So is every body Having great Holiday Sales!

[bare_bright]

Tell me folks how are your sales this Holiday Season Compared to Last year's ?

Just Curios how much the Bad economy is Hitting every one

Myself for the items I normally sell is way off on the other hand I got my Hands on many spools of Alu BX Copper spools and they sold like hot-cakes , I sold over 40 spools in 7 days

So it makes me wonder if the economy is realy that bad or is it just hitting the very rich this time and that's why it's all over the news every day.

Seems to me it's mostly the Big fish hurting and crying

oh well Time will tell, Time tells all :))

[jewelry_quest]

Sales are wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy down for me this year compared to last year. I'm hardly selling a thing and I've decreased costs both in inventory costs as well as shipping costs to help with the declining recession and to help my customers out as well. Doesn't matter what I do I see a huge decline in sales from last year this time. I'm not too pleased with Ebay as my search status has gone down and this I believe is assisting in the lesser sales. Regardless I'm working on alot of new venues to sell through online as I won't let Ebay be my only outlet. Their policies, rules etc. for sellers have just gotten out of hand and I'd rather be my own boss then put all my efforts into someone else's site mainly Ebay!

[coxengines]

Sales are up, waaayyy up! I even increased pricing on many items last month (X-mas season) and they sell just as well.

But, of course, I have never bought into the "low-price-mentality" or mass-hysteria that sometimes occurs.

On the other hand, we cut cable TV 7 years ago and perhaps we just don't "get it" LOL!

What I am trying to imply is that, if you follow the doctrine of "things are bad", that is what you will get. If you believe that things are great... well... it's all within your reach.

Xena

[craftycatsattic]

Well I just did an analysis for November which is a good time to compare since it's one of my best months and I list consistently each year. I "knew" that my auction closes were way down compared to last year and after checking the numbers they are.

I sold about 5% more units this year. Sales are down 15% and my average selling price has dropped from $10 to $8. Again the saving grace this year has been the higher exchange rate for converting my USD. Factor that in and I'm more or less where I was at last year only working harder with more listings.

If you asked me last year, I knew I had to get more items up and sell more volume to try and recooop the expected losses (the writing was on the wall).

It's retail. It's an ever changing market! You have to be ready for it when it's hot and carefully navigate it when it's not!

[coxengines]

Markets might be a bit more challenging. However, have they not always been in one way or the other?

In bad times we complain about the economy, in good times we complain about eBay and postal fees 😄

The last few weeks my auctions are ending dismally, so I adapted. I try to auction items I can afford to give a way. I like to run auctions as "teasers" as, invariably, the winning bidder will add items from the store.

I listed a bigger variety of items and the # of items sold, rose.

Then, I duplicated my entire store inventory in BIN and sales increased (and so did eBay fees).

I realigned pricing, much of it upwards. Per-item sales remained steady.

Since September, I have been running a promo "free $2.95 gift with every $10 spent"; a huge success.

However, I do concede that a major portion of my increased profits comes from the 20% surge in currency conversion.

Since buyers pay postage in US$, postage revenue has also increased 20%.:-)

The business is out there but one must strive to "think outside of the box" instead of throwing in the towel and joining the mantra of "it's bad out there"

Good luck to everyone for their Christmas sales.

Xena

[ampurtle]

westernstargifts

Actually, all the items I sell are made in Canada with the exception of the coffee cups, which accounts for the feedback praise. People who buy the clothing are always blown away with the level of quality and end up believing they got a great product at a great price at $65.oo

The clothing thing has worked out well enough that may take on another local manufacturer that makes the clothing from scratch right here. Nice stuff also under the brand of 'Naturally Rugged'

[westernstargifts]

Personally I would rather buy Canadian and get a good quality product even if I have to pay more for it. I am really tired of the poor quality of products that you buy now. Nothing lasts for any length of time and cheap products end up costing you more in the long run for that reason.

I have had my eye on certain Canadian made products that I would like to sell under another id if I ever get the time. They are also handcrafted quality products and the prices are very reasonable. I would rather have the customers who are willing to pay for quality. It always seems that you have more problems with people who buy the lowest priced thing you have listed.