting priority mail. I also do not purchase my labels through eBay but utilize Pirate Ship which has about the same discounted rates as eBay but offers a couple of shipping options eBay does not offer specifically Ground Advantage Cubic and Priority Mail Cubic which are often cheaper than their non-cubic counterparts. Not sure why you are getting hit with USPS added fees need some more details on that. 

[obob501]

Its time to move on eBays best days are behind them.

When ebay is making more on your sales than you are something is not right.

I just had my worst January since 2000 partly my own fault because when I became a below stand seller they now charge me over 20% in fees(Feebay).The good news is I sold  over 1200 on other websites and paid 0 to 5% in fees on other websites and ebay forced me to do it.

[americainabox]

So I have set I up a crossover store when eBay was my only outlet. The other site is doing very well. I spend more time on eBay removing items that sell on the other sites. It's confusing to me the why of why eBay is doing so poorly. I think one main thing that I see is eBay not using promotional add-on,that I have had set high as they requested  to see the difference, but did not change anything. My products are always listed in the top 5 because of rarity whether I promoted or not.  The SEO isn't working or something isn't right...who cares if we as sellers pay more to be up top when it produces no sales.