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! 

[knewdoors]

same here from great brillant sales from xmas to march..this has been a shocking month....

[harley_babes_hoard]

Yes looking back at history............
this thread was created on the 22 Feb last year, about the same time this year people started whinging about lack of sales. It happens every year, Feb and March are traditionally the worse months of the year for retail. Go back and look at your last 3 years on ebay and tell me your sales for feb, march and not way down on the other months of the years sales.

[haolove13]

To look back at history is an interesting point.

February and March are traditionally 20 to 30 % down on my rolling averages and April is the start of my best selling months as people head indoors for their hobbies.

And if I go back prior to introduction of the pox formally known as Paypal my profitability on equivalent sales was a lot higher. And we had several other places to list  before they were eliminated by Ebay, and they actually paid Australian tax.

So this has been the worst ever start to a year for me. That is after thirteen years on Ebay, and also my least profitable percentage wise.

I do not think I am the exception to the rule.

For me listing fees are double what they used to be. (even allowing for a handful of freebies)

For me FVF are triple what they used to be.

card fees are double what they used to be

Stock losses via truthful or fraudulent claims are way more expensive than they used to be.

It takes longer for me to get money in my hand

Time wasted on non payers, cranky buyers is significantly more.

Definitely an enhanced experience.

[chameleon54]

Just recieved my ebay invoices for March and thought they where wrong as they came to around 17% of gross sales figure when they are normally 12-13%. I checked them and due to fixed costs of store fees and monthly listing fees being spread across fewer sales ( sales currently running 20 % below average, March was worse  ) they where correct. Add paypal on top of that and Ebay is on a pretty good little earner.

[haolove13]

Fortuneately I do not have a store and have avoided anything but freebies so my costs are negligible this month with just one sale for $40.00. So next month add in 10 % more on postage. FVF.
That is possibly going to push you over the 20 % mark and if you pay for listings and or a store with low sales returns it could easily hit 30 % for total costs.

[chameleon54]

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@haolove13 wrote:
Fortuneately I do not have a store and have avoided anything but freebies so my costs are negligible this month with just one sale for $40.00. So next month add in 10 % more on postage. FVF.
That is possibly going to push you over the 20 % mark and if you pay for listings and or a store with low sales returns it could easily hit 30 % for total costs.

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Your post has got me thinking and so I have just done some numbers to see what the effect of announced changes will be on my business. My highest fixed cost is listing fees as I run a reasonably high number of listings. Under the new system, stores get 500 freebies instead of 200. Even with two stores, to spread the listings across, listing & store fees will still be one my biggest expenses. ( ie I run more than 1000 listings ) My average item sale price is $38.00 and my average post cost is $7.09. If my sales return to long term trends my total ebay fees will increase from 12-13% to around 15% plus paypal, so 20% total would be about right. If my sales drop to similar levels as I am currently experiencing, ebay could easily end up with 25% of my gross sales price.  I can probably just manage this, but it is certianly taking all of the cream from my business. If a sellers average sales price is much lower than mine, with postage being a larger % of total price, the figures would be scary.

[pricelessbooksandrecords]

What do you actually receive from eBay which is not virtual, which could explain such a large cut for them? Aren't there alternatives to greedy eBay? I was considering myself resuming selling books on eBay, I will not, too costly an exercise for a lot of work and too little profit if any, now...

[pricelessbooksandrecords]

so, why would any seller pay over 20% (soon with FVF on post) in fees for such an outcome only beneficial to eBay,  who really offer a 'platform', something truly virtual and not much else? Isn't it time they return to the fees as they used to be since not much else has been offered by ebay for the exhorbitant increase in fees over the past ten years, unless you could name what justifies such an increase, Harley Baby, I cannot.

[chameleon54]

What I recieve from ebay is a huge pool of buyers. The global platform allows me to sell to overseas clients and this is growing segment of my sales. I recieve an excellant management system for tax accounts , sales proceeds collection service and online system support. I could not run my business from gumtree or QS as I would spend all day on the phone talking to people, 90 % of which would offer me half my selling price and just generally waste my time, meaning I could not physically turn over enough stock. The biggest thing I get from ebay is a large bill at the end of the month. LOL   !!!

[*crikey*mate*]

I'd say wages have increased over the last 10 years.

The cost of infrastructure.

Cost of leasing

Cost of buildings

Cost of office expenses for furniture and equipment and things like stationery.

Legal costs have risen.

Market research costs have risen.

In fact, I can't think of one aspect involved with running/owning and operating a business where the costs haven't increased.

Maybe phone calls are cheaper now if you have a good phone plan, and maybe internet costs. I don't know.

But even the tea and coffee in the staff tea room costs more now than it did ten years ago.

And in the last 10 years eBay made unsuccessful attempts to enter other markets and expand their business which would have cost money they now need to recoup.