Posting here because I am literally at a loss and i'm hoping other sellers can provide some insight.
For reference I am in the clothing and apparel category, more specifically baby clothing.
I started my business here on Amazon in May of 2023. It took me a while to understand how advertising works and bring my ACOS into profitable margins but by December of 2023 I had it down to a science.
January 2024 was my most profitable month and ACOS was under 10%. I was thrilled. All of my business was FBA.
In February, I ran out of stock in my most popular pattern and sales did fall noticeably. However, they were still very strong and i understood the reason for the decline. ACOS stayed inline.
The beginning of March, most of my listings were taken down due to the textile act and some tech glitches that came with it. My sales fell in half and it took forever to fix.
Fast forward, I finally got it fixed just in time for the summer and then Amazon removed all my listings for compliance. This was my fault since I didn't realize this was a requirement and had been selling so long without it. It took basically the entire summer to get the compliance testing done and then approved.
September, I regained most of the listings, and added more patterns (I doubled the size of the listing, went from 10 patterns, to 23 patterns). I did expect sales to jump up since I had so much more inventory but understood that the fall is notoriously slow for my business, it was last year as well. I didn't think too much of the higher ad cost or slower sales because of this.
I expected things to pick up in December. With all my listings being active, optimized and ready for the holiday season I expected to do at least as well as this time last year.
Unfortunately, the reality has been that I have done half as much in sales and ad costs are over 3x what they were last year. I am spending the same amount per click, however it is taking triple the amount of clicks to convert to a sale.
I have tried to figure out what it could be, and the following is what I have found. I am interested in hearing everyones insight on this.
1. The economy combined with an election year. I, myself find myself adding items to my cart all the time and then reminding myself that things are tight and abandoning my cart, recently more than in past years in my opinion.
2. Last year my amazon business was 100% FBA. This year it is about 80% FBM, only because I didn't have the storage at amazon to send everything. When sales fell so significantly with all my listings being taken down for half of the year, my storage fell with it. Could this be the culprit? Does FBA get that much preference to FBM? After all, it is one listing and some variations are FBA, some FBM. Would the listing be so suppressed in search results to cause the huge decline in sales?
3. Too many choices for consumers? Was putting all 23 patterns in one listing, under 1 parent a mistake? Is it too overwhelming and too many choices for the customer to where they end up clicking away but never actually purchasing? Should I look at splitting the listing? For instance, one parent asin for boy variations and one for girls? But then it leaves the issue of the unisex ASIN's which I have been told have to be either under 1 parent or the other, not both.
I do understand I am in a very competitive category, however this time last year and the beginning of this year sales were great, so i know the demand is there. I don't need to be #1 in my category or do millions of dollars in sales. (although this would be amazing). I am just a seller on here with a small business looking for an extra income. I realize this is not a get rich quick scheme and am willing to invest the time and money it takes to grow and I have thus far continued to spend more time and money despite all the obstacles and Amazon's impossible seller support team. I also do not want to continue to chase something that is unattainable. It almost feels like Amazon dangled a carrot in front of me last year, showed me how great it can be and then took it all away and no matter what I do, I cant seem to get it back. (I know this is not the case, just a frustrating feeling not being able to understand why such a drastic change in sales)
Any advise from any sellers who have been here longer/ are more seasoned?
I am trying some tailored coupons for cart abandonment and I do have enough storage in January to get the listing back fully FBA with low quantities of each ASIN in FBA. I have already started shipping more to amazon. Is there anything else I can do to bring sales back? My listing is showing in the top 100 for my sub category but still struggling to see more than 2-3 sales a day. Last year I was seeing 25-30 per day consistently this same time of year.
All insight and experience shared is greatly appreciated!
