Massive drop in sales

[autocamplifestyle]

We sell on both the main platforms and mostly they would be level in terms of sales , until a couple of months ago , when ebay sales just fell off a cliff , I had to check that our listings were still there . Has anything bizarre happened ? Anyone else finding the same ? 

[ronbuttl]

In the same boat, last year i had usually same sales every month/week, so about 10-15 per week, lots of messages from buyers.

The issues started from arround March-April this year going low on sales, then by today, 1 per week mostly. Items are the same, tried relist, sell simmilar, i can see items are viewed and added to watchlist same as last year, i have items with 500 views and 50 adds to watchlist, and no sales. Really frustrated with ebay, as they said everything looks top rated. So what's the catch? Been into forums and other social platforms and you cannot imagine how many posts and comments are about the same thing.

Something is going on for sure....

[keeptheroof]

Well I went two weeks without  sales so simply removed all my items. I'm not going to be customer service for eBay unless I get paid 🙂 

In the process of setting up my own website. I know that's not going to suit businesses. I'm selling peer to peer but I'm being selective in what I sell - did sell single items but now making parcels to sell in bulk. It's either that or I dump everything on the kids to sort out when I die 🙂 

[mccanpete.2bn5e]

It doesn’t make sense. If we sell they profit. My sales have increased a
bit this month but the last two were dead. I sell my wife’s art so my
volume is never really high but from April they really dropped. Other sites
have been even worse. I think it might be a change in algorithms.

[keeptheroof]

I suspect the big business sellers have moaned to eBay so they push their items up. I noticed the other day you can no longer search only on private sellers.  You never know what they are doing with the algorythem, I know if I were eBay I would push all the heavy items and special delivery items to the top because I know I would make 10% on the delivery of those on top of other fees.

[mccanpete.2bn5e]

I think that is probably right. It aks makes small sellers spend more money
on ads.

[nickyniknaks]

I am completely on your page my sells have literally stopped near enough and I'm looking my own sales up to check also if they are still there, I have no ide why this would happen??? I have considered the economic climate and how people are not spending so much!!! But I sell second hand great quality items which are fairly priced and still no sales .... eBay has changed considerably over the last year...

[mccanpete.2bn5e]

I agree. Mine have rebounded to a degree but that is partly due to more
advertising which shrinks my profits, never that great anyway.

[howmuchtobid]

Why are you trading from a private account and not a business?  That is not lawful.

This page is full of businesses or private accounts, have you not received messages from Ebay to change your accounts?

[infinity7-uk]

You need to keep your listings fresh and edit change them regularly so that then the ebay algorithym can revisit to see if relevent still

[keeptheroof]

Yea? well thanks for another reason for not using eBay. How much time do you time is worthwhile for selling unwanted items?

[mccanpete.2bn5e]

Thanks, I am doing that more often now and sales have picked up somewhat.

[cobwebcottage]

You are still trading on a private account though.

As a Distinguished Proffesor, I am sure you know this is wrong or do you only comment to promote your book, blogspot and facebook account?

[howmuchtobid]

So where did all the previous comments go?

Nothing was offensive, so much for free speech.

[keeptheroof]

Sorry folks, my email clients was sending a link and also, me correcting people on the way business, tax and the law works was deemed baiting or offensive.

For the record;

- Anyone can buy and sell and make a profit without declaring to the world that they are a business. Millions of people do billions of time at year.
- The taxman is not interested in eBay. Sure they will make some noise and even spend a few hours to find a useless tax avoider on here. But, and this is the important thing about tax in the UK - They don't have the staff to do anything but a terrible job at it. So the likelihood of them find more than a few useless tax avoider a year is millions to one.
- If you are doing noting wrong don't fret about this nonsense.
- And finally for the person interested, no not worthless, currently £400 an hour.

[baz000000]

I went on holiday and shut up shop for two weeks in May and since the return, sales are down by 70%. Where we topped searches now the listings are way down the page or completely disappeared. Now, a lot of ongoing sales are from repeat customers.

I've decided to wind down my eBay activities with most items not being relisted once the stock is exhausted.

[mazda-mx5-mk3-parts]

I recently became a business seller and my sales have dropped 90% since if someone wants a item from me which is second hand car parts then they have to type the name of the part to search for it this search type surely cannot change depending on what type of seller you are or can it 🤔

[keeptheroof]

I'm no longer sellling but have searched ebay a lot recently and it certainly is doing something with the listings. I would confidently say not all that are listed are equal. Just like Twitter things have changed in that way.

The was a time when you could search on something like say .. Black paint and in the auctions you would see lots of normal people trying to sell stuff they don't need. Now what you see is business or people selling new items that could very easily be confused as a business.

Perhaps the items are now priortised on quality more or perhaps eBay do random filters to push more expensive (more profit making) listing to the first few pages.

[pileofshameprinting]

We suddenly had a massive drop off and can't really explain it. I dunno if it's the budget coming that's making everyone really cautious? 

[hudsonsclothes]

Mine have gradually increased, in fact, all the 'traffic' metrics have. I've sold about 70 items this month so far my page views are up 43% month on month and impressions 230% up. I am hoping it is due to being active, updating listings regularly, positive feedback increasing, filling in all the item specifics so on.

However, the caveat to this (and probable most likely reason) is, that I didn't sell on eBay until the start of September properly (about 10 items as a private seller prior to this) so my number of items listed etc is rising from 0 to 160 at the minute so the figures are skewed a bit as obviously more listings will equal more sales/views.

I am however going to, for the meantime pretend i'm doing everything right and it's nothing to do with the size of my inventory increasing 😅

[mccanpete.2bn5e]

That could be a factor.