topic Re: How are your sales? in Selling

How are your sales?

expanded_perceptions — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 08:57:39 GMT

Hi community,

Just wondering if your sales are as tragic as mine have been lately? I had a mini surge just before the end of last month, and have had absolutely nothing this month!! Really unheard of, think I am being punished for my comments last month?

So how are your sales?

Re: How are your sales?

transport-posters — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 13:25:14 GMT

I had a bit of a surge and unfortunately it fell right before the four-day Easter long weekend which meant I couldn't go and send stuff off at the post office on Friday, Saturday or Monday (Sunday it is always closed), so all my buyers had to wait extra long for things to be sent off.

I've also had a few people saying they are waiting for their paycheque to be able to buy my items and often miss out until I relist again. So I think it's a little bit extra tough for some people out there at the moment.

Re: How are your sales?

davewil1964 — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 13:45:54 GMT

Fine, thanks.

An average fortnight's worth over the Easter weekend, now back to normal.

Re: How are your sales?

mbselections00 — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 14:07:47 GMT

in a word - terrible, almost non-existent. I think having a basic store and no recent additional free listings doesn't help though. Sales slid downhill as my number of listings reduced. Problem is, I can't be sure if there is a direct link or if it is just coincidence, or if as you have suggested it is punishment for harsh comments on the boards . Have seriously considered up-grading the store to increase listings, but if that doesn't work, it would be additional Store fees down the drain.

Most 2 day weekends I get 7, 8 or 9 orders, over the 4 day Easter break - 1 single order . . . . .

I guess some drop in sales may be attributable to school holidays & additional expenses associated with holidays & Easter, it would be good to know. Maybe it is just our turn for lights out - however that usually only lasts a couple of days at a time & this time it has lasted for weeks instead of days - maybe they forgot to flick the switch back on !

Re: How are your sales?

i-love-my-sheep — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 14:16:11 GMT

I had a big Easter weekend and am now cruising along nicely. It sounds like it's more people with stores that are having issues, so I'm wondering if buyers are preferring auctions at the moment? Just making guesses.

Re: How are your sales?

davewil1964 — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 14:21:36 GMT

I list one or two new items every day. I list for 30 days and select the 3 free auto-relists. That covers 800 of my 1100ish listings for $19.95.

If I don't get freebies, I pay for, on average, 75 listings per month @ 5c each. So $23.70 all up. Works for me.

Re: How are your sales?

davewil1964 — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 14:23:25 GMT

Ditto.

But I have a store and have approximately 0 auctions running.

Re: How are your sales?

i-love-my-sheep — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 14:32:07 GMT

@davewil1964 wrote:
Ditto.

But I have a store and have approximately 0 auctions running.

Maybe people are stocking up on books in readiness for Winter! 😄

Re: How are your sales?

davewil1964 — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 14:46:20 GMT

Hope so. And I hope it's a looooooong Autumn

Re: How are your sales?

i-love-my-sheep — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 15:00:08 GMT

@davewil1964 wrote:
Hope so. And I hope it's a looooooong Autumn

We could have been forgiven for thinking it was Winter this week!

Re: How are your sales?

mbselections00 — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 15:27:34 GMT

@davewil1964 wrote:
I list one or two new items every day. I list for 30 days and select the 3 free auto-relists. That covers 800 of my 1100ish listings for $19.95.

@If I don't get freebies, I pay for, on average, 75 listings per month @ 5c each. So $23.70 all up. Works for me.

When we were getting freebies on a more regular basis, I used to try and do likewise, by using the 200 free with the store to list throughout the month and the bonus freebies to re-list and to add new listings, so I had around 700-900 listings most of the time. I don't get the 3 free auto-relists, so that's where I come unstuck. Listings in my category are $0.50 each, so if I was to only list an additional 500, that would be $250 and it would not be worth it as I sell low value items.

I believe my best solution may be to ignore initial advice I was given by both the ATO & eBay when I first started here - open a 2nd ID & not register as a business, and then hope I am able to access the 3 Free auto-relists, they would be an enormous help. Hubby has them on his account (which is a non-store account - so only 40 free listings per month) and we don't use that ID very often. Maybe I should consider up-grading that ID to a basic store . . . . . .

Thanks dave, the way you have spelt it out gives me lots of food for thought

Re: How are your sales?

heihachi_73 — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 18:46:01 GMT

Two games since the start of April.

Re: How are your sales?

clarry100 — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 21:16:35 GMT

For this time of year we are running at about average. 15 per day and 15 over a weekend.

Easter weekend was slow for us. Only 25 for the entire 4-days.

Oct-Dec in the pre-Xmas rush we are normally cranking out 30+ per day.

We have just launched our own web site too so now tinkering with ads on Facebook to promote our Facebook page where there is a link to the new web site.

Also thinking of experimenting with Google adwords to see what happens.

Only a single order of the web site so far but its early days yet.

We are seeing a trickle of visitors at the moment so that's encouraging.

Re: How are your sales?

4myson2003 — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 22:46:49 GMT

I use to spend approx $100-$150 per month on ebay bought items. Almost "0" now.

Have noticed ebay items going up and up in prices and i can buy the same products for the same price in shops in my local area and sometimes even cheaper, plus i also buy direct from online stores.

Use to be a great place for bargains but not anymore is my findings.

I dont blame sellers as i use to be one myself but found ebays fees etc etc is just too high and not worth it any more. Could be a reason for low sales? Just my findings.

Re: How are your sales?

arlottstreetstation — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 23:55:18 GMT

Hi Ichibansknees,

I think I have to agree with you re being punished.... I think You & I had this discussion last week.... I noticed after my comments re Throttling ect that my Sales, which had already been HORRIBLY slow, just stopped altogether.... Then, after I shutup for a while & stopped posting, they went back to normal for a week....

Sort of makes you think.... Those that say Ebay don't read these Boards may be wrong.... And if you think about it, they'd be crazy not to have someone looking in to see what the general mood is from time to time.... Only basic Market Research really...

There seems to a pattern evolving with me.... I get a week or so of Sales from certain States, then they seem to swap over to the others... Then NOTHING for a while....So SOMETHING is definitely going on....

Will be interesting to see what happens now that I've mentioned the dreaded "T" word again on here.... Maybe I'm just being Paranoid, but it's been going on for too long now to be a coincidence.....

Re: How are your sales?

springyzone — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 00:08:58 GMT

If you got punished for anything you said on the message boards, that would stink, in my opinion.

The message boards and the sales site are 2 different things, or should be.

The only thing that should affect your selling is if you failed to deliver to your customers & you were red flagged for that.

But... having said all that.... I have always believed ebay would monitor the boards in some way. There are moderators, we all know that.

They are pretty lenient in a lot of ways. I have seen posts about Quick Sales and swap meet but they haven't locked or deleted those posts.

I would be mighty surprised if no one at ebay monitored any reactions on the boards, ever. I am sure someone may.

I would think they probably get some feedback from those who man the ebay help lines too.

But having the top brass at ebay take any notice is quite another thing.

Their main indicator will probably be the graphs showing expenses and profits. As long as profits go up, they will think they are doing the right things.

Re: How are your sales?

expanded_perceptions — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 02:27:14 GMT

@mbselections00 wrote:
in a word - terrible, almost non-existent. I think having a basic store and no recent additional free listings doesn't help though. Sales slid downhill as my number of listings reduced. Problem is, I can't be sure if there is a direct link or if it is just coincidence, or if as you have suggested it is punishment for harsh comments on the boards . Have seriously considered up-grading the store to increase listings, but if that doesn't work, it would be additional Store fees down the drain.

Most 2 day weekends I get 7, 8 or 9 orders, over the 4 day Easter break - 1 single order . . . . .

I guess some drop in sales may be attributable to school holidays & additional expenses associated with holidays & Easter, it would be good to know. Maybe it is just our turn for lights out - however that usually only lasts a couple of days at a time & this time it has lasted for weeks instead of days - maybe they forgot to flick the switch back on !

Yes I think terrible fits my experience too!! I had a surge at the end of March, but before that I was lights out for about the same as this month ten days or so of absolute nothing!!

I think you are right in the school holidays having some effect. Sadly I think we are also right on the comments we have made biting us in the rear!! My experience follows a very strange and obvious correlating pattern. Before becoming active on these boards it was a very consistent sales record!

Re: How are your sales?

expanded_perceptions — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 02:35:17 GMT

@hamsy3 wrote:
Hi Ichibansknees,

I think I have to agree with you re being punished.... I think You & I had this discussion last week.... I noticed after my comments re Throttling ect that my Sales, which had already been HORRIBLY slow, just stopped altogether.... Then, after I shutup for a while & stopped posting, they went back to normal for a week....

Sort of makes you think.... Those that say Ebay don't read these Boards may be wrong.... And if you think about it, they'd be crazy not to have someone looking in to see what the general mood is from time to time.... Only basic Market Research really...

There seems to a pattern evolving with me.... I get a week or so of Sales from certain States, then they seem to swap over to the others... Then NOTHING for a while....So SOMETHING is definitely going on....

Will be interesting to see what happens now that I've mentioned the dreaded "T" word again on here.... Maybe I'm just being Paranoid, but it's been going on for too long now to be a coincidence.....

I always say, if you are wrong, its paranoia. If you are right it is good instincts!!! I agree that it feels like punishment! It is not just a lack of sales as we said last week, but when the views, watchers, enquiries, offers, are ALL down by a big margin, you know something is not right!

And I have had pretty much the same, I hardly ever get sales from SA, and yet at the back end of last month I had a couple of sales, a couple of offers and some enquiries!! Maybe those in SA are all hackers and have bypassed eBay's 'controls'???

Re: How are your sales?

saarzi — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 04:15:21 GMT

Same as you ichi... surge last month, now nothing again.

Re: How are your sales?

expanded_perceptions — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 04:24:13 GMT

@gtx305 wrote:
Same as you ichi... surge last month, now nothing again.

Now isn't that interesting???? I would have said that the most vocal about throttling on here in the last few weeks have been hamsy, you, and me, perhaps I am forgetting some others too? But rather interesting!!!