SALES DOWN ALMOST NON EXISTENT - anyone else noticing this?

[vivagifts]

Hi there I have had a fancy dress shop on ebay for some years, and have done surprisingly well. Until last month... Some people are telling me it is the time of year, but January/February last year were really busy!  I do not understand.  In October I started to sell some craft items too and although they sell considerably well, the profit is almost nothing (about $1 per sale!)  I added them for fun and also to give customers more choice but have since noticed a HUGE drop in sales for costumes.

It may be just a coincidence but I am wondering if anyone else is experiencing this or does the fact that I do not specialise only in one niche market put people off?

I really cannot drop my prices any lower, on a lot of items I offer postage (including REGISTERED international post which is about $30!) and some items I am selling at cost - but they still do not sell, yet other costume businesses on ebay seem to be doing well?

If anyone wants to see my store and comment PLEASE do so.  I also have a private website which I have no idea how to market.. without giving google adwords mine and my husband's monthly salary for a few clicks... HELP   I would hate to close shop! 

[caliqo]

i have been selling on ebay since january 1998 and can say, i am about ready to give up...!

i mean my butt hurts really bad...!

i believe it is all the new advertising that is either leading buyers away or scaring them off...

ebay now has three huge horizontal banner ads (two on top and one on the bottom of every page) + all the blue highlighted keyword ads that popup when you pass your mouse over them making it impossible to read anything without interruption... (i've also noted that some of the banners open without clicking) (and what about those boobie adds, just terrible! my 10 year old couldn't believe it)

it would seem to me that ebay's goal is to make money off of every sale made via the internet, if not a nice chunk directly from the ebay seller, then they will settle for pennies made with all the pay-per-click advertising that can be found everywhere in serious repetition...!

what makes the above paragraph even more strange is that ebay used to try and keep buyers and sellers together in the sales forum they provide but now it would seem they don't care other than not letting buyers and sellers exchange email address freely and without censorship...

it is really beyond me why they put advertising on my pages when i am creating my listings, do they think i might click?

and now pictures that i have been using for 10 years and some longer to sell on ebay will no longer meet ebay requirements as of july 1st, so i guess that means i'll have to re-shoot 1000's of photos...

OMG...!

[putney32]

caliqo.... you are commenting on eBay Australia, on a thread that is months old..

what happens on ebay Canada is very different to eBay australia.

you should make your comments on your home ebay if you are looking for sympathy or solutions...

goodluck

[dickos-extreme]

and now pictures that i have been using for 10 years and some longer to sell on ebay will no longer meet ebay requirements as of july 1st, so i guess that means i'll have to re-shoot 1000's of photos...

OMG...!

I agree with all you say.

But the piece I have above interests me. I have not seen any announcement for this as yet.

It just got announced in the UK and they have 5 Months to comply. This would be giving us only 2 Months.

Anyone have any more info?

Some items need writing on pisc to describe something, or give exact measurements, not sure this is all going to work for everything.

Small example below.

Some pics are graphs, this be not be allowed, but there is no other way to show it.

All in all not real happy about the strict requirements. Not fully thought through I believe.

Or am I wrong and pics like that will be OK.

Anyhow eBay site eBay rules.:-(

[chezzy]

"no text or artwork on photos" is what I have been hearing/reading about however I am not sure if it applies to ebay Australia, can anyone confirm/dates?

http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/sellingresources/picturestandards.html

[brightmored]

I have had the worst year for sales on eBay than ever before in 13 years of selling on eBay. Lots of watchers on items and no bids. Re list items cheaper and cheaper and still no bids. This time last year I'd sold 3 x the amount that I've sold this year and I sell in almost every category.

[brightmored]

And when you click on my ID it shows only 4 listings for some reason, have 9 listed at the moment,. I usually have 18 items listed at a time cos I use several other sites as well.

[peppers-tree]

hello Viva.. I was a costume designer for 25 years and manufactured my costumes from my spare bedroom..I was supplying to a company in Melbourne who sold them world wide.. I specialised in larger sized and exotic costumes and I was flat tack to keep up..

I also designed and made costumes for X dressers, strippers and male impersonators and the like. They need feminine costumes but in men's sizes...

My point is, that maybe you should advertise for home dressmakers etc and source the accessories yourself and make them up as a whole set instead of customers having to get their own accessories etc.. Also, if you had someone making them, you could take orders...

I hope I have been of some help...

[davewil1964]

I'm sure viva has probably resolved the issue in the last SEVEN months.

[pickupandsave]

Sales are poor and eBay will eventually have to give up their greedy behaviour ...  Unless they want zero sellers

Final value fees are enough! Does eBay really need to double dip.. eBay fees plus PayPal/Paymate fees? I often laugh when eBay suggests that sellers should drop their costs... Hello.. Sellers would be able to offer cheaper prices if they were not forced to use a safer payment method on items below $20 (in otherwords be able to only offer bank deposit).

But who gets the whole eBay model and their parent PayPal. Why would buyers need 50+ days to dispute a local transaction. I know Australia Post has its flaws but I have never received a local item 40 days after purchase. A far more reasonable 21 days would be adequate - but I am wasting my time.. It is not like either company takes customers logic or suggestions seriously.

[davewil1964]

And given viva hasn't come back in the subsequent TWO months, I'm 100% sure.

Paypal don't own eBay - it's the other way around. And I'm quite sure Paymate has nothing to do with either. Would you like to include the banks? They provide merchant credit card facilities, which are an acceptable method for eBay payments. And they cost too.

'Twould be good if you would not resurrect old threads.

They often contain superseded information, so members reading them and not realising their venerability may be misled.

The resurrections generally don't add anything to the debate and can often contain opinion poorly masked as fact.

For example - 50+ days.

Paypal allow 45 days from date of sale to open a dispute. Banks offer longer, but that doesn't seem to be your complaint. Surely the banks would be a better target?

See what I mean?