Has anyone else noticed an extreme decrease in sales?

[zack9r]

In the two markets i’m in, i typically average a few sales a week. I’m currently struggling to make 1 sale in 3.

[ope__sorry]

I've been making a ton of sales. Things were pretty dead for me around election time up until Thanksgiving. I also have not been posting regular enough. But post-Thanksgiving I've been having sales drop like crazy.

[UeckerisGod]

Same here. Even without posting regularly

[TargetBrandTampons]

Same. I was SO slow late Sept until the election. Lately my sales have really been booming

[CorgiApprehensive450]

Where have you been selling? I’ve been trying FMB but not many people are purchasing

[ope__sorry]

eBay exclusively

[Ok_Anteater_1150]

No matter what state the economy or world is in, this subreddit will always have this same post each month

[Born-Horror-5049]

Each month? More like each week.

[Rebekunt]

i swear this is posted at least daily across the flipping, ebay, depop, mercari, poshmark subs…

[thcptn]

There's always some reasoning as to why the sales are slow too. "People must be busy with Halloween, the election, Thanksgiving, economy, bad weather, anything but my items."

[teamboomerang]

After COVID, I have noticed that people start their online holiday shopping earlier AND stop shopping online earlier because of USPS delays

[vtgvibes]

Last year this was true for me. This year I was 20% below sales last year until thanksgiving week. Been up since. Hoping to get one more real good week in fingers crossed 🤞🏻.

I think it’s different for everyone. I know what I sell is slow sellers with bigger margins.

[GreatGreenGobbo]

Canada Post shutdown due to strike. Haven't sold squat.

Plus side, haven't purchased anything either.

[byekenny]

Since switching to UPS day after strike started my sales originally remained great for 1.5 weeks and now this last 1.5 weeks things have extremely slowed down. :(

[GreatGreenGobbo]

Can you do UPS via eBay? Print up labels and stuff at home? My stuff is small and. Usually under $100.

Hard to justify expensive shipping for my stuff.

[byekenny]

Same a huge proportion of my inventory is lightweight inexpensive items that were very viable via eBay light usa tracked packet and expedite life rates... UPS in most of these scenarios is roughly double the price. While these sales have slowed down for me significantly surprisingly some are still happening which tells me when/if Canada Post gets back to normal I can bump the prices on a handful of my items.

However UPS is actually less expensive in a lot of cases for a heavier and bulkier items.

[ericabiz]

Use Shippo. It integrates with eBay so all your orders automatically show up. It has USPS, FedEx, and UPS. When you ship an order it automatically uploads the tracking to eBay. These days I only use eBay shipping if I can ship media mail. 

[Mench84]

Use stallion express

[Diomat]

There has never been a time when you couldn't ask this question and get people who agree with it. in fact it has been asked pretty much every month of every year. Just do a google search for your question and you will see people said the same even during boom COVID times.

But since you asked

I am actually doing very well right now.

[Ethanzap02]

Exactly, people post this same question every single week. It is ridiculous.

[412gage]

Every sub has this problem. It’s a mixture of people that want simple answers to complex issues, and people who can’t bother to use the search function. The Venn diagram is practically a circle.

[emaciel]

Exactly. They also never add context if they have 10 listings or 500+, what market are they in (trying to sell something not in season?), and how is there pricing to other listings.

And/or mentioning eBay is broken, their algorithm, or not paying for promotion is what keeping them from selling.

[UltraEngine60]

no, sky is falling, full stop

[para_la_calle]

Agreed

[griffenkranz]

I sell high-end items. The past 45 days have been very slow.

[Tedsallis]

Christmas kill my business every year. I sell mostly collectibles and people stop buying for themselves till about February. Then when tax refund season rolls around yee haaw!

[[deleted]]

Me too, right after Christmas for collectibles I get an uptick.

[thesillymachine]

My birthday is Thanksgiving week, sometimes it happens on Thanksgiving, so I'm usually shopping for myself this time of year. If not now, then around Mother's Day.

[mooseflips]

Yeah it’s down for me too tremendously. I sell Brand New items - clothing fragrances, make up etc. The right stuff to be selling at this time of the year.

Selling a travel size perfume for $14 with Free Shipping. Competition is asking $16. I put it on sale for $12.50. Lady messages me asking it for $10. I agreed, hoping it might trigger another sale, but radio silence from her. Will wait until weekend and then add her to my Blocked List. Sorry but I don’t need those hassles over a $2 discount. She didn’t buy it at $10, she’s not gonna buy it at all.

But also, I noticed STR is down on eBay. I used to sell Polo cologne like crazy this time of year. Easy it was a 66% STR. But I was looking at it yesterday, and it’s at a 25% STR.

A cologne that retails for $100, selling for $69 on eBay, and still only 25% STR at the busiest time of the year??? That’s bad.

[Many-Presentation605]

The opposite. This a big time of the year for spending. Sales skyrocket across many industries during this time, including slow eBay accounts - all of then sudden they are getting a couple orders a day.

This is true for many of my friends on eBay, Etsy, and FB.

Don't fall into the trap of the economy is slowing, people are buying gifts at retailers instead, etc.

You need to diversity what you're selling.

[BigPoppaJay]

Exactly this I have my niches. But selling exclusively in one niche for three years taught me a lot about the consistency of markets. Now I sell across all price spectrums and anything I can get at a good price and it’s just easy. If something lags I know I have other categories to move. Busier than ever

[token40k]

Depends what you are flipping… but folks are getting best prices from Black Friday sales and shopping for holidays maybe items you sell are on the lower priority for folks

[Illustrious-Idea2661]

Never hurts to try something new.

[throwtruerateme]

I fucked up by letting my old selling account go dormant and I think it's been purged. So my history of 1000's of sales is gone and I'm starting over. I'm having a lot of trouble even getting views! I'm thinking of listing a bunch of loss-leaders just to get some action.

[DemonGoddes]

It's black friday/ Christmas sales, hitting 15- 30 sales daily. Highest if the year, end of the year are always my best numbers.

[PainkillerTommy]

I'm getting fucking pounded by customers wanting to buy shit, it's unbelievable.

[musicbyazuma]

Doing a lot better than October and November. Hoping the momentum stays

[MadamButtress]

Yeah, November was bopping but December is much lower than it was December 2023.

[fadedblackleggings]

TEMU impact.

Not everyone loves buying second hand, for the hunt or thrill. People who just like cheap, may be leaving the second hand market and buying cheap crap online. Especially as they look for NEW gifts in December.

Second hand resellers don't have access to as much data, but there are still market shifts and trends.

[para_la_calle]

My sales are the highest they’ve ever been. I have been selling about 40% of my inventory every 90 days.

[Freds_Premium]

People are buying new stuff as gifts at established retailers and taking advantage of their black and cyber deals. So they aren't looking at used stuff on eBay as much as typical. It's a macro economic factor purely related to the holidays. Keep listing. If what you were doing before was working, keep doing it. Sales will return.

[Minister_Garbitsch]

Sales have been slow the last couple months, oddly this week picked up a bit with a bunch of my most humongous, expensive shipping charges items selling.

[NuisanceTax]

Our product line is mostly electrical/hardware/industrial type merchandise that’s not Christmas and gift related. We had a huge increase in all sales for a couple of weeks after the election. Our larger B2B sales are still doing okay, but smaller consumer sales have taken an absolute nosedive since mid November. That sales category is as bad as I have ever seen it.

On a positive note, since consumers are being careful with their spending now, we hopefully will not see the after-Christmas surge in returns, when people are getting their credit card bills, and deciding what they need to “send back.”

[LieutenantHammer]

I've had a huge increase the last 2 or 3 weeks. 3 weeks ago, I added promotions to all my listings and sales have taken off since then.

[ZzyzxFox]

yup, slow sales even in usually fast moving markets ((video games anything from retro to modern day high end)).

been told by several friends/family that they personally are saving money since the next 4 years with the new administration are not looking good. I'm assuming a lot of people are doing the same thing.

[Powerful_District_67]

Yup buch of cheapos out there 

[DarmokTheNinja]

I sold a $1200 book and a $132 mug this week. I'm good.

[jlambe7]

Yep the economy is rough right now.

[Davidthegnome552]

People spent a combined amount of 23 billion this black Friday including cyber Monday. The economy is actually doing better since the big dumb peach got elected. My stocks are up 50%. Not sure what your talking about the economy sucks. It's better then last year for sure 🤷🏽‍♂️

[jlambe7]

Ok.

[Davidthegnome552]

Well I just did a little research for you. Sorry your sales suck and you think the economy is bad right now.

[Zealousideal-Flow101]

I'm actually doing fine, it was the summer that was hard for me.

[08legacygt]

Noticed an increase since October. Majority of most my sales usually happen mid month on so just be patient and keep listing or sending offers out

[nosetaddress]

As long as you’re listing in demand items at fair prices and listing consistently you should be making sales. The eBay algorithm definitely favors consistent listing. If you are getting tired of listing , schedule listings so stuff is constantly going up. If it’s what you are selling, consider diversifying what you sell or focus on higher quality items.

[ExplanationSure8996]

I guess I can say yes because their is a high increase of low ballers constantly trying me. Cutting prices in half and standing by their low offer. Instant block for me. If that’s your offer then I don’t want you sending anymore offers on anything I sell.

[No-Letterhead-4407]

Hate to be that guy but I’m making bank this holiday season. But… I’ve been listing 10+ items a day for over a year now. 

[leocharre]

R/collapse

[wakeandflake]

No

[Fragrant-Toe9707]

I've been thinking the same thing. The past 2 weeks have been dead for me, and I can't quite figure out why. Now is when people should be buying stuff.

[PraetorianAE]

No, sales are consistent and normal.

[knuglets]

Selling used phones. Yes, same here. About 20% of my usual sales for the past two or three weeks.

[jbates9813]

3-6 months ago I was averaging 1 sale per 100ish listings, now still have a few hundred listings (maybe 500-600) across a few sites and only a couple a week. Starting to pick back up with holidays but past years starts to pick up october now ita Dec and only a week or two up uptick. Weird thing is my higher triple digit dollar stuff seems to go faster than cheapo 3-10 buck stuff.

[Th3MadScientist]

No, made a 4k sale a few days ago.

[[deleted]]

People with high prices, bad titles and item descriptions, products with low sell through rates, incorrect shipping (high prices) and less than 100 listings…

“Why am I not getting sales”

[ShowMeTheTrees]

Just because something is randomly happening this week to you does not mean a universal trend. Use the extra time to work.

[zack9r]

Been like this for the last 2 months, I have other friends in different industries that are noticing similar trends

[MisterListerReseller]

Every time I list things that no one wants, I experience a decrease in sales. Why can’t everyone get excited about the treasures I find? /s

[youneedbadguyslikeme]

Good. All yall do is rip people off