What else can I do to increase sales?! Help!

[yesterdays_news_vintage]

I have been selling on eBay for two years, mostly vintage finds. I am up to nearly 800 items in my store. I have 60 day FREE returns, one day handling time, 30 day listings (with automation rule to relist), 10 percent promotion level, and I list at least one item every day, usually more, although once in a great while I will miss a day.

I called eBay yesterday morning and they did some sore of reset/refresh on my account supposedly and it did nothing.  I have had the worst few weeks since starting eBay. I am just really disgusted with eBay and I know I am not the only one, but PLEASE does anyone have any secret tips. I know I am grasping at straws, but this is my only source of income and I am trying to support a family of four. My kids are still too young to stay at home alone and I am doing this to avoid childcare costs that would eat my paycheck if I worked outside of the home.

I know my inventory isn't exactly high demand, but this is the kind of stuff I have always sold reasonably well. I do not have the funds to improve my inventory, shop clearances, or anything like that, especially after paying all the selling and store fees. I do have maybe a few dozen **bleep** things on there because it was from when I first started and had no idea what I was doing or what sells. But I also have lots of stuff that typically sells within a week or two. But not lately.

I hate feeling desperate, and I am painfully familiar with eBay's ebbs and flows, but this is ridiculous. I feel like giving up on eBay, but it is really the only thing that is compatible with my family responsibilities right now.

Anyone?! LOL. I will be forever grateful if someone knows a real way to fix this. Although I am sure many sellers have similar problems right now. 

[yesterdays_news_vintage]

What a nice community here! I admit in the two years I've been a seller, I don't come much to these forums.

I made a "photo box" out of a cheap white plastic portable wardrobe and just cut the front part off. The photos are okay. My problem is I can't use the box for anything large, pants, blankets, etc. I have to find other places to take photos of those items. I do have a half mannequin as well. I don't use is very often anymore.  Or the photo box. It is much faster to take a photo of something flat and move on, rather than wrestling with mannequins. 🙂

I have friends who make in the $50 to 60 grand a year range selling similar items. They do not use professional looking photo setups or mannequins EVER.  I was taking my cues from them as apparently it has not affected their sales whatsoever.

I would love the aesthetics of my store to look better, just because. But I have my doubts that sales will increase significantly as a result of that. And I could be wrong of course.

I will reconsider the blurb about item conditions. I assumed that when I said I do not invest *excessive* time and effort in cleaning items, that meant I do not sit down with a toothbrush for an hour to clean something. Apparently, my message was lost. LOL. I could just indicate on each individual listing what condition the item is in. 

I thought eBay makes exceptions for vintage clothing as far as laundering goes? If I was required to clean most of my vintage clothing items, I wouldn't be able to sell them, because they would need dry cleaning. I haven't had even one complaint in two years about the cleanliness of anything. 

Anyway, thank you all for the suggestions and tips and empathy LOL. I am feeling for everyone in this position. It really sucks. 

[tiramisu41]

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@yesterdays_news_vintage wrote:

About 10 days ago, I ended all of my listings and "relisted" as sell similar with 30 day duration. So technically, all 800 of my listings should have been considered new items. I would suspect that messed things up, but sales were already dragging before I did that.

On the contrary.  Listings get a "temporary bump" in search when they are newly listed or "selling soon."  If anything, your items should have been showing up (at least for a day) higher in search than usual *because* your items were new/about to expire.   IOW, I don't think you messed up anything at all.

Prices are almost always researched before listing by looking at previously sold items. I completely agree that prices look very high on some items, but I price them at or under what similar items have sold for either through our store or from other sellers. I honestly do not know why people pay such high prices for some of this stuff, but they do.

That's good, but you what once sold at "X" price may not sell at the same price in the future.   If you want to stick to your pricing then you also have to be willing to wait for the right buyer to come along who will pay it.  You might want to ask yourself what's more important?   Volume or sale price?  I'm not suggesting that you price your stuff so low it isn't worth selling it online, but on the other hand, if you want to stick to your pricing, be cognizant of the fact it may well take time to sell if at all.

Since it sounds like getting as much money from your eBay sales a month is a priority, wouldn't you rather use your monthly store listing allowance on things that will sell and sell more quickly? 

If you are confident and firm in your pricing of your more "long-tail" items, why not open a second account or store that offers that sort of item only?   Just a basic account would get you 50 free listings a month freeing up 50 listings in your main shop where you could concentrate on listing items that have a track record of selling sooner/more successfully for you.

Also, like I mentioned, we have some stupid listings on there from like two years ago that I wouldn't even look twice at to pick up and sell these days. We were just throwing everything on and seeing what sticks. lol. I would like to remove all of that kind of stuff, but I feel like when I start ending listings, my sales drop off. I don't know.

That's one of the downsides of having your listings automatically renew.  I'd also argue, having inventory in your shop that's "dead" can also negatively affect your shop's overall success, so why keep relisting it?

If I were you, I'd go in end the items and relist/change them to an auction format, using the absolutely rock-bottom price you'd take to get rid of the items as your starting price and clear them out.   If you don't want to do that or sell them at all, revise the listing to offer something else you think has better sales potential.  As long as no one's purchased an item yet, you can modify the listing in just about any way you choose including pix, headline, description, price, etc. 

Photographs? I HATE my photos. I have gone to every corner of my house and tried every setup possible (and my partner's, as she also lists from her home) to try and get good images with decent backgrounds. I wish I had the resources to set up a more "professional" looking studio but I don't. I use clip on lights. I have zero natural lighting in my home. I think there may only be a dozen or so images taken on the floor, on top of a clean tablecloth.

I don't have any natural lighting inside my house either and I don't have a lightbox/light kit.   Does the sun come up where you live?   Direct sunlight isn't good, but indirect light is ideal.

I shoot all of my photos outside on my screen porch for the most part on a white base/background that consists of just two pieces of paper placed at a right angle.  Clothes are shot hanging up against a plain white wall.  In an effort to keep editing time to a minimum I try and do my "cropping" when I shoot the photo -- IOW, I frame as I shoot.  I also do a mix of both close-ups and long-shots so the buyer gets a fuller picture of what the item is like.

While I'm not 100% happy with my clothing pix, I don't offer predominately clothing in my shop so it hasn't been worth the expense/hassle to get a mannequin.  But, given how much of your offerings are clothing you might want to invest in one.  Even an inflatable one like this:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-FEMALE-MANNEQUIN-FORM-HANGER-BODY-TORSO-DISPLAY-WOMEN-DRESS-SHIRT-FLESH... would improve the look of your clothing photos.   

If you want to try and source one locally, keep your eye out for B&M stores that are closing.  Younkers/Bon Ton shops just recently liquidated their stores coast-to-coast and were selling everything including store fittings.  As a result, I know several online sellers who were able to pick up all sorts of quality display items for much less than they would have cost, new.

The vacation blurb: I have tried multiple times to bulk find and replace (delete) that and it just doesn't work. I have no idea which listings still include that, and I haven't had the time to go through all of my listings to manually remove it one by one.

When you use Bulk Edit, select "Search and Replace."  Put the *exact* copy you want to search for in the top box, and the copy you want to replace in the second box.  If you want to replace the "searched" copy with nothing, leave the second box blank.

If that doesn't work, here's a link to all your listings that mention you being on vacation in May/June: https://www.ebay.com/dsc/i.html?_ftrt=901&_fsradio=%26LH_SpecificSeller%3D1&_sop=12&_sadis=15&_stpos...   If you absolutely want to make sure the copy is gone, go in and revise/delete it manually.

We do not list or sell anything gross or grimy. I spend alot of time cleaning clothing and Tupperware items and other items as much as I can. However, I do not take toothbrushes to any item.  I know some buyers can be extremely picky, so I want to make sure they know that there may be some corner dust or a vintage smell or a stray pet hair sometimes.  Just being proactive and honest to avoid any complaints. I'd say only 5 percent at the MOST of our items may need to be more detail cleaned by the buyer when they receive it.

I understand where you're coming from, but if only 5% (or less) of your items need additional cleaning by the buyer when they receive their purchase, then I would argue you're turning away far more than that by the "proactive statements" you're including as boilerplate in your listings.

Selling is all about "the sizzle" and not the steak.   IOW, it's about the impression you make.   Clothing placed/photographed on the floor, lengthy explanations that your items may not be clean, etc. don't give a positive impression.   If your 5% statement above is correct, then I would get rid of the CYA verbiage you currently include in your listings, as it's hurting you more than helping IMO.

...and the majority of vintage clothing (dresses, coats, wool sweaters, etc.) I can not launder at home.

As another poster noted, this is problematic as eBay has restrictions/requirements when you sell used clothing in terms of cleanliness.  If it's not clean, then you shouldn't be selling it...

So while I totally agree with what you are saying with regard to all of that, most of our listings we have sold similar items at similar prices in the past... Anyway, yes, I hate my photographs but that has never really been a hinderance to sales in the past...  But....our listings and items have always been as they are now, and the drop in sales is obvious and significant and alarming...  

Re-read what you wrote above.   See a common theme? 

The problem is, while your selling strategy on eBay may have been successful in the past, eBay is constantly changing.  For good or bad, they are constantly tweaking the site, adding new features, taking others away, breaking or messing up things that many would argue worked perfectly fine, etc.  IOW, selling here is like chasing a bead of mercury across the table most of the time.  😉

Meanwhile, for various reasons, the number of items listed on the site has ballooned (to over a billion, IIRC on any given day) and again, many would argue that there are fewer buyers frequenting the site simply because there are some many more online options out there these days from B&M stores with an online presence to something as "rudimentary" as CraigsList and FaceBook.

So, in a nutshell, it's tougher than ever to get seen and find buyers than ever before which requires constant tweaking of your own online marketing strategy to be successful.   What worked "in the past" very likely won't work today and certainly won't tomorrow.  So in one sense, the dramatic drop in sales you've been seeing while undesirable, is perfectly "normal" and should be expected.

That said, you have encouraged me to maybe sit down for a couple of days and go through each listing, change titles, change prices, edit descriptions etc.   After that, I have no idea!!

Yes, "freshening up" your listings in that way can't hurt.  The more you can do to make your listings attractive to buyers the better.  All of the above will help accomplish that.

But, as I suggested to you before, if you want your items to be seen, then you also need to give some thought to how to compensate for the fact that just due to sheer volume of items on the eBay site and the vagaries of its search engine, your visibility on eBay may be limited.

If you want more people to see what you have to offer, then continuing to put all your eggs in one basket as you have in the past may not be the best strategy.  Diversifying your online presence to include more than one selling platform would help overcome that deficiency.  Many of eBay sellers have added that strategy to their online selling marketing plan and are seeing success.  You may well, too.

Good luck! 

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[smileytown18]

On eBay, If your listings are clear, have clear photos, are in correct category, priced right, and are items people would be interested in... then all you can do is hang on and pray!
Drink some coffee in the interim

[turquoisetulips]

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@yesterdays_news_vintage wrote:

I have been selling on eBay for two years, mostly vintage finds. I am up to nearly 800 items in my store. I have 60 day FREE returns, one day handling time, 30 day listings (with automation rule to relist), 10 percent promotion level, and I list at least one item every day, usually more, although once in a great while I will miss a day.

I called eBay yesterday morning and they did some sore of reset/refresh on my account supposedly and it did nothing.  I have had the worst few weeks since starting eBay. I am just really disgusted with eBay and I know I am not the only one, but PLEASE does anyone have any secret tips. I know I am grasping at straws, but this is my only source of income and I am trying to support a family of four. My kids are still too young to stay at home alone and I am doing this to avoid childcare costs that would eat my paycheck if I worked outside of the home.

I know my inventory isn't exactly high demand, but this is the kind of stuff I have always sold reasonably well. I do not have the funds to improve my inventory, shop clearances, or anything like that, especially after paying all the selling and store fees. I do have maybe a few dozen **bleep** things on there because it was from when I first started and had no idea what I was doing or what sells. But I also have lots of stuff that typically sells within a week or two. But not lately.

I hate feeling desperate, and I am painfully familiar with eBay's ebbs and flows, but this is ridiculous. I feel like giving up on eBay, but it is really the only thing that is compatible with my family responsibilities right now.

Anyone?! LOL. I will be forever grateful if someone knows a real way to fix this. Although I am sure many sellers have similar problems right now. 

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I know you said you don't really have the funds  to go out and buy more stuff to sell  but if I were you  I'd try and find a way . Do you have any thrift  stores in your area ? If so check them out as well as any gargage sales you see  .  Women are the primary shoppers  and soon they will be looking for warm winter clothing for their sons , husbands , brothers and fathers . So if you can ,, pick up more clothing for men and boys  .  That will help . Tulips 

[namtrag1]

eBay has stopped giving you eBay candy!!

You better get used to it....this is how eBay does things.  First they get you on board and make sure you have great listing exposurer for a few months to a year maybe then BAM they stop giving you the great exposurer (ebay candy).

This is in the hopes you try more listings (more fees) you try more promotions (fees) etc.  eBay wrings you dry to the bone until you give up and go away....then eBay gets another newbie and plays this game and the process is repeated over and over again.

eBay ain't stupid...they are sharp as a tack! 

Enjoy the ride while you can.

Peace

[abfabvintage]

@tunicaslot

Hi, Tunic. I always get great advice from you. However, to me the bigger problem is ebay is only advertising new, almost new, trendy, and no where have I seen ANY advertisements related to collectibles, vintage, etc. Not even the TV ads, their main page, no where. Unless I am missing something.

Plus the fact that search doesn't work so well since the catalogue was instituted starting in March. A lot of sellers had good, average sales up til that point when you read through these posts. I get that seller's can improve their listings, but when I hear things are not selling all of a sudden and maybe ? because of the millenials buying new, gift cards, whatever, why is that all of a sudden now an issue for the period March through now? We know to write up specific titles of what a buyer would probably look for and you search for say ladies coats and you get CDs and not similar, what else can a seller do if the buyer can't find anything using search?  

The site looks more and more like Amazon. And I am noticing sellers of vintage, pre-owned, even clothing and pottery are now inserting Brand New items so they get elevated in search. For me to see one of my favorite vintage sellers start offering bottled vitamins, it is time to rethink all of this. 

[lex-talon]

When I checked your sold items list, you are actually doing quite well. There are sellers who haven't sold anything or just a few items for the past month or so. 

Try to replace those items that sit around & replace them with items that will sell. Do find a way to get to any Thrift stores/garage sales in your area. Good luck to you.

[sapphireseal]

As someone who also sells vintage items, I get your pricing.  Vintage items aren't for someone who wants to use barrettes as barrettes, they're for people who want to recapture a bit of nostalgia.   I'm not an expert in any of the stuff you sell so I can't comment on whether those exact prices are too high or too low, but they don't seem 'crazy' to me.

Also in my experience pricing "too high" results in better sales than pricing "too low".  (I mean, obviously there is a point where everyone is going to think you're crazy, but in general I think people are quite willing to psych themselves up and convince themself that an expensive item is worth it.) 

This is especially true if you're the only one on eBay with a particular item.  "Oh well, buyer, you will just have to buy item XYZ from someone else . . . oh wait, YOU CAN'T."

If an item gets watchers but no buyers several relisting cycles in a row, let it rest for a couple weeks, off eBay, before relisting it.  Make the buyers think they have missed their chance.

My suggestions would be to condense your "after description" text; most buyers don't read it anyway.

Where are your buyers?  If they are demographics that hang out on Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, etc join them and use that to your advantage.   With Facebook you will probably be able to find interest or sales groups.  With Instagram and Tumblr, to get noticed depends on great photos taken in a way that sort of "disguises" that it's a sale post.  Like, taking a picture of a single hankerchief with soft mood lighting and posting, "Cotton traveller from a bygone time . . . who has used you before, I wonder?"  Okay, it's a silly example, 😉 but my point is that on a lot of social media sites it's about creating a story around an item, that then makes people want to buy the item.   Which is why a lot of people buy vintage or antiques to begin with.

[yesterdays_news_vintage]

I agree. I mean we sell vintage plastic Aladdin travel mugs for 15 to 25 bucks PLUS shipping. I still don't get why people would pay 25 to 35 bucks for a used plastic solid colored coffee mug, but we have sold MANY. Like you said, it is about nostalgia. I've sold a package of vintage men's briefs for like 70 bucks. LOL. When I go to an estate sale, I head straight to the basement, because it is often the JUNK that sells for the most money - coolers, plastic mugs, sheets and blankets, etc.

That said, I still find myself putting stuff on the store that I think is pretty cool, but it sits there forever. lol. If I had more funds to invest in inventory and more time to shop, I would stick with ONLY the stuff I know for sure will sell. Maybe one day.....

Many people here have suggested shortening my description wording and removing the language about vintage items not being perfectly clean, so I may consider that for sure. I really thought that I read that vintage clothing is an exception to the has to be laundered rule. I haven't gotten in trouble for it yet. lol

So we are really expected to pay to dry clean leather, silk, wool, other delicate fabrics and antique clothing? I always just considered myself the middleman between second hand sources and the buyer, as in: this is how I found it, and you can deal with the rest! It isn't like I am dragging clothes out of a dirty laundry hamper. Most of this stuff has been hanging in a closet for 50 years. Lol. It's enough I am out driving around searching for this stuff, and all the handling involved. I feel the buyer is basically paying for that service to find something that is hard or impossible to find elsewhere. For me, adding that extra expense and time of cleaning items that can't be washed at home just wouldn't be worth it for me to make 20 bucks minus all the selling fees and cost of item and gas money and supplies. That said, any items that I am able to safely wash at home in a washing machine, I do. Oh well.

[jason_incognito]

you get great listing exposure for a few months because you are new and have new stuff. 

As a buyer, there are many searches I watch. Many have dozens of listings and nothing listed in the last year...... People look and see that nothing is selling so they don't list. But maybe you have the piece or pieces that will sell. There are often pieces that show up and get 4 or 5 bidders and sell for good money, while at the same time all those basic pieces just sit there. 

One Noritake pattern I really need a round serving bowl and fruit bowls. They haven't been listed in the last year. One seller, after not being able to sell a set of cups and saucers for $49 for almost a year has not set them on good til cancelled and upped the price to $100....

So many come here as buyers, see the junk that is listed at high prices and they walk away..... It's a cycle.

[tiramisu41]

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@jason_incognito wrote:

One Noritake pattern I really need a round serving bowl and fruit bowls. They haven't been listed in the last year. One seller, after not being able to sell a set of cups and saucers for $49 for almost a year has not set them on good til cancelled and upped the price to $100....

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@jason_incognito, what Noritake pattern are you looking for?

[abfabvintage]

@yesterdays_news_vintage

This may not help you, but I use the Woolite home dry cleaning system in my dryer. Bought boxes of it from Amazon. They cost a bit, but at least the dry cleanables get a good refresh before listing/posting. But, you will still get those buyers who will claim it smells for whatever reason just to return on your dime. That is all part of selling vintage, pre-owned clothing. For washables, I use Tide. Never dryer sheets or Fabreeze. Yes, it can get expensive particularly your electric bill for running that dryer, but I do whatever I can to avoid having a buyer not be happy. And recently, it is getting harder and harder to make buyers happy when eBay offers cheaper items once a buyer has paid you.  

[abfabvintage]

 @yesterdays_news_vintage

And the Woolite system: you can put up to 5 items in the dryer to refresh/clean. If it is a heavy coat or an item you may feel needs more cleaning, then reduce the number of items in the dryer. 

[tunicaslot]

I hear where you are coming from and have long advocated that Ebay's emphasis should always be more focused on the individual seller - not corporations, the fact that we have everything here - old and new, finding that favorite toy you remembered having as a child as people can buy new anywhere - but Ebay sellers have the oldies but goodies and oddities you won't find elsewhere.

I have seen where many havesudden drop offs - but I wonder how many of these sellers have gone back into their listings and checked to see if they have UPC or MPN filled in or checked Does Not Apply - instant drop in search, is the item modified - checked y or n, bothered to fill in the item specifics. In T-shirts alone - they ask about fit, neckline, length ect.... Sweatshirts - they want to know all of the above as well as closure and activity. The more you fill in the better your search placement. It's a daunting task but I've noticed results.

As I stated before - often the view count remains at 0 or 1 even 24 hrs after I've listed an item - so I go back and revise - check that it's mobile friendly and activate it again. There are problems here for sure - but the updates have affected algorithms and changes have to be made and I don't think sellers consider this - thus all of a sudden - lower sales.

[tunicaslot]

case in point - a regular poster who complains of low sales - just looked at a shoe listing I have up vs them - I have 19 item specifics filled in - they have 8 - now who's listings are going to be seen??