topic Re: EBAY SALES ARE SLOW?? in Selling

EBAY SALES ARE SLOW??

gray8858 — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 12:23:51 GMT

We have operated a small homewares store on eBay for 6 years and found sales in the last few months to be the slowest for a long time. Perhaps we need to update what we sell, but my gut feel is that the marketplace is in some sort of slump. Just a year ago we were doing a lot better. Would be interested to see if anyone feels the same? Perhaps some buyers are drifting to other outlets including facebook to make purchases? Any thoughts..?

Re: EBAY SALES ARE SLOW??

beautysecretfashion — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 15:53:45 GMT

No sales for me for the past 3 days.... could it be because of the EOFY or simply Aussie sellers are way down the list in search..

At least it has given me time to update the silly UPC numbers ebay now wants.

Re: EBAY SALES ARE SLOW??

tonkin2168 — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 16:58:47 GMT

yep me too i am having a slump and things have slowed down to a stop in the last week but 3 days with nothing not one sale

Re: EBAY SALES ARE SLOW??

ourphonecase — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 19:01:25 GMT

My sales are going quite well.

I see alot of people come onto the forums to justify the low sales and I think its a bad idea. 1 Thread does not represent the whole of Australian sellers. You best just compare with your well known competitors. Record how many sales they make a day and then compare it to your. Do their sales drop at the same time with you? Then its probably what you are selling is dropping.

Re: EBAY SALES ARE SLOW??

beautysecretfashion — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 00:08:30 GMT

I don't think the OP is referring to ALL sellers, just commenting on how slow business is... for myself... the most days without a sale is a week back about 4 years ago... had 3 days no sales a few months back, and now again.

The forums are here for sellers to get feedback and and hopefully emotional support not vindication for saying what is happening or how they are feeling.

Really pleased for sellers who are doing well, that is great... A little compassion for those who are not at the moment would be a lovely gesture♥

Re: EBAY SALES ARE SLOW??

lyndal1838 — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 00:29:16 GMT

@ourphonecase wrote:

I see alot of people come onto the forums to justify the low sales and I think its a bad idea. 1 Thread does not represent the whole of Australian sellers.

No, one thread does not represent all Australian sellers but there is a lot more than one thread on the boards on the subject of poor sales.

There are a lot of threads, started by seller's of many different items all complaining of declining sales. It is not hard to see that the low sales are spread over many categories ad many sellers.

Are you suggesting that it is just a coincidence?

Re: EBAY SALES ARE SLOW??

chameleon54 — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 01:19:38 GMT

@ourphonecase wrote:
My sales are going quite well.

I see alot of people come onto the forums to justify the low sales and I think its a bad idea. 1 Thread does not represent the whole of Australian sellers. You best just compare with your well known competitors. Record how many sales they make a day and then compare it to your. Do their sales drop at the same time with you? Then its probably what you are selling is dropping.

I,m basically a full time seller with three selling accounts averaging 2000 listings. My sales are tracking 30 % below long term average which coincides with a 12 month slump in page views from just over 4000 per month to be currently tracking around 2700 per month ( on the main selling account ) . My second store has seen page views drop around 25% for the same period. Listings in my category are also falling quite markedly.

Ebay in its last update to the U.S stock exchange gave forward projections of zero % growth for the coming quarter after accounting for currency fluctuations of around 3%. This is with a continuing expected growth in seller numbers. More sellers including very large companies and Chinese sellers coupled with no or slow growth in sales = less dollars per seller, particularly for small sellers.

The general decline in sales is all formally stated in ebays official U.S Stock market updates which also indicate ebay expects the tough trading conditions to last for some time to come.

Having said that it is still possible to sell successfully if you have a product customers really want, ( I have just had a near record day after listing some sought after items ) But it is getting progressivly harder. The question is whether the problem is with ebay itself or ongoing global economic uncertainty, which is indicated by current record low interest rates including here in Australia.

Whilst it is good to bring a positive note ( and balance ) to threads, a bit of understanding and support for sellers who are struggling is always appreciated

Re: EBAY SALES ARE SLOW??

wendshees-rocks — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 02:06:22 GMT

Don't forget that the end of financial year sales have been running for the last few weeks, which may not be helping. A lot of your stuff would normally be cheaper to buy on here but with the sales they are possibly cheaper in the shops at the moment. People may also be waiting for their tax cheques to arrive.

My sales are pretty consistent, but what I sell isn't really available in shops. I do have bad weeks. I use those weeks to catch up on things. This is not my main source of income, so I am lucky in that respect. I really do feel for those where this is their main source. I hope it picks up for you soon.

Re: EBAY SALES ARE SLOW??

clarry100 — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 04:09:15 GMT

For the past 5-6 months we have been running at about 60-70% down on the average we have been seeing over the past few years.

It's a worry really and has us looking to other selling venues.

Our visitors and watchers are way down too. Looks like general traffic is way down on ebay.

We believe that buyers are deserting ebay in droves.

We have been told by a few people who would normally buy in our particular category that they no longer prefer to trade on ebay as its just too clunky, glitchy and difficult to navigate around. Also the fact that the place is becoming flooded by cheap Chinese junk that takes ages to arrive has been mentioned to us. All of this equates to bad buyer experiences, the very thing that ebay hammer us sellers for. They should defect themselves.

They are now looking for their good quality items in other places so we hope they will find our web site.

We have our own web site open now and have also started trading on ETSY.

Both of those are new so sales are slow there too at the moment but early signs are promising tho.

We are assuming that it will not pick up again on ebay any time soon so are changing our business model to try to cope with that. We should really have diversified a long time ago.

Re: EBAY SALES ARE SLOW??

roseworthy11 — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 06:23:52 GMT

clarry100 - I couldn't have put it better myself!

Re: EBAY SALES ARE SLOW??

clarry100 — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 23:18:34 GMT

... and we found last night that we can add in a direct link to our Facebook page so that all our items listed on our web site automatically appear on our Facebook page.

So now buyers can shop directly on our Facebook page without ever having to leave Facebook.

The Facebook products automatically update if/when we make changes/alterations to our web site listings.

So we only need to manage the products on the web site.

On the next higher plan from our web site host we will be able to have the same functionality to ebay listings as well. But need a few more monthly sales yet before we can justify the upgrade monthly expense.

Very Cool!

Re: EBAY SALES ARE SLOW??

fishontap12 — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 01:55:16 GMT

Once the big department stores finally take over Ebay they will collectevly shut it dow, this is there agenda. We were taking sales away from them and how dare we do that, ebay no longer want smaller to medium sellers that's why they make it as hard as possable and it will get even harder,ahhh isnt capitalism a wonderfull thing...........

Re: EBAY SALES ARE SLOW??

1whitelotus — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 18:06:58 GMT

Devastating. I have not seen it this bad in a very long time. Traffic has dropped by about 80 to 90% items not showing up under key words in search results or show up in related items. Other countries such as china seem to be domanationg many of my categories and they sell fake stones. My sales range for the year I am down about 60% and appears it the decline will continue...

Re: EBAY SALES ARE SLOW??

jessicadazzler97 — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 21:19:29 GMT

My, what a lot of negativity! 😞

Yes, eBay international sellers and the big companies are taking some of our sales. But maybe it's because buyers can get a better price, a better product, or better service from them.

Re: EBAY SALES ARE SLOW??

lane-ends — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 22:43:23 GMT

Too easy to do=Too many listings

More online buying alternatives=dilutes buyers

Constant changing platform=confuses casual buyers, they go elsewhere

Changes put sellers offside, this rubs off on buyers as Ebay gets bad rap=less buyers

Economic climate and more competitive B & M sales=less need to go online for a bargain.

You can fiddle your format and search returns to obtain a swap for an upper deck cabin on a sinking ship, but if Ebay goes down everyone eventually goes with it. The big question is will Ebay find a new longer term niche before that happens, or will it move aside and have some other platform step in and take over its traditional market?. Who knows

The reality is small sellers want to sell and buyers are happy to buy off them. Online buying patterns are going through many changes and nothing stays the same forever, and all anyone can do at this stage is make best guesses as to where to jump or where to stay

Staying afloa,t and staying alert to trends is probably the key at the moment.

Re: EBAY SALES ARE SLOW??

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 02:00:16 GMT

It's not just ebay that is slow and a few sellers saying they are doing well is great but

what are they selling and what do they see as doing well ?

We operate several web sites off ebay that, until recently, made eBay look like it was

standing still. Even they have gone quiet.

A sellers can blow a horn about tripling sales but was maybe only selling 3 low priced
items a week anyway.

We are going through an economic knee jerk reaction. The money is out there but

those that have the disposable income think that not spending is the best idea.

A few bad days on the stock exchange and a possible Greek default has most fearing

an economic domino effect.

The sky is not falling but, with a little help from those who continue to send the contents of

Australia's piggy bank overseas, it eventually will.

Re: EBAY SALES ARE SLOW??

everard6920 — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 03:40:39 GMT

Actually, July 2015 was my best month ever (in 10 years) on eBay. August was sluggish, and so far September has been too, but I haven't updated since mid July so we'll see what happens when I update with new items in a week's time 🙂

If I made my July sales ever month, I'd be able to quit my day job!

I sell imported giftware and stationery.

Re: EBAY SALES ARE SLOW??

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 03:45:27 GMT

I hope they are high profit lines. At least a reasonable amount will become Australian.

Re: EBAY SALES ARE SLOW??

the4masters2013 — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 05:59:52 GMT

Woeful,to say the least. At least now I know I'm no the only one with slow sales. It may be an economic thing...the town I live in, the shops are having sales virtually all the time. Especially the small family run shops. The bigger shops..Big W, K Mart , seem to just trundle along ok.

Re: EBAY SALES ARE SLOW??

chameleon54 — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 14:32:58 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
It's not just ebay that is slow and a few sellers saying they are doing well is great but
what are they selling and what do they see as doing well ?
We operate several web sites off ebay that, until recently, made eBay look like it was
standing still. Even they have gone quiet.
A sellers can blow a horn about tripling sales but was maybe only selling 3 low priced
items a week anyway.
We are going through an economic knee jerk reaction. The money is out there but
those that have the disposable income think that not spending is the best idea.
A few bad days on the stock exchange and a possible Greek default has most fearing
an economic domino effect.
The sky is not falling but, with a little help from those who continue to send the contents of
Australia's piggy bank overseas, it eventually will.

My sales are up and down ( as per usual ) but the last two weeks have been well above long term average. My prices are under presure and I have dropped them by around 10% over the last six months, but this was from very high levels.

I wouldnt say I,m " doing well " or "tripling sales" as you put it, but are managing to hold sales income at long term averages. In the current climate, that is probably "doing well ". Sales numbers are increasing slightly and are a few more than "three low priced items per week". Selling on ebay isnt a walk in the park, but there are still buyers and even occasional animated bidding at auction for the rarer collectables.