2025 Sales? How are you guys faring?

[rdemaree]

At this point I am 30% less in sales vs same timeframe last year with November 40% lower and October 82% lower. Most months are more or less the same as last year but the ones that are lower are catasrophically lower. March, June, October, November were super underperformers. I did have a fandful of months that overperformed last year but only by like 5-15% each which doesnt make up for the 40-80% underperforming months I mentioned.

Views/ impressions are also like 3-5 X lower this year too. I wonder if this is because I switched from .com to .ca back in the early spring? It is weird that my sales while they are about 1/3 lower my views are 3-5X lower. The math doesnt add up on that one. You would think if my views were that much lower sales would also be similarly lower? Weird. 

If I had to predict I will end this year at around 25-40% less in sales vs last year. I was aiming for only 15-20% less and that is after listing a lot of new products throughout the year (including entry level cheaper products), running sales throughout the year and jumping through CUSMA hoops. I knew I would be in the red but was hoping it wouldn't be on the higher end red. Was hoping for a softer landing with all of the work that I have been putting in.

Ill finish off with a handful of new products  to garner more buyers and then list some stuff on etsy to hopefully pick up 10% more in sales maybe but after that the writing is on the wall that I will need a part time job. Even if things get better it will take a while and there is still the chance that CUSMA sinks and that would very likely zap away 60-70% of my sales vs a normal year like 2024. (instead of the likely 25-40% that im likely facing this year 2025).

Rough roads ahead for small businesses in North America, especially ecommerce small busniesses in Canada. 

Hopefully with the supreme court striking down the tariffs, trump forced to focus on the midterms (that he will likely sorely get clobbered in!) and us having a calm and collected leader in Carney we will avoid losing CUSMA. So I am hopeful but trump and his gang of criminal circus clowns are hard to predict.

Mainly what I want is to find out where the chips are going to land and what I can expect as the "new normal" so that I can plan. I am in my mid 30's and at a stage where I am trying to make longterm life and career plans. This isnt a little sunday hobby for me and all of this chaos is very hard to plan for. 

I very likely will pull the last handful of tricks up my sleeve to rake in and retain as many sales as possible but the rest is up to fate and ill try and pick up some sort of side income somehow to makeup for the losses. 

Good luck to all and would love to hear how everyone else is doing and how you guys are planning!

[john_koenig99]

I really can't complain. My niche of sales is very...niche. I have never had a high volume of sales, and thinks were looking dismal post the 29/8 debacle. 

But, interestingly. eIS has helped me to incrise my sales to the US, and there has been a couple of local sales that also were somehow unexpected. 

Overall, it's been better than last year, particularly at this time, with the CP strike going on back then. 

[mrdutch1001]

Having been but an occcasioal/infrequent seller for the past few years, 2025 became the year that strongly showed that my listing items on eBay is no longer a viable way to spend my time...(To date,  7 sales from eBay for 2025)...and yes I stopped shipping to the USA in August so that may account for some of the loss in sales, but when item views are 0 week after week,  then the writing is on the wall...

I have moved many of my items over to my other selling site where I have had a good year and that is where my focus shall be going forward. It is what it is and we all have to do whatever we need to do...

C'est la Vie!

Que sera, sera!

[rainbow71113]

I also have had a dismal year....usually since I sell craft items that are in demand for Christmas either people making something which means sales in August/September or buying for someone for gifts -this year because of the threat of strikes Canadians mostly stayed away and then the tariffs knocked out my US sales. I'm also on els and have had a few sales that way but not nearly what I would do at this time of year. I saw that on our listings the buyer gets a message saying there could be additional fees whether they chose els or direct and that's not the case. With direct I pay the fees and there's no place to put that and I haven't got time to revise over 8000 listings.  Years ago I never put a sale on, now I have to have it on almost all the time and it still doesn't help. I'm down about $2000 a month!! and it's really hard to pay bills with only $20 coming in every few days.  I'm a senior with 2 new knees and there is no other option for me than to sell on ebay.  So I guess I'll just keep listing and hope that the sales start coming back in...

[mrdutch1001]

You indicate that you sell craft items...do you also sell on Etsy?.... (that's my other selling site)

[ricarmic]

@rainbow71113 you may have seen/tried this before, but I suggest an experiment where you instead of having sales of 10-20% off put those items into a group and standard promote them with that rate (10%-20%) with the original price. It sucks that the "savings" go to ebay instead of the buyer, but in my experience in my categories those items as well as regularly priced items sold at a much higher rate.

[mrdutch1001]

and @rainbow71113 ....Just as a matter of interest I never have sales/never use Promoted listings and never use best offer feature on either of my selling sites but I do seem to get more multiple item sales on my other selling site, especially so for pattern books, craft magazines...

[ricarmic]

@rdemaree It is hard for me to say for certain as things have changed for me from last year till this in terms of the amount of stuff I have running for auction etc.

However, I would suggest that my sales volume is running half or less than it was in a normal year (last year was the CP strike "start").

The "view" rate auction items are getting is definitely lower than what I would consider normal in the past.

A caveat, I have a "strength" in that I have a lot of repeat customers up to 50%, some for decades now, so it makes me a little more immune than others to ups and downs, but I've noticed the "regs" are spending less than before, which makes sense given the volume of unknowns in our economies at this time.

Interestingly my non-ebay/online experiments are sound, however I think this is a collateral effect of folks trying to shop Canadian. Caveat here is I don't have significant history to compare current results to.

I think I saw in other threads that you were trying other sale routes/venues as well?

[musicyouneed]

This has been a terrible 14 months, first the postal strike last year Nov and Dec 2024 and the uncertainty of Canada post for 2025.  Then the tariffs, then the removal of de minimus.  The only months that were OK were June and July.  The rest sucked.  Will be closing up shop for a few months in Jan, hopefully in April when I reopen, it will be better. 

[rdemaree]

June 2025 was my absolute worst month in business to date since selling full time in late 2019. I only sold around $200! absolutely abysmal 

[rainbow71113]

no, I don't have time to list on other sites plus I don't have a cell phone so the time it takes me to list an item is much longer than the tech savvy people...I'm old school...use a camera...LOL

[rainbow71113]

I've been selling since 2007 and got a power seller status in 6 months back then....held on to that status for years but lately it would be interesting to know how we are all rating. I'm still top rated and I think that's all that counts now.  Like you said those savings go to ebay...I pay enough fees to ebay as it is....I usually don't do more than 7% off on my cross stitch items since a lot of them are wholesale items and I have to be conscious of the original designers' suggested prices-plus some I have over 80 watchers....and I wonder...what are they waiting for-many of those items are only 1 item left-of course the minute it sells I get all the emails asking if I have any more.  I also get a lot of repeat customers and I do a LOT of variation listings (over 15,000 items at the moment) and have noticed that people tend to buy a lot from one listing as opposed to multiple listings because they can see other items that they might not have known existed. 

[transtraders]

November was actually very good for me, mostly because I had a few big ticket items sell. But if I look at this year compared to last year I am down 16.5% overall. Which is not as bad as I thought it would be. What really helped me is being able to sell media (which is the bulk of what I sell) to USA even without the deminmus.

Just for context, I am not a high volume seller, only part time.

[rdemaree]

Most of my stuff is CUSMA approved since its handmade in canada although I dont sell some vintage stsuff from europe and asia. 

I think the bad economy down south along with the rhetoric about Canada and tariffs has spooked a certain amount of the population from wanting to buy things online (probably even hurting domestic US sellers tbh).

I cant imagine trying to import my raw materials from Asia right now if I were to be a small business in the USA. I spent around 8K last year on big investments into business that should last 5-8 years and net me back good returns in my profit margins vs the middle man I used to use bi-annually roughly. If I were to have put those orders in this year as a US business my bill would have been alot higher than 8K and add onto that the fact that people in the US cant afford to buy as many non-necissities right now.

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst is my motto. 

[mrdutch1001]

It has always been said to never put all your eggs in one basket and I never have...have always had more than one source /more than 1 selling site and that has worked well for the past 23+ years of online selling. I am not just old school in many ways, as I am still using a desktop computer and only in recent years changed from digital camera to cellphone camera, but as a senior nearing 8 decades on this earth still find all this technology a challenge....but I am not dependant upon sales for income, so there is that...

[rainbow71113]

LOL...I'm also still on a desktop computer a challenge when I have an instacart order and I'm not on the computer when they ask about changes.  I am 64 so getting up there and have always diversified so that when it's summer and knitting doesn't sell-music, sports etc do...recently inherited my brother's comic/magazine collection so that's been keeping me busy-they are hit and miss-some are valuable, some not but of course you don't know what's going to sell until it's listed which makes variation listings great-I can list up to 250 in one shot...although I usually only do up to about 150.....I find that's enough for one listing otherwise it gets too complicated for some buyers. 

[mrdutch1001]

I have  a lotta "stuff" that never gets listed on either eBay or Etsy that sells well on Facebook Marketplace, as does hubby and we ship some of those FB Marketplace items>all across Canada...There are markets for most everything>one just has to find'em!

[reallynicestamps]

@rainbow71113 

I list on  hobby site that picks up my eBay listings. Sales there are lower than eBay but the only work is remembering to delete the eBay listing.

And because all my products are flat, I can scan them (at different dpi and select specific areas to scan). 

Scanning might work for your patterns and comics.

The scan is immediately on my desktop, ready to move to the SYI form.

and I have to be conscious of the original designers' suggested prices

Umm- why?
Even B&M retailers realize the prices are suggested not mandatory.

I often sell vintage paperbacks with a printed price of $0.25 ro $5.99, but my minimum price is still $9.99. 

[reallynicestamps]

I have yet to do my year end. 

Definitely down, mostly due to the postal strike, but fortunately my busy season was earlier in the year.

I'm seeing a LOT more overseas buyers.

I have switched my new listings to dotCA to take advantage of eIS shipping, which moves the cost of duties and Trump Tariff to the US buyer.  Makes no difference to overseas buyers who understand how imports and import fees work. 

And most of my Canadian sales can go LetterMail, without tracking, because philately is a "handshake" hobby.  I wouldn't try that with coin sales. 

[rainbow71113]

the reason I have to be conscious of the designer's prices is because many of them also have a website and I've had buyers ask me why my item costs more than directly from the designer. The internet has made it harder to sell certain items and trying to prove that the cross stitch chart was printed by the designer and not photocopied is also a concern.