SHORT VERSION:

To increase your sales faster you need 2 basic things (both, not a single one):

1) ADVERTISIG: visitors;

2) IMPROVEMENT: continuous improving your shop OVER (Top 3) main competitors in your niche: items, prices, discounts, promotions, pictures, titles, descriptions, tags, SEO, where they are advertising their shops, buying from competitors to get a deep insight, etc..).

That's all!

LONGER VERSION:

This knowledge is available for stores from Etsy, Amazon, eBay, etc. In this article, let's take as example Etsy shops:

You need ADVERTISING! It means more visitors for your shop, and without it or with too less monthly visitors, it's normal to get less sales.

Who should buy from you if you're not daily bringing visitors to your shop? You know that the traffic from Etsy's ranking algorithms is too less, or none for some days or weeks. But with advertising, you'll get constantly new daily visitors.

Unfortunately, advertising will help your shop only a few percentages to get sales, sometimes less than 1%. But that's not a reason to not use advertising, because without this, your shop will slowly die in next years or even next months.

Why advertising will help your shop only a few percentages?

Because advertising only will bring more people to your shop, but it can't force them to buy. And even if you'll bring, let's say... 1 million people to your shop, then most of them will not buy from you (they will buy from your main competitors).

And you know why?

Here is the answer: because buying from you, it will cost them money, and for this reason, each visitor is trying to buy the best offers/product for the cheapest available price. And for getting this deal, they will always compare your product(s) with at least 2 similar products from competitors (usually the best competitors in your niche).

FROM WHOM WILL THEY BUY?

They will order from the shop that offers the best price for the best quality they can find. It can be your shop, but if on Etsy are existing shops that are offerring cheaper prices and/or better quality than your shop, then almost all visitors will choose to not buy from you (they will order from a competitor).

What can you do to prevent the people to not buy from competitors, and to choose to order from your shop?

Here is the answer:

IMPROVE your shop!

Never stop improving your shop!

Do this for: shop's items, prices, discounts, promos, pictures, titles, descriptions, tags, SEO, where your competitors are advertising their shops, etc..

1) start by trying to match the offers of your biggest competitors you can find (TOP 3 competitors are enough). Do not copy/paste anything from them, else they will report your shop and you'll go in trouble.

Take a look to each detail of their shops and products: titles, tags, descriptions, delivery and refund policy, images, discounts, promotions, SEO, search their shops on Google to find out where they are advertising their shops, etc..

2) A very good idea and HIGHLY RECOMMNEDED practice is to ask a friend to buy from one (or maximum 3 main competitors). The most probably you have to support the costs, else no friend will help you.

WHY and WHAT are the BENEFITS if this practice?
You'll get a deep insight about how is selling your main competitor(s): how the competitor is handling the order, how he is communicating, if he offers discounts / coupons / promotions or other high motivational incentives, how he/she communicates for potential refunds, and a lot of other high valuable information that you can get only as customer (via a close friend: from family, work, etc).

And finaly, after getting that information, then try to make the necessary adjustments to your shop and products, to be only a little bit over your main competitors. From my practice, I know that being only with 10% - 15% better than your competitors, it's enough to motivate most of your future visitors to choose to buy from you and not from your competitors. Also, it will push your shop to pe No.1 in your niche in less than 1 year (then you'll get almost all sales in your niche).

And be AWARE that your comeptitors are not sleeping... They are trying to sell better and cheaper offers than you (even via hidden discounts, promotions).

CONCLUSION:

Well... now you know what to do when your sales are dropping:

- use ADVERTISING every month to get daily new visitors;

- IMPROVE your shop every month to at least match the prices and quality of your main competitors (preferable to provide better prices and quality).

This strategy might take you days, weeks or months of research and adjustements to improve your shop. But it's enough to increase your sales and get (steal) many old customers from your main competitors...

And don't forget that your main competitors are not sleeping. They are improving their shops month by month...

Success!