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.