eBay

musicyouneed · ‎10-27-2022

Sales have almost hit a standstill. Down 80% from a previous month which was down 60%. Do you think it is the economy? I put 1000 CD's on sale for 20% off and 1000 CD's for 15% off still no action, hardly any views either. What is going on?

ericsells75 · ‎10-27-2022

Perfect storm of issues i suspect. I’m in the same boat.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎10-27-2022

@musicyouneed wrote:
Sales have almost hit a standstill. Down 80% from a previous month which was down 60%. Do you think it is the economy? I put 1000 CD's on sale for 20% off and 1000 CD's for 15% off still no action, hardly any views either. What is going on?

I have to keep blaming it on how search NOW works or doesn't. Was looking up a Boston Bruins item this morning on a PC. System brought up Quebec Nordique items not even related to the item search.

-Lotz

ricarmic · ‎10-27-2022

I watch/contribute to other boards on other sites, I'm seeing the same comments/concern on the other sites, same level or even worse depending on the responders.

So it's not an "ebay thing". I'm continuing in my opinion that it is the economy/folks opinion of the ecomomy. They either don't have the funds or they are worried about things enough to defer discretionary spending until "things look better".

So far I'm running my "full bag of tricks" something I couldn't do during covid, or before really, because sales were high enough from it that I didn't have time to keep the "bag of tricks" going.

Now, running the full bag of tricks is just barely generating the before COVID days income level, I'm using the spare time to list like a ripper. Not enjoying the projected 35% pay cut this year but I knew it would eventually come....

38e_avenue · ‎10-27-2022

I have to keep blaming it on how search NOW works or doesn't. Was looking up a Boston Bruins item this morning on a PC. System brought up Quebec Nordique items not even related to the item search.
-Lotz

I am Top Rated Plus, traffic is as usual, my items are always on top of all search - yet no sales (this is my worst October on Ebay since +20 years).

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎10-27-2022

@38e_avenue wrote:
I have to keep blaming it on how search NOW works or doesn't. Was looking up a Boston Bruins item this morning on a PC. System brought up Quebec Nordique items not even related to the item search.
-Lotz
I am Top Rated Plus, traffic is as usual, my items are always on top of all search - yet no sales (this is my worst October on Ebay since +20 years).

@38e_avenue

For sellers that are on the bubble with those banners it has become very difficult to keep them going forward. From my observations US sellers appear to have more access to a variety of those tags/perks which can affect a sellers visibility and the opportunity for that discount on FVF's. As an example anyone know what happened to ME page? Seems to have got blown into oblivion for sellers who wanted to use now. Customer service was clueless on the topic.

-Lotz

reallynicestamps · ‎10-27-2022

This must be especially hard for sellers who started just as the pandemic hit and closed down B&M businesses and who thought the pandemic surge in online shopping was normal.

And many sellers expanded their online businesses to cover losses elsewhere.

I'm feeling too lazy to look right now, but if memory serves, online sales grew by 20% - or else became 20% of all consumer purchasing from 2020 to 2021.

And then dropped closer to 2019 levels right after Christmas.

And AZ has been losing money all this year. Also etsy.

EBay remains profitable, but I strongly suspect a lot of that is from rising fees based on Promoted Listings, playing with FVFs (from 0.5% to 15%-- or more for sellers who are not performing to eBay's standards.

Expanding to other venues is one choice. Using PL which improves visibility is another.

I had an argument with DD the other day about the strategy of using high PL and paying eBay for better placement in Search versus giving the same percentage as a discount to the seller. I think @ricarmic was the one who suggested it. DD, a consumer not a seller, couldn't see why that would be a Good Thing.

ricarmic · ‎10-27-2022

@reallynicestamps

Regarding

"I had an argument with DD the other day about the strategy of using high PL and paying eBay for better placement in Search versus giving the same percentage as a discount to the seller(I believe this was meant to be buyer). I think ricarmic was the one who suggested it. DD, a consumer not a seller, couldn't see why that would be a Good Thing."

I think it probably bears mentioning that the "concept" behind why diverting a theroretical buyer discount to a higher PL ebay payment makes sense in my mind is that the price is right but the right person hasn't seen it yet. I have seen folks selling stuff exhorbitantly high and using theoretically high PL to search out people who are "lazy" and wealthy enough not to care if they're paying too much. Based on these new view counts, I can see that some of my long time selling stuff does not get "fast" views if it isn't promoted, so theoretically if I wish to sell more of it faster and am willing to give ebay more to make that happen I can theoretically make more in the end.

dreambaowei2011 · ‎10-27-2022

Hi, what I feel since 2022 is that less and less people are visiting eBay. I do not do any statistical analysis. But I have such a strong feeling.

ilikehockeyjerseys · ‎10-27-2022

Even with sales down for most sellers. $71 in sales with 2000+ listings is concerning.

For the sake of cash flow, run the steepest sale that you can run. Maybe you should go as high as 40 or 50 percent off.

You want to do that to learn what the problem is. If your sales don't pick up with an extreme markdown, your inventory is the problem. If they do pick up, your original prices were way too high.

flipistics · ‎10-27-2022

These are my CD sales for the last 31 days. I'm only shipping in Canada and have added only a handful of new listings in the past few months. I haven't changed any prices, but I have sent out some offers. I currently have 322 listed.

rocketscollectibles · ‎10-27-2022

Personally i had my best month all-time. Nothing noticed from eBay

I remember you did a similar post last month. I remember doing a quick research and analyse on 5 randomly picked items on your store and pointed out that those items had no demand (low to none sold past 90-days), and that additionally your pricing wasnt competitive (multiple sellers offering better price). I won't redo it seeing you are not yourself open to do your own homeworks. But i keep looking to your listings it's the same on every item i look, there is a low demand plus other sellers offering better pricing tendancy in your listings

mrdutch1001 · ‎10-27-2022

I never put any items "on sale"...I just ride out "the storm" ...Many of my items are listed on other selling sites so the continued exposure may eventually bring in a sale or 2 or ....

and as has been mentioned, this low sales/no sales isn't an eBay thing...it's being discussed on various selling sites...

It is what it is...

C'est la vie!

Que sera, sera...

silverdreamfilm · ‎10-27-2022

I'm in the same boat... I had a great June-Sept/22 (which is very unusal, especially July and August which are traditionally slow) but Oct has been very disappointing. It's like a ghost town right now.

October is usually a good month for me but I hope sales pickup in Nov/22.

25minutes · ‎10-30-2022

Looks like a lot of us are in the same boat - my sales are probably down 40% in October..yes, I wonder if it's an economy reason, or if buyers are going elsewhere, or if the sales tax is causing people to spend less or if our inventory is too stale or prices out of sync with what the market will bear...could be a boatload of reasons...hopefully this is only temporary

reallynicestamps · ‎10-30-2022

Likely a mixture of all of the above.

It probably doesn't help that the media are talking about a recession and bad economic news while unemployment is actually down, gas prices have dropped, house prices are lower (but mortgage rates are higher), and the minimum wage has risen which has a knockon effect on other wages.

What is causing high prices seems to be very high profit taking by major industries.

flipistics · ‎10-30-2022

I think there's two issues. I think the biggest factor is the rise in interest rates. With regards to media type items such as music and movies, I think the second factor is that there was a big surge in these items hitting the marketplace this summer. Anything posted before September was probably severely undercut, meaning sales are going to be slow until either we lower our prices or wait until the surplus moves out of the market.

mrdutch1001 · ‎10-30-2022

As long as I have been an online seller(nearly 20 years now..) sellers have been claiming anything and everything as a "reason" for low/no sales...the economy, time of year, summer months,holidays, school breaks,vacation time,election year,income tax time, the weather-floods,hurricanes,blizzards, wild fires, a war going on in this country or that country, the sun is shining, it's the time of day, night time....and the list goes on...citing Interest rates is just another among the many unlimited number of "excuses", and that's what they are"'EXCUSES"!

Successful selling is about the product/item; it's uniqueness, quality, supply and demand,price points, target market,etc...and the product needs to be a good fit for the selling site...not everything fits any given selling site...despite the reputation of the long past eBay of 20 years ago, NOT everything is a good fit for the eBay of today...

Trends come, trends go...buyer habits change

C'est la vie!

Que sera sera!

electronicifycanada · ‎10-30-2022

It's the FED's fault.

They raise interest rates and people don't want to spend. They even say they're doing it to stop demand.

Well demand means eBay sales.

38e_avenue · ‎10-31-2022

@mrdutch1001 wrote:
Successful selling is about the product/item; it's uniqueness, quality, supply and demand,price points, target market,etc...and the product needs to be a good fit for the selling site...not everything fits any given selling site...despite the reputation of the long past eBay of 20 years ago, NOT everything is a good fit for the eBay of today...
Trends come, trends go...buyer habits change

A short, yet COMPLETE explanation!