low book sales lately
I didn't find any recent posts about this problem. For me it started about a month ago. I am listing and repricing and sales barely trickle in. Is this a common experience or are you book sellers doing just fine? [I'm FBM]
Very little excitement to list hard for the coming holiday season. I've been working on inventory more, feel a modicum of success, sort of, when pulling books that clutter the shelves and aren't listed for some reason.
low book sales lately
I didn't find any recent posts about this problem. For me it started about a month ago. I am listing and repricing and sales barely trickle in. Is this a common experience or are you book sellers doing just fine? [I'm FBM]
Very little excitement to list hard for the coming holiday season. I've been working on inventory more, feel a modicum of success, sort of, when pulling books that clutter the shelves and aren't listed for some reason.
0 replies
Seller_MyXY4Myx9zVcR
September is a month of dismal book sales. I have years of records. It used to be better when college students and professors were buying books, but the change to all-digital all the time was accelerated by the pandemic.
Not much you can do other than listing new inventory, repricing, finding books in your inventory that have somehow disappeared from Amazon, and getting ready for Q4.
When making any changes to your existing inventory, watch for Amazon to de-list your books and send them into "suppressed and inactive inventory."
Seller_oF5HB95OyJK1x
It makes me feel slightly better to know I'm not in this alone. Selling books FBM since 2016, this is by far the worst it has ever been. We go days without a single sale when that never happened, even from the day we started there were sales every day. Our metrics are perfect, yet we lose Featured Offer eligibility every other week. If I had to guess, I'd blame most of the loss of sales on the economy, skyrocketing rent and grocery costs and everything else we read in the news. It is bad. Good luck to you.
Seller_O6YWkDReQ90FK
3 sales in 5 days. ZERO sales the last two days and none today so far. Way to go, AMAZON!
Seller_qTJiCxRI8PpIZ
Some things I don't see mentioned here, are you using boiler plate descriptions? Do your listings have their own images? Are you using boiler plate images? Are your prices competitive? Just some things to consider. I know for me, when I buy a book online, I will not buy from sellers who use boiler plate descriptions or images. That being said, September is always a slower month for us too. Usually starts picking up around mid October when people are starting to shop for the holidays.
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
We've seen a slowdown not only with our books on Amazon, but across the board on all platforms. The whole summer has been a little slow, but it always seems to get bad with the policos in DC start throwing hissy fits and threatening to shut down the government.
Seller_DSxBUdi9ka6fy
Library Foundation here.... We have our FBM store here, sell collectible books on the auction site, and we have small book stores in each of our branches selling books for no more than $2. For years, Amazon has been the major revenue driver for us, but last year it dropped significantly. Not coincidentally, our b&m stores had their best year ever. It's clear the economy is a driving factor - cheap books, sales are up. Expensive books, sales are down.
Amazon metrics indicate a similar trend. Year-to-year, we're still selling the same quantity of books, but our average sale has dropped from about $17 to about $9.
Seller_DBzTQPDCouH9d
It's happened in all media. Books, music, movies. Especially targeting the 3rd Party, non-pro sellers.
Seller_g7PbGX1YRsgM8
[Moderator Edit: removed off-topic commentary]
