Drop in Sales & Free Listing for Stores

[goodies_draw]

I have experienced a huge drop in sales this week, has anyone else had this issue?

What is happening to eBay, we know longer get Free Listing during the month as Store Owners?

Very dishearting! 

[goodies_draw]

Firstly, thank you everyone for your replies, much appreciated.

Those with Stores if you list Auction not Buy Now are you finding sales improve? I know that as store owners we have to pay to list items under Auction, which is a not fair I feel.

clarry100 where else are you are you suggesting? I have tried Gumtree and Quicksale.

To those experiencing very similar sell declines as me, I hope your sales improve soon.

[ourphonecase]

Do you understand how the Cassini search rank works? If not then I suggest you read up on it and learn strategies to improve your sales. I find the scarcity model works quite well. Scare customers into thinking there's only 1 item left and use a third party to auto add inventory so it doesn't rist (thus keeping sales history).

I also find that if you only sell In Australia then add an Australian flag to the main pic. Australians seem to orgasm over that stuff.

[clarry100]

Our primary focus is on getting our own web site and brand out there with Google.

To that end I'm working with an internet marketing guru to help me with site SEO and Google Adwords campaign.

Should be seeing good results in 4-6 weeks we are thinking.

The other venue we have started listing on rhymes with the name Betsy, but can't mention it sepcifically on here. That is showing some good early positive results but is not for everyone as it a crafty handmade kinda stuff site. Which suits our products.

[clarry100]

Well today has been the worst ever day of sales on ebay for us.

We have two ebay basic stores we have been operating for 3+ years.

Today there is not a single sale on either store.

This has never happened before.

[artyandchic]

Low sales not only happening for stores but also non stores.  No sales over the weekend and nothing since on my two sites.  Can't remember this happening before.

[cloud-river-minerals]

About 3-4 weeks ago my sales suddenly dropped by about 60-70%. I can't see why it's happened. I've picked up a few low DRS scores in the last couple of months (now up to ~1.5% for latest period, but still Top Rated seller status), but I don't believe that could have such a significant effect. I've played around with offering more listings with 'premium service' but that doesn't seem to help. The drop-off in sales occurred so quickly that it can't be due to buyers fleeing ebay, that would be much more gradual.

I'm just 'holding' for now, but if it doesn't change then I'll have to look at alternative selling venues. Ebay customer service (phone and email) have been no help at all.

Just as an aside...In trying to work out what's going on, I came across the Store Directory. When I looked at the listing of Australian ebay stores in my category (Collectables - Rocks, Fossils, Minerals) I saw that by number of items listed my store was ranked quite low (~70 items). However, I actually have 300-400 items listed in that category, which would push me a long way closer to the top of that particular list. Does anyone know what's going on there? (Ebay customer service also no help with that one).

[sueken4812]

I don't believe the DSR's caused this.
My Sales have been woeful for the same period of time.  If it wasn't for return customers, it would be just about zilch.

I think it's site issues ..... the few customers that I have had, say they had problems with payment issues .... 'requiring immediate payment', among other things.

They flicked some switch at the start of May, and it hasn't been good since then.
Elsewhere, reports from US and UK sellers are the same, worst sales ever.  So it is a site problem.

Haven't bothered with CS ..... my time is too precious.