Sales down dramatically

[roseblack]

Hi is anyone else experienceing a dramatic decrease in sales? I changed my listing to "free postage" by incorporating the shipping into the price and that is the only thing I have done differently.

[cherry*135]

greencat wrote: On top of that 90% of large retailers also have websites to their own on line stores and as such have access to the bulk posting rates that are offered by AP.

Not only that brand name's have their own online shops now (e.g. Bonds, Triumph, Bendon to name a few). Consumers can buy stuff via these brand names own websites cheaper on sale than the big retail stores... some have free shipping all the time, others have a $ amount, and over that it is free shipping. Returns are free also for some big online businesses.. makes it attractive if buying clothing.

If AP put their parcel rates up again in Sept, that will be another increase sellers will have to pass on..putting the cost up to the buyer again.. already have the FVF on postage to cover.

It won't be viable for smaller sellers,  if a small parcel rises in cost to post to a minimum of around $10.

[chameleon54]

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@ilovemychooks wrote:

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@chameleon54 wrote:

One small ray of sunshine, I have just had a huge day today, one of my biggest ever on ebay. A number of the freebie auctions finished with very good clearances and prices and both stores have had very big days. Not bragging,  just trying to present some positive news for a change.  

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I too had my best day ever today. The even better part was, everyone bar one paid within the hour. The one that didn't pay will pay once the rest of the auctions she'd bid on have finished. 

I'm also not bragging, just adding to the positive news.

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Lets hope ebay have finished "fiddling" for now and turned us all back on again. I must admit I have spent much of the past fortnight putting up new listings as I had not done many in the past three months. This would certianly be helping to drive traffic and sales as many of the items selling are the new listed items. I havnt got any explanation for the auctions going well. Some of the items with multiple bids where relists from the week before that had not sold.

[chameleon54]

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am*3 wrote: 

If AP put their parcel rates up again in Sept, that will be another increase sellers will have to pass on..putting the cost up to the buyer again.. already have the FVF on postage to cover.

It won't be viable for smaller sellers,  if a small parcel rises in cost to post to a minimum of around $10.

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The only way sellers of cheaper items could stay viable is to move their product range up to higher value items where postage makes up a smaller percentage of the total price, or move to items that can be mailed as large letters. The small parcel price is already making the sale of cheaper, small parcel items unviable. I know I have already cut my starting price on these items by 20%-30% to keep them moving as once postage is added they are just too expensive for buyers now. I have large stocks of these types of items in storage, but wouldnt be going out and buying them to re-sell.

[clarry100]

We are already in the position of having to use large letter postage. And have been for a while.

If we used trackable means then the cost of postage would simply be more than the item is worth. And clearly we would never sell anything. All sellers in our category are using large letters. If something gets lost then we have to suck it up and send out a replacement item, no arguments.

We cannot sell internationally for the same reasons.

The only time we use a trackable parcel is if a buyer buys multiple items that will be too bulky to fit into a large letter envelope.

[8966lorraine]

OUTBACK_BLENDS - I totally agree. I was able to keep my postage prices down until Australia post put up their prices. Now Ebay have added a 10% fee on all postage, i have had to up my postage again. It's getting quite expensive. I read somewhere that Ebay posted a profit for 3 months last year of over 11 billion dollars. Why on earth do they need a fee on postage with a quarterly profit like that?  It's Just Greed.  They will certainly be pricing themselves out of business. There are a lot of other auctions sites out there that are much cheaper, just not well known unfortunately.

[clarry100]

Unfortunately its the shareholders in ebay who are the main drivers of the greed wanting higher returns on their inversments. As a public company they are duty bound to make the highest return possible for their shareholders.

One of the ways you can offset this is to hold shares in ebay yourself and reap their returns.

[comcol]

I think what most of you do not realise is there are two reasons why sales have dropped completely.

1. Due to the ridiculous fees Ebay now charges. On many items I sell Ebay takes $150 and more per sale!!. Far more than I make. 

2. Most importantly, Best Match. Ebay brought in this system to allow only 1 or 2 sellers per catagory to make all the sales. As a result, the same sellers are ALWAYS on top regardless of their prices, service etc.  95% of buyers see only what is on top through the Best Match scam and as a result the same sellers make all the sales.

It used to be cheaper selling online but now it is far cheaper if someone buys directly off me due to these stupid fees charges. I sell more away from Ebay than on it now. Ebay is just shooting themselves in the foot with fees and protecting certain sellers (who often are not good at all)

[davewil1964]

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@chameleon54 wrote:

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am*3 wrote: 

If AP put their parcel rates up again in Sept, that will be another increase sellers will have to pass on..putting the cost up to the buyer again.. already have the FVF on postage to cover.

It won't be viable for smaller sellers,  if a small parcel rises in cost to post to a minimum of around $10.

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The only way sellers of cheaper items could stay viable is to move their product range up to higher value items where postage makes up a smaller percentage of the total price, or move to items that can be mailed as large letters. The small parcel price is already making the sale of cheaper, small parcel items unviable. I know I have already cut my starting price on these items by 20%-30% to keep them moving as once postage is added they are just too expensive for buyers now. I have large stocks of these types of items in storage, but wouldnt be going out and buying them to re-sell.

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I'm semi doing that. I am certainly more conscious of book thicknesses now than I used to be. But my competitors seem to be too.

[knewdoors]

yep our sales are way down..its been really awful..ebay used to be exciting..not anymore..

[tull362]

The sales for this month is Lower than usual. I sell 2-3 items a week for extra money

First week of June. I had zero sales out of the 3 i had listed. My prices had remained the same for the last 6 months. 

Never had problems selling my items before so i know my pricing was not an issue.

After 0/3 sold. I was desperate for a sale so i re-listed the same items with 10% discount and free shipping and i finally was able to sell something.

I was very upset that i had to resort to this to get a sale.

Just 3 months ago, i was selling the same items for a higher price and they were selling very easily. I don't know what is going on. I thought maybe the news of ebay getting hacked had something to do with it?