Sales Down in Australia - Increased International Sales? Server issues?

[tstore]

Interesting to have heard from other sellers that there have been next to no sales from 28th-1st March. Over last two days just 2 items have sold which is unheard off for us

In addition, we have had more than usual international sales to Europe. I think there is an issue with the eBay servers or have something to do with the Seller Dashboard being upgraded.

Basically eBay taps have been turned off. Interested in other seller's experiences over this weekend?

[kyirrie]

My last 2 weeks have been very slow particularly through the week. I usually get one or two a day, but have been lucky to get one or two for the week. Generally I make most of my sales on the weekends, I guess when everyone's at home veging out, but last weekend was dead. Maybe there's just not as much available spending cash out there at the moment. I know I'm pretty stretched 🙂

[diecastcarsvicki]

well i recived an email from a regular buyer yesterday asking me if im ok as he knows im having health issues.

said he has not seen any listings from me since mid january yet ive been listing almost weekly.

i made mention once before my views per listing have dropped in big numbers. i dont know if its been because of the search issues or server issues but im starting to think maybe ebay should refund us at less offer us free listings for the issues that have been which im convinced that has had a impact on sales over the past month or so. i feel that sellers have not been delivered the service for which we pay to list items if they are not getting seen or hidden behing thousands or international sellers items. thats my rant  

[kyirrie]

Hmmmm....More free listings! Yep! I'll DEFINITELY be in that!!

[centralcoastmma]

My sales slowed last week and have come to a complete halt going from 10 items a day to nothing for 4 days straight with today possibly being the 5th. I am a TRS with front page listings and 100% positive feedback so am quite shocked sales have just vanished.

[goldcoaster_007]

Hi,

My sales have halved over the month and only selling an item a day now. I emailed Ebay about this broblem and the answer was there is nothing wrong with the system and they have noticed my sales go down,they said there was a lot of competition online at the momment and sugested I upgrade my listings from buy it now to auction or look at what buyers are bying,well if this keeps up I will close shop have a garage sale and get a real life,I dont think ebay is what it used to be.

[brownowl-14]

My sales have been very very very slow and no feedback received at all.

Not very good when we have to pay fees to list and earlier in the month had over 24 hours where we couldn't list anything and now this!

[diecastcarsvicki]

Ive stopped selling for now as sales hardly covered listing cost and fvf.

but Ive turned that around from a negative to an positive. 

while sales are slow sellers have dropped prices on the items i deal with ( die cast models) 

so Ive been spending up on models that 3 months ago were on average around 40 to 50 % more. to buy.

OK a know a lot will frown about buying to resell later but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.

I cant work due to health and don't wish to rely on welfare while i can still self support myself.

even though no sales means no income for now things in time will improve ( WE HOPE)

[diecastcarsvicki]

In all retail sometimes its a sellers market and others its a buyers market.

so for now its a buyers market thats life 

buyers have a bigger market to spred out there buying.

[brownowl-14]

Attention all sellers. If you want to grab a niche in the market - start selling watch bands. I had a friend searching all weekend for one on ebay and not one seller was listed in Australia, not one. He gave up and went to Quicksales.

I know people are trying to be patient and have a sense of humour about this, but surely it would be in ebay's best interest to rectify the problem ASAP as they are losing out on sales fees.

[kyirrie]

I am in the same situation. I do this because I can't work a normal job due to health reasons, so I create and sell jewellery, I don't make a fortune but it helps pay some of the bills and get a few little extras occasionally. As you said, retail is sometimes a sellers and sometimes a buyers market, just like real estate, and you have to go with the flow, try to use it to your advantage. I find that I have to do my research and see what kind of things are selling better in my field and concentrate on those things for now. I don't want to waste money paying listing fees on things that I don't sell many of.  I also have to purchase some of my components from overseas usually in US dollars and because the Ozzie dollar is down a bit at the moment, it means my costs are a bit higher and I make less profit unless I put the price up on my items. I tend to just accept a lesser profit though unless the Ozzie dollar drops considerably, otherwise you lose your customers if you make your items too expensive, unless of course you have a niche market. So you do what you have to do to  get by and hopefully things pick up. Things are improving a little this week, so I'm an optimist 🙂  Hang in there guys and gals 🙂