Catastrophic drop in sales this year - what is going on?

[roosterbooster198]

So the months in the lead-up to Christmas should be the busiest of the year for me as a toy seller. Yet my October sales are one third of what they were the last couple of years, November is shaping up to be similarly atrocious and I will be left with a lot of unsold stock come the new year. Is it just the economy in general, am I doing something wrong or is something more sinister going on? 

[manyjamjar]

I would't be thinking about the "sinister" bit.

Its a whole mixture of you allready mentioned.

Ebay wanting more money to 'promote' your item, lesser buyer than there used to be, ebay changes,  less disposable income,... and oh yeah the economy. LOL.

[maldon-jewellery]

Added to what @manyjamjar says, I think there are SO many other places to buy goods now, from Tesco Marketplace to Temu, who are seeking more and more LOCAL sellers, Amazon with its "the customer is ALWAYS right" attitude and prime etc, you have Onbuy, Fruugo and heaps of other marketplaces too.

We recently downgraded our ebay store from Anchor to Featured £400+ per month compared to around £70.  You look at the listing allowances of Featured UK compared to the other countries and it's DIRE.  

Laughingly, because ebay Australia has a featured listing allowance of 100000 AFAIK then we CAN list all our items there!

Ebay may say they are cheaper for listing fees, but when you add up Green taxes and shipping and extra this and that and the other, it is not.

[coyotetower]

My sales have dropped to almost nothing since about 2 weeks ago. I'm not surprised tho. Every site is in your face with black friday deals. Hard pushed marketing. Everyone looking for specific things. Every November my sales do usually collapse till the 23rd but this year its even harder with temu and shein 

[millcottage]

Buyers are being put off by the buyers fee regardless if it’s loaded on to price (private sellers) or not (business sellers).

The perception is why buy from eBay and pay a fee for doing so when you can buy elsewhere without this surcharge.

I have tested this with family and friends many who thought the buyers fee was a conn and added to all sales, not aware it’s on private sellers only.

A couple asked how do you know the fee has been added or not to make the final price?

[coyotetower]

I'm a business seller so there's no buyer fee. I offer free delivery as well. It's just quiet cuz amazon/temu are throwing every offer at buyers atm i imagine.

[millcottage]

You know there is no buyer fee as your a business seller, I know that, but do the public/buyers know that or is perception that eBay now charges buyers a fee as stated in the media when it was introduced.

[vintagechinashop]

I had a buyer recently who tried to make a silly offer on one of my items as they said they would need to pay a buyers fee 

I pointed out that you don’t pay a buyers fee on purchases from a business seller an they seemed surprised so yes I think it’s a common misconception 

[blackcatbooksuk]

It is just dire at the moment. Normally this time of year is the peak. Very worrying indeed. Giving it another 2 months and if it hasn't picked up I will be downgrading to a basic shop.

[maarsy]

i would say the economy in general is down ( i work part time for amazon even i see work dropped compared to previous years )

and yes i think buyers are put off with the confusing fees , it does not take much to flag something up in a persons mind as being weird . it looks like lots of hassle for ebay just to make pennies more on sales . seller fee's for business sellers also do not feel fair as i don't see any benefit into all the extra fee's i pay . in return i have to maintain higher P & P costs compared to private sellers which has had buyers telling me they seem high even though i make no profit on that part .

last year november as a private seller i did about 1800 £ all in , only a bit over 50 £ went to ebay fee's . so far in the last 30 days i took in 1130 £ of which 275 £ went into fee's  with another big chunk going to postage, i try to use yodel and evri more compared to last year to compensate the rising prices with royal mail to make some profit . yes i know someone will point out that it is not because you get a business account it means more sales but it does feel like i'm not getting a return on what i put in . as many others i moved some of my stock to different platforms where the fee's are fairer .