topic Re: HOW DO I GET A VIABLE LEVEL OF SALES ON EBAY in Selling

HOW DO I GET A VIABLE LEVEL OF SALES ON EBAY

affordablequalitybrandedproducts — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 23:11:35 GMT

Hi Everyone,

I am very concerned at how poorly my ebay sales are performing ... I must be doing something wrong!

My Customers are largely happy and I have 100% Feedback (680 Positives).

I principally sell top of the range branded stationery products and my total stock of about 1650 listings that I offer on ebay is worth about $400K at usual retail prices.

Mainly I match Office Works pricing, and I am currently offering 50% off that "usual retail price", with the support of my suppliers for a few months.

For past retail experience, this level of stock at usual retail prices would result in sales of about $5K per day, but at 1/2 price those sales would more than double.

On ebay I am only selling a fraction of that ... like 2 to 3% of the above typical retail store sales.

I am terrified as to what my sales will drop to when my suppliers promotional support pakages end and my prices have to go closer to usual retail prices. Given that my overheads are kept to an absolute minimum, I will still be able to disount my Office Works based pricing by say 20% but it seems to me that ebayers expect a lot cheaper than that and I will need to increase my sales at least 5 fold over what they are at 50% off !

My listings are NOT split in product groupings and that might have a bearing, but most of my customers inform me that they know what they are looking for and just type it into the ebay search engine anyway ... I do have multiple item sales so that seems to not be too much of an issue and it would take days to spilt everything into separate product categories.

Your similar experiences and any suggestions would be sincerely appreciated.

Thank you.

Re: HOW DO I GET A VIABLE LEVEL OF SALES ON EBAY

kopenhagen5 — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 23:21:55 GMT

There are several threads here on the boards describing how eBay sales have died.

But definitely having products in categories within your store helps.

If I am buying something from you and I want to see if you have something else I might be looking for, I am not going to look through thousands of listings.

But I will look through your category list to see if there is something else of interest and that will often remind me of other things I need.

Also many of your product descriptions don't look professional, doesn't give me confidence, especially if I am ordering for my boss at a large firm.

Re: HOW DO I GET A VIABLE LEVEL OF SALES ON EBAY

collect247 — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 23:25:57 GMT

The images are also a tad blurry or is it just my eyes

Re: HOW DO I GET A VIABLE LEVEL OF SALES ON EBAY

twyngwyn — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 23:35:13 GMT

I thought this thread looked familiar.....have you changed anything since the advice you got here?

http://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Selling/HELP-HELP-HELP-WHY-ARE-MY-SALES-ON-EBAY-ALMOST-ZERO/td-p/1927222

Re: HOW DO I GET A VIABLE LEVEL OF SALES ON EBAY

davidc4430 — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 23:39:10 GMT

probably only answer is to move to china, they seem to have worked ebay out.

Re: HOW DO I GET A VIABLE LEVEL OF SALES ON EBAY

affordablequalitybrandedproducts — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 23:39:28 GMT

Hello,

Yes, I have added more than a thousand listings and use manufacturers / distributors photos where they are available. Also my pricing is sharper (let alone the 50% OFF sale).

Re: HOW DO I GET A VIABLE LEVEL OF SALES ON EBAY

twyngwyn — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 23:40:43 GMT

but you haven't categorized...everything is STILL in 'other'

Re: HOW DO I GET A VIABLE LEVEL OF SALES ON EBAY

kopenhagen5 — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 23:43:47 GMT

You're right dids, they look like they are 3rd or 4th generation photos.

Re: HOW DO I GET A VIABLE LEVEL OF SALES ON EBAY

collect247 — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 23:54:42 GMT

A picture tells a thousand words and those pictures tell me nothing.

You need to take your own photos and don't rely on the manufacturers pictures as they are not good enough.

Re: HOW DO I GET A VIABLE LEVEL OF SALES ON EBAY

as***f — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 00:06:55 GMT

One thing that turns me off immediately when buying is 'contact seller for cost of shipping'. You need to be more specific if you want to be competitive. Australia Post has to be one of the most expensive postal entities around so maybe don't discount so much and offer FREE SHIPPING on smaller, lightweight items. That always gets attention.

Re: HOW DO I GET A VIABLE LEVEL OF SALES ON EBAY

affordablequalitybrandedproducts — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 00:19:42 GMT

Thank you. We could look at less discounting and free postage but my reluctance has been that when we sell to Tassy or remote Western Australia, compared to cities and surrounding areas of our Eastern States, large items can cost as much as three times the full value of the item.

Re: HOW DO I GET A VIABLE LEVEL OF SALES ON EBAY

affordablequalitybrandedproducts — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 00:22:55 GMT

One of the suggestions that was made before was that our store name "PayLess4Cash" made us look like a 2-dollar shop. I have just changed it to "AFFORDABLE QUALITY BRANDED PRODUCTS" as we do only sell original known branded products.

Re: HOW DO I GET A VIABLE LEVEL OF SALES ON EBAY

affordablequalitybrandedproducts — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 00:36:31 GMT

I have also just tried to change my User ID from "bulktradediscounters3" to "Affordable Quality Branded Products" but the ebay system has hanged it to "affordablequalitybrandedproduts", so that has turned into a total mess ... Just tried to change it back or to something else but the ebay system says I cant change it again for 30 days!!!!

Re: HOW DO I GET A VIABLE LEVEL OF SALES ON EBAY

collect247 — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 00:38:08 GMT

Don't knock the $2 shops,the one in my local shopping centre is selling out of this world haha,they do

a pretty good business with sales booming.

Bottom line is that it's a dog eat dog world out there and competition is fierce and you just need that something

to be on top and I wish I knew what that was,perhaps play around with the fews ideas the board members have suggested

and see what happens.

Any way all the best.

Re: HOW DO I GET A VIABLE LEVEL OF SALES ON EBAY

collect247 — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 00:39:56 GMT

You need to perhaps put - in between the words?

affordable-quality-branded-products

Re: HOW DO I GET A VIABLE LEVEL OF SALES ON EBAY

affordablequalitybrandedproducts — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 00:40:51 GMT

Thank you for your contribution.

Re: HOW DO I GET A VIABLE LEVEL OF SALES ON EBAY

affordablequalitybrandedproducts — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 00:41:49 GMT

I will do what you suggest but ebay wont let me make another change for 30 days!

Re: HOW DO I GET A VIABLE LEVEL OF SALES ON EBAY

cridco — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 01:22:48 GMT

I agree. I would want to see categories as a buyer.

Re: HOW DO I GET A VIABLE LEVEL OF SALES ON EBAY

cridco — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 01:24:38 GMT

Yes, I agree. I would want to know price of shipping. You would learn about postage costs quickly and the time investment of adding shipping costs to items would be well rewarded.

Re: HOW DO I GET A VIABLE LEVEL OF SALES ON EBAY

affordablequalitybrandedproducts — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 01:33:28 GMT

Thank you for your input. I have just had a look at your store and it is very good.

I also note that you have broken your listings beyond just categories but you have gone to sub-categories.

If you don't mind me asking, are you finding your ebay sales "at" or "above" expectations and consequently profitable trading?

Also, if you don't mind me asking, do you sell multiple items per customer ... my sell rate is 2.64 items per customer ... the argument for categorisation seems to be that each customer is likely to buy more items.