Very Slow and/or NO Sales

[dusabwl]

Are other small sellers seeing low sales (and views) in 2021? I had a similar (lower) number of sales YTD in 2020 which I figured was due to COVID, but I'm 50% down from the number of sales (not $$, but that's another story) vs. 2019 YTD. I have lots of items listed, however I'm also seeing low views. And those with high views aren't selling, even with me lowering prices weekly. Not sure if it's my particular items, or whether other small sellers are also seeing lower sales in 2021. What am I missing? Advice on what I can do differently? Thanks in advance for any insights.

[shado-x]

My sales are so bad, I pulled all but one auction

Record 2020 and a Record 2021 (so far) for me.  Rethink your strategy.

[warnakucrishan-0]

Offer Free shipping option.

Most of the buyers use the free shipping filter and then your listings will not appear to them. Try to offer free shipping.

Make sure, the Category

Set up the listings on the right category and the sub category. Don't try to edit them after published. 

Terapeak Research

Research products via terapeak research. That could help to get informed about the demand of your products.

Join to seller school program 

Sorry for the bad English.😓 

[jayjaspersgarage]

The other point as far as my sales go is that I just ended a four month long sale where all my prices were half off.  The sale worked to clear some dead inventory yet I was working twice as hard to make perhaps 20% more for sixteen frantic weeks.  The sale is over and I have my prices back up to where they need to be. 

I recall an econ graph from college that gave break even points based on price and time.  My live sale last weekend brought in more profit than I make on ebay in three months.  The best part was that I didn't have to ship out forty half price items here because I didn't have ten minutes to spare for 72 hours.

Someone mentioned that things are transitioning to Fall and I mentioned that kids are finally getting back to school.  I doubt the parents that haven't had a break for 18 months are looking at ebay while they suddenly have three free hours per day after literally having next to no free time for so long.  Wink wink.  

Also people tighten their wallets about now in anticipation of holiday shopping and expenses.  

[calgal19572014]

And let's not forget beginning 1/1/22 we have to start paying taxes on our sales over $600 on top of eBay fees! Another reason to rethink about selling in the future. 😣

[chapeau-noir]

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@calgal19572014 wrote:

And let's not forget beginning 1/1/22 we have to start paying taxes on our sales over $600 on top of eBay fees! Another reason to rethink about selling in the future. 😣

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You mean you were NOT declaring your taxes before then? 

[dusabwl]

I understand that not accepting returns can discourage many buyers, but I'm not a store -- just selling my collections.  I guess if that's what's stopping buyers, I may as well quit now because I'm not looking to have someone use an item I'm selling and then return it to me 30 days later when it's no longer interesting to them!

[julies_second_time_around621]

Hi, I came on here for that exact reason. I’m a small seller, I’m not selling half as much as I used to. I was just wondering the why also. The views are down as well as watchers. Hopefully someone has an idea of why. I’m getting really concerned, I’m not sure if it’s worth it anymore.

[dusabwl]

Thank you for giving me so much to consider! Free Shipping is something I can definitely work on, as well as categories. And I didn't know about the eBay Seller School, so that's very helpful.

[dusabwl]

Thanks for the insight. I've basically been selling the same way on eBay for 7+ years, and I have a lot of feedback to consider for making changes to how I list my items (free shipping, auction vs. BIN or fixed price, other person-2-person platforms). I realize that I can't rely on what "used to" be the selling norm as everything has changed RE: how people are buying these days!

[annadryl]

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@calgal19572014 wrote:

And let's not forget beginning 1/1/22 we have to start paying taxes on our sales over $600 on top of eBay fees! Another reason to rethink about selling in the future. 😣

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I know, right? because tax evasion is SO 2021!

Let's admit that on a world-wide message board...

[dbfolks166mt]

     You are offering free international shipping. I looked at your listings and am curious what your shipping costs are to ship one of your items from Sri Lanka to London, England? You need to do some basic math regarding shipping costs and how it impacts your bottom line.  The seller school will tell you what is best for eBay and helps their bottom line not yours.  

     I never use free shipping in my filter search when I am shopping. I find the item and then rack and stack the listings by price plus shipping lowest first. 

     In addition your listings have some statements in your return policy that are simply not going to hold up over the eBay MBG.  

[dbfolks166mt]

     When I am shopping on eBay, which is seldom, I never even look to see if the seller accepts returns. It is irrelevant in most cases because the eBay MBG covers the buyer in most cases. No returns does not mean no refunds. 

[dbfolks166mt]

     Shipping is always a tough one to figure out especially with the USPS smorgasbord of options. About the only time I use free shipping or flat cost shipping is when I know I can ship the item in a USPS flat rate envelope or package to the buyer anywhere in the US and cannot beat the cost using any other method. Example: I have a dive belt with 16 pounds of lead weights currently listed that I can get into a USPS padded flat rate envelope. There is no other shipping method offered by USPS that would allow me to send that at a lower cost anywhere in the US. 

     For first class packages because I am on the east coast I always use calculated shipping since the cost can vary greatly depending on which zone the buyer is in. If I was to use free shipping I would have to calculate the max cost to ship the package to the west coast and incorporate that into my price. That would probably be less than optimal for a buyer on the east coast where the shipping would be less. Probably why most of my sales tend to be on the east coast or mid west. 

     For some things priority mail regional boxes are the cheaper option over straight priority mail sometimes it's the other way around again depending on the size, weight and distance. I have also on occasion used priority mail cubic which eBay does not offer but I get off Pirate Ship and upload the information into the order. Shipping is just one big **bleep** shoot but I try to minimize the cost to the buyer as much as possible. 

[jayjaspersgarage]

"You have 11,000 items and have only sold around 800???? Dude. That goes against all logic. And your items,  titles and descriptions are proper, too! Do like I and many others are doing...pulling our items out of here and sell somewhere else. These corporate clowns are happy with their salaries and could care less about increasing sales and all. Heck, compare eBay's stock to Amazon.

That should tell you. It's amazing how kissing feet to climb the corporate ladder can utterly screw things up."

I wouldn't be so judgmental when someone has actual success in on-line sales versus quitting.   Each person selling on ebay has different life circumstances.  I admire a seller with 800+ sales, especially if they don't have to warehouse the product.  They are most likely  selling on several other sites so ebay may only be  a fraction of the sales.  I would guess that they don't even warehouse the stuff they sell.

[calgal19572014]

I am a small seller ($7-8k a year) so I never had a 1099 in prior years to claim my sales as income when I filed my taxes.