Sales drop on eBay (and Amazon)
Recently we have seen significant drops in sales across a wide range of sectors on eBay, and for several types of products on Amazon too. The drop was most apparent in the week of October 7th-14th, when we saw drops of 15-20% routinely.
Some examples we saw on Terapeak:
| Keywords | Sales October
1-7 |
Sales October
8-14 |
Decrease sales | Decrease % | Sales October 21 -28 |
| Kawasaki Bolt | £3452 | £2631 | £821 | 23.78 | £3932 |
| Eyelash Serum | £14853 | £12533 | £32320 | 15.62 | £11440 |
| Pigeon Netting | £2559 | £1946 | £613 | 23.95 | £2153 |
| Sports Boxers | £14911 | £13223 | £1688 | 11.32 | £11967 |
| Leaner Mirror | £14332 | £12816 | £1516 | 10.58 | £13571 |
| Replacement iPhone Battery | £49068 | £45652 | £3416 | 6.96 | £39768 |
| Women’s Jeggings | £49625 | £43614 | £6011 | 12.11 | £38590 |
| Cabin Trolley | £45148 | £36771 | £8377 | 18.55 | £30313 |
| Goose Feather Duvet | £16674 | £13758 | £2916 | 17.49 | £14132 |
| iPhone 6s Plus Case | £192255 | £176974 | £15281 | 7.95 | £139619 |
| Chaise Longue | £23602 | £17226 | £6376 | 27.01 | £20766 |
What caused this? It could be a range of issues: uncertainty about Brexit, or the economy generally; buyers waiting for Black Friday deals; buyers saving for Christmas; eBay losing favour with Google; buyers staying away from eBay generally; a combination of factors.
We also saw decreases in several Amazon accounts, although not as marked. There is some evidence to suggest that at least some of this dip is the time of year.
Research carried out by Doddle.com, the Click and Collect provider, found that over half (52%) of 18 to 24 year olds said that they’ll make a detailed list of the purchases they want to make before the big day, while a Royal Mail study, carried out by Trinity McQueen, questioned online 1,500 shoppers and found that although 30% would start buying for Christmas in October, most online shopping for Christmas would take place between November 15 and December 13.
Information from the delivery giants IMRG suggests that shoppers are holding off from spending, as they look forward to pre-Christmas discounting. The latest IMRG MetaPack UK Delivery Index Online detects slower than usual online shipping in September 2018 when it says retail parcel delivery order volumes rose by 6.4%, year-on-year, which compares poorly with previous years. Order volumes often slow from month to month around this time of year, but this year, says IMRG, the decline has been sharper than usual.
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