July 2019 Sales Terrible!!

Wow! Such horribleslow sales lately 2019 July, down 40%!

Anybody else experiencing terrible sales??

Message 1 of 42
Latest reply
41 REPLIES 41

July 2019 Sales Terrible!!

You're selling in a very competitive catergory

Message 21 of 42
Latest reply

July 2019 Sales Terrible!!

Not everyone received the $900 bonus when Rudd was in power. It was the same as this time in that you had to fit within certain parameters. I know I didn't get it and it certainly wasn't because my income was too high!

 

Back on topic,  this July is a lot better for me than last July was.

Message 22 of 42
Latest reply

July 2019 Sales Terrible!!

Sales are patchy for me too ATM but I noticed something peculiar.

 

In the last 3 months, feedback received has dropped to 6.5% whereas the long term average would be above 50%.

 

That tells me buyers are not returning to the site as often as usual so it looks like eyeballs are down.

Message 23 of 42
Latest reply

July 2019 Sales Terrible!!

June and July are turning out to be my worst months in 4 years.

In the middle of June I changed my store subscription from the mid level down to the basic level and within 1 week I had noticed a major drop in sales, so I though it was due to the level of store exposure.

I then changed it back up to where it had been, but honestly, the sales are still way down - also around 40% or so.

 

So, I don't know whether it was because of me changing the store level that sales dropped off, or if it's because of all the other factors mentioned that are responsible.

 

Funnily enough on the other "E" platform, my sales are up so much that in the first 6 months of this year I've already made the equivalent of the whole of last years revenue.

Message 24 of 42
Latest reply

July 2019 Sales Terrible!!

I suspect ebay have been fiddling with the criteria and bias of search visibility again. My sales are still hanging in there reasonably well, but the majority of my sales are coming from new, fresh listings or strong, regular sellers. Sales of old stale listings that have sat there for months or years have slowed quite noticibly to the extent that items that have been listed for a couple of years are basically dead in the water. I used to get regular sales of these older listings..

 

The other thing that is quite obvious is that if an item sells, ebay push the visibility of similar items from the same seller often resulting in more sales of similar, but not identical items. This has always been the case, but it seems the bias knob has been turned up on this one.

 

It seems ebay wants to keep listed items moving and is cleaning out slow or dead stock by reducing its visibility in searches, encouraging sellers to remove it from the site. It seems to be all about sell through rate. Keep stock fresh, keep it moving or move on.

Message 25 of 42
Latest reply

July 2019 Sales Terrible!!

I have items in my watch list which include things I may want to buy, or to compare with other items, or have bought (and of which I may buy more in future), and so on. (There are things I watch for other reasons as well.)

 

I tried to find a particular item using search terms in the "Search for anything" bar. The exact particular listing I wanted did not come up. I tried a few times with different search terms that I could remember... and again, the exact particular listing I wanted was not returned in the search results. I thought, "Perhaps that listing is no longer available. Hmm... did I add that listing to my watch list?" and duly betook myself to the watch list. There it was. I clicked onto the result; the listing was still up.

 

I tried searching again. Still it did not appear in the search results.

 

 

Sellers may want to think about searching for their own items, to see whether this sort of thing is happening to any of their items. Perhaps it may help to list some things from scratch, or bulk edit in some minor tweak-oriented way.../

Message 26 of 42
Latest reply

July 2019 Sales Terrible!!

This has been happening for years.  I was trying to buy soap moulds a few years ago and ebay just wouldn't show me all the listings.  Like you, I had a couple of listings already on my watch list but no matter what I did they wouldn't come up in keyword searches. 

 

I can understand them showing good sellers (items) in extra places but not to show everything available when a buyer does a keyword search is just plain stupid!

Message 27 of 42
Latest reply

July 2019 Sales Terrible!!

I haven't done my tax return yet so the posts here about the $1080 have been enlightening. Thanks for pointing that out. I honestly did think I'd be receiving that amount as a bonus. Bummer! I guess that's why sales on Ebay haven't changed too much. 

From the ATO website

https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Income-and-deductions/Offsets-and-rebates/Low-and-middle-income-e...

Message 28 of 42
Latest reply

July 2019 Sales Terrible!!

The economy is already showing real signs of impending alarm and eBay, with its array of small businesses, is somewhat of a litmus test. eBay sales have dropped around 60% compared to last year period.

 

As for the dodgey rebate bonus, a complete con job during the election. the key ATO statement at https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Income-and-deductions/Offsets-and-rebates/Low-and-middle-income-e... is as follows which was never stressed at all during the election:

 

"The maximum offset is $1080 per annum. The base amount is $255 per annum.

It doesn't mean that you will get an extra $1,080 in your tax return."

 

The main problem with eBay sales is the problem they are having with their new search engine, confirmed via support. They also introduced new initiatives late last year when the writing was on the wall about the economy then but eBay drove ahead with extra fee initiates such as so called "Promotional" listings which have done nothing but fatten their pockets whilst severely compromising long term sellers and sustaining reliable sales with relaiable search results. Instead of valuing their sellers and doing more to support them in difficult times ahead, eBay have thought only of themselves. If you've been around for 2 decades, you know they never listen or learn anything about where their foundation is. The first thing they must do to support local Australian businesses, is to lobby the federal government to stop these ridiculous sales from places like China which can not be delivered for the price of the good alone. In fact, all deliveries of goods from China should be charged at the same rate we pay for our deliveries within Australia. This is what a real level playing field is all about without any competative advantage which currently exists in favour of China.

Message 29 of 42
Latest reply

July 2019 Sales Terrible!!

This is what a real level playing field is all about without any competative advantage which currently exists in favour of China.

 

UPU. There is nothing the Australian (or any Goverment, except the Chinese one) can do about it.

Message 30 of 42
Latest reply