Sales down substantially from 2015 for anyone else?

[cutepaperstory]

I keep track of every single sale I make on eBay with a spread sheet.  This year my sales for every month, except for January which was about the same, have been 1/2 or less of what they were last year.  In April 2016 I sold less than 1/3 of what I sold in April 2015.  I haven't raised my prices at all, and have even lowered prices for shipping to try to drum up some sales.  I am constantly updating my stock, but have the same kinds of items. 

Is anyone else in the same situation?

Cheers!

[pierrelebel]

You are based in South Korea.

This is eBay-Canada.

Where is your major market?  Asia?  USA?

[cutepaperstory]

About 90% of my sales are to the USA, 5% to Canada, and 5% to Western Europe.  When I am in Canada, and shipping from within the country, my sales are almost exclusively to Canada.  For the first few months of 2015 and 2016, I've only been selling from South Korea.

[dark_phoenix9273]

Ignore him, he's always on ebays side for everything. It's true that sales are down, you can look and see how many threads are talking about it.  And part of the reason is ebays policies are counter to a productive business environment.  They force expensive shipping options on us that drive away business,

[photosalp]

After a slow start to the year, April was my best month ever on eBay. May is looking good so far, but I expect a seasonal slow down soon. My YTD is 10% up from 2015, which is pretty good considering 2015 was almost 30% better than 2014. I too haven't changed much, other than being a little more selective in what I'm buying for resale. Not too impressed with new fee for my anchor store. That's my biggest gripe right now. Al

[dark_phoenix9273]

Im glad your doing a little better, but for most sellers its getting really difficult to sell.

[pjcdn2005]

Most seller? Where are you getting your information?

You do realize that 'most sellers' do not post on the boards and that when they do, it is often because they have a problem.

'Most sellers' do not post every time they are happy with the way a transaction went.

[dark_phoenix9273]

If you look over the history of the recent threads there seems to be a substainal amount of sellers experiencing poor sales.

[reallynicestamps]

As noted, sellers who are busy don't post very often.

pierrelebel is retired (as am I) and has more time to share his many years of expertise in mail order with newer and less experienced sellers.

The 'my sales are down and it is all eBay's fault' is a perennial.

There are usually a couple every month. And usually different posters in each one.

Suggestions are made (revamping for mobile shoppers, using Free Shipping, Cookie Jar Insurance, opening or closing a store, terrible titles, negative ToS, bad pictures, deadstock offerings).

Some posters find the suggestions help.

Some are angry to be told it may be them and not eBay.

Some drop out of mail order selling.

And next month the same post will turn up, with a different poster.

There are several million sellers on eBay.

There are several hundred million transactions on eBay every day.

Not every seller is going to be successful.

[dark_phoenix9273]

Ignore the ebay supporters, plenty of people are experiencing low sales due to the fact that we now have to charge such high shipping rates that it scares buyers off, does anyone remember when free shipping used to a not entirely uncommon feature?  Now we have to make sure we use tracking which hikes the cost to us and the consumer.

[retroman_studios]

It really depends on what your market is, demographics etc. If you have been in a specific market for long enough and can look through historical data for your sales, you often see a pattern. 

Some industries have periods of low income, and then suddenly skyrocket and have to hire more folks. 

Here in Vancouver right now there is a large number of cruise ships in town, and not everyone has prepared, but one business owner made sure he knew what ships would be in and hired more people, so he knows historically that business will increase in certain months or with certain environmental factors. 

Now, on eBay it might seem like there is no pattern but if you look far enough back you will see a pattern for your market. Keep in mind that sometimes even if you typically are busy in a month, there may be other factors.

Summer is the time for wild fires as is the case in Fort McMurray, so it's highly doubtful folks there will be on eBay, plus all the firefighters tackling the blaze, so it goes to shows that there are so many factors that go into why sales are down.

Now keep in mind this is just semantics outside of eBay, and now eBay has lots of new policies and "initiatives"  that they feel will make business better. Note this may not be better for you, but for them.

My sales are up and down all the time as I deal with eWaste, so it really depends on my stock and what can be sold. Right now my biggest struggle is space to keep everything as I keep most of it at home, but do have a small storage area at my workplace where I actually get allot of my stock.

One thing I need to work on is to make it more appealing to genuine customers to buy from me. Typical brick and mortars clamp down on security when a store hits a certain threshold for loss, which actually makes it worse as genuine customers find it frustrating to purchase, find someone to help etc. Case in point is my local Superstore who locks up razor blades and leaves them in an area of the store where there are no staff members and trying to track someone down is impossible. Not worth. I'll just get it from someone else.

Morale is that loss will always be part of the retail game, but keep customers happy and you have a winning solution. I frequently do flash sales and I find it tends to drive traffic and sales. So sometimes even doing a few sales at a loss/close to cost for old inventory or what retail calls "leading loses", things that get your customer in the door. (Well, in this case your auctions)

Shipping is a nightmare, that is for sure. I typically do flat rate shipping, I make some on some sales, others I lose, but my costs to the customer are always the same.

[dark_phoenix9273]

I love how dismissive you are of the situation and your solution is keep customers happy...

How exactly?  Lower our prices to sell everything dirt cheap like an online dollar store?

And your argument boils down to "I'm not sure theres a pattern to sales, but trust me, it's there."

[reallynicestamps]

NO

Geez, do you ever listen to anyone but yourself?

You DON"T have to use tracking.

Which in any case is Confirmation of Delivery not tracking.

And tracking will NOT help you get your customers' payments any faster-- that only applies to US sellers.

You can use untracked shipping and the postal system will reliably deliver.

If you have a problem using either a third party insurer or Cookie Jar Insurance will cover the cost of refunding the unhappy buyer before they decide they need to resort to an eBay or Paypal Dispute.

Third party insurers, like shipinsurance are cheaper than postal insurance. Most will cover one off purchases. Full time businesses might want to look into commercial policies from specialist companies like Hugh Wood Insurance who deal with hobby businesses.

Most people are honest. If you are having problems with scammers, you have to learn how to manage those losses.

EBay is not your mummy.

[retroman_studios]

I'm not dismissing anything, just being realistic that slow sales can come from anywhere. People come into the forums and say slow sales and ask if anyone else is slow yet they don't provide details on what they sell, demographics etc.

eCommerce is not a turn key solution, never has been. eBay is not the only venue that is changing for the worse, ask anyone that runs a brick and mortar store and the story is the same. It's the entire industry that is both changing and getting worse. Business needs to adapt.

Some markets that used to be strong points for online sales are drying up, others are opening up.

At the end of the day it can't all be eBay's fault.....sure they share a good chunk of the blame but what are we as sellers doing to do about it? All we can do is adjust how we do business. Business is a constant state of tweaking. We just happen to be a large online group of guinea pigs who also happen to be business folk. 🙂

[reallynicestamps]

I know what you mean.

I was shopping today for a couple of DVDs (Deadpool and First Marigold Hotel) only to be told that all the HMV stores here in Victoria have gone out of business.

But the DVDs still have some demand, even in this day of Netflix. Especially since there are four or five different streaming services each with its own catalogue and monthly fee.

So there will be a market.

The last buggy whip manufacturer in the USA is doing good business, after all.

And I'm constantly surprised by how quickly the few CDs I carry sell. Low demand, yes, but also low supply. And these bands don't seem to be on YouTube or iTunes. (yes, yes, I know I'm a technodolt.) Basically it seems to be the same as books, don't list best sellers cause they ain't.

What eBay and AZ have going for them is a wide range of product and name recognition. EBay in my experience is easier to list and sell on in my categories and AZ doesn't cover many of the things I sell.

Fees are a cost of doing business. And as such tax deductible.

[mr.elmwood]

My sales are doing quite well. Better than they should

The more effort I put in, the more I sell.

[pierrelebel]

"I'm not sure theres a pattern to sales, but trust me, it's there"

That statement is more or less correct.

In the first quarter of 2015, sales on eBay by all sellers were US$ 19,476,000,000

This year in the first quarter, sales by eBay sellers were US$ 19,581,000,000

A small increase from last year.  That is reality.

Some sellers will experience a decrease in sales, some will do the same sales volume while others will experience an increase.

That pattern has been around for twenty years since eBay started.

If your sales are lagging, I suggest you look at your listings, your prices, your shipping charges, your conditions of sales and compare them to your competitors.  Then, make appropriate changes to be competitive with successful eBay sellers.

For more financial information about eBay, please check their interim financial statements available on the eBay.com site:

https://investors.ebayinc.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=966949

[dark_phoenix9273]

YES, you DO need to use tracking if you want to prove you sent.  Otherwise you have no protection. Because that is the ONLY thing that proves it in the eyes of ebay. 

And all I see on here these days are more and more threads about people who cannot sell their stuff.  So yes it is down, and I believe Ebays policies are to blame. 

We have to charge such high shipping that it drives away business.