Whilst I do not profess, by any stretch of the imagination to be a huge volume seller, & by that by that I note some sellers have well over 100 items for sale, some in the 1000's, I average about 70 to 100 at any given time.
My sales are on average about 2 per day, based on data for the last 3 months.
Now I don't know if that in comparison % wise if that is good / bad / average, all I know is that I average approx 14 items per week.
When I look at the ebay data at things like "Traffic" one week they are all in the green ( Up ) another all in the red ( Down ), but I don't really understand them, if I am honest.
If I click the "Sales " link it says this week I am up 34.1% versus a previous time period, but again I don't know what that time period is.
But it does also say that my average sale price per item is down by 22.9%.
Now that is the bit that is important to be, as what I have noticed is that what I call my lower price items ( Between £30.00 & £60.00 are struggling in comparison to how they used to, but my higher priced items overall still sell quite well.
What that tells me is that, due to the economic situation, rising energy bills, food costs etc, the people who were in the market, for the lower value items, simply are not buying due to lack of funds, but the ones who have money & this recession for want of a better term is not affecting those who buy the dearer items, which tells me they are overall less affected by these things.
In a nutshell, the better off are still buying, but the poor are not.
Well that is how I am reading it.
I note your point on inconsistency, as it used to be the same for me, as in about 80% of total my weekly sales were always on a Sunday, but not now, they seem to even out over the course of a week.
Why, I don't know for sure, but could it be that many more people are working from home, more so since Covid & have more free time to browse during a week as opposed to just the weekend?
As to planning I never really do, I sell take the profit out to cover my bills & other things ( Just like I would if working a 9 to 5 & earning a weekly wage ) & reinvest the original price I paid for those sales back into new stock, which is probably why I rarely as said get above 100 items for sale, as the funds are simply not there to buy more stock to try & boost sales / income even further, but at the end of the day, as long as I can pay my bills & put food on table, that's all that really matters to me.
