Where are the customers?

[charleysshop]

Hi all, 

I am looking for answers with regards to business sells since Christmas Eve please. I have no sales since Christmas Eve and I'm beginning to wonder what I am doing wrong or maybe others are experiencing the same? 
I have also noticed that many of my saved sellers have closed their accounts completely since October 2023 - 5 businesses to date just from my small list of saved sellers.

i am beginning to despair with eBay as a selling platform. Maybe the admin or management can reply so we can understand why sales are so low or non-existent?

This has to be something wrong with the platform, surely?

[btr.style]

1) you are posting in the business section yet are on a private account. If you are selling items you've bought to make profit from then you have to be on a business account, it's the law. 

2) Secondly, and I mean this in the nicest possible way (I'm just being honest). Looking at your listings it all seems to be used china, cups, plates and ornaments. That stuff generally never does well as times have changed. At Christmas sales of that stuff nosedives because people are going to be spending their money on things for Christmas (food, drink, meals out, decorations and so on) or presents for others. Nobody, or very few people would gift used cups, plates, ornaments nowadays. 

It really isn't a suprise that stuff isn't selling at this time of year. 

You say you haven't had any sales since Christmas eve but on your account sold history it shows you sold some Vallauris pottery on the 27th and some children's mugs on the 28th. 

[eyewear247]

My sales in the run up to Christmas were dire and continue to be dire.

I put this down to the ridiculous estimated delivery times provided by eBay with buyers being advised that delivery would not be in time for Christmas when there was still plenty of time for pre-Christmas deliveries.

Indeed I even upgraded my settings from using Royal Mail Tracked 48 to Tracked 24 and eBay actually increased the delivery times !

As per the OP's title " where are the customers?" , I am thinking they have used Amazon instead !

[fatbobfan]

'You say you haven't had any sales since Christmas eve but on your account sold history it shows you sold some Vallauris pottery on the 27th and some children's mugs on the 28th. '

Just for balance, info. 

It may be the case they are sales but often when I am researching whats selling, my ended listing have shown as Sales when they are not. I've look at Sold listings for for my market and my listings show as Sales with green.

Did ask CS once, they couldnt advise why.

[vintagechinashop]

As has already been mentioned you are asking for advice on business sales but you are not registered as a business seller. You are thus avoiding fees and unless registered with HMRC you are also avoinding paying tax.  My first advice would be to get properly registered because you risk losing your account if eBay can clearly see you are buying to sell. HMRC intend to crack down on this sort of thing with the growing number of people trying to make a living on sites such as eBay 

my second piece of advice follows on from the first. Buyers have more confidence especially with the items you sell with buying from a registered business seller.

and most importantly do your research on items which sell and in pricing   Things change all the time on here and what sells one month may not sell the next 

[charleysshop]

Hi, thanks so much for your information. I am registered with HMRC as a business, I also have a basic shop subscription, do I need to then upgrade to be registered as a business seller with eBay? 

Yes, I am aware of the forever changing market, so I am going to be making many changes this new year.

Many thanks for your reply. I really appreciate it.

[charleysshop]

Many thanks. I noticed a couple of items had sold last night as I was writing my first entry!

[charleysshop]

Hi,

Many thanks for your reply. I really appreciate it, and it's always helpful to have feedback. I have looked back over the year and the market and I will be making a lot of changes to my account and items that I sale. 
I am registered with HMRC as a business since I started in 2021, but I did not realise that only having a basic shop subscription means I am not a registered business, annoyingly. So, thank you for the information.

I had those few sells last night while I was posting above!

kind regards

[charleysshop]

No need, I have changed it to business now with eBay agent help!

Thanks anyway

[charleysshop]

I have changed my account to the business seller now, with the help of an eBay agent.

Many thanks for your information.

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

xmas day no sales.

boxing day no sales.

Next day customer returned item, ordered it by mistake.

So not going well at the moment.

Sales in 3 days -£60

[paul*tribesandvibes*]

There is another thread about 'No Sales' and it's been going on for months now. Sales generally on ebay seemed to have been deteriorating for the past 2 to 3 years, certainly in our category which was Jewellery. Our sales this month were about 70% down on two years ago. Many people have tried to understand whether it's ebay and its escalating money-grabbing fees, a global thing, an economic thing, the search on ebay, the constant tinkering by ebay, the promoted listings, the preponderance of chinese listings - there have been many ideas, but no single answer. We have all tried to do the things that boosted our listings in the past, like changing photos, re-listing, changing titles, stopping and starting sales, promotions, etc etc blah blah, and nothing seemed to make any difference.

For any and all of these reasons, I am one of the Sellers who has also left the building, and I think a certain underworld may have to experience an ice age before I return. Either that or ebay cuts its fees to something more realistic for Sellers of lower priced items.

Good luck and happy 2024 to all ✨

[the-nutwood-collection]

One sale on the 25th, 2nd Class, post by December 27.  eBay's EDD was 29/30 December.  Message on January 4, 'Where is it?  Have you got tracking?'.  Expecting INR any day now.

[bravergrace]

I've taken a look at your listings, and I've got a couple of suggestions for increasing sales.  

- Some of your photos are really good, especially the glass ones with the dark backgrounds.  But others aren't really bright enough to show the items off.  It really is worth while taking more care over pictures.  The easiest way is to wait for a nice bright day with some sunshine, and take lots of pictures then.  Or you can use a photo editor to brighten them up.  The eBay editor is pretty basic, but it's worth playing round with it to see if you can make the pictures clearer without spending all day over them!

- Some of your prices seem very low.  Do make sure you do your sums when you set prices, and allow for eBay fees, and the cost of packing materials (especially if you're buying new boxes and stuff).  It may be worth raising your prices and making fewer sales at a higher price.   If someone really wants that sweet little Russian chipmunk, they will be prepared to pay a few more pounds for it.   It might be better to double the price and wait a few more weeks or months to sell it.

- With the stuff that's low value, try making up a couple more bundles to see if they sell - if they don't, you can always change your mind and try them separately.

- With your bundles, put more "keywords" in the titles - like "hat pin" or "St Christopher" - this means that people who collect hat pins or are looking for a St Christopher will be shown your item when they search. 

- Check the rules in the Fine Jewellery category, because eBay are quite hot on that sort of thing.  It may be safer to list bundles in the ordinary jewellery category.

- When you offer discounts, make sure you don't end up giving things away. 

- Don't get disheartened when sales seem thin - if you enjoy selling on eBay, it's worth while keeping going to see what works for you.

[uk.yourgiftsdelivered]

Out of curiosity how do you say you can see how many items a seller sells and when?? Is there a specific way to do this? Can you tell me mine?

[superchallenge]

Click on the "view listings" link next to your feedback score above your post (http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/uk.yourgiftsdelivered/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg)

Then on the page that loads, on the left, check the "Sold Listings" box. It will show all the items the seller has sold, ordered by date. Only thing it doesn't show is the final sale price when an item has sold via an offer (it just shows the original price, crossed out.)

[uk.yourgiftsdelivered]

Oh I thought there was some magic unknown way to give the real answer. The way you have suggested is wildly inaccurate it doesn't show anything near real sales numbers..... apparently mine is 59 since October 16th 😅 so doesn't count if you sell multiples . If I sell 25 of an item a day it classes as 1 sale...... this would only work I'm assuming unless it's just mine that's doing this...  if its only a seller selling one offs.

[toolboss15]

Your selling is more to the collectable side and now with the default’s that eBay has introduced will and are cutting out 20 to 90% of potential listings. Funnily I was speaking to one of their technical support and he went through it with me and found the same and he is filing a report on the issues found. So, hope this will get sorted out, we spent over an hour going through issues with the platform. Just hope for the sellers and buyers that some of the issues gets  sorted out

[superchallenge]

Sorry, I thought you were just asking for a relatively rough idea. That is the only way (as far as I know) of doing it. I can't think of any other way somebody would be able to find accurate sales data from other sellers.