Hopefully your ecommerce business is already really ramping up for Christmas 2013.
Of course, for many, a seasonal bump in the fourth quarter isn’t how your business works. But for most, that is the case. I know businesses that grow 200% from October to December and then retract for the rest of the year. This is the peak online selling season and 2013 promises to be better than ever.
Two clouds on the horizon. On real, one metaphorical. There are reports that November is going to snow-clagged and bitter this year. You might not give much credence to the weathermen (and after the past few years, that would make sense) but it looks like we might have serious cold and snow. We’ll see.
And then there is the prospect of Royal Mail strikes. As always that will be a real headache to deal with. It’s also a massive opportunity for the new generation of couriers out there.
And the UK has found a bit of growth. So maybe people want to spend more, despite the massive gas and electricity bills we’ll all face somewhere down the line. There must surely be cause for some optimism?
Tamebay straw poll. How’s it going so far?
24 Responses
Definately down on this time last year, scarily slow to be honest. We sell on 13 different platforms, all quiet with only Amazon holding up.
The best month for us recently was August, which defies all explantion!
Living in a rural area the ‘old farmerboys’ reckon we’re in for a cold snap in early November but it’ll quickly move away and the end will be unseasonably mild…..
Same as above poster, quieter than anticipated this month, but August was really good?
I’ve only been seriously eBaying since June, and the revenues have grown month on month with a sensational August. That was followed by a poor September and disastrous early October. I think it was because the kids went back to school and needed shoes, uniforms, etc – all things I don’t sell! The customers are starting to come back now they’ve been paid. The past two weeks have seen the revenue really switching itself back on. Here’s hoping for a crazy November and December!
Amazon sales are seeing a good rise this month, although it does seem to be sporadic, very good some days then dire for a day or two.
eBay sales are very slow for some reason, we’ve been jiggling stuff about (new images, listings etc) to try and understand why it’s sooooooooo slooooooow, we are well down on last year. Them messing with the site so much can’t be helping. Anyone else feel eBay is running very slow lately, I don’t mean sales wise, the actual speed of the site seems/feels very sluggish?
Amazon sales over a 100% up on last year, hardly any extra work on Amazon just a sudden burst this year.
Loads of work on Ebay, jumping through more hoops only 3% up on the year.
I think ebay has been broken the past couple of months as sales have been really bad!
August was again sensational.
September unusually quiet, and October in general has been quiet.
Unsure what is going on to be honest.
I will try to be very careful with this not to go over the boundaries of the Comment Policy.
We’ve seen that indeed since summer a lot of people are getting less traffic than before, it makes it really important to optimize and convert traffic that is coming to your website already. A few basic things that I would suggest to any of you running your own website is to have a look at how big players (like Amazon and eBay) optimize for traffic. It is not too late to do anything about it before Christmas, if you like of course I am very happy to have a more personal discussion on this.
Off topic and I apologise but has anyone else seen an increase of transactions being hold and reviewed by paypal? Had more these last two weeks than the last two years.
Not that badges are worth squat but the last 1/4 on eBay saw us move up a power seller level.
Sales are up, lunatic buyers are up, postage scammers are up.
Not sure what to make of it all. 😀
A+ yes, noticed over the last 4 weeks an increase in these what appear to be pointless holds, has anyone ever had a hold end in a payment reversal, we haven’t.
Our only neg this year was caused by one of these.
Buyer ordered a bath. Paid. Buyer ordered a panel. Paid. Paypal held the bath payment, didn’t hold the panel payment.
Caused a 3 day delay in processing. buyer cried slow delivery.
Hopeless.
My first run up to Xmas so I’m not sure when sales are suppose to boom. Amazon sales have crept up despite few listings whilst eBay sales have worringly dropped a lot over mid Sept and over Oct.
We had a great August, going down since then. This is the opposite of last year.
I have been scratching my head about it. We have not gone with the “Free P&P” (we’re trying it on a few products), but looking at search results this cannot be the main cause of our low sales. We have a lot more competitors on eBay this year, the price war is rife. That definitely has to do with it. Still many of our listings are in good positions in the “Best match” searches, so why SO slow?
I’m no expert. I looked at Google Trends today, a simple comparison of graphs for searches for “eBay” and “Amazon” for shopping in the UK. Our sales follows closely the graph of traffic for eBay, which has been going down since August. Amazon, although still having a lower overall volume than eBay, is going up and up.
I had been thinking of ways to optimise our eBay listings. Now I’m thinking of focusing my efforts on moving to Amazon. Particularly when eBay don’t stop throwing changes /additional work at sellers (now they come up with not allowing self hosting for images under “Sell it yourself”, surely a vital strategic move).
Somebody at eBay UK needs to get their priorities straight.
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Seems RM, OBA is quite also.
We are always on the 4pm deadline to get confirmation and usually it can take another 20-30 minutes.
Noticed over the last few weeks we are getting it in just minutes.
I am on eBid and October was my best month ever, 43% higher than my previous at £1764 and November is even better so far. Looking like eBid is finally getting the traffic. Still not as easy as on eBay or Amazon, but definitely moving in the right direction.