New to selling need some guidance please 😁

[vintagedepottoronto]

Hi guys thanks for reading this post. I started selling about a month and a half ago when this pandemic started happening. I have a couple of clothing stores in Toronto and because we are nonessential business, the local government here has closed us down. Now we are trying to make ends meet by selling on eBay. I feel like we’ve done not too bad, but we have about 1200 listings And only 260 of those items have sold. I’m wondering what I can do to increase my sales I have tried putting stuff on auction, and also taking offers. Name of our shop is VintageDepotToronto

Thanks in advance

[recped]

260 out of 1200 sold in one of the most overloaded categories on eBay?

That is actually a very good result especially considering that includes things only listed for a short time.

The only sure fire way to increase sales is to increase listings, it's a lot of work when dealing with with single quantity listings.

A warning, as a new online seller you'll probably may see a slowdown in sales as time goes by, this will result from two possibilities, 1 - you start out with really high quality/demand items but over time you'll move to less desirable items, 2 - related to #1, if you don't continually add new stuff you'll end up with lots of listings of non-sellers, the answer is to continuously increase the number of listings.

In many ways what you see in your store and what you see online are similar. if you don't constantly acquire nice new things revenues shrink. The benefit of online is that there is a constant flow of new buyers, what is dead stock in Toronto might be a popular item in Budapest.

Your listings look good!

[femmefan1946]

I agree that's a good turnover -- the usual turnover is around 40% of listings selling.

I see you are experimenting with a mixture of Free Shipping and priced shipping. That's a good idea.

Generally we old hands don't encourage selling internationally, but you are an experienced retailer

Have you checked out chitchatexpress for cheaper US shipping?  There are other companies doing the same forwarding.

Be aware that while buyers look at feedback, most don't understand it . And eBay does not use FB to assess your selling account.

I'm happy to see you understand that No Returns does not mean No Refunds.

Taking offers is useful, but in my opinion Auctions are a waste of time. Only about 15% of listings nowadays are auctions.  We are into an Immediate Gratification consumer base.

Women's clothing looks better on a mannequin if you have one. Not sure if it makes any difference on men's stuff.

[pjcdn2005]

the usual turnover is around 40% of listings selling.

If 40% of your listings are selling, I need to change what I'm selling!

That seems very high.

[recped]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

the usual turnover is around 40% of listings selling.

If 40% of your listings are selling, I need to change what I'm selling!

That seems very high.

---

There are many ways to measure sell through rates, from what I've seen here on eBay very few sellers follow the traditional methods that business has used for a hundred years or more.

Add to that, people toss out rates without revealing their methodology and this makes these numbers next to useless both as stand alone numbers or when used to compare to others.

[travis7s]

I think you're doing a good job, you may just have to temper your expectations on eBay. Keep listing, try all the different things like markdown sales and promoted listings to see if they help.

I'd also say its a tough market right now with all the economic uncertainty. Vintage clothing probably isn't a high priority for people right now so keep that in mind.

[ricarmic]

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@recped wrote:

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

the usual turnover is around 40% of listings selling.

If 40% of your listings are selling, I need to change what I'm selling!

That seems very high.

---

There are many ways to measure sell through rates, from what I've seen here on eBay very few sellers follow the traditional methods that business has used for a hundred years or more.

Add to that, people toss out rates without revealing their methodology and this makes these numbers next to useless both as stand alone numbers or when used to compare to others.

---

I agree, I did quick and potentially wrong review, I see sales back to January, running about 750 items right now, if one spreads the 260 over 3 months against running inventory of 750 the sell through rate is about 11% calculated that way.

Still twice what mine is, I'm running about 6%.

[ricarmic]

PS  I suggest checking into promoting your items.

Experiment with just promoting everything 1%. Ignore what ebay tries to tell you the % should be.

That has worked AWESOME for me, but my situation (stamp collectors) is different from yours so one never knows!

[valuestore]

If it were me ide probably look into adding a second category rather than trying to squeeze water from a rock,  ei/ adding toys, puzzles, games.  

[recped]

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@valuestore wrote:

If it were me ide probably look into adding a second category rather than trying to squeeze water from a rock,  ei/ adding toys, puzzles, games.  

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The OP is an established clothing reseller, adding new product lines makes no sense at all when you already have on hand a ton of inventory from a business you have a great deal of experience with.

[valuestore]

I would disagree, if you are reaching limit in a over crowded category adding second item can break yourself out of that.. you reach a limit and cant get anywhere, or it becomes 10x effort for 1x results, .. exploring other categories can make a big difference.

[valuestore]

Order white box handheld garment steamers, brand them laser engraved pad stamp,  with your company name, maybe branded  garment restoring products,  just throwing out random ideas.. assuming the sellers claiming they reached a point where they are topped out in a category, stated looking for bit more ontop to get them through tough time..adding more photos to existing listings only goes so far.  Think outside the box, get inspired.

[femmefan1946]

I have no idea where I got that 40%-- I started typing and there it was.

I agree that turnover is generally much lower and that the OP is doing very well in a difficult category.

[recped]

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@valuestore wrote:

I would disagree, if you are reaching limit in a over crowded category adding second item can break yourself out of that.. you reach a limit and cant get anywhere, or it becomes 10x effort for 1x results, .. exploring other categories can make a big difference.

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The OP has been selling on eBay for only a little more than a month, they have a retail store with lots of inventory, their listings are excellent, they clearly know what they are doing.

Venturing off into some unknown territory would not be a good use of resources.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

260/1200? I think you're doing really good as is. Keep doing what you're doing. No need to change anything.

[ypdc_dennis]

One of the best selling areas for an online clothing retailer in the UK is tops. A popular choice for those who want to look good on camera while working from home during the lockdown.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52380948

[dobo5250]

wow i wish i had that kind of turn around rate you have done in one month what it took me a year to do  sales wise - great for you congrats -- we are in different catagories but are both  ebay newbies and with that i just wish i could increase sales i am   just breaking even or small profit 15 to 17% after postage/supplies and ebay fees take their cut  on what i sell which is always the lowest price on ebay/amazon  or other online stores with  (free shipping  sometimes with out)-but that doesn't seem to increase sales some weeks i go for two three days with out a sale-- then on a friday for eg. i sell three things- i have over 2700 listings and try to list 10 items every day or redo some but the sales just keep the same rate if i don't list or fix ten a day i am sure the next day will be zero sales maybe two days ina row  -iam fortunate not to need the money  to live-- as iam retired with a pension- but i was trying to buy a  used sports car for my wife with this income  she really needs a pick me up after this cov19 has got her really depressed--that seems impossible - i spent over 16 months researching this project before i invested 50000 k from my pension-- of money in merch--- on "you tube" and looked at every video i could find they all show  how easy it is --- ha ha ha --i even watch everyday now only 30 minutes allowed for that --- ontario current you tubers that show they  sell used old stuff and make great profits and how easy it is  -- but that doesn't seem to be for my brand new hardware store items at below wholesale prices even lower than amazon/ any online market place  (faucet/breakers/connectors etc etc ) -guess i  will stop starting to sound like a rant not meant to be -hearing someone like your self do well is incouraging to some extent -- but i guess my journeyis not to be like  you or the  "you tubers "make it out to be -spending my  early golden years 5/6 hrs a day doing stuff to make 50 dollars profit  isn't going to lead to anything ---maybe i should have taken the 50k and gone to the casinos and well tried 5/6 hours  a day getting it into something bigger iam pretty good at poker -- oh wait-- a minute they closed for cov19 -- just my luck ha ha just joking ------ a little --- thanks for reading --got to go back and do two more listings  (shark bite fittings at below cost) to meet quota today -- hope for a sale tomorow

doker bohm

[kh-leslie]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.