Survivable Sales Drought Or Terminal Decline?

[blueskystore777]

Even ebay admit these are 'exceptional times for sellers'. It's clear that sales for the majority are down by large and unprecedented percentages, whether measures M.O.M or Y.O.Y, the trajectory is vastly down.

I'd be interested in opinions, so, a simple question:

A. Have you convinced yourself that ,whatever the cause, this is an exceptional 'Sales Drought' and if it can be survived, ebay will again return the sales ranges it held for years and maybe ever better? Or,

B. Do you believe this is a 'planned or unplanned', Terminal Decline that will, for whatever basket of reasons, mean the end of ebay as a viable sales option?

[ojewellery]

I'm risk adverse and don't like paying out without a guaranteed return - thats why I love promoted listings general (formally known as standard).  I started selling from a point of poverty and investing in any marketing wasn't an option, just keeping the wolf from the door by any money I could get for anything I sold.

Even though I now have a healthy living and much more established business, I come from those cautious roots and need to give myself a bit of a wobble to adventure more into the unknown.  I've dabbled overly cautiously into google ads but not given it enough time.

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

Fair enough and I certainly understand it.

I guess many of us have become used to the pay when you sell mentality and it's apparent safety net. The issue is Ebay seem keen to move away from this and want us to pay for more up front ad costs. Many of us won't do this and what happens next is a big question mark.

With regards to your 10 to 1 ROI for off site ads I'd be including it in the overall Ebay fees which as a whole may be closer to 4 or 5 to 1 ROI (at a guess).

[ojewellery]

My overall fees for the last month work out at 23% (including all fees and shop subscription etc).  The offsite ads spend is very small so whilst the ROAS is good it doesn't represent that many sales.  eBay don't use my full allocated budget.

I watched an interesting webinar by shopify on advertising (that I have mentioned a few times before so sorry to be bleeting on) it was an eye opener suggesting ad spend of minimum 10% turnover and typically 30% for growth.  As my organic reach was very small I wanted to work on this before spending out but also it made my platform overall fees feel more in proportion.  Or more cynically which ever route you go someone is after a large chunk of your turnover!

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

Do you mind saying what you were / are being charged per click for your off site ads ?

No worries if you don't want to say.

[ojewellery]

@british-ceramics-and-paintings I've paid £18.95 for 115 clicks so thats just shy of 16.5p/ click

The £18.95 is on the current campaign of £5/ day running since 14th July (so the total budget they had to play with was over £200) - this is what I mean when I say traction for me has been slow to build for offsite ads.  The slowly increase listings and spend.  I know its easy to be cynical when they say let things run for 30 days but for me I've haven't been exploited for doing that.  I can afford to gamble £20 especially when it comes back to me ten fold.

All that being said - my ROAS has just dipped fractionally under 10!

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I do wish that they would make some changes to the Offsite ads.

I have one line that when I turn back on, seems to get all the hits and as it's only selling at £2.49 a go, it's just not worth it.

I tried once more last week and it ended up with sales of about £19, but costs of £15.  It's just not sustainable.

If I could switch off certain lines, then I could probably get it to work a bit better, but as it stands, just NO!  🙂

[ojewellery]

I had a call with a member of the ad team a couple of weeks ago and had a bit of a moan about offsite lack of selectability, the chap I spoke with was very professional and made noises at appropriate moments.  I think I'm currently at risk of being muted as that women with too many opinions who feeds in too many feedback forms.

In the call it was intimated that lack of selectability was a known issue and that ads are evolving. I think its a watch this space.  The wheels move slowly but they do move so maybe we'll be heard on this one!

£19 off a £15 spend is way off stacking up, unless you see an amazing halo effect and you can do it once every x months to boost your listings to the top of the listings and then have ongoing traction from listing position.  All these potentially expensive things need monitoring to make sure they stack up.

[billyboy1961paul]

Ebay has been in decline for years... the more items I list the less sales I have. All while ebay screw every last drop of commission out a sale.

It's really a joke as I can sell for a better price at local auction and that's an item that is unique and on of one on ebay.

They chop and change requirements and to be honest I just don't care anymore as it won't ever get better