super slow sales

[joliefran]

The slowest and worst ever, in almost 20 years!   I can feel the country holding its breath for what comes next and I can hear those wallets slamming shut...and I get it!  Anybody else experiencing this?  Thanks!

[femmefan1946]

Have you compared your sales to 2019? (2020 was an outlier- sales were very strong due to quarantines) Or 2018? Or 2017?

And then compare month to month.
For me, my slowest period is November/December but sales come roaring back every year on Boxing Day, because my demographic spent their hobby allowance on gifts for others and then have a built up need to add to their collections.

But most sellers find the holiday period is their strongest.

There have been many reports of slow sales, but when you drill down, that has been true every single month since 1995. 

You might want to use the down time to review your listings and see if you have anything that is interfering with sales, like a No Returns policy, poor pictures, rude Responses to neg FB, too long Terms of Sale... the usual.

[beachychicd]

Yes VERY slow. It's been bad for the last 2 weeks or so.. Only one sale since yesterday.

[katzrul15]

Once I corrected my PL campaign, my impressions returned and so did our sales.  But yes, things are a bit slow at the moment.  A lot going on everywhere it seems.  Unfortunate. 

[benzexpert]

No sales since Aug 17. 
Arrgh!

Also my seller rating went from Top Rated to Above average.
I'm already back above the threshold...

they didn't count my good transaction before counting the bad.

Only one late transaction as it was lumped together with one shipping label, since 

purchased by same customer but had 2 different lead times.  I didn't realize that in time, and 
shipped the items together, when they should have shipped separately to meet the on time metrics.

[joliefran]

What is your PL campaign?

[katzrul15]

Sorry - PL = Promoted Listings

You can create a campaign under Promotions, then Advertising.  For some reason my PL impressions had flat-lined recently and I ended one and created one and within a few hours, received 4 sales.  ymmv

I realize it is an extra expense, but when we do not use PLs, our sales seem to tank.  But lots of Sellers indicate they do not do them, etc. 

[benzexpert]

I do all my listings as promoted at 1%.

Used to be you got an allowance for this with your store, and 

it was basically free. But they took that away.

I wonder if they still give the allowance for the shipping supplies?
I do markdown campaigns. That always seem to draw some business, but not recently.
Just got one sale after 10 days.

[dbfolks166mt]

     My sales on eBay have been a bit slower than normal but the other forums I use are holding pretty steady. A lot happening at the moment with end of summer vacations, kids heading back to school and people saving a little extra for the upcoming holidays once the Holiday wish lists start to get finalized. 

     Also the economy has opened back up a little and people are getting out after being cooped up for so long. The malls in my area are busier than I have seen them in over 2 years. Some of the changes in the last couple of years, ecommerce sales tax laws, increase in shipping cost, etc. that have forced some sellers to increase their prices to maintain a decent profit margin. The result has been buyers looking elsewhere in the greatly expanded ecommerce market. 

     Wall Street has noted that in the post pandemic period it would be a challenge for the once dominant ecommerce companies, eBay, Amazon, etc. to maintain their hold on their share of the market place, there are getting to be a wide range of companies for buyers to explore. 

[chapeau-noir]

@dbfolks166mt  Interesting follow-on from your last paragraph.  According to Marketplace Pulse and some of the other press I've been reading, Amazon is deriving more and more of their profits from AWS (particularly cloud), at nearly half (or perhaps just over half now) - their new CEO developed AWS within Amazon.  Also, Amazon's efficiency is plummeting - they're hiring at lightening speed without actually expanding their market.

eBay's profit is coming largely from ad revenue rather than market expansion - in other words, the site may be generating income in the short term, but in the long term is just spinning its wheels.  I suspect one reason for the PPC program (I've been in PPC programs before - they've never worked for me but seem to be OK for people selling a lot of replicate items - it was a flop on Etsy, though I think they've changed the program now so maybe it's better).

https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/ebays-plan-is-more-ads

https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/only-50-of-amazon-is-retail

[dbfolks166mt]

     Yes the ecommerce marketplace is becoming increasingly competitive and Amazon had the vision to know this and expanded into other business areas. I am VERY familiar with AWS, they dominate the cloud market both in the public and private sector and will continue to grow in that area. They have also branched out into entertainment and media services and are creeping up on the competition in that area. 

     I believe they also have a long term plan to take over a lot of the last mile deliver service from USPS and possibly others. They didn't buy 100,000 Rivian vehicles for nothing. The main difference between eBay and Amazon is Amazon had a visionary leading the company. EBay was not so fortunate. The divesture of PayPal and the move to MP is a good example although the corporate board of PayPal is doing well, as is their stock price, now that they are no longer constrained under eBay. 

https://www.motortrend.com/news/2022-rivian-prime-delivery-van-first-look-review/ 

[coolections]

In the last 8 years or so there has been a post similar to yours at least once a week if not daily. No, this is just not an event that just happened. Anyone who experiences low sales regardless of the years they have been here comes saying that.  At the time of this posting I have not looked at what you sell but it is usually clothes and jewelry sellers.

[membersinceaug2001]

I'm having the best month since Feb 2020.  Putting on old listings that haven't been on for years.

[Anonymous]

 I like representing eBay in an honest and forthright manner. I think that one, sales are down because of the search engine or two,  folk just aren't coming to eBay that much anymore. Heck, maybe both. As I've said before (and speaking for many who think like I do), I take pride in selling things on eBay and representing the company in that fashion. Hopefully, something will change. But really, how do you know how sales are doing?
Just curious.

[ifyouloveit]

It's been very very slow on all the platforms I sell on. You are not alone.