Why aren't people buying on ebay? Discuss...

[rocket2retro]

It seems the general consensus is that for many sellers (myslef included) eBay sales have dropped in recent times.

My question is why?

I'd be interested to hear why people think this is happening.

[davewil1964]

GST increases are currently off the table.

Applying GST to imports, however...

[lyndal1838]

You're right Dave....I misread the rise in GST as applying to ebay imports which currently have no GST on items below $1000 but will incur it in July 2017.

It is not going to worry me all that much anyway....I buy marker pens from overseas for $23 per box but they retail in Officeworks for $52.

Even with GST added they would still be barely half the AU price.

[aussie-picker]

I dunno ,

My sales have been good and constant monthly since July last year .

Maybe drop a k or 2 overall monthly , but overal strong & steady as.

[phorum_junkie*]

Until about 3 weeks ago my sales were better than last year. I think part of my problem is with all the free listings and free 3 relists all my items have been listed over and over and ov......... again so those who would usually buy from me have stopped looking. Unfortunately unless I start going about undressed a lot of the time I have nothing left to list until I get back to the UK in April and load my cases ready to start anew in November.

I am keeping the coffers full selling too big or awkward to post stuff on Gumtree.

[digital*ghost]

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@aussie-picker wrote:

I dunno ,

My sales have been good and constant monthly since July last year .

Maybe drop a k or 2 overall monthly , but overal strong & steady as.

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I think that makes you one of the lucky few, if lucky is the right word. Me too, if I'm being honest, in that my business is now my sole source of income, and while I'm definitely not living in the lap of luxury, nor do I have much in the way of disposable income, my sales are just strong and steady enough overall, for the time being, for me to be able to keep the wolf from the door, and slowly (very slowly  ) expand (I sell on one other site, though, and that definitely helps). 

But I also have my unusually slow days, and weeks, and I recognise / observe the wider issues that are becoming endemic to eBay, and affecting so many sellers for often unfathomable reasons, which is the crux of the issue - retail is unpredictable, eBay is often almost a complete mystery.

I chose the word 'lucky' above because I know there is nothing particularly special (by and large) about my business. Sure, I have some unique items, but they're not particularly crowd-drawing even at the best of times, and my top selling categories have more than enough competition, so I think that's just as indicitave of a problem than the sudden (even if temporary) death of sales for others - by which I mean while I know blaming eBay is an easy choice when things go south, when a seller has little no idea about what's contributing to their success or failure, aside from things that are a given, it becomes impossible to know how to keep things afloat, or change things for the better, which in turn makes people feel less in control of their sales and businesses, and confidence drops even lower. 

[typhoon4u]

I think the vouchers and discounts handed out to buyers by ebay/paypal is a double edged sword.

Yes, it encourages them to buy but also encourages them to wait for another discount.

[mbselections00]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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@aussie-picker wrote:

I dunno ,

My sales have been good and constant monthly since July last year .

Maybe drop a k or 2 overall monthly , but overal strong & steady as.

---

I think that makes you one of the lucky few, if lucky is the right word. Me too, if I'm being honest, in that my business is now my sole source of income, and while I'm definitely not living in the lap of luxury, nor do I have much in the way of disposable income, my sales are just strong and steady enough overall, for the time being, for me to be able to keep the wolf from the door, and slowly (very slowly  ) expand (I sell on one other site, though, and that definitely helps). 

But I also have my unusually slow days, and weeks, and I recognise / observe the wider issues that are becoming endemic to eBay, and affecting so many sellers for often unfathomable reasons, which is the crux of the issue - retail is unpredictable, eBay is often almost a complete mystery.

I chose the word 'lucky' above because I know there is nothing particularly special (by and large) about my business. Sure, I have some unique items, but they're not particularly crowd-drawing even at the best of times, and my top selling categories have more than enough competition, so I think that's just as indicitave of a problem than the sudden (even if temporary) death of sales for others - by which I mean while I know blaming eBay is an easy choice when things go south, when a seller has little no idea about what's contributing to their success or failure, aside from things that are a given, it becomes impossible to know how to keep things afloat, or change things for the better, which in turn makes people feel less in control of their sales and businesses, and confidence drops even lower. 

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So true.  I often try suggestions made on the boards, in particular I usually find store activity such as revising listings & fiddling does help - but then there are spells where it seems no matter what you do, the sales either just aren't there or they don't improve.

All my listings on this ID are 30 day BIN's.  I do not get the 3 Free relists, but I do usually relist as listings expire (well 200/month quota anyway).   I do have some variation listings and while when I first started using them, they seemed to sell very well, can't say the same these days.  I started using them for the obvious reason of listing more items.

I am gradually updating photos, and when the last Free listing promotion was on, I did re-list some old items that haven't been listed for months.  I would have loved to list more, but spent half a day in hospital & felt like carp the next, lol, so didn't get anywhere near as much done as I had hoped.  That said, have had one of my worst weeks ever, so I guess it made no difference in the long run.

I am most definitely a seller who has no idea what contributes to high selling and low selling periods (apart from obvious things like Christmas & the run up to Christmas usually being a better selling time) not only does it frustrate me immensely, it also makes me feel stupid at times.  It's as though I just don't get it properly.  And absolutely, I feel eBay has more control than I do - they decide when the lights will be on and off.  If I was running a B&M store, I wouldn't be at all happy if Management kept turning up at a whim and shutting my doors, telling me I can't sell for the next 3 or 4 days and still expecting the rent.

Haha, rant over . . . . . . . I'll just keep plodding along in my own little world  . . . . . . .

[amber-eyed-girl]

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@typhoon4u wrote:

I think the vouchers and discounts handed out to buyers by ebay/paypal is a double edged sword.

Yes, it encourages them to buy but also encourages them to wait for another discount.

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That will be true. Another side to it though, is if a discount brings buyers in, they might see other items and get those too. So multiple sales in one buy rather than just the one thing they were waiting on a code for.

That's the benefit of having code discounts apply to multiple items paid for in a single transaction...people who do see the value, will want to maximise it as much as possible.

I know I do. I used the dreaded cart to pay for three pricy things from three different sellers, for a discount code sale.

Left to my own full-price devices, one of those sales wasn't going to happen - I bought a gift for a long way off. Seller happy, I maximised the discount to it's limit.

[lane-ends]

More people are selling as they are more online trading savvy=more competition. More stores are selling online, and buyers are comfortable using them=more compertition for Ebay. High street stores are taking online competition seriously and having more and bigger sales=more competition.

Rising postage and fees makes most low price items more expensive than high street stores.

As a seller your sales slow, you become wary so spend less on new stock> it becomes stale. So it spirals

My sales are about a third of what they were, and probably about 60% of the value individually, which equates to about 50% of the profit per item sold compard to a couple of years ago.

[*tippy*toes*]

My sales are all over the place. Had a bonza weekend last weekend listing a heap of 1 days auctions for the duration of the promotion. Then nothing for a few days, then a very busy day, then nothing, then another busy day. What surprises me is, I've got some items that have been relisting to 2+ years. Someone finally shows an interest and bids, then 3 others come in out of the blue and bid too. Barely get 3 pageviews each time they relist and now out of the blue, multiple people suddenly want the same things. Go figure!