eBay

2nd-time-around-jewelry · ‎10-21-2023

This is just me venting. Sales have reached an all time low. It has now been 3 weeks without a sale despite having over 1000 items listed. That has never happened to me before in all my 20+ years of selling on eBay . I have sent hundreds of offers to watchers with hardly a bite. I think a big reason is that I no longer promote my listings. That is just a greedy money grab by eBay. I figure if I am paying for a store then they should be promoting me anyways. I think I need to look at cross listing on other sites. Got to spread my eggs in many baskets I guess.

flipistics · ‎10-21-2023

@2nd-time-around-jewelry wrote:
This is just me venting. Sales have reached an all time low. It has now been 3 weeks without a sale despite having over 1000 items listed. That has never happened to me before in all my 20+ years of selling on eBay . I have sent hundreds of offers to watchers with hardly a bite. I think a big reason is that I no longer promote my listings. That is just a greedy money grab by eBay. I figure if I am paying for a store then they should be promoting me anyways. I think I need to look at cross listing on other sites. Got to spread my eggs in many baskets I guess.

Run an experiment. Raise all your prices by 5% ish and promote your items by 5%. It sounds like you have nothing to lose by trying.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎10-21-2023

@flipistics wrote:
@2nd-time-around-jewelry wrote:
This is just me venting. Sales have reached an all time low. It has now been 3 weeks without a sale despite having over 1000 items listed. That has never happened to me before in all my 20+ years of selling on eBay . I have sent hundreds of offers to watchers with hardly a bite. I think a big reason is that I no longer promote my listings. That is just a greedy money grab by eBay. I figure if I am paying for a store then they should be promoting me anyways. I think I need to look at cross listing on other sites. Got to spread my eggs in many baskets I guess.
Run an experiment. Raise all your prices by 5% ish and promote your items by 5%. It sounds like you have nothing to lose by trying.

@flipistics

@2nd-time-around-jewelry

It's most likely not helping, in the scheme of things that eBay has chosen to offer a variety of features in the last while to dot com sellers and been unwilling to release to Canadian sellers. Consequence...A very unlevel playing field for Canadian sellers.

Between coupons, video, flexibility when you send random offers and the biggie not giving Canadians the option to display level 4 discounts with CP and the discounted rates applicable to Fedex. (On dot com the collection includes USPS,Fedex,UPS where they can). There are other examples but those are the once come immediately to mind.

Promoting has become a losing battle. In the past I was selling items on a steady basis using the lower % for promotions. Now they happen in a blue moon. You use 2 %...someone else uses 3 %. They have a better chance of getting seen but not better than someone using 4 %. Small sellers will never be able to win this game of leapfrog with high volume, lower margin sellers.

In the past a seller selling with a well written (with an accurate title) could get seen and found. Now with the number of available listings posted we've become tiny needles in a very large haystack in a downpore to be accidentally stumbled across. (I routinely do searches researching an item and find items that aren't even close to belonging. A peril of AI? Maybe!!!) Possibly the new unintended normal.

Welcome to sometimes you're the windshield...sometimes you're the bug!!

-Lotz

ricarmic · ‎10-21-2023

My sales are also very slow, relatively speaking. I had performed some experiements before my holidays in July/August and life was getting in the way of starting them up again.

I tried another experiment yesterday (Friday) and sold 5 items within a few hours of my lastest tactic in my top secret bag of tricks, as opposed to the usual mabye 1 or 2 items on a Friday.

I would suggest that it is important to somehow "promote" items. Definitely experiement. That's what I've been doing and based on my current calcs the overall "cost" of the promoting is not high against the overall return. Different results will happen in different categories so what works for me might not work for others and vice versa.

Having been selling before the internet, I view all the store, promoted, listing costs the same as the "advertising" costs of old. As the costs here to "play" have risen, they've really only in in the last year or so reached what it used to cost me in the "print world" to play......

Anyway experimenting IMO is very very important and does not necessarily have to be expensive....

ricarmic · ‎10-23-2023

Just to reiterate the importance of experimenting and not necessarily in an expensive way with promoted listings. Definitely try experiments.

My Friday experiment has boosted my overall promoted views to the highest level in the last 3 "working" months, sales are back to the pre-recent-slump level (last 3 days) and so far the experiment has cost me just over $5 in extra promoted listing fees.

I'm sure there will be different results in different categories but it certainly is worth the time to try things!

In my own case, I'm going to have to continue to adjust and refine and possibly redefine it, but I have heart that there are combinations that will at least temporarily work...

38e_avenue · ‎10-24-2023

My October is strong - about 200% stronger than in 2022 and 100% stronger than in 2021. I list thousands of items, trying to list at least 10-30 new items every day, I promote everything at 7%, and every week (mainly saturday/sunday) I shut down all my listings and list them again as "similar". Try at least one of the methods I mentioned. I am very happy with the results.

electronicifycanada · ‎10-24-2023

Mine have dropped 90% in 3 years.

Just the last 30 days is 30%.

I won't be able to pay for a store after March. I don't need a store but only paid for it to get better search placement. Now with promoted listings this is not worth it and I feel kinda scammed with that.

I won't really bother raising my promoted listings to pay eBay more to sell something that would of sold 3 years ago without the extra fees. That's crazy talk to me.

flipistics · ‎10-24-2023

@electronicifycanada wrote:
Mine have dropped 90% in 3 years.
Just the last 30 days is 30%.
I won't be able to pay for a store after March. I don't need a store but only paid for it to get better search placement. Now with promoted listings this is not worth it and I feel kinda scammed with that.

I won't really bother raising my promoted listings to pay eBay more to sell something that would of sold 3 years ago without the extra fees. That's crazy talk to me.

I think the types of items you're selling are going to be very difficult to sustain a store with. People needing any of the repair or maker type items such as HDMI ports would likely buy in bulk rather than single items, especially now that the supply chain doesn't totally stink. If it was me (and I decided to continue selling these types of items), I think I would reorganize the store into catering to repair and maker type people with curated bulk lots, especially some of the harder to find a reliable source for type stuff. I don't know how successful it would be, but I'd probably take a shot at it if I was in that position. Selling $3 and $4 free shipping items with limited demand is really, really tough to get anywhere with.

reallynicestamps · ‎10-24-2023

The drop in the last 30 days is concerning.

Is that a drop from Sept/Oct 2022 or from August /Sept 2023?
Because the former would be apples to apples the latter apples to oranges.

It would also be use ful to compare to 2018 and 2019, to avoid the outliers of 2020 and 2021 when we had a pandemic surge in online buying.

It's the pandemic surge that would, partly at least, account for a 90% drop in sales from 2021 to 2023.

I noticed on another account that my books had stopped selling so I pivoted and now use that account to sell mostly sewing patterns.

Different demographic, but better sales.

2nd-time-around-jewelry · ‎10-24-2023

Glad you are having success. I sell vintage jewelry & during the pandemic I sold a lot over the 2 years as people were at home & shopping online. Not sure what you are selling as your listings don't show anything. Guess you sell either to the US or have a different store for that. Anyways I always cancel my items & relist them as sell similar. Been doing that since eBay automatically started relisting ended items. Also being forced to promote our listings just to get a sale is crazy. I never had a problem with sales before they started pushing promotions. Sadly eBay has really gone downhill for a lot of us sellers.

reallynicestamps · ‎10-24-2023

Using Sell Similar to relist is often recommended to get a "newly listed" boost.

I found that while I use PL (at the 2% minimum) for about a third of my listings, usually older ones, that my actual sales of PL items are lower than that.

Anecdote is not data.

I suspect that PL brings eyeballs to my Stores, but browsing customers actually buy other items.

Since I don't pay for PL unless that listing sells, I consider using it a win/win.

I like the new way of tracking Views. I also use Best Offer when a stale item has a few Views, since those are this month and human beings .

When I do that, I leave a Note on my Active List of when and how much the BO was. That note is permanent. I find very few BOs actually sell, but the note prevents me from sending another very soon.

I also use BO on most of my listings, with acceptable/not acceptable parameters set in advance. Those do work well for me, and the parameters mean less work since I only see the almost acceptable ones while the acceptables are automatically , uh, accepted.

38e_avenue · ‎10-24-2023

@2nd-time-around-jewelry wrote:
Also being forced to promote our listings just to get a sale is crazy. I never had a problem with sales before they started pushing promotions. Sadly eBay has really gone downhill for a lot of us sellers.

After they introduced the promoted listing, I immediately understood it's their way to quickly increase the FVF - nothing more. But do we have any choice? Not really - or we adjust, or we are not welcome here any more. Try to promote at 7%, as I do. You have really a nice stuff in your store - it should definitely sell better.

I also sell vintage stuff, but in another category. I have very similar pricing and manage to sell 70+ items each month.

I do not really count on Canadians - 75% goes to the US, 20% international, maybe 5% or less to Canada. It's why I used the free Tuesday shipping only once .... 😪

38e_avenue · ‎10-24-2023

@2nd-time-around-jewelry wrote:
Also being forced to promote our listings just to get a sale is crazy. I never had a problem with sales before they started pushing promotions.

I went to my "sold" page and counted the items especially for you. Here is the result: for the last 25 items, 20 sold "via promoted". The choice is yours.

reallynicestamps · ‎10-24-2023

And of my last 25 items, one sold with Promoted and at 2% cost me 42c.

It may vary with category.

38e_avenue · ‎10-24-2023

I pay more, but I do not have any problem with that, because it S-E-L-L-S 😃

(well, I must admit, I raised the prices accordingly) 😎

byto253 · ‎10-25-2023

I wonder if the pandemic brought in a good number of new buyers that have now moved on, and the established eBay folks over indulged and have stopped buying. No idea but market dynamics can cause big swings.

mrdutch1001 · ‎10-25-2023

My sales have been on a downhill slide for the past 5 years...and no substantial increase during the Covid years, either.... However,the month of October 2023 has seen the most sales in a month (all 4 of 'em,LOL!) than in any other month since April of 2022...now that's a P-O-S-I-T-I-V-E for me!!(doing a happy dance... rah! rah! hip-hip hooray!)

I do not, will not use Promoted listings on eBay or any other selling site. Promoted listings are a gimmick that only serve to add additional money to the selling site. Sellers just pay to see who can get to the top before they all slide down to the bottom again...a vicious never-ending cycle that has sellers brainwashed into thinking PLs are a "good" thing, that sellers MUST use =BS!...No seller needs to use PLs nor do they need to think they have to or that PLs are a must do/must have...PLs are only a "good" thing for the selling site's additional methods of acquiring more money from sellers..

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎10-25-2023

@mrdutch1001 wrote:
My sales have been on a downhill slide for the past 5 years...and no substantial increase during the Covid years, either.... However,the month of October 2023 has seen the most sales in a month (all 4 of 'em,LOL!) than in any other month since April of 2022...now that's a P-O-S-I-T-I-V-E for me!!(doing a happy dance... rah! rah! hip-hip hooray!)
I do not, will not use Promoted listings on eBay or anyother selling site. Promoted listings are a gimmick that only serve to add additional money to the selling site. Sellers just pay to see who can get to the top before they all slide down to the bottom again...a vicious never-ending cycle that has sellers brainwashed into thinking PLs are a "good" thing, that sellers MUST use=BS!...No selelr needs to use PLs nor do they need to think they have to/must do...PLs are only a "good" thing for the selling site's additional methods of acquiring more money from sellers..

@mrdutch1001

@2nd-time-around-jewelry

Congratulations on getting to do the happy dance. I've seen similar results the last 2 to 3 years so in total agreement. Each new "carrot" that gets dropped out of the eBay sky works until it doesn't. Only to be replaced by a new carrot. Basically (or wascally🥕) eBay's version of wash, rinse, repeat!!!

From a former eBay buyers perspective, I miss the days when a seller described their product to the best of their ability and i searched using words I thought mirrored what I was looking for. Then items "magically" appeared almost always closely resembling what I was looking for. I was then responsible for reading that description in its entirety before choosing whether or not to purchase. Easy peasy!!! Now you get a hodge podge of "close enough or kinda close but not really"!!!

-Lotz

ricarmic · ‎10-25-2023

The effects of my Friday "trick" have worn off, back to sales doldrums. (Which doesn't surprise me).

It looks like I'll have to keep adjusting, reapplying my new "tricks" for a while at least. The dynamics of the overall promoted program are more fluid now, I'm lamenting for the good old days where I just cruised along with a 1% or forcedly 2% promoted rate without having to any "promoted listings" work to bring in the sales! Now it's going to take more promoted ( aka "advertising") work, although one never knows when the "magic trick" that endures will be found!

reallynicestamps · ‎10-25-2023

I wonder if the pandemic brought in a good number of new buyers that have now moved on, and the established eBay folks over indulged and have stopped buying.

Yes and no.

If you substitute "online" for "eBay", I suspect it would be more accurate.

In addition the big boxstores which already had a headstart on small businesses, took the opportunity to expand their online presence while small B&M shops were flailing.
And now , here I am, trying to workout the logistics of going to the local hardware store for a hummingbird feeder (out of season) or buying one online from Amazon (which I detest).