Lower sales since listing in Canadian dollars?

[cousinquiller]

Just wondering if others have experienced a drop in sales since having to list in Canadian dollars. I sell antiques and collectibles for the most part, and my sales have dropped considerably. I used to sell 10% to 20% of the items that I listed at any given time, but now I'm lucky if 5% of them sell. For example, I recently listed 89 items and only 2 sold. I'm becoming concerned about this. Is anyone else having the same experience? Is it perhaps happening because of some other factors? Thanks. Laurie.

[mrdutch1001]

2017 has been my  worst year on eBay since 2010. Sales have been few & far between. Having done all the experimentation with USD vs CDN over the past several years, found there to be no significant difference in my sales that could be attributed to the currency factor. For me, it's not the currency that is contributing to lack of sales. I might be more inclined to believe that it is the lack of free listing promos as I can't economically justify spending 34c on listings that have a less than $10 value and do not have a high sell through rate. I have approx. 700 listings that fall in that less than $10 range.Having an eBay store is also not an economical or viable choice due to the low sell through rate of my items. Can no longer count on eBay for sales, so I have my items listed on other sites for the needed exposure and that  "hope" for a sale.

[reallynicestamps]

There are a lot of complaints on the dotCOM Boards about slow sales too, so I doubt that is the problem.

I list on both sites, with my bulkier items on dotCA because they require variable parcel rates, like your collectibles, and on dotCOM for smaller items that can go LightPacket/LetterPost.

I also use Flat Rate/Free Shipping* on a lot of my dotCOM items.

My bookkeeping notebook has side by side columns for payments in USD and for CDN. At a glance, over the past couple of months I have had more USD sales than CDN, but they also for some reason were heavily in late September early October. Overall, most weeks the CDN and USD sales are equal in number, but the CDN are slightly higher in value.

I wonder if this has anything to do with your problems?

LOCAL PICK-UP

Local pick-up can be arranged; email me for details. 

You can put local pickup in your Shipping Tab.

SHIPPING

I will, within reason, combine shipping on multiple items. Contact me for a quote. 

Ebay’s automatic shipping-rate calculator is not always accurate. If you want to confirm the cost before bidding, contact me and I will calculate it for you. 

GIGO. We cannot change the advertised shipping rate. We can refund if we want to, when we accidentally overcharge.

Items are well packaged and clearly labelled. I am not personally responsible for non-delivery or damage. 

This contravenes eBay policy. You are responsible for delivery or damage by your sub-contractors , like Canada Post.

Non-Canadian bidders, please note: Import duties, taxes etc. are not included in the item price or shipping charges. These charges are the buyer's responsibility. Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding. I will not mark merchandise values at below value or mark items as "gifts," as government regulations prohibit this. 

The last sentence is negative. It restates normal business practice.

It is worth knowing that the duty free allowance for the USA is $800USD(nearly $1000 CDN). If most of your customers are American this is an unnecessary statement too.

Overseas bidders, please note: Shipping that includes more than CDN $100 insurance is expensive. If you are planning to bid more than $100 on my items and insurance is a concern for you, email me for a quote before bidding. 

You cannot charge more than you advertise for shipping.

PAYMENT

Payment, or initiation of payment, is due within three days of the auction closing date. If not received, an Unpaid Item dispute will be filed with eBay.

Canadians have to wait four days to open an eBay Dispute. And again this is negative.

More to the point, you spend more time talking about your Terms of Sale,most of which are negative, unenforceable or unnecessary, than you do talking about the item you are selling.

Have you looked at your listings on a smartphone?

Very little of your Description shows on a mobile.

*Don't Panic!

Free Shipping just means including the cost of shipping in the asking price.

Which is cheaper- a $10 item with $5 shipping or a $15 item with Free Shipping?

[cousinquiller]

Thanks for taking the time to respond so thoroughly -- and not pulling any punches! It's time I cleared house, that's for sure. Some thoughts:

LOCAL PICK-UP

Local pick-up can be arranged; email me for details. 

You can put local pickup in your Shipping Tab.

Ok; will do.

SHIPPING

I will, within reason, combine shipping on multiple items. Contact me for a quote. 

Ebay’s automatic shipping-rate calculator is not always accurate. If you want to confirm the cost before bidding, contact me and I will calculate it for you. 

GIGO. We cannot change the advertised shipping rate. We can refund if we want to, when we accidentally overcharge.

There's a reason why I say this, but it's too difficult to explain here. I will give it a rethink, though.

Items are well packaged and clearly labelled. I am not personally responsible for non-delivery or damage. 

This contravenes eBay policy. You are responsible for delivery or damage by your sub-contractors , like Canada Post.

I've seen it in so many other listings that I thought it was a standard statement. Will take it out.

Non-Canadian bidders, please note: Import duties, taxes etc. are not included in the item price or shipping charges. These charges are the buyer's responsibility. Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding. I will not mark merchandise values at below value or mark items as "gifts," as government regulations prohibit this. 

The last sentence is negative. It restates normal business practice.

It is worth knowing that the duty free allowance for the USA is $800USD(nearly $1000 CDN). If most of your customers are American this is an unnecessary statement too.

The first three sentences are what eBay tells sellers to put in (see the Help section, "Who pays for customs?") The last sentence is something that, in the same section, they suggest you put in, but I agree with your point and will take it out.

Overseas bidders, please note: Shipping that includes more than CDN $100 insurance is expensive. If you are planning to bid more than $100 on my items and insurance is a concern for you, email me for a quote before bidding. 

You cannot charge more than you advertise for shipping.

I am trying to protect myself from situations in which, despite my research, an item sells for much more than I thought it would. For example, I list an item at $30 and offer Tracked Parcel to overseas bidders. The item sells for $350, but Tracked Parcel's insurance max is only $100. I can send it Xpresspost instead and buy more insurance myself, but the cost to ship doubles (e.g., a parcel 10 x 20 x 30 x .600 to France jumps from $39 to $82) and I'm out of pocket $43. I don't know how to protect myself from this situation. If I offer both shipping methods and a person from France buys it, does she see in the invoice that Tracked Parcel's max is $100? And is she then angry when she sees that if she wants more insurance, she has to pay double what she thought she would to have it shipped? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. 

PAYMENT

Payment, or initiation of payment, is due within three days of the auction closing date. If not received, an Unpaid Item dispute will be filed with eBay.

Canadians have to wait four days to open an eBay Dispute. And again this is negative.

 Well, I usually wait three days and open a dispute on the fourth, but I see your point. It's negative, and I'll take it out.

More to the point, you spend more time talking about your Terms of Sale,most of which are negative, unenforceable or unnecessary, than you do talking about the item you are selling.

Got it. Will purge.

Have you looked at your listings on a smartphone?

Very little of your Description shows on a mobile.

I had no idea. Will take a look.

Again, my thanks!

[femmefan1946 · Accepted solution]

Overseas bidders, please note: Shipping that includes more than CDN $100 insurance is expensive. If you are planning to bid more than $100 on my items and insurance is a concern for you, email me for a quote before bidding. 

You cannot charge more than you advertise for shipping.

I am trying to protect myself from situations in which, despite my research, an item sells for much more than I thought it would. For example, I list an item at $30 and offer Tracked Parcel to overseas bidders. The item sells for $350, but Tracked Parcel's insurance max is only $100. I can send it Xpresspost instead and buy more insurance myself, but the cost to ship doubles (e.g., a parcel 10 x 20 x 30 x .600 to France jumps from $39 to $82) and I'm out of pocket $43. I don't know how to protect myself from this situation. If I offer both shipping methods and a person from France buys it, does she see in the invoice that Tracked Parcel's max is $100? And is she then angry when she sees that if she wants more insurance, she has to pay double what she thought she would to have it shipped? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. 

No, you are not.

Because you thought it would sell at $39 and that Tracked would cover than value.

But instead you made an unexpected windfall of $311! Wheee!!

That covers the extra $43.

And then some.

(The problem of course is when the item sells for $150 and the windfall is much smaller, although it is still $111.)

I also am not impressed by third party insurance, preferring Cookie Jar or self-insurance.

This means tossing some virtual coins (perhaps a dime at most) into a virtual Cookie Jar from the selling price of every item, to cover the occasional problem.

This covers not only non-delivery and not as described Claims but also your own goofs (you sold a red sweater and sent a blue one) and underestimated or upgraded shipping costs, which no third party insurer will cover.

Other posters have been very happy with shipinsurance who do one-off insuring on shipments. May be worth looking into.

Ebay’s automatic shipping-rate calculator is not always accurate.

You are using metric measurements, right? Canada Post went metric in 1974 and any others will be inaccurate.

That's why GIGO.

[musicyouneed]

I'd love to say that listing in Canadian dollars resulted in lower sales but I don't think that is necessarily the case.  Maybe a little, say 5% (just guessing) down because of it.

I list on both .com in US $ and on .ca in Cdn $.  Sales have been dismal this year, in 2017 sales are down any where from 20 to 30%.  Right now would be my busiest time but it's not.   I am not looking forward to 2018 when the cost of shipping may go up so much that buyers will be discouraged.

Since Nov 1, I have had 43 sales, 22 on ebay.com and 21 on ebay.ca.  It is pretty much an even split.  I find that if a buyer wants something and you have it for the right price and condition, then they will buy it.  I also have a few repeat buyers.

Why I think sales on ebay are tanking is that buyers have so many choices now for online shopping.  And the older collector generation (me) is no longer collecting and the new generation is not necessarily interested in collecting dust collectors.  They would rather have the last Iphone or download game or music.  

[cousinquiller]

I can emphasize with your situation. Ebay is making it less and less viable to sell items in the under-$10 range. Thankfully, that's one problem I don't have. I appreciate knowing that it's not a currency problem for you, though. Thanks for responding -- and good luck on those other sites!

[hlmacdon]

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@musicyouneed wrote:

I'd love to say that listing in Canadian dollars resulted in lower sales but I don't think that is necessarily the case.  Maybe a little, say 5% (just guessing) down because of it.

I list on both .com in US $ and on .ca in Cdn $.  Sales have been dismal this year, in 2017 sales are down any where from 20 to 30%.  Right now would be my busiest time but it's not.   I am not looking forward to 2018 when the cost of shipping may go up so much that buyers will be discouraged.

Since Nov 1, I have had 43 sales, 22 on ebay.com and 21 on ebay.ca.  It is pretty much an even split.  I find that if a buyer wants something and you have it for the right price and condition, then they will buy it.  I also have a few repeat buyers.

Why I think sales on ebay are tanking is that buyers have so many choices now for online shopping.  And the older collector generation (me) is no longer collecting and the new generation is not necessarily interested in collecting dust collectors.  They would rather have the last Iphone or download game or music.  

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I don't think currency is a big play here for people who are pricing things with appropriate conversions (amazingly some people still don't get this and translate a CAD price directly into USD without accounting for conversion) resulting in an equivalent price point. Bigger issues with eBay's ability to attract a customer base and far too much upheaval with the site and functionality disrupting things. Buyers are getting herded towards spot buys/deals of the day/coupon redemption. That isn't a good thing.

I don't think eBay's marketing is conducive to creating a shopping experience that brings customers back in so much as it pertains to niches. If I shop within niches, I would not want to have handbags or kitchen appliance messaging pushed at me. The ebay shopping experience from homepage to shopping cart needs to be tailored to my interests as a buyer and not eBay's directed marketing initiatives. Otherwise what is the point of buying on ebay, often at a higher price, versus shopping at the websites of niche retailers? To give an analogy, grocery stores may sell consumer electronics, but why would I choose to go to a grocery store to buyer consumer electronics? What is the underlying value for me as a consumer? Ebay should have all the analytics it could possible ever need to tailor a shopping experience to any consumer and keep them engaged with the site. There are some usual features like the feed and email alerts, but more needs to be done to direct buyers and engage them with sellers in their given areas of interest.

Being a large general retailer is certainly not easy in terms of sustaining and growing a customer base and frankly ebay doesn't have the appeal of larger competitors like an Amazon who have a consistent end user experience and a value proposition in terms of logistics. As a niche seller I'm struggling to see what the ongoing value proposition looks like for ebay in terms of the quality of the customer base. I'm more worried about eBay's ability to attract quality, qualified consumers, rather than the sort of finger jabbing people who make a rash decision (my son, daughter, neighbor, stalker, etc accidentally bought this) buying something on their phone then require 15 minutes of handholding to help them back out of their transaction. 2017 has been close to a breaking point for me as the amount of handholding and the need to deal with confused buyers has gone through the roof. Ebay needs to convince quality buyers that using ebay has value and they aren't going to achieve that by throwing out a deal on a blender every few days.

[cousinquiller]

Thanks; that was all well put. I think my situation may be different than yours in that I sell antiques and collectibles. For years, Ebay was THE place, in the world, to buy and sell such items, but that has changed. I think that this is my biggest problem and I'm going to have to face up to it. For me, the issue is where to go next? It pains me to have to start all over again on a new site, but I may have to do just that. Ruby Lane? Etsy? If anyone has a suggestion, please make it. 

[postit4me]

In late September and Early October, we had free listings days. I think it is high time we receive another 

[femmefan1946]

I disagree.

First because all those sellers who have hard to sell junk pour in on the off chance they will find a sucker, increasing the number of sellers without increasing the number of buyers.

Second because if your item is priced so low that a 30 cent fee makes it unprofitable to sell, it's time to rethink your business plan.

As suggested by himacon, eBay needs to do some advertising, or better yet publicity, to pull more buyers in to the site.

The best ad I ever saw for eBayCANADA was this one, done with Canada Post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjJ2dIuB2y4

I notice Canada Post is advertising on TV that they are the go-to for parcel delivery.

The best publicity eBay ever had was this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKtlK7sn0JQ

Amazon, which unlike eBay has only recently become profitable, has grown because the management understood the value of both advertising and publicity.

Do you actually believe AZ is delivering parcels with drones?

Uh-uh. They are using Canada Post, preferably, and couriers for the overload.

[cousinquiller]

Hi Femmefan.

I know you were responding to someone else, but I found what you had to say interesting. Some thoughts:

I wonder if eBay does any more advertising in the US than it does here. If it does, then that would be somewhat heartening.

I looked at your listings and many are on offer for CD $13 or less. You offer free shipping on most of them. Is it because you send the items by letter mail? I ask because if you were to send one of these items by regular mail to me here in Ontario, I think it would cost you about $15.

I see that you have 850 items listed and that you have recently sold 43 items. Can I assume from this that your sales rate is about 5%? I could be way off base about that but if it's true, since you're a long-time high-volume seller, then I don't feel so badly about mine.

Laurie

. 

[hlmacdon]

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@postit4me wrote:

In late September and Early October, we had free listings days. I think it is high time we receive another 

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More listings isn't really the answer unless you have nothing, or next to nothing, listed.. I'm probably running 20-25% more listings than in the summer and sales have dropped a fair bit since then.

[hlmacdon]

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@cousinquiller wrote:

Thanks; that was all well put. I think my situation may be different than yours in that I sell antiques and collectibles. For years, Ebay was THE place, in the world, to buy and sell such items, but that has changed. I think that this is my biggest problem and I'm going to have to face up to it. For me, the issue is where to go next? It pains me to have to start all over again on a new site, but I may have to do just that. Ruby Lane? Etsy? If anyone has a suggestion, please make it. 

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It is like femmefan1946 says, ebay needs more marketing and advertising to draw buyers in. Deals of the day only bring in transient buyers, not long term users of the site. Most of us who post here have used ebay for years (in my case since 99/00) and know what it is, what to expect, and all the great things you can get ahold of if you know how things work here. To most younger people, ebay has far less relevance and appeal. When ebay goes chasing mainstream items and big box retailers it does nothing to grab this younger audience. They need to take a long hard look at what is driving purchases made by younger people, things like social media push, artisan/craft or specialty products (think the sort stuff you see on kickstarter, highlighting of quality made or vintage products, etc. Instead ebay is chasing early to mid 2000's marketing strategies where they have suddenly clued in that some basic SEO by way of the structured data initiative might actually be a better idea than paying spam houses to write fake product pages/guides.

As for where else to sell I'll just say that ebay should be looked at as a sales channel, one of many. It is tough these days to make any reasonable return using ebay as your sole sales channel unless you have some clear cut advantage over others in pricing or product. Even then finding an audience large enough for that product may prove challenging. Even though this might seem pessimistic there are many things ebay can do. Crafting homepages built around a user's interests and sellers they are following would be a better way to engage with customers. Generate custom newsletters/updates based around a user's favorite sellers to pull them back in.

If you look at how most ecommerce sites function, ebay is just not doing the basics and relies on people searching for things for the most part. There needs to be a more active push/prompt that is specific to a user's interest and favorite sellers. The pintrest style feed is a good option but many people I talk to don't know about it or how to actually tailor that feed to their interests. My own purchases went up considerably on ebay once that came in as it was frankly easier than my previous method of using an RSS reader to capture listings as they went live. More tools like that, and making them more specific to defined sellers and sortable would be a good starting point.

You can have a big store with the best product in the world but if your in store merchandising sucks your sales will suffer. There is only so much a seller can really do with a listing.

[mayfairsuperdog]

Ebay completely sucks now, for everyone. The management is arrogant and ignorant, the customer service does not exist. Sellers are not only gouged, they are treated with absolute contempt. I used to complain about being treated like dirt by customer service, but now I long for the rare privilege. Priority is given in finding business partners, to also gouge the process and ultimately drive the cost to the buyer so high they all may take a bigger cut. Priority to the buyer is a shell game of foreign currency transactions with every change marked up heavily, I hate listing now. I hate selling now. I hate the very thought of making these complete and total greasy sleazebags one red cent.

[rander3127]

Never let Americans think you are anywhere but the U.S.

[cousinquiller]

Goodness: you've really got a lot of hate going on there. That's fine, but I wonder if you -- perhaps unknowingly -- transmit that vibe to the customer service reps when you call in? I've called dozens of times and the reps have always been courteous to me. No matter how angry I get about something, I try to remember that the fault lies with the company, not with the person I am speaking to. As long as I approach the issue in this way, and remain calm, reps seem willing to go above and beyond what they are no doubt "directed" to do in order to help solve my problem. It's a tough job, for which they are probably paid minimum wage (or less, if they're in another country) -- something callers would do well to bear in mind when they get all worked up about something and then pick up the phone.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@cousinquiller wrote:
Hi Femmefan.

I looked at your listings and many are on offer for CD $13 or less. You offer free shipping on most of them. Is it because you send the items by letter mail? I ask because if you were to send one of these items by regular mail to me here in Ontario, I think it would cost you about $15.. 

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I'll comment on the topic. Oversize lettermail in Canada works pretty well for single thickness cds and dvds (envelope is under 2cm). There is no tracking or insurance, but that's usually not needed.

The average single cd/dvd goes for $2.95 (101-200g range) ... and costs even less when using discounted stamps to mail. And unlike parcel the lettermail price is the same for all of Canada.

On the other hand, using Expedited parcel (even with eBay online discounts) is a big price jump, since the bottom weight level is 1-750g. Same cost to ship 4 or 5 cds as it is to ship one.

-..-

[cousinquiller]

RE: my questions to Femmefan. I apologize if they were too personal. All the information quoted is available to anyone, so I thought it was ok. However, I've since realized that I should not have done that. Again, sorry.

[cumos55]

One should understand several things...

(1) By listings in Canadian dollars  we no longer play the exchange rate  game... That can give a good return in dollars for a sale as the exchange rate changes... primarily if the value of the Canadian dollar drops relative to the US dollar.

(2) Listing and selling in Canadian dollars means that we do not have to pay the US to Canadian dollar exchange...  That is about 3 % for the total of sales plus postage.

That 3 % is $30 per $1,000 of sales plus postage.....

(3) Success in selling in Canadian dollars depends to a degree on what one sells.  Does a seller focus on selling to Canadian buyers... or to US buyers....

(4) the level of competition in selling is always important..  For some categories that has become a major factor  over the last few years...The number of listings has increased dramatically....  more in some categories of inventory than others 

(5) US buyers must understand that that buying in Canadian dollars means that they are now paying that exchange rate fee of 3%

(6)  Depending on what one sellers  could mean that selling in US dollars on eBay.com might be a real consideration.

and finally.....

(7)  There may be some inventory that Canadian sellers should not sell on eBay, whether in Canadian or US dollars.....The environment for selling changes with each year, and the primary factor is cost of shipping 

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For a Canadian seller to sell on eBay.com...  with postage the major factor is international shipping for a Canadian seller using Canada Post  compared to domestic postage using USPS by a US seller.

In order to be successful one must be uniquely Canadian... selling something relatively unique on eBay,  and the cost of shipping internationally to the US becomes secondary to what one is selling.