topic Re: drop in sales in Selling

drop in sales

lovemyjeans237 — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 20:21:16 GMT

Has anyone noticed a dramatic drop in veiws and sales in the past 7 days?

I have noticed the veiws on my items have slowed and my sales have more than halved. This has happened suddenly.

I have also noticed my items are hard to find when I am doing a general search where as before I would find my items quite easy.

Re: drop in sales

the4masters2013 — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 20:27:55 GMT

You are not alone. Sales are dreadful at the moment.

The views are even worse...it's very depressing at the moment.

I am hoping it improves as it gets closer to Christmas.

I tend not to search for my items. That would just add to the depression I feel...LOL!!

Re: drop in sales

lovemyjeans237 — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 20:44:39 GMT

I have been selling for 5 years and never experianced a drop like this. I think eBay have changed somethig, formating maybe.

Re: drop in sales

kopenhagen5 — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 22:12:02 GMT

This month - Dead.

Re: drop in sales

chameleon54 — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 22:45:01 GMT

There have been regular reports of poor sales recently on other threads. I know there are swings and roundabouts on ebay and I do experience periods of dreadful sales which can be very worrying.

Having said that my sales have been slightly above average through my existing stores and actually very exiting through the new store we opened a bit over a week ago. We have approximately 100 listed items on the new store and sold around six items on Monday and seven yesterday. Total sales for the nine days since we opened are now sitting at 30 with a number going to international buyers.

I have to admit, we listed a few " juicy " items to kick start the store and push it high in visibility ranks right from the start. This seems to be paying dividends as sales are progressivly increasing as we go along.

With Cassini, ( best match ) the more you sell, the higher your visibility and so the more you sell. Conversly, the opposite occurs when sales drop away.

One thing that sometimes helps when sales drop is to list a number of very popular selling items at reasonable prices, to try to generate some sales and views. Newly listed items get a push high in the rankings on best match for a day or so. This can sometimes tend to re-start things when they drop away.

I appreciate it is very worrying when sales suddenly drop away and there have been periods when I have thought ebay have changed search parameters etc. to cause the sudden drop. If it helps, I have found that things always seem to return to normal and sales average out again, although over several years, the trend seems to be gradual general decline in sales.

Re: drop in sales

chameleon54 — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 22:52:23 GMT

@lovemyjeans237 wrote:
I have been selling for 5 years and never experianced a drop like this. I think eBay have changed somethig, formating maybe.

Ebay do change formating from time to time. I am sure they changed the formula related to pushing popular sellers higher in search rankings and less popular sellers lower in searches around six months ago. I have a few competitors I keep an eye on and the changes where very noticable at the time. This has been a permenant shift and somthing else we need to keep in mind when managing our stores.

Ebay have also announced penalties for listings that sit unsold for extended periods. In future, they will simply be deleted by ebay or face higher penalty listing charges.

Ebay are definately trying to weed out the stock that just sits there going round and round, unsold for extended periods of time.

Re: drop in sales

clubesquire — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 01:20:24 GMT

Yes, it seems to be universal, at least within Oz. Something is happening.

We've investigated our listings very closely and will be trying a few new approaches, including some 'clean' plain black and white, minimum info listings. It's suggested that we're way too cluttered and 'wordy' and we need to take that advice on board and try something different.

Pricing too? Some quite silly offers in the last few weeks. This had me really investigating our prices, but all fine there. Well under the market with many. So, I really don't know what it it, but like others I've noticed a dramatic drop in page views. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this means firstly that our items are not initially being seen, being seen, but not attractive to buyers, which I severely doubt, or eBay has tweaked something, unbeknownst to us. My gut says the latter in which case they will clean out the gene pool so to speak, and we'll undoubtedly be a part of that.

The period after Xmas is decision time for us. It's certainly no good the way it is. We're wasting time, resources and money. It might be time to build a website and pay the fees otherwise marked for eBay, to google to keep our website prominent. Thinking, thinking!

Good luck everyone.

Melina.

Re: drop in sales

egglesdtp — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 01:38:21 GMT

@chameleon54 wrote:
Ebay do change formating from time to time. I am sure they changed the formula related to pushing popular sellers higher in search rankings and less popular sellers lower in searches around six months ago. I have a few competitors I keep an eye on and the changes where very noticable at the time. This has been a permenant shift and somthing else we need to keep in mind when managing our stores.

Ebay have also announced penalties for listings that sit unsold for extended periods. In future, they will simply be deleted by ebay or face higher penalty listing charges.

Ebay are definately trying to weed out the stock that just sits there going round and round, unsold for extended periods of time.

What constitutes an extended peiod of time?

And what are higher penalty listing charges?

Re: drop in sales

lovemyjeans237 — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 02:03:27 GMT

My suff is seasonal so half my stock has only been listed in the last month or two. From selling 6-10 items a day to 2-3 a day, over night, they have definitly tweeked something for such a dramatic change. Not to mention eBays push on the premontional listings, is this a coincidence, I think not.

Re: drop in sales

clubesquire — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 03:15:45 GMT

I was just talking with my competitive friend in Botany. She and hubby have a website and also sell on eBay. The only change on their website is seasonal and it's up nicely. eBay though is a disaster. They are down almost two thirds and for the past few weeks have only been selling to regulars who know how to find them. In 24 days she's only had two sales to newcomers, whereas before this figure would be every day. That's how dramatic it's been. The email traffic between her and eBay is enormous.

She's a real metrics person and is sending me up some stats that she says clearly identifies almost to the hour, when this all started. She's very clever, I wish I was half, and she 'knows' something has been 'tweaked.' All her stats n stuff by the way are provided by a very expensive, in my opinion, third party provider, but she reckons it's a lifesaver and proves when eBay has switched to 'big porky mode.' They're a pretty big business.

We've had two complaints now from overseas buyers about the shipping bungle. They're both okay, but it's all extra work and now we need to re-jig our listings and get postage policy's back in order.

It all upsets me really. Being in bed with deliberate deceitfullness and dishonesty is really unsettling - like and unfaithful husband I reckon. Once trust is gone,mthetes nothing left and that's how I'm feeling about eBay, even though as I've said, we've always enjoyed good service. But, it's what they're doing to others.

prattle, prattle, sorry!

Melina.

Re: drop in sales

lovemyjeans237 — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 04:09:44 GMT

Thanks Melinda, I feel better that Im not going crazy or being paranoid. Ebay has assured me that nothing has changed but I know it has. May have to look into other avenues too.

Re: drop in sales

twyngwyn — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 04:11:48 GMT

@egglesdtp wrote:
@chameleon54 wrote:
Ebay do change formating from time to time. I am sure they changed the formula related to pushing popular sellers higher in search rankings and less popular sellers lower in searches around six months ago. I have a few competitors I keep an eye on and the changes where very noticable at the time. This has been a permenant shift and somthing else we need to keep in mind when managing our stores.

Ebay have also announced penalties for listings that sit unsold for extended periods. In future, they will simply be deleted by ebay or face higher penalty listing charges.

Ebay are definately trying to weed out the stock that just sits there going round and round, unsold for extended periods of time.
What constitutes an extended peiod of time?

And what are higher penalty listing charges?

See this thread

https://community.ebay.com.au/t5/eBay-Announcements-and-Seller/eBay-Spring-Seller-Release/m-p/2093051#M3630

Re: drop in sales

clubesquire — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 04:49:44 GMT

I'm looking at some of her 'stuff' now, but I'm such a dodo. It's so complicated. But what is clear is that her sales are down 57% in the reporting period, whenever that was. I think it's October. That's close to two thirds. You'd think the page views would correspond, but it's showing down 49%. These things even show how long someone spends at your page etc. how is that done?

For someone like me it firstly indicates that half the traffic has disappeared into thin air, but then all I have is logic and commonsense and that tells me it's not possible, especailly in this period leading into Xmas.

Buyers are also watching for a while and then dropping away. So, I go searching for the same item at a better price, but can't find any. Soooooooo?? I just don't know. Can anyone else make commonsense of it?

We've had a couple of small sales but that's it, and our page views are certainly way down. You could be forgiven for thinking the honeymoon is over, people don't like what they see, or prices are wrong, but my gut and my enquiries are telling me to ignore all that. Not that it helps.

Sorry it's worrying you. I hope it get better for you. All of us.

Melina.

Re: drop in sales

theemporiumofeverything — Thu, 09 Nov 2017 00:55:52 GMT

i have also noticed a dramatic drop in sales about 60% compared to the same time last year. I don't understand why the vintage clothing category has changed dramatically obviously ebay thinks it has made it easier, i doubt it. I have been selling on eBay since 2004 and quite successfully until this year. Sales have dropped month to month. I don't often come on to the discussion boards but I am at a loss to figure out why such a dramatic loss and thought there may be some insight here. I doubt i will even have enough in the account to pay the fees this month which hasn't happened for a very long time.

Re: drop in sales

clubesquire — Thu, 09 Nov 2017 01:16:42 GMT

Been talking with Jen again, but she confuses me. Too much of a whiz-kid. But, according to her and her stats it all came to a grinding halt overnight on 11 October. She had good sales up until then, then nothing of any consequence. The reporting period I couldnt work out was for the last 30 days to date, so it actually took into account a few good days.

She's had six sales since day before yesterday. a big improvement, suddenly.

I dont know what to make of any of it. We're selling via Club Mail, with better margins, but not on eBay. go figure.

I've put one new very plain listing up and it is attracting attention. you just never know.

Melina.

PS....Interesting too that everyone seems to be mentioning about the same percentage - 60%, or 2/3rds, or thereabouts. Am I right?

Re: drop in sales

davewil1964 — Thu, 09 Nov 2017 02:53:11 GMT

Not me. Mine are about 50% up since I increased my listings by 50%

Re: drop in sales

lovemyjeans237 — Thu, 09 Nov 2017 03:38:19 GMT

Yep, down 53% last week, 66% this week. Something I have also noticed is that my settings have changed, I didn't change them but just like the sales drop the settings changed by themselves over night about the same time. My son tells me if there was an update they could have re set. Now every time I do a search it automaticly goes to the highest priced item. I know this can be changed but it makes me wonder if this has happened to everybody and with so many using the phone app ( a bit more difficult to navigate ) maybe this is why the veiws, therefore sales, are down.

Just racking my brain.

Re: drop in sales

yeoldecoinco — Thu, 09 Nov 2017 05:14:30 GMT

November is usually a slow month for my type of business on eBay, but this month has been quite steady so far.

A couple of months back, I extracted the digit and listed about 500 new items, these have kept the wheels turning since then.

Generally with eBay, if you are realistic with the price and have something people want, the more that gets listed, the more gets sold.

It can be seasonal though, and knowing your quiet times can help.

For my business, the usual slow periods are September, November and February.

Re: drop in sales

clubesquire — Thu, 09 Nov 2017 09:53:32 GMT

I'm possibly being a bit unfair. I've made a few mistakes with the options of our listings. I'm sure that will account for some of it. And, I do need to get a few more up in a hurry - can't sell if it isn't listed. I've sorta been a bit pre-occupied investigating, following suggestions not to have all eggs in one basket. I think I'm on the right track.

For us, we're getting a bit long in the tooth and really don't want to still be trying to clear current stock in five years time. Additional avenues will help, so big muchem thanks for the heads-up and direction dear everyone.

Melina.

Re: drop in sales

chameleon54 — Thu, 09 Nov 2017 11:34:19 GMT

@egglesdtp wrote:
@chameleon54 wrote:
Ebay do change formating from time to time. I am sure they changed the formula related to pushing popular sellers higher in search rankings and less popular sellers lower in searches around six months ago. I have a few competitors I keep an eye on and the changes where very noticable at the time. This has been a permenant shift and somthing else we need to keep in mind when managing our stores.

Ebay have also announced penalties for listings that sit unsold for extended periods. In future, they will simply be deleted by ebay or face higher penalty listing charges.

Ebay are definately trying to weed out the stock that just sits there going round and round, unsold for extended periods of time.
What constitutes an extended peiod of time?

And what are higher penalty listing charges?

Like all abay announcements, there are a dozen completely different answers to each question, as it all seems to be policy on the run and we will make it up as we go along.

In the most recent seller realease an extended period of time was classed as 12 months. This got me worried, so I read up all the information I could find in all the ebay info, nooks & crannies. Somewhere else it stated that it would be non performing listings that would be affected. These are completely different to the 12 month thing stated in the seller release. To find out if you have any non performing listings, go to seller hub. Top right of search bar is the word " growth " . Click on this and any non performing listings will show. If none show, you dont have any non performing listings.

I have 1300 listings on my main store. Of these around 800 - 1000 would be older than 12 months. I only have seven listings classified as non performing, ( and yes ebay are right, they are duds..... ) so no dramas if they get auto deleted.

On the question of penalty listing costs. I saw the figure of 5 cents per listing, per month extra cost mentioned somewhere. If this is right it will cost me $40-$50 per month in penalty fees if applied to my 800-1000 listings that are older than 12 months. A bit of a pain and another nail in my ebay business coffin, but not a game changer.