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My entire store has been in passive mode for quite some time.
The process began last summer, when I started putting my possessions, including my inventory, in storage and preparing my former house for sale. I totally put Ebay on the back burner in passive mode.
I sold my former house at the beach and bought a newer much less expensive house about 125 miles away. In general I’m very happy with the move.
I started with almost 2100 listings and 1 business day handling time. Over time, I stopped sourcing, then listing and changed my handling time to 15 business days. I also let all my listings run on “good til cancelled”, with no relisting/sell similar. This condition has existed for at least 4 months.
The bottom line is that my sales in dollars are down about 70%.
I presently have almost 1800 items listed. Some items have multiples and others were ended early, as I chose not to move everything with me.
This was all done intentionally by me, as I had to focus entirely on the job at hand, but wanted to keep my store active.
I’m posting as information only.
I’m happy to answer any questions..
Happy New Year everyone.
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I am interested to know the major factor for the dip, thank you for sharing. I have often thought “what if” something were to happen in my life where this would be the case. I assume it would all just sell down at a lower STR eventually and then I would decide how to deal with it from there.
I wonder if it is the 15 day handling or the lack of new listings that is the main reason, or both.
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I was recently thinking about starting a thread called ” how to kill an eBay store” since I’ve made some recent choices that seem to have affected sales.
The global issues which haven’t changed:
No free freight
No returns
2 day handling time.
Really don’t think these affect much, usually sell one of a kind items, but who knows.New choices:
Eliminating low price listings
Switching to 30 days instead of GTC
Adding more auctions
Backing off my weak categoriesSo far, # of transactions is off, but overall $ is steady.
Only 2 weeks in and haven’t listed or relisted as much, but more new listings are selling than old, leading me to believe that some of my low priced items in weak categories have no business in my life, despite some (misguided) enthusiasm a couple of years ago.
But that’s an anecdotal take. Because while some newer things sell fast, other sales have been from deep stock.
Oh, and every single time I win an auction, sales go up.
So I hope you don’t miss the beach too much, and wish you all the best.
My guess is the 15 day handling time, for what it’s worth.
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Even before the summer, my new listings had dropped off quite a bit. It could be 9 months since I’ve listed, I don’t know for sure.
I had been ending my listings and doing sell similar every 30 days, prior to the decision to sell the house. This seemed to be helping.
Once I started moving my inventory, I went to 15 days handling time. I’m thinking this occurred in September 2018. Even though I set 15 days handling, most items shipped in less than 5.
The 15 day handling time was a big factor. I was actually happy that the sales dropped off, as shipping from a storage unit was a bit of project.
I was also not doing any promotions or sales of any kind and was not very prompt in responding to offers sent by message.
When I start things up again, I’m curious to see how long it takes for the sales to respond. I probably will go to 3 business days handling time. In addition, over time, I’m going to end and sell similar all my listings to get them somewhat fresh.
My sales, in general have never been great. I’ve come to the reality that Ebay, may not be the income generator for me, that is has been for many. If I can get it to the point that it covers my monthly expenses, without too much effort, I’ll be happy. It will give me the time and flexibility to find out what I really want to do in my new semi retired life.
Life is truly an adventure. I’m happy for the time I lived at the beach, but I’m glad to be off the hamster wheel of urban living. Also the traffic and congestion has increased greatly since I bought the house near the beach. It was time for me to move and I’m was grateful to find a buyer when I did and to find my new home so quickly.
Thanks for all the comments.
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