Slow sales since March 4? Thoughts?

[rdemaree]

Ever since the original tariffs were scheduled to go into place against Canada my sales have been pretty slow. Even though de minimus is still in place and much of the tariffs were paused.

As of last week I have switched about 80% of my listings to .ca and listing in CAD in an effort to access calculated shipping to shore up more Canadian and International customers in the face of American uncertainty.

Im ususally not super busy at this time of year but the past 9 days or so have been a slump with only 1 sale (local Toronto pickup at least!)

Has anyone else noticed things being slow and what are your thoughts on it?

I have gotten a flurry of good reviews from confirmed American customers the past few days so that is a good sign. I just worry trump could sour the image of Canada and Canadians on the general population with all of his lies.

What are you all doing during this time of uncertainty?

As a side note- will I keep my top rated seller discount on .ca or do I have to work my way up for it again?

All thoughts greatly appreciated

[mrdutch1001]

As an infrequent/casual seller for the past 5+ years,there is nothing unusual about the lack of sales at this time of year ....and even during years previous to 2020, there is nothing unusual about a lack of sales at this time of year...Any of the sites I have listed/sold on over the past 20+ years, there were always sellers' complaints about the lack of sales at this time of year.

Although it may still be too soon to guage the affect of the tariff war on sales to the USA, one can only speculate on any cause/effect analysis......

We are at a time of year, when many factors can come into play for the movement of items, and/or lack of sales..

Although I personally have not had any sales at all from either Canada or USA here on eBay over the past 30 days, I have had sales on my other selling site(mostly from Canadian customers, albeit there is generally a higher percentage of USA customers on my other selling site just as there generally is a higher percentage of USA customers fo me here on eBay.) I am not prepared to make any judgements and/or come to any conclusions just yet...

[rdemaree]

will I still keep my top rated seller discount on .ca from .com?

[mrdutch1001]

I know nothing about the criteria for maintaining top rated seller status and the seller discount applications anymore,  as I have not had that status for over 10 yrs now. I long ago gave up trying to jump through all those hoops for that status/discounts when the discount on fees was decreased from 20% to 10%...

[intimewithmusic]

Quite simply the answer is "no". 

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@rdemaree wrote:

will I still keep my top rated seller discount on .ca from .com?

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If your US sales fall below the minimum due to US buyer changes you will lose it unless your domestic sales qualify.  If that happens prepare to receive this...

"We know that sometimes things come up. That’s why we're giving you some extra time - until ********** - to meet these goals again.

During this grace period we'll continue to evaluate your seller performance on the 20th of every month to see whether you're eligible to be a Top Rated Seller again. Just make sure you continue to meet all other Top Rated Seller requirements. 

"We see that you have a great track record as a Top Rated Seller, but recently you didn’t meet one or more of the sales, volume or tracking upload goals set for all Top Rated Sellers in the US region.

Visit your seller standards dashboard regularly to track your progress.

We hope this extra time helps. As always, thank you for selling on eBay."

[rdemaree]

what I mean is since im selling on .ca in CAD will I keep the top rated seller status? 

assume I keep ALL of the same customers at the same frequency just selling in a different currency on the .ca site.

When I search my stuff on .ca it shows top rated seller still on my listings in the search field.

But on my seller account area it shows under worldwide "above standard"

Am I too assume ill keep getting the discount as long as I keep selling to all of the same customers as before at the same frequency just in a different currency?

[flipistics]

I feel like eBay may be doing something behind the scenes. My USA sales have almost completely disappeared (only 1 since Feb 25th), but my Canadian sales have picked up the slack.

[rdemaree]

I noticed I still got the top rated discount on my recent .ca canadian sale so im assuming as long as I continue to meet the USA quota ill get it no matter where or who I sell to

[mrdutch1001]

Sellers are always quick to blame the site when sales decrease...

The world is in turmoil right now and the tariff war has peoples from various countries on edge, but I suspect the strong political differences between Canada and the USA, the economic uncertainty, the rising costs of everything has folks contemplating their spending habits...There is every possibility that buyers are spending their monies on "Needs" rather than on "Wants", and the decrease in sales isn't unique to eBay>lately also happening on onother online marketplaces.

[flipistics]

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@mrdutch1001 wrote:

Sellers are always quick to blame the site when sales decrease...

The world is in turmoil right now and the tariff war has peoples from various countries on edge, but I suspect the strong political differences between Canada and the USA, the economic uncertainty, the rising costs of everything has folks contemplating their spending habits...There is every possibility that buyers are spending their monies on "Needs" rather than on "Wants", and the decrease in sales isn't unique to eBay>lately also happening on onother online marketplaces.

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My sales haven't really decreased month to month this year, they've shifted. That's the point I was making. Over the past couple of weeks my sales to Canada appear to be sharply up and my sales to the States have been sharply down. All things being equal, I would have expected the Canadian sales to be roughly the same (maybe down slightly) and a sharp drop in USA sales. That's why I think there's something going on in terms of the platform. I suspect they're changing how they're showing items and to whom. It would be interesting to see if other people (who are listing on dot ca) are noticing the same or not.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@flipistics wrote:

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@mrdutch1001 wrote:

Sellers are always quick to blame the site when sales decrease...

The world is in turmoil right now and the tariff war has peoples from various countries on edge, but I suspect the strong political differences between Canada and the USA, the economic uncertainty, the rising costs of everything has folks contemplating their spending habits...There is every possibility that buyers are spending their monies on "Needs" rather than on "Wants", and the decrease in sales isn't unique to eBay>lately also happening on onother online marketplaces.

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My sales haven't really decreased month to month this year, they've shifted. That's the point I was making. Over the past couple of weeks my sales to Canada appear to be sharply up and my sales to the States have been sharply down. All things being equal, I would have expected the Canadian sales to be roughly the same (maybe down slightly) and a sharp drop in USA sales. That's why I think there's something going on in terms of the platform. I suspect they're changing how they're showing items and to whom. It would be interesting to see if other people (who are listing on dot ca) are noticing the same or not.

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Unsure if this is relevant or not but my traffic reports on the 2 sites have long mirrored items according to the site they were listed on. I have nearly 2000 listings on ca. My traffic numbers are noticeably high. On dot com I have approx 8 listings on dot com I created ages ago as a test. eBay's traffic report numbers are substantially lower. If items ARE being seen with the same frequency no matter what site you search, the numbers below do not bear that out and is most likely what is causing decreased sales numbers as time goes on. As per always, any unknown tinkering eBay is doing under the hood could also be causing peaks and valleys in sales. Lastly any additional options US sellers currently have could also be causing those discrepancies. They could be just affecting  the playing field more in one direction. Tariffs are just another wrench to throw things more out of whack. 

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