Pause in sales and views - listings not selling anymore. Advice?

[olenkasm]

Over the past months I have sold around 10 items ranging from $5 to $15 and one $40 item. Recently not only have I had no sales, my new listings are getting barley any views and definitely no watchers. I would appreciate any advice or feedback on how to fix this. Even on promoted sales I get hundreds of impressions and some have around 10 clicks but still only 16 views. I'm not sure what I should try. Any advice is appreciated. Thank you! X

[chameleon54 · Accepted solution]

For a relatively new ebayer, you are doing a lot of things right. Your photos are quite good and you have cropped the head and feet from most of the shots so you are only showing off the clothes. You have sizes in the title, so another tick and listings are simple and too the point with a hint of selling the good points without too much info, another tick. 

The main problem is you are selling into a saturated market ( Women's clothing ) with quite a few listings of cheaper brands. These chain companies are regularly having sales and selling items new for very cheap prices and once you add postage costs to your listings they may not really stack up with new items or op shops.

If you take a close look at your sold listings it is mainly the better ( more expensive ) brands and slightly different items that have sold. ( Along with Pandora that is always popular ) If you are simply selling off some of your own personal wardrobe that you no longer wear it is probably not a drama, but if you are buying stuff in to sell, you need to concentrate on the more exclusive brands and items that are a bit unusual.

In a saturated market, the best way to stand out is to sell edgy, unusual items that no-one else has.

[eol-products]

I always look at it as a numbers game. I have a store which currently also has 26 listings and averages 10 sales a month at the moment as it is has dropped off over the last month. Now if I increased my listings to 100 I would expect 40 sales per month.

So for starters just increase your listings and as long as it is priced well you should increase sales. Just remember not everything sells and buyers can be very random at what will make them purchase.

[olenkasm]

Thank you that is a very comprehensive answer. I will try and look through my listing and price my cheaper brands according to this advice. For the moment I am only selling items in my wardrobe that I no longer need anymore so I can definitely go lower with prices to try and compete in the saturated market. Once again, thank you so much for you advice it was very helpful! Xx

[kitty-kat-kollection · Accepted solution]

I can't locate your store, but I also sell pre-loved womens clothes (and shoes, bags, etc), and yes, the market is definitely saturated in our category!

When I first opened my store in July 2018, I went a little crazy if I recall, and listed over 100 items in the first week or so. I went a tad bit wild at the op shops! lol.

Anyway, many of those items were brands like Valleygirl, Temt, Millers, Rockmans, Ally, Cotton On, Crossroads...ugh. Nothing wrong with these brands, and I myself wear some of them, but I wear them because they're cheap and I'm stingy. But I quickly learned that although I was making sales, the prices were kind of low. So I sought out other brands.

To sell, I try to of course find the high end stuff, but it's hard as (1) it's rare, (2) it's often fake, (3) it's sometimes in terrible condition, and (4) it's often expensive compared to other op shop items, so unless you're very confident it's genuine and that it will sell for a good price, it can be a risk to buy.

I used to consult the sold listings on ebay while in op shops to see if a brand was worth buying. Still, sometimes the mind of the ebay buyer is a mystery and brands that I consider good just sit there, even when hugely cheaper than the shops, and other lesser brands are popular. So who knows!?

Sometimes at shopping centres, I glance in the various brand shops and notice that the cheap Valleygirl / Ally ones are full of people, and the more expensive ones like Decjuba or Sheike are empty. Hmmmm?

I also sometimes make the mistake of ONLY looking at the brand. I once bought a hideous Lisa Ho cami that was green and brown and highly unpleasant, but I could only see the name. It did sell, but for waaay cheaper than I had hoped.

So now I only buy interesting, slightly quirky, highER branded items or very cool or beautiful looking cheaper brand items.

I do also have over 600 items so no longer need to "bulk up" my inventory so can afford to be more choosy.

Even so, I still end up with stuff that I think SHOULD be in demand but just isn't. lol.

Good luck, and have fun!

PS. Apologies if this makes no sense. It is 2.30am.

[olenkasm]

Thank you so much for your response, this is very useful information for when I start thrifting with the intent to sell on. At the moment I only sell my old clothes and obvious buyer trends have been buying the cheap, nicer looking items and not necessarily the brands. Xx

[eol-products · Accepted solution]

I find selling to be the easy part, the hard part is finding what will sell. I always keep my eye out for certain items that I know I can sell quickly but find they will be hard to find or require alot of effort to get. Remember if it was easy everyone would do it. 

Everyone will tell you clothing is a flooded market but it is also one of the biggest. You just have to choose whether to stick to a particular style or brand. Or just sell anything you come accross that you think you may be able to sell. Having a good sense of fashion helps although there is a buyer for everything and sometimes wacky styles will sell. 

There was a show around a few years ago about a couple of guys that would buy clothes from op shops over in the states and they used to go for certain styles or sizes. Just remember the more effort and time you put in the more you can get out of it. So instead of just grabing anything to sell its better to have a particular item or style to look for which helps if customers want to purchase a few items.