sales suddenly stopped?

[Lyda]

Originally Posted by rafc

so you're saying it's going to be like this until end of summer??

ps i'm not going to report anyone, i'm not that bad, but powersellers are selling loads while i have zero. i can't even pay my ebay fees and i don't know what ebay expects me to do, how was i supposed to know i wouldn't sell ONE single item all month when i usually sell 40?

I know this may sound risky, but why don't you try to put one of your items to Gallery Featured or something...and pay $20 or $30 extra for that one listing? It cost you more, but it will draw people and they will be looking at other stuff you have too...I watch my counters on those, and they get waaaay many more hits than my regulars.

thanks lyda, i may try that if things don't pick up over the next week... which looks likely...

i know about the "summer slowdown" but i was expecting maybe 50% decrease absolute maximum. i'm getting absolute zero. i've just seen a powerseller competitor in the niche market i sell in, i've counted, average of 7-10 sales per day, taking in over $500 sales per day, at least half of that has to be profit because i know the prices of the items. i don't want to remove other people but it just makes me mad i suppose, when i can't pay the bills because i have 0 sales and a powerseller is raking it in selling the exact same things... :(

[Lyda]

Rafc, you have to get those negative feelings out of yourself and look at it as if glass is always half full, not empty. Be persistent ad things will change for the better soon.

[eseller]

Its all the f**in politicians going on tv telling people to stop spending that we are in a recession - some millionaire companys are going out of business because the people who mannage those companys were basically stealling from them - but thier are still filthy rich - THEY ARE THE REASON THE GLOBAL ECONOMY IS SLOWING DOWN - THEM AND THEY BIG MOUTHS GOING ON NATION TV TELLING PEOPLE NOT TO SPEND - THEIR MAKING IT 100 TIMES WORSE


BUT IM STILL MAKING MONEY - THIERS NO RECESSION FOR ME - =o)




eBanza.com

[aspkin]

I agree, this summer is going to be bad.

But after that it will turn around.

I'm doing well because I diversify a lot, but overall things have slowed about 30% to 40% for me.

[GreenBean]

The magic word diversify. Anyone should keep their options
open.

[Freedom]

I'm reminded of a movie where an Alabama grad goes off to the army and he makes friends with this protruding lip guy who knows all about the shrimping business. Well, the Bama grad gets a boat and things are slow for a while, but then there's this storm and the Bama grad and his handicapped shipmate are the only ones left standing. They made a lot of money. They invested it in fruit or something... My point is if you weather the storm you can be just like Tom Hanks.

[Freedom]

rafc, it has been a trend over the past four years. Summer can be slow for sales. (Northen Hemisphere summer). Come September when school will restart, selling improves.

EBay hot list is helpful.

the problem is i don't know how to diversify. ebay is so tough that everyone has almost everything covered. i spent aaaaages finding and sourcing a product which i could sell with viable profit margins. i tried liquidations / clothes/ handbags but they don't sell at all, i can only ship to the UK because of airmail costs and it's not a big enough market. even if that stuff did sell i would make like 3 pounds per item, which would make the time packing and posting it as well as listing not worth it. i just don't know what to diversify to and i don't think any of you are going to tell me what sells because that gives up your secrets and i RESPECT that. i spent ages finding something i could sell myself, and now it is gone. still no sales... i usually woke up every day to find i had at least one sale... but nothing.

would it help if i doubled my listings? i mean, i have multiple quantity listings, one for each item, if i relisted while the other was running, i would have double the listings right, and then increasing the chances of me being on the front page?

guys, i have a contribution. maybe you already knew it but...

yesterday i just decided to list a few in auction format, usually all my items are in fixed price with best offer multiple quantity listings.
then suddenly the next day i had two sales from, ending a month long dry spell. they weren't from the auctions but from the buy it now listings. strange... but maybe they click from auctions into my store...

hopefully this will get better... i am hoping... please lord... haha

[yaw1800]

Glad to kno your drought is over!
Best wishes of peace & prosperity

thanks yaw!!

though i'm not counting my chickens, it was only 2 sales -- could be a "Dead cat bounce" ...

[GreenBean]

rafc,rafc, be positive. Any chance of adding any sweetners until
you get more sales? Any item you can add to make the buy seem great

lol, i *am* trying to diversify but can't sort new inventory out until a foreign cheque clears and it has taken nearly a month (yes, that's right a month) and it still hasn't gone through yet. it was a large cheque and my finances have basically been frozen for a month, as well as exposed to the forex market...

hmm... looks like it was a "dead cat bounce" after all...

Does anyone here feel like they are doing really well when they have a lot of sales, and then get paranoid / wonder if you're doing something wrong when your sales decline?

That's what I'm like right now... on the one hand I'm thinking I should expand, diversify as you all rightly say, but on the other, I think maybe I am doing something very wrong right now, and that is the reason for my near zero sales, and if I buy more inventory that just leaves me further in the red than before...

my bank somehow allowed the ebay fees payment to go through (it was large) and now I have overdraft fees on top of that, despite my asking several times to reject the payment. Someone from the bank actually called me back saying "we can't guarantee that we will make the payment if there are insufficient funds in your account" . !!! I didn't even bother trying to put them straight...

[SaiJin]

WELL, I had a very good march, But this month... like the op said, it decreased by about 80% for me.

[ambercolour]

looking at alexa ebay as fallen alot recently. So it can be many factors, from summer picking up to the credit crunch. Though I think its better to market using a combination of ebay and search engines such as google to expand your online business.

[SaiJin]

You mean putting my eBay ID on google search engines?
Cuz I don't think I want to make an online store.

[gurusgrafx]

stores are really not all that hard to do. I've made them using cubecart, joomla and another that escapes my memory right now. I have a bookmark on one of my user accounts to a site that has the basic prebuilt store you just pick the layout and ad your items. they give a 10 order free trial before you have to put a credit card on file then i think it was only $25 a month for your store and it included a domain name with no setup charges. a lot easier than doing everything yourself. I'll hunt it down so you can check it out. its worth thinking about.


actually while looking for the one I was talking about I ran into 1freecart.com its completely free but puts ads on your site. give it a try. nothing but a waste of time if it doesnt work out.

[Sammi007]

eCommerce sites are easy to make...there's many companies that offer the whole deal, shopping carts and designs....

It's true that sales are down for everyone...I've been hit pretty hard myself, was making 5k a month, now it's reduced.... but the goal is to not give up....and search for opportunities everywhere....

[aspkin]

Nothing last forever guys.

That's why if you want to keep making money you either have to try something different and or work harder.

Having a back up website where you can sell your goods is the best thing really, and no they're not that hard to get started.

[Jonas]

Actually I've noticed that the average DSRs for the past month have been about 4.8 and anything below it is now saying search rankings lowered on eBay. Yearly is about 4.6. Pretty insane. If it continues, average will be 4.9.