Sales have dropped last 10 days - I cant figure out why and am I alone?

[eyeofrafinds]

Hi everyone,

I’m a relatively new seller with a general store on eBay. Since last Friday, my daily and weekly sales have dropped quite drastically. Traffic and impressions are down a little, but not by much. People are still viewing my listings—just not converting into sales. I run a general 2-3%, and do sales events from time to time. After fees and postage I do run on tight margins, even tho I have good relations with my supliers and some of the stock is aquired extremley cheap, but not all.  My listings are as optimized as I can make them, Im no expert but i read and learn where i can, and my prices are competitive.

I’m just wondering if other sellers are seeing the same trend, where sales suddenly go dead for no apparent reason? I own all my stock and have invested quite a lot, so it’s definitely making me a bit uneasy if this is just how things go sometimes.

[roger_roger_over_and_nowt]

Every year sales drop across the board for all sellers trying to sell items that are not Christmas related.

Most people only have so much they can spend so they prioritise.

Although you have many Christmas items listed the High Street offers an instant purchase rather than waiting around for couriers which appear to be in meltdown.

[the_book_seekers]

For many this has been a rotten selling period on ebay. These periods do come along and have to be gone through, but this one just seems to have been running for an age. And today ebay has sent me a survey about my recent selling experiences. I know these things are pointless but it's a chance to vent. 

[typo_lee]

25 years on here 46000 feedbacks so I feel I am able to offer some opinion. Its DEAD. Ebay is DYING. We are 50% down on what we were doing in 2022. The metrics and royal mail 2nd class postage letter post and alternative delivery days have killed it for us. Ebay now hold our payouts for over 30 days before they pay out. Ebay want you to send everything tracked post but how can you if your item is only £4 to start with? 

[eyeofrafinds]

Thank you for your input and I`m really happy to hear the professionals who have been here for many years and built their stores. 

I agree that it doesent make sense to send tracked items where are of such low value, I believe everyone is trying to cut good deals with postage providers, which unfortunatley it seems to favour only the big players when it comes to competetive pricing for postage that actually are cheaper as requirements for volume of postage is insane.  I post mine with yodel and in most cases I get away with £2.69 - no promo prices, although I do want to get a business account in the near future and see if I can lower that ammount. 

I am extremley happy in days where I have 3-6-10 orders a day,  and that used to happen from 25th of sept till about the 10th of Oct, even low value it keeps me going, it moves stock arround.  Stock that I have invested to aquire and now pay storage fees for. 

The last week however, something happened and for no obvious reason sales dropped to the point where i get excited if i get an eBay selling notification. 

The competition if fierce, as the platform already has sellers who'd beat amazon prices, or get their stock at an amazingly good price.  But Id like to keep myself believing that eBay UK still has millions of shoppers on monthly basis and things would somehow go back to normal.  I am also used to my sales conversion to be little under 2%, as even 3 months ago that number was significantly higher. 

I supose it wont be the worst idea if i start researching alternative places to sell my stock. 

[custom-giftsuk]

Last 10 days - october school week so people are off on holiday or have the kids off school so priorities are different as cash will go on that rather than anything else.

Yes we have seen a major drop in the last 10 days and it's site wide not just you although that being said we are now coming into the Xmas period so everything that isn't Xmas will be slow selling.

Yes ebay are dropping but also everyone else is too. All the other sites are similarly affected. People unsure about the economy won't spend anything which leads to the tightening of the economy and so on.