Power Sellers Unite

cohibastore.com · Joined: 14 Sep 2006 Posts: 4908

I was just crunching the numbers for January and realized I just had my best month ever for ebay sales. I even beat all previous Nov and Dec .

And second best month ever over all including Amazon and webstores.

I did nothing differently but run some low end auctions to drive traffic

Anyone else seeing unexpected sales increases?

CS

luckyalive · Joined: 27 Apr 2008 Posts: 590

Sure you are not speaking of the alternative earth in the classic Star Trek or the Twilight Zone?

eBay is not close to what it was prior to the economic collaspe after 9/11. Before then you could easily get X times the amount of money for certain collectibles - pop a $.50 garage sale item and get $75 - same item today you'd be lucky to get $10. Although that still is possible - its no where near what it was/

Now you have higher selling fees! No comission on shipping back then. No forced paypal and thus no fees. I had people so full of cash back then they sent me $100.00 bills in the mail. I could sell internaitonal back then - now with forced paypal its way too dangerous as there is no actual seller protection on such shipments - all a buyer has to do is claim not as described and there is no seller protection - really don't matter what proof you have.

So far I've listed items of several hundred dollars and below that I've had no actual money in as they were typically purchased as bulk lots. Why on earth would I want to list higher priced items when at any time a buyer can steal the item by simply claiming it was not as described?

My best week way back then when I sold large lots of auto parts to a single buyer. The buyer had a semi truck come by and pick them up. Took me around 2 days to box them up. I'd never attempt that today with eBay's open invitation to crooks.

"crunching the numbers for January"

Why are you wasting time crunching numbers when you could be selling. I never analyze sales figures - I just sell. Sort of reminds me of a restaurant chain I was associated with for short while - the managers were always dragging out their books and traning manuals and pulling up sales figures and so forth out of their butts while on the other hand they were blind to the every day operations of what makes the customers come in such as a clean looking operation inside and out.

Mark Twain:

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

I could easily burry my previous sales figures, but then how much of it would be stolen.

cohibastore.com · Joined: 14 Sep 2006 Posts: 4908

I already questioned the numbers and reviewed them 5 different ways, but facts are facts.

I offered the least amount of free shipping last month than at any time in the last 3 years. If I had done all free shipping and added the external "shipping" fees into sales I would have bettered my best month by 20% instead of 5%.

My ebay fees are still the normal 12% +/- they have been for 5 years. (That 20% top seller discount is great)

I also did a huge increase YoY on Amazon, up 23% from 2011, so its not just ebay. But I expect Amazon increases, so ebay jumps are much more surprising, and unlikely, given recent experience with ebay.

The only negative is the average sale is down about $1, but that's been decreasing all year due to some other long term changes I've made.

luckyalive · Joined: 27 Apr 2008 Posts: 590

So exactly how does knowing these various statistics improve your sales? I've never bothered to calculate the average sales, sales per month, and so on. Knowing these will not increase sales. In the time it takes to figure these I could be buying a valueable item at an auciton for pennies on the dollar and posting it on ebay.

I could easily break my previous total sales figures on ebay since in the couple years I was gone I've been doing nothing but buying and storing items. But then that's not saying much as I also know selling fees will be more now due to ebay policies. I also know its less safe to sell items on eBay - there is no seller protection policy! I also know other fees, such as shipping fees are up. I also know ebay now actually hides items in searches because they want to compete with Amazon.

If I offered free shipping and sold everything at a loss I could really up my sales figures - statistics mean nothing.

cohibastore.com · Joined: 14 Sep 2006 Posts: 4908

"If I offered free shipping and sold everything at a loss I could really up my sales figures - statistics mean nothing."

Thats an idiotic statement. Are you so brilliant that you can do without knowing whats trending, your average sale, your profit margin, your short term expected future sales and trends.

---

For others with an open mind you should know its not necessary to obsess over numbers, but it is necessary to look for trends and weaknesses, and evaluate overall profitability. I record sales figures once a month. I use this years trends and last years data to predict future sales, so I have stock to sell. I usually hit my expected sales within 5% of my prediction.

If you know how much you will be selling you can acquire things like shipping supplies in the correct quantity and price. 1000 boxes discounted with free shipping beats 200 at full price plus shipping 5 times a month, and leaves extra money in your wallet.

And maybe you'll know ahead of time to get some help so they are available to work when you need them, not 10 days after you put the ad on Craigslist.

With the tiniest amount of effort you'll know to buy and/or expand into more of what does sell, and not buy/pursue items that will sit and kill your ROI.

In 2011 statistics enabled me to make predictions that paid off huge last year in profits. Profits that would certainly have been less had I flown by the seat of my pants.

thegolfingdolphin · Joined: 13 Jan 2009 Posts: 695

Cohiba I have to Agree. I use one of my eBay stores that is a TRS store and review the sales patterns and products that moved recently and last year to determine what I need to look for in the near future. By doing this just as you mentioned I was able to by product and supplies in quantities that reduces my overall cost. Those buyers from that time frame are back now and purchasing again.

Did they come back because I had a higher profit margin. No they do not have that info but the facts are they are back and I personally can attribute the fact that I had the product in stock through the holiday season and was able to ship in a very timely manner, as part of the factors to why my repeat business is up considerably. During the Holidays I was getting 20% off for the TRS and 20% off for the FREE shipping, and at my price point for that store actually paid the the shipping charges.

I can not believe that luckyalive is still playing the "Ebay sucks and did me wrong card" Get over it and move on. Success follows those who can change in a timely manner.

Schistosomiasis · Joined: 19 Jan 2010 Posts: 192

Hi Cohibastore,

I usually do 15% sell-through per month, last month was 17%. I expected sales to dip a little because of the free-listing specials that they offered, but they went up a teeny bit. Note: this wasn't statistically significant, but still interesting given the huge bump in the total number of listings on the site. Another note: the increase was almost entirely international sales. Not sure why, certainly no reflection of a change that I made.

It's good to compare notes, thanks for posting your info.

cohibastore.com · Joined: 14 Sep 2006 Posts: 4908

I just checked my listing statistics and I am now at almost 50% auctions. Something I haven't done for years. I'm still selling 80%+ BIN, but it appears the auctions are driving traffic to my Store and BIN listings. And its all new continuous selling product, without the high effort estate sale box lots require. (not that I don't like box lots, found lots of good money in those.)

CS

Schistosomiasis · Joined: 19 Jan 2010 Posts: 192

I should have added, my listings are all fixed price, BIN.

Cohibastore, if you don't mind my asking, what is your monthly sell-through percentage?

pie4himm · Joined: 21 Mar 2007 Posts: 407

sell through rates are not quite a valid criteria in my opinion, since if a guy was selling $5,000.00 dollar items at .99 cent auction starting bids, would tend to give you an almost guaranteed 100% sell thru rate?

cohibastore.com · Joined: 14 Sep 2006 Posts: 4908

pie4himm wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")sell through rates are not quite a valid criteria in my opinion, since if a guy was selling $5,000.00 dollar items at .99 cent auction starting bids, would tend to give you an almost guaranteed 100% sell thru rate?

and guaranteed to put him out of business

STR are a good way to determine if what you're selling is worth selling, but comparing dissimilar items STRs is pointless.

comparing a specific items STR to its own STR from 3mos, 6mos 12mos or 5 years ago is an excellent way to monitor an items performance and its trend. most of what i sell is in a declining trend due to government persecution of smokers. some items eventually become such poor sellers, that even with a reasonable profit on each item, its simple not worth stocking them for 3 sales a year.

STR for almost any physical product are a good way to help determine a items viability. combined that with ROI and Gross margins, you're on your way to understanding the bigger picture of inventory (money) control.

CS

pie4himm · Joined: 21 Mar 2007 Posts: 407

I would never grow the balls necessary to start items at .99 cents on eBay but know of very successful sellers that do, or have in the past, Captain John, and Bidtopia come to mind..although I think Bidtopia no longer uses eBay but still start stuff out at .99 and they have developed such a following that they are money ahead to start at .99 saving big on insertion fees..and a great gimmick to boot..

pie4himm · Joined: 21 Mar 2007 Posts: 407

oh, bidtopia has gone belly up, LOL, tornado struck their warehouse in Tennessee and then a fire several days later gutted what remained... I guess just bad luck did them in and not .99 cent auctions..LOL

cohibastore.com · Joined: 14 Sep 2006 Posts: 4908

missed that, but there's a wiki page on them

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidtopia