topic Re: No Sales...What is happening? in Selling

No Sales...What is happening?

hexenkat11 — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 20:27:09 GMT

I have sold on Ebay for a few years now & this week has been the worst. Has everybody gone to Mars?

Not a single sale in 3 days... I have never seen anything like it.

Anyone else experiencing the same situation?

Re: No Sales...What is happening?

bettyboopsadaisy — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 20:55:54 GMT

I'm also a 'seasoned' seller with a good few years of selling and in the last couple of days I sold my first two items in over two weeks !!

The down-turn in sales, at least for me, is nothing new. In the last 18 months, things have been gradually getting quieter and quieter. I obviously didn't know how lucky I was previously, with about 80% of sales on the first listing. Gone are those days, I'm afraid !

I'm sure I'm partially responsible, since I'm not technologically very savvy and have lost the passion, after all these years, to be bothered with pursuing this new selling strategy or that one.

If this sounds like a sob story, it isn't really. I've finally decided THERE'S LIFE AFTER EBAY !!!!!

Re: No Sales...What is happening?

transport-posters — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 21:42:04 GMT

Same here. A number of factors possibly.

Do you sell to many overseas buyers? Australia Post have just increased their shipping rates by over $2 in some cases.

The Australian Government may be causing consumers worry about what will happen with the looming new budget, tax changes and the upcoming federal election.

eBay are pushing deals, vouchers and discounts with large companies like Myer and Target.

You may be currently experiencing a "lights off" period where eBay doesn't give you much exposure, instead giving other sellers more exposure. It happens to me, my sales come in waves, then suddenly stop. Some refer to it as "throttling" (read about it using Google). Try bulk-editing your prices up by 50 cents, it sometimes helps.

A new competitor may be pushing you down in the search results because they are meeting more requirements to be listed higher in the search results (eg. entering product number, free postage, etc).

Re: No Sales...What is happening?

chameleon54 — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 23:32:22 GMT

@bettyboopsadaisy wrote:
I'm also a 'seasoned' seller with a good few years of selling and in the last couple of days I sold my first two items in over two weeks !!

The down-turn in sales, at least for me, is nothing new. In the last 18 months, things have been gradually getting quieter and quieter. I obviously didn't know how lucky I was previously, with about 80% of sales on the first listing. Gone are those days, I'm afraid !

I'm sure I'm partially responsible, since I'm not technologically very savvy and have lost the passion, after all these years, to be bothered with pursuing this new selling strategy or that one.

If this sounds like a sob story, it isn't really. I've finally decided THERE'S LIFE AFTER EBAY !!!!!

Same here Betty, I was a full time ebay seller 12 months ago, but with the constant platform and policy changes, anti seller sentiment expressed in policies, commissions charged on postage, fee gouging by Australia Post and general decline in sales trends as other venues take market share, ebay is just a part time thing now. I havnt purchased any major stock for 12 months and can probably go on selling for another few years with the stock I have in storage in a shipping container.

Sales are still OK here, but are in a general long term decline. I,ll keep chipping away at ebay because I need the money, but I,m genuinly feeling battle fatigued.

BUT there is life after ebay.......

I am devoloping a sheep grazing business and are close to the point where I can make a full time living from it. It is mainly based in a beautifull, green, near city, hills area but we do have sheep on an outback property 250 km. away as well. We move the sheep around following the feed and are currently shifting them into vinyards for the winter season. ( they have just started lambing in the vinyards in the last few days ).

While it is a very busy and hard working occupation, my stress levels are virtually zero when working with the sheep. No ebay policies, No customers, No boss, turn the phone off and even No wife ....... ( dont tell her I said that ).......

Re: No Sales...What is happening?

6508.froggy — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 00:56:29 GMT

Strange - I have seen these comments lately about the slow sales on Ebay. My experience is I have had the best month so far even surpassing Xmas sales (Nov) already and we are only at the 21st. In fact the last two months have been far better that I could have anticipated. May be my stock is suited to Mothers Day gifts which could be the reason for the increase this month. I am having trouble keeping up with stock. My stock also does not have to compete with the big stores like Myer / Target etc as it is mostly in the line of collectables. I am sure things will slow - and when it does I will do some research and try new types of stock. Hope all picks up for others as it is all about swings and roundabouts. Cheers

Re: No Sales...What is happening?

jellybirddesigns — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 01:25:02 GMT

Agree froggy - it is swings and round abouts.

A few weeks back I made a similar complaint on the boards about how bad my sales were, and then suddenly it picked right up again.

Also, I've had a large increase in overseas buyers. Normally I sell about 5% overseas, but in the last few weeks it has really picked up to about 15% of my sales.

Fortunately I had already built in a little padding on my overseas postage, so the recent increases have not affected me.

Re: No Sales...What is happening?

jpdistributors — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 05:27:02 GMT

Since Christmas my sales are down by 50%, its very quiet. Not just in my store but other friends of mine who sell completely different range of products with huge turnover are the same and it all started the same time for both of us, very strange, we also get groups of sales from the same area/state at the same time Thinking of ending my time with Ebay if they are going to play around like this. Sales have not slowed anywhere else.

Re: No Sales...What is happening?

clarry100 — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 05:43:38 GMT

We sell our products across two ebay stores and also on our own website and on etsy.

All venues are very quiet right now.

This time of year tho is typically slow but never been as slow as it has been this year.

Re: No Sales...What is happening?

inthemoodforlingerie — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 02:07:12 GMT

I thought it was just my stores too. Sales have been steadly declining the last 18 months although still consistent but the last fortnight it's like someone turned off the tap completely! Having so many big player on eBay is effecting the smaller sellers when we previously had a more fair playing field.

Any sugestions how to compete more effectively?

Re: No Sales...What is happening?

lotsamagsnbags — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 10:44:12 GMT

its also NSW school hols along with anzac day hols so alot of people are away. hence less sales.

Re: No Sales...What is happening?

sydneybristowwine — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 21:30:17 GMT

Hello!

Ditto....and despite lowering my prices and offering free postage and quick postage ( depending on Australia Post of course), I am finding it hard to sell, not like I used to

???

Cheers to everyone

Re: No Sales...What is happening?

shacklestore — Sun, 24 Apr 2016 08:55:25 GMT

Last year sales from one of my Ebay accounts went from a guaranteed 5 a week to less than 4 sales in 12 months. Changing prices and description didn't do anything. I ended up being about 20% cleaper than the closest competition but still no sales.

It drove me mad as I couldn't find a reason and just gave up. I then discovered that my listing was not appearing in google search and google shopping results. I asked Ebay and they said it had nothing to do with them and to ask google (I didn't).

Three weeks ago after exactly 12 months sales suddenly went boom and back to 5 a week.I have no idea why but did notice that my listing is appearing in google now.

Re: No Sales...What is happening?

bargainbabybuys — Sun, 24 Apr 2016 22:15:21 GMT

It must be a general trend on Ebay given they are offering 1000 free listings...haven't seen that before and I guess it means they are lacking a diversity of listings as sellers drift away.

Re: No Sales...What is happening?

englishrosegardens — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 13:41:33 GMT

I sold my normal monthly quota today, all to one buyer. It was quite a bit more than a month's quota, actually.

They haven't paid yet but they're a repeat buyer so I'm not worried. I found I could only put 40 items in an invoice and I had to then do another invoice for the next 40.

Re: No Sales...What is happening?

rocket2retro — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 23:22:37 GMT

Like yourself (amd many other sellers it seems) my sales are down & it has been gradually declining for the past two years. (I'm down over 30% from 2 years ago). The are many proposed reasons.

I'm not expecting it to get any better & probably worse with time. I'd say the eBay 'heyday' is well and truly past.

We all need to adapt to reduced sales with a stratagy that best suits you (eg find othe avenues to sell, increase quantity of items for sale, etc etc).

Re: No Sales...What is happening?

misterforgetfulsbooks — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 02:57:00 GMT

I'm blaming the budget/election.

Consumer confidence gets shot until these things are resolved.

Nobody knows whether they will have more or less money

If the Neg. gearing will stay or go etc, etc...

Re: No Sales...What is happening?

*tippy*toes* — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 14:29:55 GMT

I listed a heap of 1 days auctions with the 1,000 freebies and am having trouble keeping up with all the sales. My phone is going nuts! I'll relist the remainders back to 7 and 10 days over the weekend, but this week they are all on 1 day. My theory is that buyers looking at auctions tend to search by time ending soonest. It's paid off doing this the last couple of promotions and it seems to be paying off this time too.

Re: No Sales...What is happening?

mcbaj — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 07:45:03 GMT

I had a real bad down turn in sales which lasted a good six months. I went from averaging 6k in sales a week down to 1k! I was almost at the point of just shutting down. I checked everything, my prices were the cheapest, well 95% of them were, my listings were neat and clear, 100% feedback, I was at a loss.

Watching with Terapeak, my competition weren't fairing much better.

Then all of a sudden, it was like someone left a free beer sign out the front and my sales are up 188%. Since early April.

I'm back baby!

Re: No Sales...What is happening?

about-time-spares — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 09:36:42 GMT

Our sales are all over the place too, up down zero. Received this email today.

Congratulations! You've achieved Top-rated seller status under the global seller performance standards program.

And only 2 sales today, can't work it out!

Re: No Sales...What is happening?

clarry100 — Wed, 11 May 2016 04:19:36 GMT

We have just set a new all-times sales record... NOT

In the past 24-hours we have not recorded a single single sale across 5x ebay selling IDs and Etsy and our own website.

Even on our 3x auction IDs there have been no bids and views have barely ticked up.

This has never happened for us in almost 5-years of online selling.

What is happening indeed?