How are sales this month?

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

I have had good to great sales since the pandemic started last year. But now I have seen a complete drop in sales. My last sale was over 2 weeks ago.  That despite listing new items or relisting older items consistently each day.  I have used promoted listings for my higher end items.  I have over 1200 items listed each month.  Just wondering if it is just me or have others seen a big dip in sales? Thanks

[ricarmic]

Yesterday was  a ZERO sales day for me. It has been a long time since I've had a no sales day.

Mine have been lower as of late, sort of back to pre-COVID levels (COVID sales have been much stronger for me, since collectors are cooped up in their houses).

I seem to recall this is somewhat normal in my world, buyers focus on getting their gardens, yards etc cleaned up when the weather turns nicer, and once it gets hot they hide in the air conditioning and sales levels ramp back up.

I enquire from my postmaster about how the other local online sellers are doing (remember I live in a wee village of 350 yet there are about 7 of us!) in terms of how many parcels are going out, and the lower sales volume seems consistent across most of us based on the lower volume of parcels going out the last couple weeks or so. This isn't very mathematically sound, I'm only getting impressions - the PM can't say much of course!

When this happens to me, the first thing I do is load stuff like crazy with the "free" time I have without having to ship stuff. I've got somewhere around 700 items here already prepared to picture and list, catching up a bit would be awesome!

If it persists a bit, likely more than a couple weeks and/or if I see my competitors NOT having the same problem (I'm assuming you're watching others selling similar stuff to you, if you don't you should, that will help answer questions like this as they're in your category(s), I start to experiment:

-looking at things like promoted listings, sales, coupons etc

-looking at what my competitors are doing. I've noticed some of my winning wordings etc get adopted by others which makes mine less standoutish. I also look at ones that are doing better than me and seeing if I can figure out what they do differently. I'll then try to experiement to make my stuff different or "invigorate" it.

Some thoughts anyway,  I really should be listing now!

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@2nd-time-around-jewelry 

@ricarmic 

Ive seen a major drop in sales over the last 3 months. I, like clockwork have 90 transactions every 90 day period. To date this month 6, 14 for last month and 28 for March. Current total for last 90 days is 52. Orders are much smaller on average. Letter type stuff used to be very seldom. As of late most of normal. Tied directly to switch to MP (Mid March). Possibly? Many other US sellers saw a drop after switching over.

Maybe seach is being directly affected/altered now? It sure looks like it when trying to do one now. Ive seen a steady drop in views over the last 3 months according to eBay. For OOAK items the majority of "sucessful" searches will be with eBay. Not Google. Sales seem to be closely tied to creating new listings. Something that was difficult to focus on when 150 listings required meaningless updates because of suggested specifics. Probably the same for many others.

-Lotz

[ricarmic]

I'm not on MP yet.

As far as I can see, buyers will see no change due to MP.

I also see more smaller sales than a couple months ago, generally.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@ricarmic 

Have you seen any sort of drop or uptick in International Sales  (Non Canada/USA)? According to previous information that has been relayed what views or doesn't view on Intl. sites may or may not be the same as BDBMP - Better Days Before MP. (Compatibility Issues - CC's, Banks, Currencies)

-Lotz

[reallynicestamps]

Over three selling accounts, March and May sales are normal, April was up about 40% over March. January was more than double March and May. And April about the same as February.

January is always a good month for me, slowly declining as summer comes in, then an uptick in Fall.

Decembers I might as well close my Stores.

Looking at my Seller Hub- sales are well down from 2020 when we were at the tip of the Pandemic Surge.

[ricarmic]

Actually I've seen what I feel to be an increase in weird (and often scary) international, so many Israel, South America, Malaysia etc etc lately. My PM gets a chuckle out of how wild the "around the world" addresses are as of late.....

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Sudden pattern/weird locations have always been a head scratcher. Like 2 sales to Portugal or Sweden the same day or even a bunch to a province or state. Maybe it was a full moon?

-Lotz

[msmaggie060]

Overall, sales aren’t down too much if I count both IDs. I have stopped shipping to Japan and Australia though due to slower shipping since the pandemic. That has probably made a difference since I used to ship frequently to Australia. Once we are back to more normal I will probably start shipping there again.

[triber]

The same for me, I usually have about 8-10 sales a week, now only 4 in over a week.

[zee-chan]

How come you're not on MP yet? Even my second account that I rarely use nowadays (I have 2 listings on there lol) got the dreaded e-mail saying that I will be switched over on May 31st or all of my listings will be ended on there. 

[ricarmic]

@zee-chan  I haven't gotten the dreaded email yet, the later the better.....

I do have an ancient once was .COM id that was later Canadianized so perhaps we've been left till near the end.....

[fishing2carp.zaksauctions]

Yes, sales have been slower for me as well in May.  April was just a booming!  It was nice, but they seem to have fallen off this month.  More than likely due to the warmer weather breaking out and everyone wants to get out and feel unleashed.

[parts_and_diecasts]

most US buyers would have received and spent their pandemic cheque in March/April, that's probably why you are seeing a relative dip in May. I don't think it has anything to do with switching to MP

[intimewithmusic]

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@2nd-time-around-jewelry wrote:

I have had good to great sales since the pandemic started last year. But now I have seen a complete drop in sales. My last sale was over 2 weeks ago.  That despite listing new items or relisting older items consistently each day.  I have used promoted listings for my higher end items.  I have over 1200 items listed each month.  Just wondering if it is just me or have others seen a big dip in sales? Thanks

---

Yes, for me it seemed like the tap was getting turned on and off. Nothing for a long time then ka-ching, ka-ching ka-ching. Then dead air for a few days...Then I was at the post office every day. Even my post office noticed the irregularity.

@2nd-time-around-jewelry

I took a look at your store. It's a great example of why this "dead air" phenominom is weird. You have a really really nice store. A lot of items and a lot of nice work with photos etc.  Frankly it's hard to believe you went 14 days without a sale. I think you are in a position to question what is going on! Is it possible our temporary invisibilty is a side effect of all of this restructuring? 

A huge lot of sellers have encountered this .  I think it started in the US after Xmas and then hit Canada. My theory is it has to do with the category changes, the roll outs of MP in CAD and the gazzillion other "all at once" roll outs. Many of them are specific to the US and not even available in CAD like the deal made with USPS for eBay Standard envelopes. Someone is going to get "uppity" and say " What does eBay Standard envelopes have to do with this? 

Maybe nothing. Anyone with a decade or more of eBay knows it's inner web of IT antiquitly is best  described as the Frankenstein Castle fronted by a facade built by Frank Loyd Wright with wings sticking out in all directions (some reaching Canada) designed by eLon Musk. I wouldn't call eBay a house of cards. I'd call it "For Parts-Not working-Used-New In box". Wouldn't it be great if that category existed!?

It's important to note a roll out usually means the demise of a previous feature. We forget eBay is also constantly deleting features. MPN has been a standard box for part numbers. I tested that. I put the MPN in the box. Then I put the MPN in the title. Then I put it in both. After running searches for each variation I got a different selection of items. I know this isn't a jewellry specific but knock out just one specific and the time it takes for their data recovery and replacement may stop searches from working. Books are a good example as "Author" is being replaced. Apparently drinking vessels has 2 dozen new specifics including "Cardboard". It's unlikely Sellers of cups made from paper are selling. eBay now calls it "Cardboard". Instead of "Chicken Inna Mug" now we have  "Chicken In a Cardboard". Yummm...

Most of what happens on eBay.ca is a ripple effect from eBay .com. Of course eBay needs us to sell. It seems that stores are being sacrificed. I hope it's temporary for the common good of the whole.

All we can do in the meantime is "list again. "So let's "list again. "Let's list again like we did last summer... 

Sorry. I couldn't resist the song. I get bored when weks go by with no Ka-ching. What else can you expect from 

InTimeWithMusic?

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@intimewithmusic 

No idea why as of late but for many random searches if what you are looking for does NOT turn up much. often it will bring up Pokeman cards. Searches for vintage magazines, cd's or order software. No rhyme or reason. Maybe it's time to start selling Pokeman cards???

Wasn't list it again by Steely Dan? Hmmm? The songs that keeps coming up for me are "Welcome to my nightmare" and eBay's "Industrial Disease". Maybe, Hotel California? You can stay but you can never leave?

-Lotz

[needsmorerobots]

My sales took a downturn for about 2-3 weeks after switching to managed payments before bouncing only to take an even bigger nosedive after the data input on my listings changed.

I'm hoping my sales will rebound again if given time.

I know my sales could be down not only or because of eBay but due to me. All the same I'm thinking of creating a back up plan should this become a common occurence. Never have your fingers in one pie when others are so readily available on the counter.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@needsmorerobots 

I'm down 77 % compared to last year. Mind you that was during the first peak of the Pandemic. But I had half the listings compared to what I have now. I can't remember the last time I had 10 transactions for a month.

-Lotz

[reallynicestamps]

Seller Hub gives us a comparison with last month and last year.

However it's a "To The Day" comparison.

If you had a particularly bad day yesterday and a very good day in 2020, your percentage will plummet.

If you had a good day on the 27th in 2021, and a mediocre day on the 27th in 2020, your percentage will be up.

And an off week will do the same.

You'd have to look at your own records for the month of May 2021, and compare thoes to May 2020, and then to 2019, to decide if your sales have plummeted, are back to pre-pandemic normal, or are on track for your usual annual ups and downs.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@reallynicestamps 

For the majority of small sellers on eBay most of the information with those tools is meaningless. There is limited predictability when you sell random items. And as soon as you see some sort of pattern, normally it poofs from my experience. I usually average 30 transactions per month. Consistently. Value varies but the 30 +-  is the norm. Since I've enrolled in MP its been a steady drop. Last warning for losing my US TSR's discount just received.  Many sellers Canada & USA are seeing similar. I haven't changed anything I am doing. I slowed down from listing new items for a few weeks because I was busy doing fixes as per item specifics. There does seem to be numerous reports of search not working like it used to in certain categories. I'm tieing my drop in business to that.

-Lotz