No sales for months

[vintagewatches57]

Hi Sales gave been so slow since covid hit, nothing like previous years, but the last few months absolutely zero, no offers, nothing. Havent had a sale for a over a month. Alot of money tied up for no sales hope it gets better soon

[jellybirddesigns]

@vintagewatches - many sellers post on here with a different ID to their store ID.

[mark88880]

Trying to be constructive, as an active purchaser lacking selling experience.

I buy a lot of items on eBay and the number has gone up sharply over the last 12 months. However, the types of items I've been buying has changed significantly:

This should not be relevant for you, but I've been staying away from anything requiring pickup.

More relevantly, I've been cutting back on the luxuries and increasing things like home office supplies, hardware, kitchen items and really anything that spares me a trip to the store.

I'm consciously trying to buy from small businesses in lock down areas.

Sales wise, I really just sell no longer needed office items, tools and garden equipment, which have been selling surprisingly well. I suppose I'm not the only one who had more time for projects.

I wonder how many other people are doing this and whether you may need to pivot your product line, at least for the time being?

[davewil1964]

I doubt it is lockdown related. More likely end of government support. When, soon, federal government payouts for people to sit on their backsides ends, people will be looking at cutting down on discretionary purchases.

[mark88880]

I don't know why you replied to me - intended for OP?

Anyway, I think we have different visions of the landscape over the next 12 months+. Lock downs look to be over, but Covid and its fallout will be with us for a long time to come. "Living with covid", which I consider essential, is going to require a lot more "pivoting".

[jellybirddesigns]

After my initial reply, I started to think about the situation.

I've always believed in having eggs in many baskets, which is why I run 2 shops on different platforms, and when possible, attend craft markets to also sell in person.

I've now started to devote time into developing my own website.

Whilst Ebay still has a role to play for me, I want to become less and less reliant on it, especially as there are such wild fluctuations.

[mark88880]

That seems wise to me. When I referred to "pivoting" I was being intentionally vague. I was mainly thinking of what (to sell), but you're right; how is just as important.

[kitschkoven]

That's what I plan on doing too (craft markets) especially with the postage problems. I don't sell handmade items on here but I've used lockdown to produce some things.

[gec2002]

Not so much related to a long term drop in sales, but for shorter periods of a 1-2 weeks, drops in sales almost always occur after a change in eBay. eg the recent Spring Update with changes in Promoted sales, stores upgraded and coded coupons to name a few.

After changes like these the site needs to re-index, Google may also reindex these new pages, as well as new redirects occuring etc all of which take time before re-establishing the normal traffic.  Also,  eBay may have made changes to its algorithm, which can cause dramatic drops in sales .

[gumleaf_goodies]

I hope you are right. After steady but slow sales earlier this year, I haven't had  a sale since 2nd October. Lots of watchers on many items, but no sales. 

[nett_sales]

Has Ebay changed their search algorithm to favour sellers in USA over other locations ?

My sales are down 95 % over the last 6 months.

The first 12 months of Covid it was barely changed.

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