eBay

drwho534 · ‎02-16-2023

I've been selling on ebay over the years, and due to some past problems now only ship with tracking (provides recourse when dealing with ebay) which is more expensive. However I've noticed a downturn in sales which have become stagnant this past year for the most part due to shipping costs? Afterall a $15.00 item with an additional $22.00 for shipping is no bargain unless a very rare item. Anyone else find the same? ... or is it a case of too many selling the same item?

marnotom! · ‎02-16-2023

There's likely a lot of factors at play here. The biggest one is likely that the past couple of years saw an unusual spike in online shopping due to the pandemic. Sales really have nowhere to go but down after an increase like this. It's probably best to compare your sales volume or trends to those of before things started going sideways in 2020.

Then there area concerns about inflation and the economy. A lot of online shoppers are being more judicious about their spending on non-essential items right now.

Some sellers are now combating the shipping price demon by opting for mail consolidation services that can send stuff out less expensively than Canada Post can on its own. From what I can see, you're about half an hour or so from a Chit Chats Express depot in London, Ontario. You might want to investigate their operations and see if this or a similar service is a practical option for you.

mrdutch1001 · ‎02-16-2023

A factor at play will also be whether the bulk of your customers are within Canada, to the USA and/or International.

Within Canada, flat rate boxes are an option dependent upon destination as to cost factor. To the USA Canada Post Tracked Packet has a discount that makes shipping somewhat bearable, dependent upon weight...

I have items whereby the shipping cost is way higher than the item price but bear in mind, most buyers look at TOTAL price(item price plus shipping) when considering their purchase.

I list & sell on 2 other selling sites besides eBay and yes sales have been down the past year but much of that is buyer habit changes due to many buyers opting for in person retail outlet buying instead of online buying plus the fact that item prices have significantly increased for almost everything these days and spendable income is less and there may be less spending on purchases for non-essential items.

msau4301 · ‎02-17-2023

"Anyone else find the same? ... or is it a case of too many selling the same item? "

I definitely have noticed a change since the postal rates have climbed their way up. I've always used calculated shipping and usually with tracking also so that has always been the same. The biggest difference in my case seems to be that the lower priced items (under $10) often sit for a lot longer (sometimes won't sell until I combine them into a larger log) - these "cheap" items used to sell quite quickly in the past but when the shipping kept climbing, and as you say went higher than the item value, it makes many look away. I mostly sell vintage Barbies and they are too big to go lettermail. There are two things I've noticed however, my items that are a little higher in price seem to be okay and still selling plus occassionally someone decides to buy a few of those cheaper items to combine shipping anyways which is always a bonus (when it works that is and at least it does for auctions!)