Dramatic drop in sales

[Kelly441]

Has anyone else noticed a dramatic drop in sales these past few weeks?

I had the worst 2 week period in years and this week is just horrible

Is it too close to black friday?

Maybe people are apprehensive about the election

[eezo]

Yes, you are not alone, I have seen many threads on Amazon and eBay forums. I have seen growth every month this year and was geared up for Christmas which has always been an above and beyond sales period for me however as of the 27th of October sales have nose dived off a cliff into oblivion.

To an extent it will depend on what you're selling however my stuff sells very well at Christmas, I know my product and so I'm ruling that out for the minute.

I'm putting it down to the recent good weather, people are happier to go out to the shops when it's not too cold and nice and sunny. I myself have already bought a few presents from brick and mortar shops, something I don't normally do but I've not minded going out in the sunshine as much recently.

At the end of the day you will hear many reasons why it's slow but the fact is it's probably a combination of issues.

I very much hope it picks up as I should be doing roughly twice as many sales at this time of year. If anything I'm about 50% down on sales across multiple platforms which is extremely odd.

It's my hope it's just kicking in a little late this year but only time will tell.

Edit: I'm selling in the UK though so it's probably a different market than you anyway.

[ManaKill]

I have been expecting this. If you're an experienced seller with reliable traffic to look back on, it's likely you will see this trend, I know I have in my area.

Could be slow up to end of Nov and then BOOM the mad rush until the 24th and then drops and goes around normal.

Holidays have a big impact, so does weather, sports events, major news events, end of the month saving bills due on the 1st, tons of weird stuff

Also your products can be effected more or less depending on the product. Mine are all related physical products so I have developed a feeling for the market over time. I would assume digital products are in lower demand than physical products during gift-giving holidays so they wouldn't necessarily see the spike of holiday buying.

[empirestate]

Always Diversify

[zenohki]

It's reassuring to see I'm not the only one feeling the drop in sales recently, though they do seem to be starting to pick back up for me. I've also actually not got the top rated seller status I had last year, so I'm wondering if I could have actually had a lot more sales if I'd kept that status.

[yankee]

Late October and November typically have a lull till Thanksgiving week but add in the craziest election and many of us are uncertain. I know I have not purchased much the past few week waiting for Tuesdays results for example. I can imagine many consumers although quite different reasons may feel the same way no matter what side of the isle they are on.

[epimetheus039]

If you diversify and sell something that doesnt rely on a season then I dont see how you experience that.

My sales are only growing at this time and are up by almost 100% since August.

[Jackery]

Originally Posted by Kelly441

Has anyone else noticed a dramatic drop in sales these past few weeks?

If you did your research research research you would not have this problem

[user3657]

Originally Posted by eezo

Yes, you are not alone, I have seen many threads on Amazon and eBay forums. I have seen growth every month this year and was geared up for Christmas which has always been an above and beyond sales period for me however as of the 27th of October sales have nose dived off a cliff into oblivion.

Oct sales did not match the uptrend I had this whole year, I barely beat last oct sales.

Sales are slugest to say the least. I hear so many complaining about slow sales I suspect this year will be a bad q4 for retailers.

I sell consumer electronics, summer time should be a slow time but I had an outstanding summer and would expect winter to only get better.......

I suspect we had a weird Oct and we have entered the weeks before black fri which are usually slow.....

[Kiroshi]

My sales are down 30% the past 30 days, but it is the quietest retail month of the year just gone remember

[aspkin]

Short Answer: Spread out your listings across several if not many accounts. And do it now before the big sales are here. EBay likes to sandbag accounts at what seems random times.

And of course eBay Stealth helps with opening multiple accounts, etc.