Sales low. Need advise and tips.

[SadSuspended]

I made good money in April, May and June because I had a useful hot item. Sales declined in July and august. I am not an eBay or amazon expert. I've been going with the flow. I'm hardly making money now. I
*have 15 ebay accounts with 100 feedback. *I don't have a lot of inventory and read a few amazon books. I want to know more secrets how to suceed and make it my full time income *5 years from now. My inventory is low and some accounts are selling the same with different pics etc. So I am not diversified.*
* Questions
1. Are there any eBay books that u recommend to get better?
2. Should I increase my inventory?
3. Any eBay tips will be appreciated.
4. How can I turn this into my income 5 years from now?
5. Are summer always slow for everyone?
6. I'm trying to make 50% profit, am I been greedy? Is more sales better but lower profit per item?
7. What's your profit per item?
Thank you.

[ebayerOG]

its the slow season, sales will pick up here shortly as school just started.
everything from this point is going to build into the holiday season
I usually shoot for just 30% profit margin in high cost items. depends on what you sell.

[BigCJ]

Really not a matter of finding a book per say

Its a matter of whats hot and how many other people jump on that bandwagon to undercut you as well as timing of such things.

Kids are going back to school so parents money will be more focused on that/those needs.

Also, stores / consumers are gearing up for the holdays. Ive seen 3 different christmas and thanksgiving commercials in the past 2 weeks. So people are replenishing their
spent vacation/trip money for then.

You just need to learn the need/want pattern

[Shekibi]

Some items are only hot for awhile, like selfie sticks; my former employer was selling 100 a day on eBay from one listing but now, it's more like 1 a week so I recommend looking for more hot selling items.

[RosieTosie]

It isn't difficult to find out what the expected hot selling items are going to be in the run up to this Christmas, look at the big films coming out out and the merchandising coming from them.

[muzzie]

I have a major drop in the sales of expensive items (like 40-50%), and an increase in cheap items (again, 40-50%), in the end of August. It seems that guys with the money are still enjoying their holidays. Hope it will fix in a couple of weeks.

[vogeltron]

It depends lots of products are season. I sell lots of clothing. Sales were bad for the most part over the summer. The past couple weeks they have picked up hope it lasts. Each year for me is different I started in 2005. Like many people said the (Sep,Oct,Nov,Dec) seem to be my best months. Due to the nature of my items Jan and Feb are usually decent. In March it slows down, I get a little bump in April for a certain product. Then end of June July and most of August are rough.

Its all about what you sell and what time of year it is for many products. Selling Coolers in Winter and Jackets in Summer doesn't work. I don't rule these things out. Inventory management is key. My advice is keep experimenting. There is a learning curve for every product and category. Also some items are better suited for eBay and some are better for Amazon. You live you learn.

[RosieTosie]

1 of today's deals of the day on Amazon is Epsom Salts of all things, how random is that! It is an in between time waiting for Xmas sales to pick up.

[jeffweico]

This is the slowest part of the year for online sales. Fortunately, it is also nearly over. As someone mentioned above, parents right now are busy buying the back to school stuff their kids need and also on paying the ever-increasing fees that schools charge nowadays. It is no longer the $20 a year that it was back when I was in school, now the norm is a couple hundred dollars per child. So, people are simply buying less right now. That will change.

But it COULD also be what you are selling. Hot products do not remain hot forever. At least most of them don't. You always have to be looking for the next thing. Or, better yet, find several niches with steady sales. When you have a few of them, it starts to add up to some real money. And you stay off of the radar that way too.

Sales should start picking up now. We always see frustrated sellers during the summer and August always seems to be the worst month for some reason.

[solefoodbk]

Originally Posted by vogeltron

Selling Coolers in Winter and Jackets in Summer doesn't work. I don't rule these things out

This is true for the most part.

I did the EXACT same thing BUT if you have nice jackets/coats and or find them BUY them if you can. I listed some of mine just for kicks last month and most of them sold to international buyers. Just because its summer here doesn't mean thats the case everywhere...

There are some jackets I KNOW sell good in certain countries like Australia (certain niche) and its winter there now, at least it was

[jeffweico]

Exactly, and some of us buy things out of season because they are cheaper. Next month will be a really GREAT TIME to buy a lawnmower. Need a winter coat? Buy it in July. Every year, I buy rolls of gift wrap right after Christmas, when they are 75% off. Candy is much cheaper right AFTER Halloween or Easter. I am keeping an eye out for sales on grills, because my old one is on it's last legs. If I wait until next May, I will end up paying a higher price. I would much rather buy one now and put it in the storage shed for next year. You can save a couple hundred bucks that way.

[solefoodbk]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

Exactly, and some of us buy things out of season because they are cheaper. Next month will be a really GREAT TIME to buy a lawnmower. Need a winter coat? Buy it in July. Every year, I buy rolls of gift wrap right after Christmas, when they are 75% off. Candy is much cheaper right AFTER Halloween or Easter. I am keeping an eye out for sales on grills, because my old one is on it's last legs. If I wait until next May, I will end up paying a higher price. I would much rather buy one now and put it in the storage shed for next year. You can save a couple hundred bucks that way.

When I was a kid I used to always buy winter clothes in summer and summer clothes in winter. I'd get coats at retails stores for like 90% sometimes. Then come winter, dressed to impress.

Not everyone sells globally but I do. If I didn't I would be loosing out on 25% of my overall sales. Thats why eBay can be so powerful, its worldwide. What may not work here and easily work somewhere else. Like sweaters are a easy international sale if you get the right ones.

BUT the stuff I sell in off seasons I don't discount too much. Yes I will up my prices on certain items but because about 75% are already used people assume they are already getting a good deal as is. At least my goal is to make them think they are

[dan_ebay]

Originally Posted by SadSuspended

I made good money in April, May and June because I had a useful hot item. Sales declined in July and august. I am not an eBay or amazon expert. I've been going with the flow. I'm hardly making money now. I
*have 15 ebay accounts with 100 feedback. *I don't have a lot of inventory and read a few amazon books. I want to know more secrets how to suceed and make it my full time income *5 years from now. My inventory is low and some accounts are selling the same with different pics etc. So I am not diversified.*
* Questions
1. Are there any eBay books that u recommend to get better?
2. Should I increase my inventory?
3. Any eBay tips will be appreciated.
4. How can I turn this into my income 5 years from now?
5. Are summer always slow for everyone?
6. I'm trying to make 50% profit, am I been greedy? Is more sales better but lower profit per item?
7. What's your profit per item?
Thank you.

1.no
2. yes
3. find products that sell fast, put in trade request on alibaba,buy them
4. as above then scale it up
5. no
6. yes
7.30% on average, sell something for £10 I make £3 profit after postage+fees. I have some items as low as 15% though

[gonzoman]

Originally Posted by dan_ebay

1.no
2. yes
3. find products that sell fast, put in trade request on alibaba,buy them
4. as above then scale it up
5. no
6. yes
7.30% on average, sell something for £10 I make £3 profit after postage+fees. I have some items as low as 15% though

To me personally number 5 has been - yes ever since I started selling on ebay
7 years ago. It is now the slowest time of the year as other mentioned.

[solefoodbk]

Lets keep this thread going all the way to and past BLACK FRIDAY.

Instead of making 3,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 threads about this lets keep this one rolling till then, k?

Votes anyone??

[vogeltron]

Originally Posted by solefoodbk

Lets keep this thread going all the way to and past BLACK FRIDAY.

Instead of making 3,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 threads about this lets keep this one rolling till then, k?

Votes anyone??

Plus, might as well make it a sticky

[thready]

Originally Posted by SadSuspended

I made good money in April, May and June because I had a useful hot item. Sales declined in July and august. I am not an eBay or amazon expert. I've been going with the flow. I'm hardly making money now. I
*have 15 ebay accounts with 100 feedback. *I don't have a lot of inventory and read a few amazon books. I want to know more secrets how to suceed and make it my full time income *5 years from now. My inventory is low and some accounts are selling the same with different pics etc. So I am not diversified.*
* Questions
1. Are there any eBay books that u recommend to get better?
2. Should I increase my inventory?
3. Any eBay tips will be appreciated.
4. How can I turn this into my income 5 years from now?
5. Are summer always slow for everyone?
6. I'm trying to make 50% profit, am I been greedy? Is more sales better but lower profit per item?
7. What's your profit per item?
Thank you.

1. I don't have any ebay book recommendations, but i do recommend you read other books that would improve your understanding of people in general, sales, business, and anything else related to online sales.
2. Not quite sure what you are saying. If you want to increase non-selling items then answer is no. If its selling items, then of course, yes.
3. Don't just use one tool. You use a variety.
4. Keep on trucking no matter what. If others are making it, so can you. It just how long it will take you to get there. In regards to failure attempts, see Thomas Edison's biography.
5. No. The products I try to sell doesn't get affected by summer much. However, my sales do get affected by holidays like Labor Day my sales for the day was 65% less then my average Monday. But yesterday sales are back up as usual.
6. Yes that hard to come by consistently. Every now-and-then though, you'll run into a product that makes that makes 100% profit easily. Its feels like you hit a gold mine when your usually only making about 35-40% profit.
7. Last months overall average was about $4.23 per unit sold.

[rsot]

In what category are you dealing OP? Advice varies per category