ARE your sales still slow this month? Oct - Nov 2014

[solefoodbk]

Im excited for this holiday season. Never experienced it on Ebay. I already have seen commercials on tv "sales" before black friday!! I worked at Bestbuy as my first job like 5 years ago and we didn't open till 5 A.M in the morning, now stores open on thanksgiving. Amazing

[SaiJin]

Holiday season starts this week, doesn't it?

[yankee]

Originally Posted by SaiJin

Holiday season starts this week, doesn't it?

Thanksgiving week really, so three more weeks.

[stanislav]

Things aren't going to pick up. eBay is dead and so is Amazon. Something major is up and I can't figure it out. I suspect it has something to do with Google as some ecommerce websites also report sales slump. Decently not economy.

[Dmshark25]

Originally Posted by SaiJin

Holiday season starts this week, doesn't it?

Department stores start decorating for Christmas now in the beginning of October putting that Christmas feel out right away, but the shopping madness begins the day after thanksgiving Black Friday, it's crazy how people wait in long lines just to be the first in to get the holiday discounts for that day

Last year I remember for eBay November being a little slow, but as soon as DECEMBER 1 came things exploded, I was burning through accounts with limits of 100/5000 in a Day, 2 days for an account that was 200/15,000

I ended up shipping my last item out on December 10 or 11 just because I ran out of accounts and limits, but it worked out great because those last items just made it to my buyer on the 24th and I was shipping what was supposed to be USPS 2-3 Day priority service

So I got lucky, this year I prepared with more accounts but I'm cutting things off at DECEMBER 10, and not relying that all the courier services got things together

Every year there has been an increase with online holiday sales, so if they couldn't handle things last year I'm not putting my accounts fait in there hands again this year with estimated increase in package delivery

[exxomscp]

For me, it's not exactly sales drop related to buyers, but MC999's seems to be more prevalent for the holiday season. It's just a day by day thing.. I usually avoid a category when I get an MC999 in it and switch products for success.

However, I have noticed a drop in the sales pricing itself.. Just in general. It's like everybody wants everything cheaper. Lol.

[write]

thanks guys for the shares of current trends.. i haven't jumped in the pool yet this year..
good luck to all on this board

[SaiJin]

Yea it seems that the cheaper items are selling, while items at 2-5$ more aren't really doing hot at all.

Maybe I should lower the prices a little bit.

It's Nov, but I remember last year I did tripple the sale between Nov 1-3rd.

I'm getting worries since this time I stocked up completely, unlike last year

[user3657]

Originally Posted by stanislav

Things aren't going to pick up. eBay is dead and so is Amazon. Something major is up and I can't figure it out. I suspect it has something to do with Google as some ecommerce websites also report sales slump. Decently not economy.

I sell on both platforms and I and attest that both are down for me compared to last year. I dont know what is causing it but other then Oct, 2014 I was breaking records every month.

I took out a $24,000 loan in Sept, you would think Oct would be my best yet with the added inventory, but it was my worst :(

I dont know what is causing it but I did read an article on bloomsburg that google changed their results sometime in on sept/oct, and the results they provide now are more sponsored then links. They provided Alexa rankings for Amazon that shows drop in traffic around that same time. The lost in traffic is amazing.

Im sure you could pull up the article or since Alexa data is public you could just manipulate some dates to see if traffic really did go down for Amazon.

I will say someone turned the switch on at Amazon this weekend, because I sold 40 items. The past weekends I was lucky if I sold a handful :/

In the past Thanksgiving night is usually when my rush starts. I hope it picks up for everyone this year.

[outofluck]

Dmshark,
You have multiple accounts right?
Quick Question: did you or do ever list same items on more than one account?
Like listing same item, at similar price, with same shipping details and similar descriptions?
So moral of the story, is that you can see that the only variable is eBay ranking or visibility, when that item sells.

Like if u have a bunch of accounts with same stuff listed.
And something sells from account A for $49.99, and you had that same item listed on account B for $39.99

Originally Posted by Dmshark25

I agree with you, there is something going on with eBay, and listing visibility, I definetLy think it has glitches just like the rest of eBay and paypal .

Sometimes it seems like things are normal and sales are flying and other times it's like shut off, at first I thought maybe it was,all other variables , but there is too much of a variance that doesn't make sense

And the same items are flying on Amazon, and I'll have 3 good days on eBay than 5 days of nothing, just too strange to have 3 days in a row with 100 sales and the next 3 zero

Ebay is flawed right now , they need to correct things , just too many system glitches, so if everything else is glitchy I think the search is as well

[stanislav]

Originally Posted by user3657

I sell on both platforms and I and attest that both are down for me compared to last year. I dont know what is causing it but other then Oct, 2014 I was breaking records every month.

I took out a $24,000 loan in Sept, you would think Oct would be my best yet with the added inventory, but it was my worst :(

I dont know what is causing it but I did read an article on bloomsburg that google changed their results sometime in on sept/oct, and the results they provide now are more sponsored then links. They provided Alexa rankings for Amazon that shows drop in traffic around that same time. The lost in traffic is amazing.

Im sure you could pull up the article or since Alexa data is public you could just manipulate some dates to see if traffic really did go down for Amazon.

I will say someone turned the switch on at Amazon this weekend, because I sold 40 items. The past weekends I was lucky if I sold a handful :/

In the past Thanksgiving night is usually when my rush starts. I hope it picks up for everyone this year.

I was selling 100-120 products every Sunday on eBay until about September. I am more than confident now than ever before that Google has something to do with our sales slump on Amazon, eBay and other eCommerce platforms. We all know eBay and Amazon are throttling sales according to geographical location, monthly income etc but this time it's not only Amazon, eBay but eCommerce websites too. Google is the king of traffic so they will do however they please. It's one of the reasons why I support people who utilize Black Hat SEO to increase their ranking.

[Dmshark25]

Originally Posted by outofluck

Dmshark,
You have multiple accounts right?

Like if u have a bunch of accounts with same stuff listed.
And something sells from account A for $49.99, and you had that same item listed on account B for $39.99

Yes I did the exact, because early this year I guess when eBay presented the changes that would take place in August, my sales just stopped

An item I was selling at a great price and high volume a month before I could not sell one BIN listing on a TRS account , I switched to auctions and they were all selling but with not many bids so the final value was $20 less than normal

So before ditching my product I listed the same item at the normal cost BIN listing on a new account and hours later it started selling , and this is a new account with 1-2 Feedbacks and I couldn't sell one on my TRS accounts I couldn't even find the listings

[stanislav]

Yes there is no doubt eBay is manipulating search results and is hiding our listings. If you aren't selling as many products as I do everyday you might not able to notice much of a difference. Once you start selling 60 - 120 different products every day and all of a sudden your auctions or buy it now aren't getting views (and sales) then you know something is fishy. I miss the old days. Back then you could actually become a millionaire on eBay, these days it's not even possible.

[user3657]

But why would eBay prefer to offer sales to new accounts? I dont see the reasoning behind it?? It doesnt make sense. But enough sellers on this board have said the same thing so I am thinking eBay really is starting to hide listings from old accounts. I'll have to test this out one day.

[stanislav]

Originally Posted by user3657

But why would eBay prefer to offer sales to new accounts? I dont see the reasoning behind it?? It doesnt make sense. But enough sellers on this board have said the same thing so I am thinking eBay really is starting to hide listings from old accounts. I'll have to test this out one day.

They give boost to all new sellers in order to encourage them to sell on eBay. Also they prefer new sellers over old because they tend to be more complacent as they don't know how eBay was in the old days ... I think they want to get rid of as many old sellers as possible and substitute them with new sellers who will be happy with little traffic they will get for lack of not knowing any better. Meanwhile they will feed their Chinese mega sellers & Big name stores with real traffic.

[yankee]

Originally Posted by stanislav

They give boost to all new sellers in order to encourage them to sell on eBay. Also they prefer new sellers over old because they tend to be more complacent as they don't know how eBay was in the old days ... I think they want to get rid of as many old sellers as possible and substitute them with new sellers who will be happy with little traffic they will get for lack of not knowing any better. Meanwhile they will feed their Chinese mega sellers & Big name stores with real traffic.

Also big sellers pay less in fees all around. Ebay makes A LOT more money on small sellers and offer 1/100 of the human resources in support.

[stanislav]

Originally Posted by yankee

Also big sellers pay less in fees all around. Ebay makes A LOT more money on small sellers and offer 1/100 of the human resources in support.

I just paid ~3500USD this month for one of my eBay accounts. Now tell me, how many new sellers it will take to generate this much money in fees? 10? 20? 30?

[yankee]

Originally Posted by stanislav

I just paid ~3500USD this month for one of my eBay accounts. Now tell me, how many new sellers it will take to generate this much money in fees? 10? 20? 30?

So if you stop selling today on ebay, NO other ebay seller sells the same items and ebay will loose sale?
The Answer is no.

So we will take my big account I lost last year about this time when I came to this forum. It sold $680,000.00 in September. According to terrapeak ebay total sales of this product was $816,000.00 for I literally sold 80+% of the market on ebay on this one account. Now I paid the lowest ebay fees, thousands of free listings every month the lowest paypal fees, called ebay and paypal more than 10 times a day everyday.

When that account was restricted, October according to terrapeak ebay sold $856,000.00 without me at all.

How many more thousands of dollars did ebay make? How much support did they offer those other small sellers who now picked up those sales? Also, eliminating me who controlled the market and set the price, etc...How much more total revenue in FVF did ebay make?

People are going to buy on ebay no matter what. It is not your or my account that matters.

[YEbayY]

I seem to be doing fine via sales managed to sell
20 items over a 2 day period (Saturday and Sunday)
And made around £8 total profit per item (after postage etc)

So yeah i havent noticed anything

Maybe its just demand for item that has decreased or there are cheaper sellers etc
google your product and take a look at deals and prices

[user3657]

Originally Posted by yankee

So if you stop selling today on ebay, NO other ebay seller sells the same items and ebay will loose sale?
The Answer is no.

So we will take my big account I lost last year about this time when I came to this forum. It sold $680,000.00 in September. According to terrapeak ebay total sales of this product was $816,000.00 for I literally sold 80+% of the market on ebay on this one account. Now I paid the lowest ebay fees, thousands of free listings every month the lowest paypal fees, called ebay and paypal more than 10 times a day everyday.

When that account was restricted, October according to terrapeak ebay sold $856,000.00 without me at all.

How many more thousands of dollars did ebay make? How much support did they offer those other small sellers who now picked up those sales? Also, eliminating me who controlled the market and set the price, etc...How much more total revenue in FVF did ebay make?

People are going to buy on ebay no matter what. It is not your or my account that matters.

You dont think out of 856k$ eBay did not receive 10 calls a day? Free listings etc is BS because anyone with an ebay store gets free listings. eBay is still making money either it be old sellers or new sellers. The only thing I can see is that a big seller may control the market but you get rid of one, and then another one must take the lead. Its a never ending process.

[yankee]

Originally Posted by user3657

You dont think out of 856k$ eBay did not receive 10 calls a day? Free listings etc is BS because anyone with an ebay store gets free listings. eBay is still making money either it be old sellers or new sellers. The only thing I can see is that a big seller may control the market but you get rid of one, and then another one must take the lead. Its a never ending process.

No and No.
Big accounts have an ebay rep, one person who waits on them. Good size sellers get top customer care and have a hold time on a minute or two at most. Customer service is not even comparable to small sellers. I doubt any small seller calls in and has 50 cases closed manually by ebay. I doubt any small seller has 10-20 negative feedback removed daily.
The service supplied to small sellers in outsourced, LONG and slow.

Not remotely comparable.

[SaiJin]

Any one else keep track of their sales for holiday items / gift type items since 2011?

My records are only from 2012 till present