What is a healthy sell through rate?

[kotonline]

Hi,

I just wanted to know where everyone is with thier sold % numbers.  What should the average eBay store expect for sell through rates? Thanks in advance for the input.

[pierrelebel]

The last stat I have seen on fixed price store listings is it takes fourteen weeks on average to sell an item (average turnover less than four times a year).

Some categories are much slower.  Postage stamps for example typically will average six to eight months to sell if priced properly. That has been my experience, selling over one hundred thousand listings on eBay over fifteen years.

Now, if you are willing to give the stuff away and price your items well below real market value, it will sell much faster but will there be any profit once you consider your time, your cost of inventory and eBay/PayPal fees?

Selling at auction is much faster as it takes three seven day listings on average to attract at least one bid BUT the average selling price will be slightly lower (on average).

[ricarmic]

Hi! This is something I've never calculated before and would be interesting to know, so I somewhat figured it out....

These are the approximate % of items that sell against total unique items listed in my store (ie if an item has quantity of 5 it counts as 1).

Without a lot of work I can't do it more accurately, this is probably likely 1 to 2% low as if I'm out it will be because I missed items - so a 6.5% could be 6-5-8.5%)

August - My store was closed 

July 6.5%

June 7.5 %

May 7.5%

April 8.5%

March 9.5%

(the drop from March to July normal for the time of year in my selling category)

[ricarmic]

To add to Pierre's comment, my experience in my category (also stamps) is that for stuff regularly available auctions of mine run about half the normal store price. I only use auctions to bring people to my store and I rarely use auctions at all.

[inuk_the_polar_bear]

It depends. When I carried less inventory on-line, I was turning over 3-4 times a year. Higher inventory and sales are off, it is closer to twice a year.

I could structure my listings so that my turnover would be higher, but, I am keeping the lower moving widgets available. I do it with dollars not units.

[ricarmic]

I share a similar view with Inuk - I too have fast turnover stuff. I have the belief that one of the things that helps the slower selling stuff sell is the number of items one is selling (ie it affects search results placement), so I try to balance the two. I also watch the dollar volume monthly as opposed to the count. (If anything over the last couple years, my count has gone up but the dollar volume is even or lower - ie I am selling more smaller stuff)