Slow sales are sales slow due to the economy

[david_j_dennis]

Good morning everyone

I have had a store now for three months , in that time I have had only two sales.

Is this a sign of the times or is my site not being viewed.

In the past(8 years) I have sold on the US site in US funds with over 800 sales.

Any comments.

David

[rose-dee]

If I understand you correctly, you're now listing on .ca in $CDN?  

The site itself probably has no direct effect on your sales levels.  There have been a lot of reports in the past few months from sellers about seriously declining sales, and many list on both sites.  I'm amongst them. 

Peaks and valleys of sales have always been the norm on eBay, but this current slump (for me anyway) has been long enough and serious enough to break all my previous records and patterns.  

My own theory that the political situation in the U.S. - specifically the "Trump effect" has made a lot of people extremely nervous about the future.  Yet I understand from reports this Christmas that a lot of large retailers did very well.  Maybe people are buying big ticket items while they can get them on credit with good terms, in case things turn sour economically, but they're avoiding spending cash on smaller discretionary items.  Who really knows?  

What I can tell you from my own perspective is that my sales were going very well in 2016 until Trump was nominated, after which my weekly sales plummetted.  They have only gotten worse since he was elected.  Although some Canadians blamed this past summer's postal disputes, I tend to think there was another cause once we got into the fall and the postal system returned to normal.  In all the years I've been selling on eBay, I've never had such a bad September to November -- for over a decade those have been my best months without fail.  

I see you sell stamps.  There are stamp sellers who regularly come to this board who might be able to share their particular sales experiences over the past few months.   

[dutchman48]

I looked at 1 listing and you have no shipping to the US set up.

[rose-dee]

I wanted to add that I can't say the state of the economy would account for my current sales situation.  I sell mostly to the U.S., and all during the 2008-10 economic crisis I did exceptionally well selling on eBay.  

If this latest slump had happened gradually, I might have blamed a loss of buyers, but the same thing occurred at the same time on another site from which I sell.  There are forces going on in the background that we as sellers will not have any control over.  

I think we just have to ride it out and hope things will improve once the U.S. political situation settles down.  Or if you're fond of wishful thinking, maybe Trump will be impeached for collusion with the Russians, the election will be handed back to Hillary Clinton, and the status quo will be restored.  

[dutchman48]

The economy is not as good as politicians let on.

Trudeau spends money like water and Trump wants to build walls around the US

[rose-dee]

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@dutchman48 wrote:

I looked at 1 listing and you have no shipping to the US set up.

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Yes, you're right, that would certainly not help at all, especially if a seller is trying to appeal to U.S. buyers with U.S. stamps. 

[rose-dee]

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@dutchman48 wrote:

The economy is not as good as politicians let on.

 Trudeau spends money like water and Trump wants to build walls around the US

---

Yes, that's likely so, but the general state of things is certainly not as frightening as in 2008.  Even if the economy is suffering at the moment, I think it's people's confidence or lack thereof, either in their leaders or the situation, that makes the difference in their spending behaviour.  

In any case, one thing I'm not looking forward to is when Trump begins to meddle with cross-border trade.  His protectionist pronouncements (I won't dignify it with the term "policy") could lead to a lot of hardship for Canadian sellers and manufacturers of every type.  

This is off-topic a bit, but even without wholesale gutting of NAFTA, Trump could do a lot of damage by simply lowering the U.S. personal tax-free import limit (de minimus), especially after it's just been raised.  Imagine what a  $50 or $100 U.S. de minimus, for example, would do to Canadian sellers' hopes of appealing to U.S. buyers. U.S. buyers always have a lot more to choose from at home.  

[dutchman48]

Canada Post is creating enough of a hardship on small sellers that need to use the mail. For me, what Trump does is a mute point as postage has killed US sales as well as international for me.

I used to sell $1000+ orders to the US, but no more. Used to sell lots of small orders to the US, it has died and as my other post says, all my INR and defects are all from the small number of sales to the US, hence why I may stop them as well.

[ricarmic]

Rose beat me to it, but by shipping only to Canada, you are blocking out the largest market for USA stamps. That is probably by far the largest problem with the listings. I see some say WW shipping but the first two I looked at were Canada only.

As well the titles are often underutilizing the space available. SC #121 is a good example. You should be at least putting the issuing country in the listing, suggest you also include the catalogue you are using, ie Sc #121  (Sc 2607c title is a lot better).

There is always increasing sellers and competition for material. Getting visibility and catching peoples eye is important as well as being able to be found in searches. (so searching for USA 121 does not return your item on .COM or .CA)

On the good side I don't think it is your pricing that is a problem, your prices seem fine.

[ypdc_dennis]

Looked at a few of your listings and

1) you'd get more sales if you have shipping setup for outside Canada (like to the USA). Buyers won't see your listings if you don't have them set up for shipping. Right now the ones I looked at are Canada only.

2) make use of the listing title -- many of your titles are useless for searches

For example 162355735119 has #236 MH for the title when I think something like "USA # 236 MH 8 cent Columbus Restored to Favor 1492-1892" would have a much better chance at showing in search results.

Use the titles to add as much search detail as possible. A picture may be a thousand words, but it does not speak very loudly in an ebay search.

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[Anonymous]

Hope it will happen to Trump!  Actually he shouldn't run for the President in the first place but actually those who accept him in the first place should tell him, he cannot run for the President and owns many, many, many business all over the world.  What a mess USA is right now.

[Anonymous]

You need to include the shipping cost information.  Any time we see "Shipping not specified", we pass on.  We are not interesting having to contact to find out how much for shipping each time.