topic Re: Is anybody else finding a slump in sales on eBay in recent months? in Selling

Is anybody else finding a slump in sales on eBay in recent months?

j_hayes_p1 — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 09:26:30 GMT

I’ve been selling on eBay on and off for about 5 years and in the last couple of months find my sales rate has dropped. Anyone else finding this?

Re: Is anybody else finding a slump in sales on eBay in recent months?

davewil1964 — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 09:32:42 GMT

No.

My sales volume and turnover are almost identical to this time last year, as they were last month, and the one before...

Re: Is anybody else finding a slump in sales on eBay in recent months?

repentatleisure1952 — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 10:16:28 GMT

I imagine that a seller who lists pre owned clothing in the auction format would notice "a slump in sales".

Who wants to wait 7 days to see if they have won a used shirt?

Re: Is anybody else finding a slump in sales on eBay in recent months?

kopenhagen5 — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 10:51:35 GMT

I agree with tuck, especially if the auction is 5 -10 days.

I often buy second hand shirts and I don't bid on auctions, only BIN and pay immediately.

Then if it's sent the next working day I get it within 3-6 days.

eBay has been slower within the last 6-12 months going by what others here have said.

I get far fewer views and watchers than before as well.

Amazon might have a little to do with it

Also if you list with BIN and 30 days it gives you more freebies every month to list.

Re: Is anybody else finding a slump in sales on eBay in recent months?

chameleon54 — Tue, 29 Jan 2019 05:37:13 GMT

January is traditionally slower as people are getting over the Christmas splurge and many are on holidays, followed by getting kids back to school.

I managed to increase sales a bit in January, but it was only becuase I tried a bit harder than normal and listed items of intrest to international buyers. Had I sat back and just done the " same old ", sales would have slumped quite dramatically. Sellers need to find items that appeal to buyers while on holidays from their day jobs and vary listings according to the time of year and seasons..

Re: Is anybody else finding a slump in sales on eBay in recent months?

foxette-in-sox — Tue, 29 Jan 2019 08:44:24 GMT

Just a few hints for selling used clothing

Use brand name in heading

Put measurements in listing

Re: Is anybody else finding a slump in sales on eBay in recent months?

foxette-in-sox — Tue, 29 Jan 2019 08:52:19 GMT

Wanted to add that unfortunately there are currently over 4,000 listings for a black halter neck dress on ebay and most can be bought for less than $10 from China and free postage-that's what you are competing against so you need to make your listing title pop (use ALL the available characters that ebay allows), and make your description actually be descriptive including all the measurements.

Good luck 🙂

Re: Is anybody else finding a slump in sales on eBay in recent months?

stickerswa — Tue, 29 Jan 2019 09:12:11 GMT

Yup I have 3 accounts and I just closed all of them. Sales have dropped so much I cant be bothered anymore. Been slowly dropping for the last 3 months to a point where its not worth it.

Funny thing is weekend markets are going gang busters and earning more and more each week. I regulary get folks saying they wont buy off ebay because its full of chinese sellers selling **bleep** and scammers. Thier words not mine !!

Re: Is anybody else finding a slump in sales on eBay in recent months?

melinachristina — Tue, 29 Jan 2019 11:05:16 GMT

Yesiree, we’re down about 2/3rds in lookers and watchers are a precious commodity. Obviously sales are very poor.

I generally agree with Chameleon. It makes sense. There’ll be a lot of re-lists coming up from us.

Melina.

Re: Is anybody else finding a slump in sales on eBay in recent months?

chameleon54 — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 00:08:17 GMT

One thing that worked very well this year was targeting the Chinese market over January. They dont have all of the Christmas / New year hullabalue that we have at this time of year. I listed a number of collectables specifically of interest to Chinese collectors and this made up around 35% of my sales for the month. It worked so well I have already started to set asside similar items to be offered in January next year.

Re: Is anybody else finding a slump in sales on eBay in recent months?

egglesdtp — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 01:13:30 GMT

Can I ask you why you are using the auction format rather than BIN?

Re: Is anybody else finding a slump in sales on eBay in recent months?

hobby_cds — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 08:29:41 GMT

Over out two accounts we have recorded our best January in the 13 years we have been on ebay. What I find extremely strange is how at around this period 30th - 2nd each month and also around the invoices due (6th - 8th) are sales fall significantly just for those periods. Has been that way now for about 4 years.

Re: Is anybody else finding a slump in sales on eBay in recent months?

jellybirddesigns — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 13:49:04 GMT

Maybe if you put actual measurements in your listings you would have more success.

Saying that something is a "small" size or a size "10" is utterly meaningless. Garments are not made equal - a size 10 from one factory is not the same as a size 10 from another.

You would be better off putting in the waist, bust etc measurements.

What about the condition of the items, are there any flaws?

Put down information - many people won't touch your items without sufficient data to make a decision.

Re: Is anybody else finding a slump in sales on eBay in recent months?

dontmissthese — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 22:34:02 GMT

For Chicken Little the sky was not actually falling but with current economic preditions

it is, in reality, starting to.

Re: Is anybody else finding a slump in sales on eBay in recent months?

bikeden — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 01:34:25 GMT

We have seen declining sales across summer of late. There are many factors but one that stands out and bugs us, is the number of Chinese sellers listing their location as Australia and drop shipping their orders in bulk via air freight consolidation to capital cities and then posting them from mail centres.

In effect this speeds their delivery time from 30-45 days ex China Post to 10-14 days. They do pay a higher postage rate with Australia Post who offers this service throug eParcel, but because of their volume, pay less for postage than Australian sellers.

eBay will not enforce their own Item Location rules which buyers depend on to make an informed decision on the speed of delivering the product.

Smaller local sellers continue to be disadvantaged on the eBay platform along with paying the inflated cost of Australia Post's unfair pricing.