What happened to the sales?

[gifts_of_elegance]

I have almost 1,100 listings and haven't had a sale since the 7th of October (4 days).  I called Customer Support, got a very polite young lady from Asia that could not give me an answer.  She made suggestions that I ship one day, refund 14 days, free shipping, filling in all the item details, etc.  I DO ALL THOSE ALREADY!

I have not been able to access my Traffic Reports for months, its always "Not available at this time".  Last night she made it available for me and the results were very shocking.  For the same day last year I had over 1,300 lookers verses 185 this year.

I am assured my account is not limited in any way.  I am totally frustrated by all this.  Am I alone or are others experiencing the same?

[asyahijab]

I know it sounds silly, but if cutting your prices does not work, try raising them.

I am a customer of yours, and you are making original and unique items.

There are those who prefer to pay more for the stuff they buy-- it feels more attractive to them.

Would a small experiment hurt?

I did so many times, and glad it worked well. I even double the price of an item that had not sold for months, and horay it sold finnally 🙂

[gifts_of_elegance]

Well, a week has passed by and I have given it my best.  Here are the results of my auctions & mark downs:

I listed 70 items on Auction.  Three items sold but one did not pay.  The listing fees were 2x much as the sale price on the two items.

I also ran several sales.  12% off on Friday and 10% off on every other day.  I sold 20 small items, including one non-paying bidder.

I have approx. 1,100 listings, most of them in quantities. 

I feel like I am banging my head against the wall.  I am closing my store down for a while and taking my grand children on a  holiday.  Hopefully they will forgive me for all the time I spend on eBay instead of with them.

[brandeentertainment]

Must be the Market your in I guess it is just flooded or something ..

Your listing are nice descriptions good and product very nice...

I have tripled my sales this month compared to any other this year ..

Hope things get better and enjoy your time with the grand kids

[brandeentertainment]

For me I have to run my store before the family is up and after they go to bed it is either that or I have to close my store as per my beatiful wife...

Which I don't mind because I may be tired but my kid always gets time with daddy and my niece and nephews do as well ..

I spent my first year obsessed with sales and working and changing things now my kid is 19 months old and if starting to want some daddy time and now that she does more then poop sleep and cry I would not put my business in front my kid for a day ..

I actually passed up a 100k deal 3 weeks ago because my wife wanted to go on a family trip and even though I could have finished paying my morgage with this deal I chose to go on the family trip because those are the moment that last forever and once they pass you will never get them back ..

[cumos55]

Some history

(1) Longest number of days with sales each day 

42 days in spring of 2009

(2) and immediately followed by 4 days with no sales.

Maximum number of days since then... 3 days with no sales  atleast once each year

(3) Craziest week --- spring 2012

Monday and Tuesday --- no sales

Wednesday... one sale less than $20

Thursday and Friday  --- no sales

(4) Month with most no sale days...

March 2012  about 13 no sale days

(5) First six months of 2012 --- about 55 no-sale days out of 180 days

(5) Traffic for page views and visit was down starting about September 1..... and continued until about October 15.... Appears to be up to and higher than page views and visits in August

(7)   No effect on sales over the last three months potential buyers and buyer were viewing my listings... but not being recorded in traffic reports.

(8) The prediction is that 2012  will be my best year for value of total sales

[cumos55]

What has worked ---]

(1) Finding a niche  --- finding the right inventory,  a good pricing strategy.

(2) incorporating new categories of inventory, complementary to my major niche.

(3) Constantly adding new inventory.... about 80 listings every 14 to 18 days

(4) periodic removal of old inventory that is not selling

(5) edit, revise, modify listings.

I am doing so well with books  that nothing other than books  has been listed in over the last 18 months....

Sometimes  it just takes time to get the right visibility.

I also sell in a category with very little competition.  Other sellers in that category must find it frustrating at times....  I sell at my prices  and they rarely reach that value for one sale let alone a series of sales..

and --- if my niche category is not selling other complementary categories --- books and more books ---  are selling.

My biggest step occured in September/October 2008 when  a maximum for shipping cost for books was introduced on eBay.com...

Moved all listings to eBay.ca   and became orientated to Canada and  everything Canadian... At first it did not appear to be a positive.

I now can use  Canada Post in my listings  and bulk edit  with postal rate increases.... one day of work in 2012.

All of my books are coded using shipping cost  for Canada as my number used for coding for books  based on weight and a few other value parameters.

January 2009  about 1250 listings

today  with about 3300 listings  after 3.5 years of sales.....

Lots of work... lots of sales and very good value    constantly going up.

It helps to find the right inventory and in super condition.

I do take the odd day off

and I do periodically do sometihing that is totally different from selling books.  Working an auction sale October 19 and 20...  Preview on October 19,, and sale on October 20.

and about 350 firearms were sold..  Front row cwnrtre on stage right beside the auctioneers....  Sales were hot and continuous... Yesterday the 21  was my back to books day  with the preparation of parcels for mailing today the 22nd...

Everyone has to find their own way of selling thier specific type of inventory....

[cumos55]

 My most important rule  for selling  relates to pricing.

"If I do not list it at $150  it will not sell at $150".

I have the inventory that has value in the range of $100 to $200 and that inventory sells.

High value inventory also bring lots of traffic to the store....  curiosity,  and then they just might buy something, and not necessarily that high priced item

I am also getting repeat buyers based on service.... There may be cheaper inventory listed   but the quality of my inventory  and  based on feedback received... service provided.... lots of return buyers....

------------------

There was a seller at a local flea market  who sold music casette tapes 

sold a few at $1 each....  Sold more at $2 each  and lots more at $3 each

The perception is .....if you pay more  it has a "greater" value.

That $1 tape was "garbage"  while that $3 tape had greater value.... same tape   different perception

[gifts_of_elegance]

Well, here I am in Florida with our grand children and our city is being ravaged by Sandy.  I am happy that they are out of harm's way but now I am going nuts worrying about their parents.  

The hell with eBay's sales!  

[westernstargifts]

I hope your family fared well through Sandy.

Are sales improving any yet?  I took some time off this year and only listed a small quantity of things over the summer season.  Now that I am listing heavily again sales suck for this time of year.  My visibility on .com is terrible lately and I think it has to do with ebay's latest changes in Search.  Unless you have bids or a hot selling item the auctions get pushed back behind those that do have them.

I used to have a niche cumos.  When I began selling I had the only copper rings on eBay.  Now there are thousands of them that are really gold, silver, brass or whatever and contain no copper at all.  They just use it in the title to get the visibility. 

Hopefully things will pick up soon.  Craft shows, with one exception, have been poor this year too.  Lots of tire kickers as DH calls them.

[cumos55]

There is a problem with listing uploaded to eBay.ca  and having visibility on eBay.com

Link to ---

http://community.ebay.ca/topic/Seller-Central/Canadian-Sellers-And/4000006624

The problem has been narrowed down to a correction with a bulk edit.... can be done 500 listings at a time.....

Bulk edit your location... or as I stated... pretend to edit the location... with respect to postal code....

Delete postal code  and then add in the very same postal code you deleted...

Worked for me.... 

[westernstargifts]

I did read that thread and most of my listings at that time were visible.  Out of over 600 products about 400 or so are new listings.  I think I may try that with the older listings as they were the ones for which I had done most of my searches.

I noticed that the products I just listed are showing.  I'll keep an eye on them.

Does anything work right on ebay anymore?

[gifts_of_elegance]

Hello Westernstargifts:

Thank You, my family went through Sandy without a hitch.  Hope yours did too.

My sales are still almost non-existent.  One a day out of around 1,000 listings and sometimes not even that.  I did everything I could think of, everything that was suggested, nothing has changed.  I am past the point of caring, I  can't let this ruin my health.  

I am very sorry to hear you are in the same boat.  Maybe its time for both of us to stop worrying.  We'll think of something!

[gifts_of_elegance]

Hi cumos55, I have done as you suggested.  Who knows, maybe this will be the straw that breaks the camel's back (or gets my listings sold).  

Thank You!

[westernstargifts]

I've been getting a few sales but nothing like I usually have.  And auctions aren't even getting watchers.  I hate to waste the money listing them when 1 or 2 items out of close to 50 sell.

I'm beginning to wonder if eBay remembers that they have store subscribers. 

[westernstargifts]

There is an interesting letter to the editor on ecommercebytes which has to do with this issue.

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/letters/blog.pl?/pl/2012/11/1353161971.html

[gifts_of_elegance]

I heard it before and now I am starting to believe it..  

[westernstargifts]

Well, the past few days sales have really picked up.  I hope the sales keep increasing.  It probably helps that I am listing a lot of new stock right now.  The listings seem to get some visibility when they are newly listed. 

[gifts_of_elegance]

Good for you!   Happy to hear its working for you.  Doesn't seem to make much difference on my end.:-(

[westernstargifts]

Everything is strange on eBay these days.  I didn't have such a good day today.  It seems to be up one day and down the next...even more frequently than usual.

I hope things pick up for you soon.

[ricarmic]

Something I think changed a while ago is that the "default" order of search results is "ending soonest" instead of "best match" like it was for quite a while....at least when I do searches, if I want best match I have to change it to best match...does anyone know if the actual default has changed? if it has then there is more advantage to having your items close during or just after busier times...