@tunicaslot wrote:
I don't think we can blame Ebay for the postal increase - but they did have influence in the e-packet deal which went south for the PO and may be why they raised rates so high. I've always felt that instead of pushing free shipping - Ebay should have followed other venues with flat rate deals obtained for shipping through the PO. Posh for years charged a buyer a flat rate and the buyer's paid it. It wasn't until recently that I've seen the push on other venues for free shipping - which we all know isn't free.
I don't think Ebay wants to get rid of small sellers - but they also aren't doing anything to promote us. Yes we will know a head of time what items they will be promoting in July - but if you're a small seller - I'm worried about how much visibility you'll get next to the bigger guy.
Ebay has had a couple of good ads about this being the place to find everything - but they really haven't promoted the site enough - especially with all the competition. I'm hoping managed payments will open the door to a variety of new buyers who just didn't like Paypal - but at the same time - I'm concerned because of all the glitches and the fact that unless you're invited into the program - no information is being given out or questions answered. I like to know what I'm getting into. I don't like being thrown into situations and then finding out it's not for me. The more information I have the more prepared I am to deal with the good and the bad.
In order for things to sell there needs to be buyers and that means lots of qualified traffic driven to the site. That's not happening. Ebay either does not have the first clue how to do this or simply doesn't care to, or can't be bothered or whatever but it isn't happening.
if it was, ebay wouldn't be spending money on over 400 million AI Bot hits per month to make the site look busy! There is 0 benefit to doing that other than optics. 400 million is also only the tip of the iceberg likely as that is the number that is easily discernible from the traffic stats/characteristics. The clods that are running the bot farms are very likely charging extra for origin obfuscation and ebay was too cheap to pop for it on all of the traffic. I have no trouble believing that the powers that be think we are all so stupid that none of us has any clue about this.
look at your own traffic stats and the difference between off-site incoming traffic from say 2015/2016 and now. Many, many sellers are seing traffic numbers over a couple of months that they used to have in a single day!
For all the harping and harping ebay did about structured data they don't seem to employ anyone that has the first clue what it is or how to implement it. it's also not an area that can be left static as Google is forever changing the rules and the required tactics to drive traffic are always evolving.
Ahhhh Google, a big, the biggest thing, at the center of this. Ebay thinks they don't need Google. Google literally doesn't care because they sure don't need Ebay, lol...And around we go, and around we go...Only gets fixed if ebay gets on its knees and begs and starts coughing up the money that anyone else has to pay but that ebay seems to think they are too special or privileged to pay? Never understood that other than possibly being driven by someone's ego. Someone pretty clueless with a far too high opinion of himself that is purely fictitious!
so I listen to people talking about tv ads, this that and the other and I suppose if it's good conversation and you enjoy it hey, have at it, but in so far as whether or not you are going to make money on ebay it is worthless discussion, it literally means nothing. It's like talking about racing your sailboat on the weekend but your boat trailer has 3 flat tires and a busted hitch! You can't even get the boat to the water so no matter how much you postulate about racing, you're not getting to the starting line so.....
Ebay is broken, there is no one at ebay that knows how to do anything toward repairing it and no one driving anyone to do it. Look at the sales figures, not the totals, the items and the dollar value for the items. When you see that the highest % of sold items are in a dollar range that is pathetically low, explain how anyone is making any actual money beyond people that find it fulfilling selling Chinese junk or drop shipping junk or whatever but when categories like Shoes shows the biggest % of sales under $50, a big chunk under $35, you don't have to be a brain surgeon to figure out there's no money being made despite whatever yarn your favorite YouTube cheerleader spins for you. Those stats hold for pretty much every category. There is no way to spin that as anything successful or anything other than a giant FAIL.
When you know what you are looking at there is nothing mysterious here, nothing that can't be explained, other than why ebay isn't doing anything to turn this around. Believe me or not, what do I care ,but ebay is doing NOTHING to turn this around!
