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.

[calgal19572014]

100% agree. 

[jayjaspersgarage]

"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. "

You may not realize that you are open to a ten year look back by the IRS if you ever get audited.  We all should add the online sales  to our adjusted gross income every year regardless of the amount.  Whether you can afford to get caught is the real issue.  

It is possible that the IRS will be calling on a lot of former sellers who happen to close their accounts in December 2021 next year or even in 2023.  They may even add a specific question about selling in previous years to catch tax evaders.  

Having said that it is wise to keep as many receipts possible and a mileage log for any driving you do related to sourcing and selling online.  It is all tax deductible.

[american-photography]

E-commerce is slowing down everywhere according to FedEx recent earnings report.  Amazon had a disappointing Prime Day and now they want to build brick-and-mortar stores.  Macys is reporting higher traffic and sales.  Charging sales taxes on internet sales has now leveled the playing field with physical stores.

Physical stores are booming again.  Freeways, streets, and parking lots are congested.  Retailers stocks and earnings are rebounding.  

Consumers are getting out and shopping again. 

[Anonymous]

Judgemental? Far from it.  Either folk aren't coming to eBay like they use to or eBay is just too wonky.  When Pokemon cards sell faster than Picassos, something's wrong.

[memorymarielane]

YES, thank you for saying that. Everyone wants to push the blame on people getting out and shopping brick and morter stores now.... but if I recall correctly hasn't Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, and all the big box grocery stores been open the entire time during the pandemic? The only stores closed were those in the local malls (and malls are becoming a thing of the past we all know as Amazon is killing the retail marketplace).

The problem is Ebay, let's be honest. When they continually make changes to their algorithm and favor certain sellers over others, then it is not the general public to blame.

[Anonymous]

Thanks but like the button you click when eBay asks you after you post an item, "I'm done now."

[chrispass918]

No, cause I’m selling stuff that people want. 

[yuzuha]

---

@memorymarielane wrote:

YES, thank you for saying that. Everyone wants to push the blame on people getting out and shopping brick and morter stores now.... but if I recall correctly hasn't Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, and all the big box grocery stores been open the entire time during the pandemic?

---

They were, but we were not getting anywhere NEAR the normal amount of traffic at my store. It would be mostly empty even on the weekends, which was never the case before.

[dbfolks166mt]

      That is the case in my area as well. People were just isolated too long during the COVID lockdown. I have never bought any clothing online I much prefer to try the item on, buy it, have it and not have to wait on shipping, or pay for it. Returns are easy and simple to a B&M store. I think the cluster mess during the last holiday season with shipping helped push a lot of consumers back to the B&M. It also satisfies the instant gratification a lot quicker than even BIN listings. 

[craft-stash]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz😴😴😴😴😴😴😴😴😴😴😴😴😴😴😴😴Wake me if I get a $ale!

[jayjaspersgarage]

"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. 

"

Well, sort of.  Besides the fact that all online sales are reportable since the beginning of the internet we have to report the gross sales.  We can write of a lot of expenses against those sales which for many people will essentially create a "loss" and lower your AGI.  Figure out the percentage of square footage you use exclusively for online sales and deduct the same percent of your Rent/Mortgage, heating and air conditioning bills, all the gas you use driving to and from the post office and to estate sales and all other related shopping trips.  Keeps receipts for everything and make notes on them.  For some people living on next to nothing they probably won't pay more in taxes but check with your accountant.  BTW, your accountant is tax deductible too.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

hasn't Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, and all the big box grocery stores been open the entire time during the pandemic? 

Open, yes. Filled with customers? No.  Much busier now.

[city.shoes]

Same thing over here. Sales have been extremely low during this month of September. Traffic has decreased. I tried the new Promoted Listing Advance and my listing were at the top and still didn't work either.

[secondchancetraysures]

We were starting to worry it was only us... ...

We are a new store, just started the beginning of July with the starter level, but have sold a handful of things over the years. Increased our store level to basic in August and things seemed to be going pretty well. Small and slow but steady sales, as we expected, and gradual view increases...external views were starting to blow up...until it's like our store came to a halt. Views tanked all of the sudden, sales slowed, offers have been almost non-existent, whereas we were getting at least a few a week before. (I've seen a few bigger sellers talking about some sort of glitch when they send out offers to people that says their store doesn't ship to the buyer...maybe wondering if this is a small part? We always send an offer when we get a watcher.) 

We post at least a couple items a day, try to play around with pricing up and down a little (a couple a day), even end & relist as similar some of the oldest items. I've been watching YouTube and researching, reading forums...I just feel like I'm missing something or that something is totally messed up. I even attempted a "store refresh", but it feels like it's a lull. I know some of the toy items (not all) have higher prices preset for Q4, but we have plenty of other items with great competitive pricing. Nothing drastic has changed in our store. We have never offered returns and have not run any promoted listings. Just started running select item sales. Thoughts?

Also, has anyone else noticed that their "view count" seems to be messed up too ? It might say we only have like 50 views one day, but I just started a sale and can see that it had significantly more views already during sale that day than is even showing on my hub overview. (Part of the fall update roll out messing with things maybe?)

[norskmediashop]

Feel the same way as you, weekends usually we see a constant flow, we had one order the entire weekend. yes september is always a pretty bad month but this is dead end flat. Now since the payout today there are no new funds to even purchase a couple of shipping labels with for what is left, just hate this whole system anymore its nothing but stress with this funding and payment situation. Sure everything works okay until sales fall off the cliff and then your in a mess with everything coming out of the checking account and trying to manage it. But anyway something has changed around here since so many are complaining, it feels like maybe the majority of listings are being blocked from google searches and the like compared to before. Or did ebay change something again with their own search system? probably.