My worst week in 8 months

[jellybirddesigns]

Hi all,

I have had virtually no sales this week which has become my worst week in 8 months.

I was just wondering if my listings are showing up properly?

Has anyone else noticed a big drop off lately?

[6508.froggy]

Strange to read all these comments as I have to say it has been one of my best weeks beating pre Xmas - I have had a strong Feb a little more sales than pre Xmas - one never knows. Some items I have sold have been very old stock and feel that they are probably great value with the way our dollar has gone, Have sold a lot of items to the US and UK which woud be dollar driven. Ebay is all about highs and lows!!!  - Not looking to my fees this month. !

[springyzone]

You could be right about the credit card bills all coming home to roost about now. Plus the back to school expenses.

Your listings are showing just fine.

I guess it depends on what products people are after, I know that just lately I seem to have had a surge of ebay & other online buying.

Have you thought about maybe also having a Sunday market stall somewhere? Aim for a place that does have a few other craft stalls.

Or the other thing you could do, if you can find a little craft store or two over your way, they may be happy to stock some of your cushion covers for a small commission.

I know a friend whose sister in law, a few years back, made earrings and marched into Myer, of all places, to try her luck. I thought she would have no hope with a big retailer like that but she did get a commission to supply several hundred.

[chameleon54]

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@clarry100 wrote:

On Friday we had one single sale.

On the very day first day we sold anything on ebay back in 2011 we had one single sale.

Since that day this has never happened again until Friday.

I know Feb-Mar is usually the quiet time for us but its a worry when it dips this low.

We are thinking we will see ZERO sales days this year.

This is supposed to be our mainstream income.

On the upside our ebay fees will be low too.

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CLARRY,     I, ll match your zero sales day and raise you a zero sales week.....( OK so you can probably see I dont play poker but you get the drift ) ....

Last week our smaller store had ONE SALE FOR THE WEEK of $18.95. I was absolutely gob smacked as this store can easily turn over $1000 and 30 or 40 sales in a week. Its a bit better now, but not great. My other store has been pretty quiet too.

I should stress that I havnt done any serious listing of new items for many months and are just running down old listings, some of which have been there for several years. I suspect if I got off my bott and started listing, things could turn around fairly dramatically.

I have done fresh listings on the private acount with the ebay freebie auctions and these have gone very well, so there is still buyers out there for the right items.

 The reason I havnt been keeping the stores fresh is that I have been building up a sheep grazing business over the last couple of years, to replace some of our internet income. This has reached the point where it is taking a lot of my time as we are still leasing new properties which all require fencing and stocking. Sheep prices are currently good and the season is being kind to us, so fingers crossed.

I have to admit it makes a nice change to sitting behind a computer desk, and people are commenting on the fact that I have lost weight. ( its hard physical work )  so something good has come of it already........

[starwood2111]

I don't think at this time of year its very surprising. Feb always holds the worst week of the year for us and often the second and third worst as well. I also think that business was a little better in Dec and Jan than expected and now there is a void because of that. This year looks tough at best I think. Consumer sentiment is still very very fragile while competition contiues to increase. We too are getting occasional ZERO days

[*tippy*toes*]

I have zero days, even zero weeks (occasionally), then I'll go bang, bang, bang and can't keep up. A few times it got so "bad" that I was tempted to take a day off work just to catch up with the packing and posting. Some of my items are quite fragile, so if I sell a few of those in one go, the packaging can take ages when there's a few to do.

Then there's the ones that buy a few things and I package them up and weigh the parcel, 510g. Or one time it was 502g. My el cheapo kitchen scales are exact to the PO scales, so I know 502g is 502g on their scales and the postage could increase for the buyer, over 2 lousy grams.Those ones I have been known to unpack and repack several times just to get it under the 500g. I know it's crazy, but it's doing stuff like that that gets buyers coming back.

I'm tempted to start doing what a seller I've bought a few things off does. She sends a message when the items reach 500g (with packaging), so you know that the next item will push you into the next price bracket. Then she'll send another message "your purchases have exceeded $70, so SOD will be added to the postage costs for safety reasons". Then when the purchases exceed $100, she sends another message saying that the cost of insurance will be added to the cost.

It's not a bad idea, because at least the buyers aren't going to get any nasty surprises when they go to pay.I bought quite a bit from her because I liked how she conducted her business. Like a lot of us, she's a smaller seller, but conducts her business very professionally. When I feel the need to empty my PayPal balance again, she will more than likely benefit! I feel if I go that extra mile for my buyers, they might keep coming back.

[jellybirddesigns]

Thanks everyone,

I only opened my shop around June last year, so I have not gone through a full 12 month cycle.

It will be interesting to compare the month to month picture when June rolls around this year as I suppose it will help me plan my stock levels going forward.

[phorum_junkie*]

For me it is swings and roundabouts, my store id had the best three weeks for a while then it dropped right back to hardly anything this week just gone. My biggest auction id has been steady for most of the time since I re started in November but has dropped off in the last 3 weeks, my third auction and BIN id which usually sells very little has been the busiest ever since I opened it three or four years ago.

[chameleon54]

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@starwood2111 wrote:

I don't think at this time of year its very surprising. Feb always holds the worst week of the year for us and often the second and third worst as well. I also think that business was a little better in Dec and Jan than expected and now there is a void because of that. This year looks tough at best I think. Consumer sentiment is still very very fragile while competition contiues to increase. We too are getting occasional ZERO days

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It probably depends on what you sell. If your target market is everyday consumers I could imagine they would be watching the pennies at this time of year. My buyers are businesses that have Christmas / January off and come back to work in February looking to purchase new items get back into the swing of things.

February has been quite good the last two years, but this years figures are down around 50% on previous years. I do think some of this is down to the fact that we have not been doing any new listings.

[transport-posters]

Same here, hardly any sales to Aussie buyers, but international sales still holding up.

Council rates and BAS is both due today, and there's news about the changes to tax and an unstable Turnball government in the media.  People might just be keeping their heads down and holding onto their funds right now.  I heard it's never been so bad with people in arrears over council rates now.  At least the price of petrol is helping the situation at the moment.

I find that increasing your prices seems to make a difference and either makes eBay expose you more (since they get more fee $$), or makes people realise they better buy sooner before you raise them again.  Stops people sitting there watching your items over and over for weeks or months.

[phorum_junkie*]

 I find that increasing your prices seems to make a difference and either makes eBay expose you more (since they get more fee $$), or makes people realise they better buy sooner before you raise them again.

I agree that raising prices very often works as well or even better than lowering them. T%his is especially true of the cheaper items, it is as if you think they are more valuable then so does the buyer.