topic Re: Is it just me or has your eBay shop died too??? in Selling

Is it just me or has your eBay shop died too???

ehairsupplies — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 03:50:01 GMT

In the past 2 months my sales have dropped dramatically!

I was selling $3000/wk now am lucky to sell $300/wk.

Is anyone else experiencing this?

The Chinese have killed my category, this place will end up just being full of Chinese factories from what I am seeing and no Aussies will be able to make any money if the product comes from China.

Re: Is it just me or has your eBay shop died too???

digupatin — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 04:46:07 GMT

There's been a couple of other sellers who have posted the same observations recently.

It may have something to do with the state of our economy but cheap imports from OS are having a lot to do with it IMO.

The latest Free Trade Agreement would also make for even more subsidised cheaper imports flooding the country.

Re: Is it just me or has your eBay shop died too???

joethenuts — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 05:06:05 GMT

you are 100% it would be hard to compete selling the same product as the chinese , not just the products ,even workers here.

i also are involved with small home packaging i have about 6 pensioners doing it part time in there own time ,which boosts there pension income a little some have done it for 15 years , they earn a basic wage per hour , but i have had groups of chinese families willing to do it for 1/3 of the price . [i think they think they still live in china]

good luck with your business

Re: Is it just me or has your eBay shop died too???

clarry100 — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 05:10:55 GMT

Comparing to the same month last year we are down about 50%.

And same in our category... total flooding by Chinese sellers and getting worse.

This is why we launched our own website a few months back and now doing our damndest to make that work.

We are also now selling on Etsy and that is howing some promising signs too.

Neither of these places have cheap Chinese sellers.

We are hoping that whenever the govt introduces these new import taxes (GST) on imports under $1100 that will make the cheap Chinese imports too expensive and shoppers will be forced to buy in-country.

This will only work if there is the 10% GST plus a fee for collection of, say, $15. Because that will make the $2.00 Chinese import closer to $20. No longer worth buying there. Means our $10 item that is about the same but better quality should sell better.

May be wishful thinking tho.

Re: Is it just me or has your eBay shop died too???

polly.the.cat — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 06:32:57 GMT

@joethenuts wrote:
you are 100% it would be hard to compete selling the same product as the chinese , not just the products ,even workers here.
i also are involved with small home packaging i have about 6 pensioners doing it part time in there own time ,which boosts there pension income a little some have done it for 15 years , they earn a basic wage per hour , but i have had groups of chinese families willing to do it for 1/3 of the price . [i think they think they still live in china]
good luck with your business

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Gee joe, sure hope you are up on ALL the latest Govt. Rules & Regulations for your little "employed" Aged Care/DSP receipiants that turn out their "work" for you. ATO, Safe Work Place/Work Cover, Centrelink, Local Council Zoning Regulations, and etc, etc, etc.

As l am sure that you are on the ball, and have "everything" covered in your little place of Community Based Employment.

Oh, almost forgot, do you do your Payroll Weekly or Bi-Weekly to fit in with our Federal Government Pensions that your little "employee's" receive from Canberra, ACT. ?

MOYB have a Good Payroll software program that you can link up to the ATO. Easy peesey !!!!!

Re: Is it just me or has your eBay shop died too???

knewdoors — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 07:35:55 GMT

sales down dramatically, woeful sales..lights aren't switched on as they say re: store switch off.. definitely a pattern.. we seem to sell same amount each month never over..very rare if that happens now..actually getting worse..and we've listed more items..china?..don't get us started..wishing their wall worked..they are smart they laugh at the rest of the world....

Re: Is it just me or has your eBay shop died too???

joethenuts — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 07:50:22 GMT

everything above board i manage the items they assemble i get paid and they get paid by a magor company .

the best ladies in the south.

Re: Is it just me or has your eBay shop died too???

polly.the.cat — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 08:11:50 GMT

@joethenuts wrote:
everything above board i manage the items they assemble i get paid and they get paid by a magor company .
the best ladies in the south.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Way to go joe, BUT, do you give your Team their Cuppa & Biko Break, who provides the milk & sugar ????

Or do you call that as an "absorbed overhead cost" to your Management Structure ?

A Gold Fridge Magnet for joe, ...and all the "other" little "joe's" out there helping carry our Ecconomy into Surplus.

Re: Is it just me or has your eBay shop died too???

joethenuts — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 08:22:35 GMT

in fact there are some i dont even see , just drop off and pick up once a week but its seasonal 5 months a year. in fact there was 1 ladie i did not see for 3 years . there is 1 leaving next year, so if you wanna join let me know .

Re: Is it just me or has your eBay shop died too???

digital*ghost — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 09:40:16 GMT

I noticed something about search results recently, whether or not it's having any effect on sellers really depends on whether plural and singular versions are just as popular as each other when people use it as a keyword. I used to rely quite a bit on eBay's search results showing everything regardless of whether there was an 'S' or not... i.e. it meant I didn't have to waste title space typing both versions, eg silver charm charms).

Before, if someone searched for silver charm, they used to get results with titles that used charm or charms, and vice versa, a search for charms would still show results with charm in the title, but now only titles with one or the other show up when I search.

This also extended to other singular / plural variations that had more than an 'S' difference, too - eg butterfly vs butterflies.

Re: Is it just me or has your eBay shop died too???

mbselections00 — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 15:42:12 GMT

Wow, my mind boggles ! One really has to wonder is that in fact having a very real and big effect on sales - it actually sounds very conceivable. I noticed a little while back, searching words like 'motorbike' and 'motor bike' returned different results also, which I thought was a change from previous results.

Makes it very hard to know what to include in the title for best results, but also highlights the fact it's forever changing

Re: Is it just me or has your eBay shop died too???

jessicadazzler97 — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 21:22:51 GMT

September was the first month I made over $300 in one month, BUT I have only been selling for a year, and I'm the first to admit my presentation & photos aren't brilliant. I would say consider yourself lucky to still be making $300/week. If you had planned for this eventuality, you should not have all your eggs in one basket, as I hope you don't.

Re: Is it just me or has your eBay shop died too???

billexploited — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 21:34:56 GMT

My sales went up for the first time in a long time, however there are watchers and watchers are watchers 😞

Re: Is it just me or has your eBay shop died too???

elegant--u — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 23:28:28 GMT

I have to say it is the same in my store, I am trying everything to get the sales up, changing some from “free post” to showing postage, (this seem to help with some items). Clearing items in bulk lots, I am over it, so much work put in to build up my business, then ebay seem to do everything it can to sabotage it, but I just keep ploughing on, as it is “MY BUSINESS” and I enjoyed the fact it allowed me to work part time.

Now ever time I try to find my items in the search engine, I get pages of Asian items that are $5 to $10 “free post” for an item that I can’t sell under $10 then the customer has to pay up to $8 to postage.

With all the fees ebay charge and postage always going up, I do really have to asses what direction to take it in.

I have tried my own website, but the work that has to go into it to get it seen, phew

feeling a bit down with the way things are going.

I also agree, my sales are down, especially during the la...

aussie.grazing.boards — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:25:47 GMT

I also agree, my sales are down, especially during the last two months, but had a record high on Tuesday and Wednesday, turning over about $420 each day. And yep, Chinese sellers are killing it for me, but I've found that there is always a healthy number of customers who will happily pay extra to have the products arrive in days, as against weeks from Chinese sellers.

On a slightly different subject, if you are selling bulky items thicker than 20mm, you don't stand much of a chance competing with them. (Chinese). I've slowly phased out most my bulky items, and am sticking to items that are "large letter" rates, $1.40 & $2.10

Was Wednesday an unusually better day for most of you?

Re: Is it just me or has your eBay shop died too???

go-tazz — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:42:05 GMT

@elegant--u wrote:

Now ever time I try to find my items in the search engine, I get pages of Asian items that are $5 to $10 “free post” for an item that I can’t sell under $10 then the customer has to pay up to $8 to postage.
With all the fees ebay charge and postage always going up, I do really have to asses what direction to take it in.

And there is the problem that eBay created alllll by itself.

They pandered to the Chinese who list cheap products at half price or less and free postage,(which means

less fees for them in the long run).

No wonder they are going backwards and Aussie sellers are losing out,

Re: I also agree, my sales are down, especially during the la...

mbselections00 — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:51:54 GMT

@aussie.grazing.boards wrote:

I've found that there is always a healthy number of customers who will happily pay extra to have the products arrive in days, as against weeks from Chinese sellers

. . . . . . . .

Was Wednesday an unusually better day for most of you?

Lol, yes I had a sale !

Sorry, don't mean to sound sarcastic, but that's the honest truth. Sales have been woeful - gone from several per day to NONE most days, even on weekends which have always been busier days. Perhaps some small consolation is my PO staff tell me I am not the only eBay seller who is suffering terribly - I used to post every day, now I'm lucky to have anything to post 2 or 3 times a week.

I do agree, (thank goodness) there are still customers who will happily pay extra to have the products arrive in days, as against weeks from Chinese sellers and it goes without saying, there are always those who just wish to buy one offs rather than bulk.

Hopefully now it's October, buyers will start Christmas shopping, although according to my figures, Christmas buying started in September for me the last two years

Best of luck everyone & I do hope we all see a big improvement SOON

Re: Is it just me or has your eBay shop died too???

digital*ghost — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 08:10:53 GMT

@mbselections00 wrote:
I noticed a little while back, searching words like 'motorbike' and 'motor bike' returned different results also, which I thought was a change from previous results.

There's been a few like that I've noticed, as well - they still show both aluminum and aluminium when you search for one or the other, though, so anyone selling that (esp. in or to the US) needn't worry, yet.

Re: I also agree, my sales are down, especially during the la...

knewdoors — Sat, 03 Oct 2015 10:25:10 GMT

been the pits this week..abysmal sales (meaning = ZERO)..plenty of watchers..whats the point of that??? talk about teasing..all we want to do is sell and ship...EBay is like quicksand for us the past 2 years..from good to worse product...

Re: I also agree, my sales are down, especially during the la...

mbselections00 — Sat, 03 Oct 2015 16:10:15 GMT

@knewdoors wrote:
been the pits this week..abysmal sales (meaning = ZERO)..plenty of watchers..whats the point of that??? talk about teasing..all we want to do is sell and ship...EBay is like quicksand for us the past 2 years..from good to worse product...

Interestingly I have noticed the number of watchers has increased considerably, but I doubt the numbers are correct as the conversions to sales are just not happening. I don't take particular note of all the numbers, but I do know generally speaking, that when I have 'Watchers', I also get sales - no question about it in the past, but for the last month, the number of watchers looks unrealistically high on many items & the sales are not happening at all - most peculiar.

I also did some checking last night and noticed that wretched UPC or whatever it is has come up blank on almost every one of my listings AFTER I had gone through and added 'Does not apply' to all of them when it was first introduced - I guess when you Relist it must disappear and has to be added every time - what a waste of blardy time. Might also be effecting where listings appear in Search results perhaps ??

Sigh, yawn, . . . . . . . . so hard to fathom the workings of this place . . . . . . . . too much guess work . . . . . . . .