Regards,
Inceptions
evry1nositswindy • seller since 2013
@oldedale The drop I am seeing corresponds to the end date of my Quarterly 30 day Promoted Listing Campaign that ended on about Feb 6. Only one outright sale since then and only 2 Auctions with bids that end this weekend.
I've seen this kind of pattern before right after a PL Campaign ends. The search algorithm must kick my stuff down the list for a period of time ...I'm sure its a ploy to make one think they have to drop prices or do something to have sales happen again but I don't do anything other then wait ... It will come back and hopefully this weekend since for many its a long weekend and I think listing over 50 new lots this week will probably help.
@oldedale wrote:We see a huge drop in sales and traffic occurring since Jan 23. Sales are currently down -45%. Traffic impressions falling since Jan 23, 2021. We see very poor search results and eBay search suggestions do not match key words. Search for Porcelain, eBay shows glass items. We had steady sales for 90 days until this happened. Now, nothing. What happened on Jan 23rd that caused such a huge drop in activity?
Sounds perfectly normal to me. We're out of the holiday season now. For most sellers, sales will continue to decline until fall when they will pick up again. You need to compare your sales for this period to the same period last year, not to the previous month. Most sales occur on a seasonal profile - yours may or may not be the same as mine.
BTW... what is up with all these posts?
On 2-11-2021
We see a huge drop in sales and traffic occurring since Jan 23. Sales are currently down -45%. Traffic impressions falling since Jan 23, 2021. We see very poor search results and eBay search suggestions do not match key words. Search for Porcelain, eBay shows glass items. We had steady sales for 90 days until this happened. Now, nothing. What happened on Jan 23rd that caused such a huge drop in activity?
10-17-2020
We see a 50-75% reduction in traffic occurring after the 9/20 seller update. WHY? We have not received any defects, just this HUGE drop in traffic. Impression were steady in 100,000 range in Sept. This dropped to 35,000 after 9/20/20. Organic impressions were 20,000 this decreased to 8000 or less. Same listings active both months. Why is this happening? We sell antiques and collectibles, have for over 10 years. Are other sellers seeing this huge drop occurring after the last seller status update? Thanks for any input. TRS -
On 7-18-2020
We see a huge drop in sales and traffic occurring since July 1. Sales are currently down -45%. Traffic impressions falling since July 1. We see very poor search results and eBay search suggestions do not match key words. Search for Porcelain, eBay shows glass items. We had steady sales for 90 days until this happened. Now, nothing. What happened on July 1 that caused such a huge drop in activity?
And many many many more like these, every few months, going back over previous years... 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015...
If your sales have been steadily dropping as much as you've reported on these threads for 6+ years, it's probably time to take a look at your business (your offerings, your pricing, your competition, your listing descriptions, etc.) to identify where you can make changes to become more competitive.
There are a lot more sellers on eBay now. I have some collectibles that I have periodically thought about listing for 16 years...they are selling for 25% of what they were selling for back then, and there are a LOT more of them listed now. Nothing stays the same...tastes change, economies change, competition changes, supply and demand changes. You have to keep changing too.
@inceptions wrote:
@oldedale wrote:We see a huge drop in sales and traffic occurring since Jan 23. Sales are currently down -45%. Traffic impressions falling since Jan 23, 2021. We see very poor search results and eBay search suggestions do not match key words. Search for Porcelain, eBay shows glass items. We had steady sales for 90 days until this happened. Now, nothing. What happened on Jan 23rd that caused such a huge drop in activity?
Sounds perfectly normal to me. We're out of the holiday season now. For most sellers, sales will continue to decline until fall when they will pick up again. You need to compare your sales for this period to the same period last year, not to the previous month. Most sales occur on a seasonal profile - yours may or may not be the same as mine.
BTW... what is up with all these posts?
On 2-11-2021
We see a huge drop in sales and traffic occurring since Jan 23. Sales are currently down -45%. Traffic impressions falling since Jan 23, 2021. We see very poor search results and eBay search suggestions do not match key words. Search for Porcelain, eBay shows glass items. We had steady sales for 90 days until this happened. Now, nothing. What happened on Jan 23rd that caused such a huge drop in activity?
10-17-2020
We see a 50-75% reduction in traffic occurring after the 9/20 seller update. WHY? We have not received any defects, just this HUGE drop in traffic. Impression were steady in 100,000 range in Sept. This dropped to 35,000 after 9/20/20. Organic impressions were 20,000 this decreased to 8000 or less. Same listings active both months. Why is this happening? We sell antiques and collectibles, have for over 10 years. Are other sellers seeing this huge drop occurring after the last seller status update? Thanks for any input. TRS -
On 7-18-2020
We see a huge drop in sales and traffic occurring since July 1. Sales are currently down -45%. Traffic impressions falling since July 1. We see very poor search results and eBay search suggestions do not match key words. Search for Porcelain, eBay shows glass items. We had steady sales for 90 days until this happened. Now, nothing. What happened on July 1 that caused such a huge drop in activity?
And many many many more like these, every few months, going back over previous years... 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015...
If your sales have been steadily dropping as much as you've reported on these threads for 6+ years, it's probably time to take a look at your business (your offerings, your pricing, your competition, your listing descriptions, etc.) to identify where you can make changes to become more competitive.
There are a lot more sellers on eBay now. I have some collectibles that I have periodically thought about listing for 16 years...they are selling for 25% of what they were selling for back then, and there are a LOT more of them listed now. Nothing stays the same...tastes change, economies change, competition changes, supply and demand changes. You have to keep changing too.
@inceptions There are cycles with sales, that's for sure and categories influence it too. I compare each month with the same month in previous years ... up until Covid we saw steady growth from year to year on the main account. On one account however, it had been grown to the low 5 figures over a 12 month period with a proven sales approach only to see that account completely go belly up in the 6 weeks following eBay's GTC Mandate in March of 2018. After 6 months it was basically gutted as it was making less than 5 sales per month at the time. So on a certain level eBay IS responsible for certain situations that either promote or hurt sales.
Once Covid hit sales dropped in general but not necessarily because of eBay ... obtaining inventory was more of an issue then sales themselves. My concern moving forward is more centered around whether or not our economy will continue its upward motion from the three years leading up to Covid ... if not then I would suspect internet sales will decline in varying degrees on all venues ... time will tell.
@evry1nositswindy wrote:I am up 70% over this time last year. No complaints!
@evry1nositswindy AWESOME! Really glad to hear that!!!
@mamabatch wrote:My main issue is not with the slow sales , that is a normal thing between Jan-March every year. My issue is with the watchers category on my listings. I lost 70% of my customers who watch items. They now say 0-zero as of mid January. I periodically send offers to customers as a promotion and to boost sales, which Im sure you all do the same. I was just wondering if anyone else has the same issue. After communicating with Ebay several times and with a-lot of reps they say they do not know why it did that and it is out of the scope of expertise.
So, has anyone lost there watching customers........
@mamabatch That has got to be a glitch that all your Watchers disappeared, you should probably post that on eBay's Weekly Chat (every Wed 2 4 PM EST - Discussion tab - Inside eBay - Weekly chat). As to sending offers to Watchers, I never condoned that function when eBay came out with it and would never use it ... nor would I ever use Best Offer ... while some of those features work for some folks like yourself, from a purely business point of view, anything that eBay presents that works towards their agenda to drive prices down would be something I oppose ...
I use Promoted Listings BUT that does NOT show a lower price on the general listing ... it's my decision to take a % of the sale price and pay eBay if an item sells. I have learned it helps move long tail items in the categories I sell in and typically sales go up higher than normal during a 30 day Campaign ... plus eBay gives Store owners $ 30 AD credit so the basic math is if your Campaign is for 5% for all items being promoted you basically can Sell $ 600 worth of stuff AD free because you get the $ 30 credited back to your account on an eBay invoice. That's playing with house money.
