topic When Will Sales Pick Back Up? in Selling

When Will Sales Pick Back Up?

namebrandthriftstore — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 06:23:26 GMT

I started selling on Ebay in August, and have quickly moved to being nearly full-time. I have over 400 listings up and sales were going great up until a few days before Christmas. My sales were steadily climbing and were consistently at about 7 sales per day in December, following a November that had 6 sales a day. Since around 12/20, they've been about 3.5 sales a day. Is this just a post-Christmas lull, or has something changed?

My prices, type of products, and quality of pictures have all stayed the same. 3.5 sales a day is fine for part-time work, but I'm putting in the hours and effort for this to be full-time, and am hoping that the slow sales is temporary. Thanks for your feedback.

Re: When Will Sales Pick Back Up?

nevillesdaughter — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 20:58:06 GMT

I sell skiwear so for me it's flat out for six months of the year and dribs and drabs for the rest of the time.

But we also have resort accommodation at Noosa, and the time from Christmas to when school goes back is the busiest time of the year (and the most expensive for rentals), so your issue with sales may just be down to people being away.

I like to use the down time for preparing listings, acquiring stock, repairs and general "housekeeping"-type issues associated with the business so that I'm a bit ahead of the game once the weather starts to cool down and people start planning their ski trips!

Good luck with your business,

Marina.

Re: When Will Sales Pick Back Up?

clarry100 — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 21:18:09 GMT

Our sales also took a big dive in the week or so before Xmas.

Starting to show signs of reovery now. back to almost 50% of what it was.

Re: When Will Sales Pick Back Up?

putney32 — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 21:19:29 GMT

you are in the USA and posting this on the aussie ebay boards.

you use the Global Shipping Program, something that us aussie buyers do not like, it is too expensive for us to buy from usa sellers who only offer GSP as the costs imposed by Pitney Bowes are out of this world!!

Re: When Will Sales Pick Back Up?

phorum_junkie* — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 02:19:12 GMT

the costs imposed by Pitney Bowes are out of this world!!

Perhaps that is the explanation, they are using the space shuttle

Re: When Will Sales Pick Back Up?

amber-eyed-girl — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 16:05:09 GMT

No, the Concorde...

Re: When Will Sales Pick Back Up?

*crikey*mate* — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 16:12:07 GMT

Then why does it take so long to get here?

Re: When Will Sales Pick Back Up?

amber-eyed-girl — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 16:14:29 GMT

'cause both have been grounded, but noone told Pitney Bowes.

Re: When Will Sales Pick Back Up?

*crikey*mate* — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 16:37:09 GMT

well, that's the Pitts.... maybe somebody drew the longbow?

Re: When Will Sales Pick Back Up?

pickapresent13 — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 02:07:54 GMT

My sales didnt just plunder in the week leading up to Christmas, they stopped all together. The past few days has seen a very small increase, but needs to rebound alot more, and very quickly. Woeful at the moment, not even many clicks on the pages/store

Re: When Will Sales Pick Back Up?

davewil1964 — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 06:25:59 GMT

Mine spiked in the first half of December, then settled back to normal levels since.

Re: When Will Sales Pick Back Up?

maconii — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 12:09:49 GMT

What's wrong with buying books? I still purchase books.. But then again I'm eyeing a cute little Kindle.

Re: When Will Sales Pick Back Up?

billexploited — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 04:19:13 GMT

January and Feburay is generally quiet with retail people have to pay their morgages, rentals, credit card debts, education. Many people are loosing their jobs so it can take a whie to rebound. With the Aussie Dollar falling you could sell the the US which I have been doing.

Re: When Will Sales Pick Back Up?

x3n0m — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 13:00:49 GMT

I honestly believe that ebay's best match default is systematically destroying the website, the ebay insiders cannot see what is going on as their account managers have rigged it so they come out at the top of best match thus stealing sales from the majority of ebay sellers .. most ebay newbies are totally confused and have little idea how to re-sort search results .. overall very hard to treat this place seriously as the new game appears to be to get an ebay insider account manager to rig things for you and basically the system is extremely dishonest and those prepared to game the system will apparently be rewarded .. this will all be spelt out for you if you cough up the $500 for one of those ebay conventions and you will be taught how to game the system to come out on top .. reminds me of amway .. puke .. this post will be deleted but it is all true and I will get a slap for mentioning amway .. but it is the only thing I can compare it to .. the core product is okay but it is wrapped in so many levels of marketing and smarm that the focus is off the central product and onto what button you can "persuade" your ebay account manager to press for you .. forget the level playing field concept; that is long gone and for those of us selling in competitive markets you will find that ebay insiders are prepared to tilt that playing field in favour of those who are prepared to game the system by buying their own products and paying the fees etc .. basically it will cost you about $8000 worth of scam money to get an ebay account manager and from there you will find that you will be at the top of best match .. Fair Trading and/or ACCC should really start looking at ebay best match but are gutless imbeciles who are too weak to actually do any heavy lifting .. pathetic .. just don't make the mistake of attempting to structure a business solely around ebay and whatever you do; do not invest heavily in inventory unless you have an ebay insider account manager that you have met personally and flirted with at one of those sycophantic ebay conventions ..

Re: When Will Sales Pick Back Up?

namebrandthriftstore — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 23:37:20 GMT

Sales have been starting to pick back up, which is good 🙂 As to why I poste on the AU site instead of the US, that was an accident. Best of luck to you all.

Re: When Will Sales Pick Back Up?

haolove13 — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 01:22:50 GMT

I have to agree with most of what you say.

When I sign up to check my Ebay items it takes five minutes to get to my listings after I go past all the selected deals that do not interest me, and the car deals from gumtree, and ghan holidays because I looked at a trip two months ago (and not even on Ebay)

and sponsored links, and other items somebody else looked at.

and finally I get to my listings.

I remember when you could get into ebay and sort by price or time left and not have flashing adds sending you to some other business.

I also remember when for fifty cents or less I could pay 5% commission to sell an item to a person who would actually pay for an item without being forced to pay 3.4% plus thirty cents plus tracked posting.

Items never went missing as you actually had to provide proof, but now all you need to do is lodge a claim and paypal will look after you.

THE ACTUAL COST OF SELLING ON EBAY NOWADAYS IS GETTING EVER CLOSER TO 20 PERCENT. so even if you can increase sales you do not make as much money as you used to.

Re: When Will Sales Pick Back Up?

pickapresent13 — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 04:20:41 GMT

Seems to be picking up for me. The past week has been better, but inparticular, the last 2 days have picked up dramatically. Needs to pick up further though, not at the level it needs to be yet

Re: When Will Sales Pick Back Up?

chameleon54 — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 14:08:16 GMT

Last two weeks over christmas / new year have been very busy for me with most days just full time packing & posting ( BORING !!! ). I wanted things to slow down and now have got my wish with sales dropping off quite a bit in the last few days. Due to non stop packing I havnt done any listing for several weeks so this is probably catching up with me now. I put the strong sales down to buyers sitting at home over Christmas / new year break, checking ebay to fill in time. With many people away on holidays now untill school goes back at the end of January, I expect sales to be pretty lacklustre. I am filling in time using up the 5000 free listings to clear out some surplus items of little commercial value, putting them to auction with low starts. I am using the full ten day listing periods as ebay traffic is pretty slow. This all helps to drive traffic through the stores and keeps some action happening.