Not the Regular eBay Sales Slump?

by: Not A FOOL

Sales have been steadily declining over the past 3-4 months down to under 10 from a steady 100+ monthly. It is what it is...eBay is fast killing itself. Too many issues and buyers becoming disillusioned with all the changes which have not been positive and eBay continues to fail to see this. I can say that when my sales go down so do my purchases as well. I don't see the point in wasting my time listing when there are no sales regardless of my having reducing my prices.  

by: Bidonmine

Besides Ebay and Amazon, I sell in several antique stores in NJ. Sales are down in the antique stores from last year by about 20%. However, my Amazon sales are up 30% over last October.

by: blueribbon1844

Well its kind of hard to keep sales up, when the "venue" is hiding your listings, giving you defects for 3rd parties, taking away your TRS discounts, encouraging returns, bogus promotions, and confusing sellers with a dysfunctional sellers hub. Who wants to put more time, energy, and products into a "so called partner" that is stabbing you in the back constantly?

My ebay sales are down 50% over the past couple years, its been a slow steady decline. I had one positive month this year because scambay was beta testing my listing without my knowledge back in march or april... Last years holiday sales were horrid.

Every sale I can keep off ebay is better for me in general. Why give these clowns an extra money. Let them sink, fire Wenig.

by: VV

Unit sales are down, but, fortunately what has sold has been my higher priced items. Sales are down on Amazon as well. I think people are just broke and saving spending for holidays.

I'm like Froggy. I close down everything December 1st. Way, way, way too many headaches during that time to not make that much more $$.

by: epuise

I got a boost for almost a week when eBay accidentally added a 20% coupon to listings for FP & Auction in antiques/collectibles... Could not understand why, thought it was my use of Promoted Listings & 10% off sale w/ "free" shipping (I paid on heavy items)... Now I see, after all that, "buyers" were getting my items for about 20% of similar solds... That is eBay now... bottom feeders & bargain hunters... unfortunately, w/ high fees, having to pay postage, having to take back all returns... eBay is a low wage "job" 7 days a week, w/ no chance for advancement.

by: toyman

I sell items that generally don't have a real slowdown period, except for the heart of the summer (July-August), when everyone is on vacation. However, sales generally pop right back after school goes back into session and folks are back on their computers.

Not this year. Really poor sales in September and October, usually two of our most solid months. The sheer number of changes, especially things like https (that HAVE to be changed on every auction) and all the other new rules, that have a penalty of lowering you in Search if you don't make the changes has really hurt our visibility and, thus, our overall sales.

It is really tough out there right now.

by: songe-d-automne

I play ebay like a stock market. If I am not getting anywhere with sales of a certain type of item, I switch to another type for a bit.

The last 3 months were actually the most profitable I've had in a long time, but that was due to finding the "right" merchandise and listing 3 or 4 items a day rather than loading them all up on one day like I used to do. I still hate being forced into 5 day listings. All I want is my 3 day .30 cent auctions back, lol.

When ebay throws me another curve I just change and roll with it. It's really all you can do at this point. Once they became public, they had to find ways to please the stockholders, and unfortunately we sellers are always the ones left holding the bag.

by: Jim Y

I always figured that if my stuff isn't selling, then people don't want what I have to sell, so I'll find other stuff to sell.  It's a different animal these days.  I put up as much stuff as I can with the hope that someone at sometime will run across it and buy it.  

by: Stig of the Dump

My sales picked up two weeks ago and are doing well. In 15 years of selling on eBay I don't think I have ever noticed a downturn that wasn't seasonal or because I needed to restock.

by: Whatever

I have 3 stores - 1 premium 2 basic. The basic storer's need to bump to premium but I just can't pull the trigger. Selling on ebay has become much like living with an alcoholic with schizophrenia. I never know what kind of a mood ebay is going to be in tomorrow.  Over the years the hoop jumping comes faster and faster - more and more and it doesn't just affect the sellers it bombards the buyers too. I do this for a living and I'm becoming really nervous. I said I would never sell on Amazon but sadly I signed up yesterday. Hope it's more consistent there.

by: eBay Shill Buster

Let's see, the website does not work half the time, you have to refresh pages because they lock up your computer, most buyers won't do that, they just leave, the shopping cart does not work due to forced immediate payment required, eBay executives are pulling down millions of sellers listings for no reason, they don't sell fast enough or don't have the right UPC code.

Their ad campaign was a flop, advertising on TV when the core group of customers they need do not even watch TV any more.

........and Walmart made a deal with Google for the lions share of traffic on the Google speaker, part of that deal is to exclude the competition = eBay.

And you folks think we have any hope to increase sales when all Devin has is the destruction of the MyeBay seller interface and promoted listings and Seller Hub to offer?

by: Paul W

''the shopping cart does not work due to forced immediate payment required,''
Not true.  I have dozens of multiple-item sales a week and when people use ''Add to Cart'' instead of ''Buy it Now'' it works perfectly, showing the correct combined postage.  Works for both domestic and international sales.
On items where I charge shipping (those most likely to have multiple items purchased) I include in my description the line:  ''Use 'Add to Cart' for combined shipping discount.''  It works.  Every time.

by: toolguy

@ebay shill buster

"Let's see, the website does not work half the time, you have to refresh pages because they lock up your computer"

Sounds like you need a new system or a new ISP

My pages NEVER lock up on eBay!

The only time they ran slow was in seller hub loading 30 days of sold items, otherwise it's pages are as fast as I need. . .

When I search eBay for something to buy the page loads in less then a second.

by: Thinwoodandoldtools

38% drop in sales from the previous month. Even had my first day with no sales in over 15 years. September to Thanksgiving Day are my peak sales time.  

by: eBay Shill Buster

@ Paul W

The Shopping Cart has had problems for the last year or so for many sellers.

https://goo.gl/ZSVCt7

Also there are many threads on the eBay forums that forced IPR rendered the shopping cart useless.

by: eBay Shill Buster

@ Tool, your pages are served from a data center near you, your buyers are not served from the same data centers you are, so you have no clue on what they see from eBay.

Paul W, you need to read this thread on eBay shopping cart problems and the related problems caused by immediate payment required forced on many sellers.

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2017/
10/1507665339.html

by: toolguy

@ebay shill buster

You make no sense on that statement

I'm in California, I'm looking at some rivet dies in New York, the sellers page loads in 1 second. . .

I'M THE BUYER!

by: papergoy

Sales down, but I think that's more a product of listing far fewer newer items and spending time revising older items to remove active content, to fix pictures that eBay has somehow dropped from the listings over the years, etc.  I expected sales to drop due to this, and they have.

by: eBay Shill Buster

@ Tool, you have no idea how the network even works, when you look at your sellers item in NY it still is served to you from your data center in CA.

You have no idea what response your customers get when looking at your items because their page is served from a different data center depending on where they are located.

by: Toledo Maude

This October's sales on eBay and Etsy are up 100% over last year's October.  In Presidential election years, my October sales always suffer.  But with eBay for a ''trading partner'' even the Christmas buying season cannot be counted upon.

I agree with Mr. Ming 100% when he wrote: ''their absolutely stupid ad campaign would have been focused on filling carts with the unique and the unusual, and it might have actually had a positive impact on sales.''

The holiday buying season starts tomorrow for 45 days through mid-December.  Good Luck everyone (that includes Mr. McToolguy)!

Over the years, my most successful marketing strategy has come from continuing to list new items.  The ''unique'' and the ''unusual'' as Mr. Ming pointed out.