Anyone Experiencing Decline in Sales?

I'm just curious if anyone else has seen business slow down to a crawl? I just started my new business in January and have seen growth by doubling my numbers every month and now it has slowed to virtually no sales. Is anyone else seeing this decline?

Is it eBay sales or another avenue?

Not the end of the world, Christmas soon :D

We supply a lot of sellers with liquidated stock and our sales have come down over the past two months, so if the sellers are slowing down, it's a pretty good indication that the retail end is as well.

Ok I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't just something that I am doing, but I cant even advertise to equal out make money off of it, but have not been able to

Just have to buckle up and ride this storm out, at least you don't have all the over heads of rent and such to be concerned about. The economy has a little way to go yet before consumers will start gaining some serious confidence to start spending up again.

I have noticed an increase over here, mainly europeans taking advantage of the Euro.

That's pretty good news for my ears, we're about to start shipping a few liquidated stock lines we have managed to dig up in Europe, so will hopefully find some cashed up local buyers ready to snap up the bargains : )

You got that right. Sales are slow this past couple of months. I use to sell over $12K a month on ebay and now it's down to $5K a month in sales. I'm just riding the storm like fudjj said and hope that it will pick up soon.

christmas is coming, i may be new to online sales but i have years of experience in retail. things will get better soon.

This is a common slowdown at summer start every year. I hear this same time every year.

It will pickup as soon as the summer novelty wears off and the college students stop partying and summer vacations become less and less.

Ya its tough because usually I would go with advertising more, but now its to the point where that doesnt even matter really, because its just people shopping and not buying.

So, it's summer that's causing a slump in sales? What's the excuse for us then now that it's winter here? Sales have been down for us also, however a slight diversification in product type has generated enough sales to weather the storm till the great turnaround! Just going out to the shopping centre, I've also noticed huge Sales going on. Bigger markdowns than I've ever been aware of before. I purchased 12 items for ten bucks apiece and have so far sold all but two for $34 each. If you keep your eyes peeled when you go out, there are bargains all around you at this time of year due to big stocktaking sales. There are some huge markdowns on quality cookware (thanks to Jimmy for making me aware of the potetial of this kind of product) LOL. Not everybody in the nation lives near the kinds of shops that have these huge markdown sales so flogging them off online is lucrative.

ive actually gotten the more sales in the last 6 mths than i got all of 08. i sell gold paydirt. unique huh? thats how to make it work.

wow this economy is killing me. I went from having at least 5 sales per day down to nothing for the past 4 days now. I am not sure whats going on out there but it seems that each day more and more people are tightening their belts.


Within the last week or two how has everyones sales been??

I've been doing pretty well. I introduced a new product & have had great resuts & feedback.

Glad to hear your doing well designerthriftshop. Hey if you or anyone else wouldn't mind checking out my listings on ebay because I can't figure out what happened all of a sudden. Ebay id: DWMGOODS35 . Thanks in advance!

I'll swing by a little later and take a look for you don.

Thanks Marc,

I'd appreciate it!

Have you noticed a drop in traffic don, or the numbers are about the same?

I did notice something regarding you payment options. At the moment the way you have it set out with the icons, you are displaying that anyone who wants to pay with a credit card should choose PayPal by listing all the card icons with the PayPal icon.

What you are doing is bleeding your Paymate option completely dry because you are directing credit card payers to PayPal, and not providing any payment options that Paymate offers.

I would suggest just using a PayPal icon, no cards included at all, then include the two card icons for beside the Paymate icon, and make a note to inform people that they do not need a Paymate account to use the option.

At the moment I would imagine most of your customers have never heard of it, all they see if they can pay by PayPal, or if they want to choose a card, they can pay by PayPal.

Lessen the PayPal promotion, pump up the Paymate option, and that includes positioning it on top, not underneath PayPal, that sends a signal that it is your number two option.

Excellent advice as always, Thanks Marc!

I realized after you gave some advice on the paymate in an earlier post that I needed to make some major changes to the payment section and boost up the Paymate option. Im not sure if that is what is turning customers off of my items because that template has been setup for a while now, but I am sure it is catching the eyes of some and probably scaring them away. At this time I am noticing a slight decrease in traffic numbers especially to my ebay store but the bigger picture is I have had no sales now going on my 5th day. Wondering if its just the time of year or the economy is turning more and more people to spend less.

Thanks again Marc!

No problems don,

Depending on what the over all drop in traffic is, that may well relate back to slower sales. That won't be a template issue, however i must admit that I did find the layout a little busy and over bearing myself.

Hard to pin point anything specific with slow sales over that sized period, maybe after two weeks or so, some more accurate deductions may be possible.

I tend to think if things have been travelling ok, and have slowed for now with you changing nothing, then it's just a general blip. Keep your eyes on the traffic, see if that keeps dropping or starts to pick up again and then measure sales via those numbers.

Thanks Marc. Yeah I was just about to ask you if my listings seemed over done. When I first started on ebay back in 2007 I practically put the basics in my listings and didn't even have anything as far as 'about me' or any return policy info. Later I read on a posting that too much information in a listing is never a bad thing as long as your stating all the important information for the customer to be aware of. So I guess I got a little carried away with my listings. I made that Quick info chart to cut down my information on the pages but I still think I should do more. Your right by having a hard time to determine the slowing of sales by only 5 days, since it could very well be just an off week or slow week which im sure everybody has.

aside from everything seems (is) slow, is an ebay store worth the extra money? ive had a marked decrease in 'buy it nows' and most all of my sales have been at auction for the past 6 weeks. i was looking into getting a store but figured if its not selling, why pay more to not sell it... especially to feebay!! anybody got a take on this?

Hey voodootwothree,

Well I can say that I also have an ebay store and most of my sales so far have been through auction listings. I have had a few store listing sales but lately im noticing auctions are on the rise regardless of what ebay says is their declining format and that buy it now is the way to go. I guess it really comes down to what your selling which would be the right format to go with. All I can say is if business is slow with your buy it now's as it is with mine then just hold off for a while. Since I already have a store im gonna stay put for at least another month or so and see.

I believe that even in auctions though it means something to have a store open. I think people see it as these people mean business and are a recognized dealer through ebay.

I agree Confusedmonky that it does bring a level of trust to the buyer but at the same time it really comes down to what you can invest and how much your making at the present time. My decision to open a store was taking a chance and see if it pays off. Sometimes in business you have to test the waters and invest a little to get a bigger bang for your buck. Auctions are good to bring real traffic to your store and get some feedback but if you just do all buy it nows then you could expect to have higher ebay fees.