Sales have slowed

ZanesPlace · Posts: 280

I noticed that my sales have slowed. I am wondering if I am the only one or have others had their sales slow down too.

bargainsforU · Posts: 1251

my sales seem to be increasing each month. of course, i have been working at promoting my items and I do know that helps alot.

ZanesPlace · Posts: 280

That's great that your sales have been increasing. I list items daily and the last three months I was selling on a regular basis but it's really slowed down. I have also been promoting my site as best I can....what have you been doing to promote your listings if you don't mind me asking?

thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat · Posts: 10159

I add from 1-10 items a day and from 4 stores combined have about 5 sales a month. Since they always come in clusters or at the same time each day I have to assume the rest of the time the items aren't visible or coming up in searches. I have items that will show up on page one at noon and nowhere at 1pm.

zickit · Posts: 21857

My sales have really slowed down this month. Not sure what's happening
BUT listening to the news and all the talk about summertime gas prices, the recessing, etc could explain alot. I think people are hanging on to their money a little more then normal.

TexasTreasures · moderator Posts: 3467

It seems to always slow down this time of year, to some extent. I guess others are like me, paying sales tax this month and worrying already about owing the IRS money, as well as the Christmas credit cards.
But it seems worse than usual this year. Listening to the news, I suspect that everyone is hanging on to their money or just trying to buy gas and make the mortgage.

thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat · Posts: 10159

They are selling their stocks wholesale to do so too.

January has always been the best month of the year for me--until this year.

zickit · Posts: 21857

ZanesPlace · Posts: 280

I'm trying to figure out how to get the word out on eCrater better than I have been. I have been listing on Craigslist with decent success and have done over $300.00 in the past week. Sales on Ebay are doing okay and I was just listing on there to get people to eCrater. I truly believe that people just don't know about eCrater and that's why sales are slow, but that's just my theory. I have something in my store and it is sitting, then I try putting it on Craiglist and it sells within a few days. I'm trying to get the craigslist people to check out eCrater...heck, what they are buying has been listed in my store. Do you think Dimitri would do an advertising campaign if we all chipped in? I just think the millions of online buyers out there don't know about eCrater. I just found it in a chat blog and checked it out then opened a store. I truly believe in this site but I'm frustrated that my piddly advertising is just not enough.

poopsheet · Posts: 4865

In my opinion the goal should not be getting shoppers to eCrater but rather to your store. eCrater is designed as standalone stores and that's how each seller makes their money. Despite some of the text on the Welcome page it's not really marketed as a shopping venue (which is part of why getting shoppers to eCrater proper is an uphill battle) and I'm not sure why the main shopping interface is even there (perhaps an obligation to Google Products, I don't know).

In other words, if you pretend like nothing exists but your own store then it makes it that much easier to focus your promotional efforts.

ZanesPlace · Posts: 280

Thanks poopsheet, good point. Any suggestions on how best to advertise my store on ecrater? I think the success of ebay is that they advertise for the site which benefits everybody. I think I have exhausted venues to advertise. I tried the google stuff but I get so confused as to what I am doing. I do it and just hope that I did correctly.

smilin-eyestreasures · Posts: 483

I agree you have to figure out as much as you can to promote your own store, but I also feel we have the best of both worlds here where people (who might be fed up with ebay and all the changes, fraud, and fees) can come here instead to find what they are looking for. It is such a wonderful thing Dimitri is doing to provide this site, and now all the mods working so hard to keep the site clean. I feel eCrater could become another place for people to come and look for "It".

We have the opportunity to promote our own stores as though we are alone, but there is also the opportunity for people to find this site and then find us.

Periwinkles · Posts: 2907

I've had a good amount of sales this month so far. I have a couple of stores on another site and have not had any there. I never have understood how Google picks things to be listed.

Joyce

MaxsMarket · Posts: 7

My sales have slowed too. That's why I came here to see if anyone else was having the same experience.

I created my site in December and the next day I had a sale! My inventory is various resale items, so they are all different. I try my best to make them show up in the Google search by describing them appropriately. I see how similar items are described that show up first in a Google search and then I duplicate it. That's all I'm worried about. I also sell on Craigslist and have had fairly good luck there before I opened my store. Now any time I list on Craigslist, I put a link at the bottom of my ad that says, see my other items for sale at "my store address". I can see that people are looking, but no one is buying. Crying or Very sad

Oh well this is just supplemental income for me. However I would like to get rid of all this stuff! I have a bunch more to put on my site!

thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat · Posts: 10159

Hi Max or should I say Woof Woof. Did you know that your blurb on your homepage is cut off? You can either edit the blurb or remove the spaces between your paragraphs to get more lines.