7 Ways to Escape SLOW SALES Selling on eBay

Are your sales slow? Are you grinding your teeth and wondering what the heck is going on? If you’re freaking out about your inventory being at a standstill, let me share these seven tips.

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#1: List More Items
I struggled with this for years. Things would get slow, items wouldn’t sell, and I would almost say to myself, “Screw this. This isn’t worth it. I can’t do this.” I would stop listing my items.

Well, sometimes sales just get slow. But they always pick back up again. These things go in cycles. However, if you are not listing even when things are slow, when they pick up again, they will stay slow because you weren’t working on your business when you had the time to do it.

When you list like crazy one week, for the most part, sales will spike in another week or so. If you’re not listing your items the week prior, the next week, sales will sink even more. Don’t stop listing!

#2: Run a Sale in Your eBay Store
Much of the time I am running sales anywhere from 5 to 10 percent off every single day. When things get really slow, I’ll run 40- to 50-percent-off sales to boost rankings in the algorithm to get things moving.

I can’t prove it, but it seems inevitably that when you run a big sale, other items in your eBay store that weren’t selling start to sell. It seems as though the algorithm loves it when you’re selling more—which you will because of the sale you are running. It feels like a snowball effect. You run a sale and get items moving. Then the rest of your items get promoted, and you sell even more.

#3: Revise Your Listings
To break out of one of those dreaded eBay slumps, go back into your listings and start revising and optimizing them. For example, maybe you have a rare Ralph Lauren big bear sweater that’s been in your eBay store. It’s priced competitively. The pictures are awesome.

But it’s just not selling, and you have no idea why.
Sometimes you might have something that’s off in the listing. Maybe you forgot to include the measurements. Maybe you pasted the wrong template in. Maybe there is an obvious typo in the description that is making potential buyers hesitate. Maybe you forgot to photograph something important to the item, like the bear on the big bear sweater! Research comparable sales. Make sure you have relevant keywords in the title.

#4: Pay Attention to Your Seller Metrics
Pay attention to your seller metrics and always work to improve them.

If your seller metrics are bad—if you’re getting negative feedback, you ship late, you are starting to get a lot of returns—this will affect the way eBay promotes your listings. If this is starting to happen to you, you might have to stop trying to bang everything out as quickly as you can and slow it down to improve the quality of your services and your customer service to improve your metrics. Better promotion by eBay means your listings will be more visible in the site’s search engine.

#5: Offer Free One-Day or Same-Day Shipping
Many sellers only offer three-day shipping and handling. However, we live in a world where people want their item now. I don’t want to buy something and have to wait five days. This is the way the world is becoming. With two-day shipping for Amazon Prime, customers are becoming accustomed to getting their items very quickly. If you extend your handling time beyond a couple of days and if you are not offering free one-day shipping or same-day shipping, it will put off a lot of customers.

I know we all have different lifestyles and lives. Some people are working full-time jobs and feel they just cannot do anything faster than a three-day handling time. It is what it is, but just know that you’re going to lose out on sales because of that.

Do the best you can, but try to lower your shipping and handling time. Doing so will definitely attract buyers, help make more sales, and break you out of a sales slump.

#6: List Better Products
What do I mean by “better products”? Start listing items that are in demand, that are trending, and that people want. Seek out high-quality name brands that aren’t so “long tail.”

What is long tail? A long-tail item might only have a couple buyers, but it will sell—though it might take a couple of months.

It’s still good to have long-tail items in your store. They can be profitable in the long run. You just don’t want your entire inventory to be long tail. You want to have some of those trendy, high-demand items that are quick sellers.

#7: Commit to Managing Your Business Model
Sometimes you’ve got to check yourself and realize that you need to tweak your business model to get out of a sales slump. The issue could be any one of the things I’ve mentioned or a combination of issues. Whatever it is, you need to make that commitment to scrutinize how you are currently running your business and be totally honest with yourself. Sticking your head in the sand won’t help!

Everyone goes through a sales slump. Don’t let them get you down!