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.

[blackcatbooksuk]

I still haven't sold a single thing since the traffic stats faults at the beginning of the week. I haven't had a zero week for years. So something is definitely off right now.

[typo_lee]

Havent got a clue. Our listings are at the top of search so I can't see it being a checkout issue. Our listings are there to see but NO ONE is buying. Simple.

[tascio1]

People are still buying but they're currently concentrating on anything made of silver as the price has rocketed in past month. We had our busiest two weeks since January, fuelled entirely by people investing in silver.

[leelee1625]

I felt the same until i checked last octobers turn over, exactly the same as this years, and then novemeber and december previous year doubled what october did. So for now i would assume it is everyone waiting for payday and to get into christmas spending, just use the last few days to list as much as possible, re price all your items and hope for a big boom 

[smarts-gaming]

They did that to me for listing the game "Golden Axe" because the AI thought I was selling a literal golden axe. Im not sure why their AI seems to be ten years behind the standard. Is the all intelligent computer not capable of looking at a photograph, or even able to identify the game golden axe with a simple google search? My nan could work it out in seconds, yet ebays AI can't. And dont get me started on its awful auto descriptions.

[smarts-gaming]

I think everyone makes too many excuses for ebay. As someone else said, there has been to many "lulls" for it to be true. Despite economic conditions people are still spending money, more now than ever before. They just arent spending as much on ebay, and theres a multitude of reasons for that. 

For the record, my sales have still been ok, but im selling much much more on another platform. I sell games and ebay still reigns supreme for serious collectors items with hefty price tags. However for everything else I sell much more on other platforms, despite that not being the case at the start of this year. Ive seen a massive boost to sales on other platforms the last few months, and im not talking amazon. 

My advice is to not put all of your apples in one basket. You will see people are still spending loads of money. Just not on ebay. Anyone who says its because of the recession or its because they are saving for christmas are in denial. 

[vintage-emporium-jedburgh]

All their AI dribble may be well and good

for a new  product, in the antique  vintage collectibles world 

most know what  they want and what there buying!

 the price and condition is the deal maker  ,cheesy flowery AI means nowt

[vintage-emporium-jedburgh]

For example if your a Clarice cliff

collector

you know its time period ,

its production method , that its multi coloured , its theme ,its style,

its country of origin, who made it ,who designed it, and so on

iwhat nick its in ,how much dosh you have to cough up  is what matters ,

you already know it could be a fine addition to your collection , a wonderful example of vintage pottery etc

[smarts-gaming]

It puts me off buying from someone because 1. The information it gives is often completely fabricated and 2. It signals that the seller is lazy and not bothered about their listing. It signals to me that they will put minimum effort into all aspects of the order, such as shipping etc. And if theres an issue these types will be a pain in the *bleep*. 

[5216elisabeth]

If I am looking for something and the description is AI generated I immediately click back out of the listing.  For all the reasons you state.  I most definitely wouldn't use it on my listings.  I think it probably puts a lot of buyers off and it surely must create a lot of INAD returns.  

[courtyardwatches]

Ten years dealing in watches on here and in all honesty it's worse than I've ever known. EBays answer; use promoted listings. Absolutely ridiculous. When I list new items it helpfully tells me that 44% of items in my category are sold via promoted listings and I should consider the same. On top of the 14% I already pay in fees while none-business accounts list for free.  My items are getting virtually no views and very very few sales. 2023 I was averaging a sale a day, that's now roughly a sale a week.  Sadly it's time to look elsewhere for a sales platform as ebay is rapidly dying. Geared towards the sellers of new items who are happy to sell huge volume for no margin. That's not me.

[eyeofrafinds]

Curious, why is no one naming the other platforms that you are also selling in? 

[vintage-emporium-jedburgh]

 Bricks and mortar  shop

and real world auction rooms

 working  for us at the moment

[custom-giftsuk]

Because ebay do not appreciate people posting on their forums about other sites

[westy654]

Sales have dropped because Ebay are allowing private sellers to sell for FREE and they are obviously businesses.

Ebay don't care because they are getting their money anyway with buyer protection fees.

No point in selling has a business on Ebay anymore, it's finished!

[leelee1625]

Fully agree, 300 items per month as a private seller is a JOKE.

It should be 15 items or 20 items per month and then they need to go into a fee base like businesses so it stops us all being undercut.

If you have 300 items per month to list theres a very high possibility you are not just selling your old stuff 

Private sellers also have access to promoted listings which I feel should be reserved for businesses.. right now we get higher fees and zero incentives 

[vintage-emporium-jedburgh]

what happened all the waffle from ebay

about requirements for  private sellers to register as businesses at a certain threshold 

[c_of_e84]

A few years ago I reported a seller to trading standards because I know they have multiple ebay id's and are a business, trading standards didnt want to know because they said the consumer was protected by ebay policies, even today they still habe multiple id's as a private seller and nothing has been done about it.

[custom-giftsuk]

I know of business sellers with 15 accounts, all selling multiple duplicated items, across every account, six different names, four different addresses and nothing gets done.

The only way something gets done to ebay is if it comes down from ebay global and it affects their bottom line

[footybitz-posters]

In the last 8/9 months since ebay decided they didn't want "private" sellers my click through rate has doubled to .4%, however my sales conversion rate has gone down by 300% from about 5.5% to 1.8%.

I can only assume if people arent selling on ebay, they ain't getting fun money to spend.