topic Re: Sales slump from 1 September 2014 in Selling

Sales slump from 1 September 2014

luxuryhomeliving — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 06:45:55 GMT

Has anyone notices a drop in sales since 1 Septmber? Quite strange, as my sales have been progressivly going up each month since last year & since 1 September, its dropped horendously.. strange. Anyone notice the same?

Re: Sales slump from 1 September 2014

jenni200011 — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 07:53:53 GMT

yes its the exact same for me..Usually from sept til christmas im going along nicely with a sale here & thier but last 2 weeks have been weird..Hardly any watchers also on a few things..Trying to work out reasons behind slow sales...thinking peoples rates..school hollidays & showtime coming up in victoria..ummm.really not sure why

Re: Sales slump from 1 September 2014

stickerswa — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 08:46:45 GMT

Yup same here. Its been strange for a while for me. Seem to get one or 2 sales over 2 weeks them wham bam ...heaps for a couple of days then back to one or 2 for a week or 2 then ......

Got me stuffed. If I get heaps again next week (end of the 2 week cycle) then I am calling shinnagins !!!!

Re: Sales slump from 1 September 2014

hellohomewares — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 09:05:43 GMT

Yes I have experienced the same - I am currently having the worst sales I have ever had since I opened my store. Whilst not a huge amount I went from making approx $1000 a week in sales to last week selling less than $200 worth. I am wondering if it has to do with Google Panda as my listings used to be very visible on Google but now I am no where to be seen. I am not quite sure what is wrong with my listings and have been reading everything I can to see what I can do to make a change.

Re: Sales slump from 1 September 2014

flojoesbibliotheca — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 09:29:04 GMT

i'm the same... One sale only! it's very sad!

Re: Sales slump from 1 September 2014

bettyboopsadaisy — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 09:42:00 GMT

My 'sales slump' has been quite a bit more long-standing than just since the beginning of Sept.

I guess that's probably due to a range of factors. I will have to seriously review my pricing because, though I believe for the items I'm selling the prices are reasonable, even bargains, buyers are not so impressed !!

Other factors play their part and many of them beyond my control. One of those factors is the FVF on postage !!

I am still prepared for the moment to relist at a price that I believe my items are worth when things don't sell especially while I can relist with no insertion fees, but if things don't pick up soon, I will have to have another rethink !!

Re: Sales slump from 1 September 2014

davewil1964 — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 11:31:29 GMT

22 in 14 days.

Pretty much average.

So, no.

Re: Sales slump from 1 September 2014

ms_aussie — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 11:53:17 GMT

My sales are way down too. Only 8 so far this month 😞

I have been thinking that it may be because I refuse to use eBay's suggestions e.g. 30 day returns, free postage, etc., etc. I sell clothing and am not really prepared to have someone buy something from me, wear it, and then ask for a refund. 30 days??? Buyers know there's no such thing as free postage. So who does eBay think they're kidding. By the time postage is added to the price it's too expensive and no one is interested in buying something that is overpriced. So what do we do? Do I do what eBay recommends I do or go along as I am and sell nothing?

What do others think?

Re: Sales slump from 1 September 2014

luxuryhomeliving — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 12:34:05 GMT

my suggestion is have a 30 day return policy, but based on terms & conditions, such as:

in the event you send something completely different to what they have purchased, and
its damaged on arrival

that way you've satisfied both ebays requirement of 30 day return, but its limited to the above 2 dot points!

I agree re the postage, it overinflates the price.. and we all know post in Australia is dear as poison!

Re: Sales slump from 1 September 2014

davewil1964 — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 12:46:36 GMT

None of my listings attract the Premium Seller tag. Or whatever it's called. But I still sell.

Maybe quality products at good prices and reasonable delivery times work?

Re: Sales slump from 1 September 2014

augenuparts — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 09:50:57 GMT

Hello everyone,

My sales dropped from mid September. I sell Genuine Auto Parts at a very competative price. I have changed my listings to free postage and addded postage cost on top, but I had my customers. This drop is strange. Almost everyone whom I spoke with, are experiencing the same issue. Can't be the listings. I managed to tag all my listings with premium Seller, although I was the Power seller anyway.

Some people said sometimes, lisitngs don't show when people search! Is that true? Also, today, I saw something new. There were listings with the following tag: 'Sponsered Member'. What the hell this means?

Cheers and good luck everyone.

Re: Sales slump from 1 September 2014

badbundybear — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 12:15:41 GMT

Thats cause ebay HATE sellers and only look after buyers ................BIG BROTHER EBAY IS PLAYING !!!!!!!!!!

Re: Sales slump from 1 September 2014

4myson2003 — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 21:37:57 GMT

There are loads more businesses now getting online and a quite a few other sites where one can buy/sell stuff .I found i can buy online other than ebay for same price.Could ebay be doomed ??

Re: Sales slump from 1 September 2014

clarry100 — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 21:59:37 GMT

In the past week or so our sales have been on an upward trend.

We like to think its the start of the Xmas rush.

Re: Sales slump from 1 September 2014

coalitionbrands — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 23:22:41 GMT

Noticed no downward trend here - in fact sales were nearly double in September from August. About 4 sales a day so far this month.

Re: Sales slump from 1 September 2014

sparrow2207 — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 09:29:13 GMT

Always find September/October sales slow due to school holidays.

Re: Sales slump from 1 September 2014

clarry100 — Thu, 09 Oct 2014 06:05:46 GMT

Update....

Today we have just had our biggest single day since Nov-Dec last year.

We are now convinced the Xmas rush has started in earnest.

Quite a good percentage of our orders today were for Xmas'y things.

Re: Sales slump from 1 September 2014

ishop_online — Thu, 09 Oct 2014 08:41:56 GMT

I haven't been selling long, but I notice that people are experiencing a noticable slump in sales. On some of my listings, but the best example is this item 271625891835 it is a mobile phone from China and really says it all..

If you look to the right at the top directly under my seller information, you will see an external advert (I cant redirect anyone from Ebay, but Ebay can) The item is exactly what I am selling and they are selling it with free shipping at less than cost. This same advert is at the very bottom of my listing only in triplicate. The external add has a good marketing ploy offering this price for only a few hours.

Thanks alot Ebay.

This is insane, redirecting my customers (and ebays customers) to an external site that can have a 39% off sale for just 4 hours and take business away from Ebay and myself while I pay for the listing and then have to pay 10% on the sale and then "without precident I am sure" pay 10% on postage to Ebay.for a service that they are not even connected to.

So check out the advertising on your listing, if someone clicks on any ad, it will take them to a land far from Ebay and far from you.

Its obvious that selling on Ebay is no where near as profitable or smart as just placing a external advert and let Ebays clever engines do the rest for you.

I am sure that the marketing arm of Ebay is showing an upsurge in profit, if only someone was smart enough to look into the sellers downturn with the external ad listing up turn.

My product is selling at $117 plus $20 express delivery Ebay would have got a massive $11.70 for product and $2 for postage, but instead they probably made a couple of dollars from the person doing the external advertising. Lost 80% and makes me wonder why I am getting belted again with the Ebay money stick.

I thougth I was 4th in Ebays priorities, 1st is the Shareholders, 2nd being Ebay itself, 3rd are the Buyers and 4tb being the sellers, but I was wrong, the Sellers are 5th behind someone selling the same or similar product on an external site in prices that may not necessarily be in the same currency making my product and Ebay look over priced and greedy.

Ebay knows of this issue but doesn't seem to care, which is insane as it affects Ebay both directly and indirectly.

Re: Sales slump from 1 September 2014

chameleon54 — Thu, 09 Oct 2014 10:03:06 GMT

Hi Ishop, I may be wrong on this ( and I,m sure a few will enjoy pointing it out LOL ) but I thought there was an "opt out" option in your settings for the cross promotion advertisments. I thought if you check the box your products wont appear on other peoples listings and theirs wont appear on yours. It may only relate to your own listings showing when people search one of your products. As I say I,m not quite sure of the details, but there is something there in the settings somewhere. Maybe some of the forum technical experts can add further to this ?

Re: Sales slump from 1 September 2014

chameleon54 — Thu, 09 Oct 2014 10:07:16 GMT

Clarry, great to hear things are going well for you. My sales have been very sporatic but reasonable overall considering the time ( or lack of ) that I,m spending on ebay at the moment. It would be nice to think that the christmas rush has begun and sellers are in for some happier times.