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Tagged: slow sales
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sonia.
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11/15/2020 at 9:10 am #83429
Since the election I have noticed a marked slowdown in my sales – the first 12 days of November were down 30% from the first 12 days of October). Every time this happens, I wonder if it is correlated to a broader event (like the election) or just an anomaly.
Is anyone else in a bit of a slump right now?
I
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11/15/2020 at 9:12 am #83430
I’m doing our numbers for the week and its definitely slow. People dont like uncertainty. Even though we had the election, I think people are waiting for the new President to take over and get a stable day-to-day again. Doesnt help that COVID-19 if raging through the middle of the country.
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11/15/2020 at 9:39 am #83431
I agree. The craziness and uncertainty has definitely affected sales. Much different compared to the the first half of the year where people were getting incentive checks and needed a place to shop.
On the other hand, I usually slow down or stop sourcing in the fourth quarter, but I have pickups from two different online auctions this weekend, and I’m thinking of going to an outside auction tomorrow. Lots of good deals in the months before Christmas, which never happens.
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11/15/2020 at 9:58 am #83432
Yes my sales have taken a nasty hit these last few weeks.
I think this is more about people’s unemployment running out, than it is about uncertainly (although probably a combination of the 2). Until there is another stimulus package, I think we are going to continue to see slow sales.
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11/15/2020 at 10:56 am #83439
Just been for a Sunday afternoon walk, between the rain showers. Long queues outside coffee shops.
There’s a painting, the Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke, where everybody’s waiting for the nut to be cracked and the spell to be broken. That’s what it feels like here.
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11/15/2020 at 11:15 am #83440
When does Brexit happen? In the US we have a phrase, “shit or get off the pot” 🙂
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11/15/2020 at 3:53 pm #83445
Well, apologies for mentioning politics, but I gather the UK has already left the EU. The final severance happens on January 1st, when the UK leaves the customs union. What’s not been solved is the border question between Ireland and Northern Ireland. There’s got to be a customs border, but it can’t be between the two nor between Northern Ireland and Britain. The first because it would be explosive (literally), the second because it’ll introduce an internal customs border.
In other news, the Prime Minister’s sacked his chief adviser for calling the PM’s fiancé “Princess Nut Nuts”. 🙂
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11/15/2020 at 4:11 pm #83446
Yeah, i saw that resignation this past week.
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11/16/2020 at 6:08 am #83466
He’s “working from home” like the rest of us. 😉
Thrift shop I volunteered at was closed for the first lockdown, then upper management decided it wasn’t earning enough so the shop’s closed permanently after over 40 years. That was back in the first week of September, and they were just in the process of clearing out four decades of accumulated junk when the second national lockdown was declared.
That technique of pricing high and waiting for someone to come along and make an offer doesn’t work when you’re running a shop and you don’t take offers! Annual net profit was circa £16 K, which paid two-thirds of a graphic designer’s salary back at head office. This from a shop with (estimated) 5,000 square feet of selling space plus two floors of offices.
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11/15/2020 at 11:27 am #83442
As others have said, I think a combination of economic woes and uncertainty/anxiety is involved, but , as always, it’s also a question of what we have listed, what the competition is offering etc. J&R’s prescription still stands: ABL: Always Be listing.
While I’m all in favor of increasing my ASP, I do think I’m going to try to list a mix of lower dollar “stocking stuffer” type items along with higher priced items. I think there are buyers who haven’t been harmed by, and some who’ve benefited from, COVID, so higher priced items will still sell. But I think a lot of people are on a tight budget, and lower priced items will appeal to them.
I do think a lot of people were hoping that the election would bring us some normalcy, but obviously that didn’t really happen. (I was hoping for it, but not expecting it). I think it’s really sinking in that , between COVID and politics, there is no way things will be really back to normal before Christmas. Because of that, I think there will be a fairly high demand for anything that reminds people of more normal times, and anything that can provide some comfort in a world where a lot of family holiday celebrations will be, at least in part, virtual this year. I wish my “death pile” inventory was organized better, so I could more easily pick and choose just what to list. But, in any event: ABL!
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11/15/2020 at 1:31 pm #83443
My sales have rebounded a bit post-election. Not the huge holiday bump I was hoping for but they picked up again. However, I suspect that’s because what’s selling (childrenswear) is like beauty products; a little more recession/uncertainty-proof. Women’s clothing has not picked up to previous levels.
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11/15/2020 at 7:14 pm #83457
Sales $$ are down for the past few weeks, but sales volume has stayed consistent. Nearly 120 items shipped out last week. 3 bins of mail ready to go out tomorrow, with an additional bin’s worth of mail that needs to be packed tomorrow morning.
I’ve been slacking it over the past few months. My numbers could be much higher if I had put more work into it for Q4, but I didn’t feel like working very hard. I’ve just been riding on a large listed inventory with a few new items added each day in order to keep the store “active.”
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11/19/2020 at 3:12 pm #83573
Our Sales are just slightly down but not much. Over all so far we are ahead of last year Jan. 1 to date by 15%. Sales were much stronger during the Summer months than last year.
So looking at our P&L Statement, and some projections we will be about 17% to 20% more than last year overall, maybe but that is just Ebay. Etsy has be stronger this year and item for item / dollar for dollar does about the same as Ebay [about half the total dollar sales but also about half the number of items listed.
Our own domain store is now ready to launch by the end of the year and that store domain is also linked to Instagram, Pintrest and will be also hooked up to a new FaceBook Shop all being run through SixBit as a Master Central Control dashboard. And we have a stash of larger items we will be listing on FB Market Place. So we have some good expectations for next year unless the whole country goes to hell in a hand basket, singing Kum-ba-yah.
Mike – MDC Galleries
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11/25/2020 at 3:03 pm #83684
I’m sure I’m in the minority here, but I really try not to overthink the whole “Why are my sales so slow?”. I always have a couple of plates spinning at the same time, so that certainly is part of why I do not think of it, however, I also believe that there are enough “nouveau riche” out there that if there were something that they wanted to buy from ebay, they would just do it. I always think of Jay & Ryanne’s podcast episodes where they state “I am not my customer”. Because if I “were”, …
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11/25/2020 at 9:58 pm #83695
Daysi, I’m with you on this one, for several reasons. 1) I think about all the thousands of people working just at the 3 tech companies I used to work for, bringing in high salaries, and then multiply that by thousands, and you get a ton of middle to upper middle class people with plenty of money to spend. 2) It’s not something I can control or do anything about – other than keep listing. 3) I don’t find it fun or helpful (to me) to keep track of week-to-week or even month-to-month trends in terms of buying volume. I’m the same way with the stock market – I’m an index fund person, not a day trader.
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11/25/2020 at 3:05 pm #83685
Mike, I really enjoy reading your posts.
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11/25/2020 at 3:14 pm #83686
I feel like it is FINALLY the holiday season. My sales have really picked up this week. Still not selling high dollar items but plenty of stuff in the mid range (around $20.00-$35.00)
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