topic What percentage of your listings are actually sold each month? in Selling

What percentage of your listings are actually sold each month?

kustomizer99 — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 09:21:37 GMT

Obviously this will vary greatly -- if one out of two listings sells, that's a respectable 50%.

But if you list 20 or more items per month the stats become more revealing.

Re: What percentage of your listings are actually sold each month?

the3coopers — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 12:50:37 GMT

I generally reckon I get over 90% sold over a month. Everything that I sell is one-offs or small quantities - I don't have any "stock lines" as such, so my experiences are not typical for all "professional" sellers.

Traditionally (over the past 10 years or so) I've always sold at auction, so that means pretty much 100% clearance rates. But the past year I've been running a store with everything GTC - but still I generally sell before the first relist.

That said, I do NOT list anything that won't sell, and I price things extremely carefully. Ebay is pretty much my second sales outlet for computer based stuff - I try to sell elsewhere first (at about 20% less than eBay prices). If it doesn't sell there, then it's already on "clearance" so I list at very competitive prices (never the cheapest however).

Stuff that doesn't sell easily or would be a poor return (eg: used clothes) we sell via other channels like markets and garage sales. This place is definitely no use for selling "junk" 😉

The only items that I would find acceptable at 10% clearance rate would be books or media, where it is SO saturated and so slow and so cheap to list that it really doesn't matter if it sits there for months. I guess it's reasonable value to list CDs at only 60c per year, but sheesh that's a long time to hold stock!

Personally, I find that my main problem with ebay is that I cannot list fast enough to keep up with my sales. Because I sell one-off's the listings take me ages, and I put a LOT of care into the photos etc. Due to that I never get any "economies of scale" from multiple listings.

People say that you need 100 or 200 items in a Store in order for it to be worthwhile. I've never been able to get that many in there... the buggers keep buying it too fast :^O

Re: What percentage of your listings are actually sold each month?

digital*ghost — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 14:11:29 GMT

^ I can't boast those kind of numbers, but I'm in a completely different game.

On average, I sell around 35% of my stock each month, but have done as little as 20% during a couple of mean months - I was turning over a higher percentage when the majority of my stock was clothes, but my focus has been shifting over the last several months to my jewelley and a few other handmade accessories.

90% of that (the jewellery etc), is unique and handmade, and in a particularly niche, labour-intensive style that has taken me many months to establish, so I'm ok with the relatively low percentage (I do charge modestly but appropriately for my time, so I get a decent return on my investment with my current turnover). People don't actually look for it specifically at a high rate, but when they do it's impossible to miss me and sales here are increasing, plus I now have some awesome regular customers.

It helps that I discovered I can make one particular accessory and sell it at a good margin for 75% less than my nearest - Chinese - competitors. 🙂

Re: What percentage of your listings are actually sold each month?

davewil1964 — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 15:50:42 GMT

4%.

Crowded category full of foreign sellers.

Re: What percentage of your listings are actually sold each month?

nicegreenpetticoats — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 11:08:47 GMT

I'd be happy with a third, my husband reckons that is his average as a rule.

I didn't have a lot of time for listing, so I let my store go just before they announced they were doubling store fees, something about buyers wanted them to do it :0) those pesky buyers.

Now I only list the first 30 free, when I get time.

I was paying ebay around $70 dollars in fees a month so I am saving heaps in fees.

Still list the odd bundle for fun but it just isn't worth it here to put the effort into a store.

Jenny

Re: What percentage of your listings are actually sold each month?

gigabean-au — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 13:44:06 GMT

About 50% recently - it changes though... if I have a lot of stock on hand we might start listing at a low price and they will always sell. If we're waiting on stock to come in and are a bit low we'll start it higher as we don't want to sell as quick.

Re: What percentage of your listings are actually sold each month?

kustomizer99 — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 00:36:03 GMT

'Now I only list the first 30 free, when I get time.

I was paying ebay around $70 dollars in fees a month so I am saving heaps in fees.

Still list the odd bundle for fun but it just isn't worth it here to put the effort into a store.'

Hi Jenny, I plan to do exactly the same thing -- as soon as my dubious 'powerseller' status runs out wiithn the next week or so!

Re: What percentage of your listings are actually sold each month?

treasure-hearts — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 07:10:28 GMT

75.38% (199 listings)

It was higher, but have found that unsold auctions have lowered the figure recently.

It will depend a lot on whether you are selling multiple quantity items or single listing items.

eg. if i had one multiple quantity listing for 20 items and 1 item sells its still counted as a sold listing (100%)

But if i had 2 multiple quantity listings and sold 10 items from the first listing but none from the 2nd listing it would be 50%.