Not this one. In the past 30 days I've had two air conditioners that died (had to replace because of 100 degree heat and I'm a wuss), my washing machine died (and going to the laundromat was costing $30+ a week), my brake light came on and never went off, had to get new brake lines run, AND I had two new tires put on my truck (out of necessity, wires popping out of your tire are never a good sign lol) and a front end alignment. $1600 in one month. I don't even make that much a month, so thank goodness for the trusty rusty emergency fund (which is beginning to deplete.
I ain't buying anything for a while, and I'm sure not paying for any experiences lol
Not this one. In the past 30 days I've had two air conditioners that died (had to replace because of 100 degree heat and I'm a wuss), my washing machine died (and going to the laundromat was costing $30+ a week), my brake light came on and never went off, had to get new brake lines run, AND I had two new tires put on my truck (out of necessity, wires popping out of your tire are never a good sign lol) and a front end alignment. $1600 in one month. I don't even make that much a month, so thank goodness for the trusty rusty emergency fund (which is beginning to deplete.
I ain't buying anything for a while, and I'm sure not paying for any experiences lol
@southern*sweet*tea ouch...things will get better.
It's rebound from all the time Covid kept them in.
Quite a few folks got out of the habit of traveling and are on the move in the last year or two. We took our first real vacation in 8 years this summer. Our lapse was due to one thing after another happening and then the pandemic hit though we are quite pleased right where we are, so vacationing has not been at the forefront.
Still, a lot of people just don't have the extra money to spend on wants. Inflated cost of groceries, rent, utilities, gasoline etc. take a major bite out of their spending habits. This is a significant portion of the population. A lot of families have also switched to one income as one spouse now stays home. Two out of my three sons have done that. Two of the wives now stay home and out of the workforce.
It's rebound from all the time Covid kept them in.
Quite a few folks got out of the habit of traveling and are on the move in the last year or two. We took our first real vacation in 8 years this summer. Our lapse was due to one thing after another happening and then the pandemic hit though we are quite pleased right where we are, so vacationing has not been at the forefront.
Still, a lot of people just don't have the extra money to spend on wants. Inflated cost of groceries, rent, utilities, gasoline etc. take a major bite out of their spending habits. This is a significant portion of the population. A lot of families have also switched to one income as one spouse now stays home. Two out of my three sons have done that. Two of the wives now stay home and out of the workforce.
All true yet there are some 8 million open jobs and claims are if you can believe claims if those were filled would generate near 7 trillion dollars of wealth over the next 10 years. I'd like see the math myself but that's what I'd heard out of WashingStone DC. I call in that now because I think we're headed to better times like the Flintstones had and according to a Facebook Group the Flintstones were actually real people they modelled cartoonomics after. "Bam! Bam! Bam Bam Bam!" wasn't just a slung together repetition of actionable term but instead a highly effective campaign phrase of the day like, "Make America Great Again" but better!
The skilled trades are really hurting for people who can make wooden axles and stone tires and lush ergonomics. Yet here we are wanting to exile heaps of illegal aliens from the Planet South Ummerica who are willing to work. Send money back to their planet folk and raise they're standards of wiving making for a more stable hemisphere for all to strip mine and devour the natural resources. Its just terrible.
Why I remember being a young lad and playing "The Game Of Life" where the little car had a husband, wife and four kids. Now they are small hybrid SUV's costing more than I could ever make in the game and I've no clue who's in the drivers seat next to me and in the back there is only room for two kids or one and my Jack Russell Terrier. I guess all things change and that's why the underwear I just adore is now behind lock key in plexiglass cases at Walmart. Thinking back I knew something was adrift last year when my Horoscope one day said, "Before you look ahead be sure and check whats behind..."
Yes I do. Every time I turn a corner or move a couple boxes I seem to find more coins in my brothers house. Just found a jar today that must have weighed around 15 lbs. filled with everything from pennies to $1.00 coins. Getting sick of taking them to coin star machines in multiple stores. Don't want to use just one since I typically wind up with over $100.00 per visit.
It is the only thing making me going with this cleanout.
Already filled a ten yard capacity dumpster to the 2/3rd mark, and five loads to donations to drop off spots.
They are spending... July for example saw better than anticipated sales for school and college materials spending, a significant uptick in fact.
Sure there are many financials still way out of whack due to the now endemic pandemic such as housing, rental for example. I don't know how that straightens out as if homeowners loose equity caused by lack of inventory during the pandemic were to normalize back to pre-pandemic people are going to go batsomatic. It might the first time in 50+ years (likely so!) that so many homeowners paid off or not had such a gigantic equity boost, largest in US history perhaps.
Food of course has always waxed and waned and there exist countless factors involved from harvest issues be they good or bad to war and all things between. Restaurants cope with increased minimum wage and it too is a double edged sword if folks continue pay the pricing well, pricing stays. Unlike mainstream grocers who cant slap $10 on a carton of eggs without consumers hitting up media or contacting State AG's in respect to gouging restaurants can set the price.
America has had a far far far better recovery from the botched handling of the global pandemic than pretty much anyplace in the world. Perhaps that's in large part due to the "We must consume the entire universe twice over" mindsets but I also there is more to that and it does effect us all at eBay.
Most retailers considered the web a sideline venture and thus much of supply chain did as well. Caught with their pants down via the closures their models shifted and they've been innovating those models ever since. Take for example delisted merch. Delisted merch is not wholesale nor surplus its product who's shelf life has reached its peak and waned accordingly. Happens to literally every product. Traditionally that merch go on sale then whatever left in stores or warehouses be managed in varied way from being destroyed and writing off loss to being offered up as "delisted merch" whereby the cost of manufacture and a bit more be taken in. Only after that would it go surplus/wholesale as varied lot sizes. The delisted merch still only sold to Authorized Resellers not Third Party Sellers. So for example as say an authorized seller of Mattel Inc. I could get my hands on that stuff before it ever go to being destroyed, reclamation, or surplus sold out to wholesalers in lots. The third party seller be buying off the wholesaler who'd knabbing a good chuck of profit.
Now, models are shifting... The retailers leveraging the Internet are able to sell that delisted merch to consumers offering these gigantic discounts up to 80%. Its not necessarily in many cases even the retailer who is performing fulfillment but instead contracted firms doing that work. It affords manufacturers to move the inventory using the retail webs and revenue share (along with other models) with the retailer. Meanwhile the fulfillment is sub-contract affording the tax benefits and the online retailers the consumer traffic which is hard to just buy.
For these open marketplaces and even their core 25-35% of authorized resellers they are now in a direct competition with those retailers webs for the traffic. For the consumer spending dollar. There is no open marketplace that can effectively compete against unified supply chain models that afford consumers such enormous values. In fact many the Third Party Sellers are trying source through those models which can ONLY ultimately fail those sellers. See it here allot. There's the merch they got at 70% off shipped to them only to try markup and the stuff wont effectively move, it just depreciates as the supply chain is a constant of delisted or surplus merch.
Retailers also have advantage within using Brick and Mortar with ship to store, store to home delivery and more as well as an ability to better leverage the technology. eBay for example cannot make a notification app targeting consumers with blowout deals when you've millions of sellers. Kohls however can and as AI comes more into shopping play it can only get worse. We're going to see places like Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile etc offering up value added capabilities to their offerings and brands in conjunction with online retail. Supply chain has both the resources and capability to use the technology to very effectively at high resolution target consumers.
All that said in the past I'd mentioned a concept I called "The Auction Mall" that I'd invented in my brain strudel. Several weeks back at camp I'd sat down for a handful of hours thinking about how these open marketplaces might be able to survive the wane supply chain is creating not to mention the legislative wants in supply chain and retail that Mr. Trump opened the door to and now can't be closed. The Auction Mall concept CAN effectively compete against big retail online and supply chain!
If eBay were to reinvent the site towards that concept now there is an engine that CAN! I was pretty surprised to see that, in fact very surprised. The irony in it all is over the past two weeks sales have fell off a cliff for me not that they've ever been real robust in recent times given my merch and I get that. So now I've been forced to consider just taking all of it and I've BUCKETS of it that's not listed and shleping it all off to FBA and just washing of all of it. Use my time to get back to programming be that Wordpress Plugins or mobile apps, whatever.
Why is stuff not listed? Well its like this... I've the basic storefront which affords me some free listings. Whilst I could go listing crazy as it appears eBay wants me to do that, go over what is the said limitation before getting hit with listing fees there exist no guarantees of tomorrow. So lets say I list 5000 items and haven't paid a listing fee, one day I awaken and and I'm facing 9000 of 10000 listings at .35 cents a pop. So get the proper level storefront right? Well if sales justified that okie dokie but they dont. With Mamazon whom I cant stand $40 and away we go as many items as I care put they're way.
Interesting post, here's the problem with mamazon now....while we do huge revenue on there...they are pretty much doing away with third party sellers and businesses. Their new shipping rules are insanity and come Sept 24th everyone is being automatically enrolled into their ship automation system which requires 1 day shipping and expedited services in most cases. There's no way around it, and if you don't make their stupid 90 whatever % ship/delivery date your out. They want everything to arrive on an exact certain day and time (completely impossible) and if you ship early your in trouble. So as it is were being forced to withhold shipments, because of their new handling time gap policy. So were out on mamazon probably come October, these geeks running these platforms are doing everything they can to do away with small business and small American business owners. Yes that's mamazon and not ebay thankfully, yet....... but when you rely on both and have to have both to run your business, we don't know what's going to happen now because we cant comply with the nightmare of the new ship system. Ebay wont cut it alone when one does far better on mamazon. Do you have any thoughts on that or know more?
Interesting post, here's the problem with mamazon now....while we do huge revenue on there...they are pretty much doing away with third party sellers and businesses. Their new shipping rules are insanity and come Sept 24th everyone is being automatically enrolled into their ship automation system which requires 1 day shipping and expedited services in most cases. There's no way around it, and if you don't make their stupid 90 whatever % ship/delivery date your out. They want everything to arrive on an exact certain day and time (completely impossible) and if you ship early your in trouble. So as it is were being forced to withhold shipments, because of their new handling time gap policy. So were out on mamazon probably come October, these geeks running these platforms are doing everything they can to do away with small business and small American business owners. Yes that's mamazon and not ebay thankfully, yet....... but when you rely on both and have to have both to run your business, we don't know what's going to happen now because we cant comply with the nightmare of the new ship system. Ebay wont cut it alone when one does far better on mamazon. Do you have any thoughts on that or know more?
I gave Mamazon a small try sometime ago and it was ok given the limited stuff I sent their way. Way back when I was an "Anchor Tenant" there but that was long ago before FBA even existed.
Now outside looking in Mamazon has far far more competition than ever and not from eBay but from the likes of Walmart and big retail who have or are now mainstreaming web sales. Its purported Walmart now has in excess of 600,000 external vendors and they certainly have advantage over even Mamazon. Those advantages include to shipping to a brick and mortar retail outlet where consumers can look at what they bought right there. Walmart recently build a gigantic warehouse facility and the company has perhaps the finest freighting arm of any retailer in the world. Now because of Walmarts leap into success online sliding into the #2 spot other retailers are both reacting and inventing new models for eCommerce. As I noted in a prior post they've many an advantage over the small fries be they Authorized Resellers or Third Party sellers given the unified supply chain and unique abilities for the online retail outlets to better target consumers.
There are many questions such as how places like Target Merchandise can stay sustainable in respect to what say Walmart is doing. Does it become a if you cant beat them, join them and how? Targets online infrastructure last I knew is powered by Amazon Web Services.
The "Crunch" online to not only acquire and try sequester targeted consumer traffic and spending by big retail and the unified supply chain spells IMHO even worse times for these open marketplace formats. Atop all this is evolving technologies whereby mobile shopping is now the rage versus the traditional PC or Laptop. 3D Headsets have finally began getting a growing market mainly do to the Meta Quest offerings and Meta's vision of the Metaverse. That has resulted in both Apple and Samsung working towards 3D technologies to also try and revolutionize the Internet. Towards commerce and hard goods if you could imagine shopping in 3D where does that leave sites like eBay or other open marketplaces? It be like MSDOS versus Windows IMHO.
The question here at eBay if I were up in the board room is how does eBay navigate into the future but also whats going on right now. I'd imagine creating a price competitive mechanism like Mamazon's "Race to the Bottom" with re-pricing would be quite helpful BUT sellers surely revolt and with the diversity here of products and ability to create listings would be a formidable engineering and changes task for the company.
Now the concept I'd come up with some 20 years ago through experience not only in these open marketplaces, Mamazon itself but also the myriads of business to consumer sites that existed led me to create the concept. I vended at sites such as Auction World, iDeal Networks, Surplus Direct, uBid and the former giant that were the Onsale Supersites having had a merchant account as well.
I'd called it "The Auction Mall" as it had all the elements of all of the above format sites and more. Here at eBay now due to sheer mass everything is driven through search and filters which is cumbersome, time consuming and wrought with elements of frustration. That in a time when consumers are more and more seeking ease and confidence in shopping online right from the moment they begin to look for something be that at Google, Mamazon or here for example.
Thus a logical step would be a natural partitioning of eBay categories easing that process right from word go. eBay storefronts are not robust at all in comparison to traditional shopping applications and that should not be the case IMHO... They need be robust and potential buyers need have a landing page just like sellers do. This provides instant access to their prior shopping and affords better targeted search and exposures. eBay has addressed this in some respects but its not robust. The focus here seems remain that of always search dependency versus storefront dependency affording the sellers far more capabilities.
Things such as more focal advertising and sales partnerships with other vendors and much more. Its my feeling that extensibility of sellers working towards mutual successes is a key in combating big retail gains. For example, I peddle mainly ancient PC games which once were mainstream and now very much not. I'd have no issue at all partnering with a handful of traditional video game vendors whereby our storefronts provide a better focal shopping experience to the consumer and we do a revenue share type arrangement or some form of fixed mutually beneficial arrangement. The Auction Mall afforded all of this and more, a platform that is able to continually evolve and be extensible.
Take for example how big retail via mobile app notifications and shopping can target consumers highly effectively yet we've nothing of the sort. Yet a concept such as the Auction Mall it fits right in like a glove whereby consumers can get an app that delivers them offers from multiple vendors working as one per se to bring the consumer to bare.
Localization is another huge missed opportunity here. Facebook Marketplace is not only a disaster but its a big disaster however that said, allot of commerce takes place there that isn't happening here. Facebook is not about that marketplace, its about the Metaverse, a convergence of technology long under way. 3D travel, shopping, education, on and on and the capability to drive it via its enormous social media platform.
The problem with localization within an eBay is fee avoidance but this can be shattered via a decent authentications mechanism with strict penalties of misuse. Localizing shopping can have many many benefits for both sellers and consumers, facebook marketplace is proof albeit a disaster implementation from my software engineering perspective.
If all of whats going on wasn't bad enough we've government wanting to regulate gifting supply chain unheard of controls and placing absolutely no onus on them for acting wrongfully.
Sellers here who succeed well the last thing they want is upheaval of change towards eBay's longevity and future IF its going to impact them in a negative fashion now or in the future. Sellers who struggle need change to occur on the site in order to be sustainable. As sellers fail ultimately a cascade IMHO over a time span also impacts those who are succeeding as a whole across the platform. Its ALWAYS been a misnomer that if sellers fail that OTHER SELLERS reap gains... Completely untrue. This was actually a key aspect of why the two big guys back in the day (Onsale Supersites and Surplus Direct) both began failing. Their brilliance was to combine both venues and that caused the entire thing to collapse. Both sites had trained on competition and naturally focused on those sellers making the most revenues. But the myriads of sellers failing ended up causing prices to rise, traffic to wane resulting in a cascade of even the sellers making good hay to wane. Many of those sellers who were failing came to here, eBay and Amazon and both ultimately destroyed literal buckets of these once very successful business to consumer sites such as Onsale, iDeal Networks, uBid, Surplus Direct, Overstock.com and others. Point being what erased them from the planet was a cascade that came forth INTERNALLY not EXTERNALLY. By the time the external impacts were felt its already far too late.
There are many many challenges eBay faces from literally every conceivable angle right now unlike any time in its existence and sellers need realize that. Instead of blowing their tops at eBay the question needs to be how does eBay be sustained and what changes need be embraced to make that a reality. The challenge of mobile devices alone in a "list based venue" with so much data is a HUGE formidable task.
@retro_entertainment_collectibles A lot in your post. I'll confine myself to this:
"eBay storefronts are not robust at all in comparison to traditional shopping applications and that should not be the case IMHO..."
In the brief period between Wenig's departure and Iannone's arrival, I actually had hope that ebay, after years of pernicious neglect, had finally realized that ebay stores were an incredibly important resource. Provide robust, full featured stores , and ebay sellers could compete (and cooperate) with each other , as well as compete with other sites. And most sellers want a feeling of ownership--it's MY store, and I want it to be the best it can be.
But no, I was wrong about ebay's direction. I'm not even sure there's an actual Stores team anymore. And we've seen that ebay does not value the concept of seller ownership....witness what we used to think of as "MY" listings, now crowded with competitor's ads, and with less and less ability to really customize a listing.
Once Iannone came on, I think any plans to really develop stores went out the window, in favor of First party Ad revenue.
And how has that worked out?
Well, the ad revenue has certainly helped ebay itself, no question, but many sellers have grown to dislike ads, even some who were advocates initially. But, as far as I can tell, all those ads, all that Focus Category marketing rather than sitewide marketing has resulted in....no substantial improvement in GMV. Instead, a shrinking share of the overall ecommerce landscape, a reduction in buyers and sellers, and , if such a thing is possible, even more discontent among the ebay rank and file than under Wenig. For many sellers, growth now comes primarily from going multi channel, rather than from ebay itself.
ebay lives in fear of sellers taking transactions off ebay, but ebay itself has pushed more sellers into multi channel selling, which probably had the net effect of moving more sales off ebay than if sellers were sneaking some off -ebay sales into the mix.
If ebay would reduce its focus on First Party Ads and focus on giving us the tools to compete based on merit rather than based on how much extra we are willing to spend, ebay might actually gain back some of the ground it has lost.
@rosszonebricks We have so much stuff here in death, I mean, profit piles, that I shouldn't even be going to yard sales. But I agree...for anyone with sufficient funds, this is a good time to be buying (selectively, of course, plenty of over-priced stuff out there right now too). But a lot of people are downsizing or cleaning up estates, not to mention people who need ready cash. So spend wisely today, and reap the rewards tomorrow.
Do you sell wholesale lots there, is that the idea?
District has a lot of little niche sub-sites, I mostly only use the commons one, which is supposed to be seller to seller wholesale. They don't charge fees on shipping on the commons part of the site, which makes it perfect to unload stuff in bulk that I don't personally like dealing with. And you can equally find bulk lots of the stuff you do like to deal with. It is one of those deals that you have to check it frequently though as the best lots vanish fast.
@onefootflipper Very interesting. I suspect I could find some stuff here that I don't really want to list, but I also don't want to just toss....stuff that still has some meat on the bones if I sell it at a low enough price, and I'd be making space. Thanks!
I'm a consumer and have stopped buying clothing and whatever electronics & appliances I have will just have to last and be worn longer.
Yes, there's money out there consumers just not spending it on items they already have like clothing and appliances. Spending it on trips and experiences. Also, remember credit cards have to be paid off.
There is little doubt on that. How many $ millions are spent every day on this site? Well over 100 million buyers. God forbid anywhere from 1 to 51 of them buy from me! lol
my sales are good and after I did this past months tally in excel this morn profit was up $130 from previous 2 months (still not best month this year, but bit better then past 2 prior)
we use to be swamped here on holiday weekends with orders, not anymore, the entire weekend not a single order. Meanwhile amazn has been doing gangbusters all weekend long. There is something wrong with ebay. Yes people are off work going and doing, but when one site is flowing in orders nonstop and this one seems turned off, its telling.
You also have to remember that the BIG A also advertises a heck of a lot more then Ebay does. Back in the day Ebay use to be printed on all your USPS Priority mail boxes, they advertised on TV and radio. Not so much anymore...
Ebay appears no longer to be the extremely popular spending destination it was in past years. I suspect manny people are spending more of their discretionary money for sensory experiences.
Optimism
Your 2024 ebay happy holiday buying season will soon arrive
Mixed residential /commercial is a big deal in high rise building here. And the low rise malls are looking at it too.
There are more parkades* and fewer parking lots at the 21st century malls too.
The only problem I see is that most of the downtown ones seem to think that the shops will be boutiques or mom'n'pops, but as with a lot of new construction, rents are high for those owners. And the big chains prefer the malls.
Our provincial government is offering a lot of financial support for building "affordable " housing much of which is high rise or townhomes in central Victoria , and shopping is certainly a part of that.
I'm waiting to see the first highrise with preschool to Grade Six classrooms. That could work too, especially if adjacent to a public park.
*A Western Canadian -ism. A parkade is a parking garage, usually mostly above ground, and open to the weather.
The all important 18-49 age group have wanted 'adventure' over stuff the past 5+ years now- especially since the Pandemic when staying home buying stuff got old REAL fast.
The all important 18-49 age group have wanted 'adventure' over stuff the past 5+ years now- especially since the Pandemic when staying home buying stuff got old REAL fast.
Bingo.
Add in Boomers/GenX who are getting rid of stuff and wanting to travel, go back to school, etc.
I recall the "sport buying" years of the 80s and 90s when many people went to the various malls to shop as a sort of pastime. The retail sector boomed and kept building and building...then the bubble burst. Internet shopping came along, new generations aren't interested in constant consumption. The pandemic I agree got people thirstier to get away from the screen/stores and doing something else and that accelerated things.
Stores here are busy, though our local mall is being converted into mixed use shops and housing, something that has shown a lot of success.
The all important 18-49 age group have wanted 'adventure' over stuff the past 5+ years now- especially since the Pandemic when staying home buying stuff got old REAL fast.
Bingo.
Add in Boomers/GenX who are getting rid of stuff and wanting to travel, go back to school, etc.
I recall the "sport buying" years of the 80s and 90s when many people went to the various malls to shop as a sort of pastime. The retail sector boomed and kept building and building...then the bubble burst. Internet shopping came along, new generations aren't interested in constant consumption. The pandemic I agree got people thirstier to get away from the screen/stores and doing something else and that accelerated things.
Stores here are busy, though our local mall is being converted into mixed use shops and housing, something that has shown a lot of success.
A good deal of the retail sector (online/off) doing rather well at least in the USA presently. I'm sure there are many sellers at eBay doing decently as well. I don't know what's going on here, sales last few weeks been so poor its not worth continuing on here.
Most Q4 retail forecasts I've seen are making fairly rosy projections for ecommerce (somewhat less so for B&M) , with the hedge that much of the growth might go to a relatively few sites---Amazon being the Number One site, of course. I tend to agree that , barring something unforeseen, ecommerce overall might see some growth. How much of that will ebay see (especially in terms of actual sales growth, not ebay's revenue growth via first party ad income)....well, that's open to question.
My gut feeling is that neither consumer anxiety about the upcoming election nor the state of the economy overall is the biggest issue for ebay. I think it is the enormous increase in competition, and ebay's inability to stop that competition from chipping away at the buyer base, the seller base, and market share.
ebay is nowhere near collapse, but serious GMV growth appears elusive, and the more dependent ebay becomes on ad revenue, the more frustrated the seller base becomes, and the more attractive other venues look.
ebay Open (and probably the Fall Update) will be here in a few weeks, and it is an opportunity for ebay to make some real pivots. But I doubt that will happen.
Most Q4 retail forecasts I've seen are making fairly rosy projections for ecommerce (somewhat less so for B&M) , with the hedge that much of the growth might go to a relatively few sites---Amazon being the Number One site, of course. I tend to agree that , barring something unforeseen, ecommerce overall might see some growth. How much of that will ebay see (especially in terms of actual sales growth, not ebay's revenue growth via first party ad income)....well, that's open to question.
My gut feeling is that neither consumer anxiety about the upcoming election nor the state of the economy overall is the biggest issue for ebay. I think it is the enormous increase in competition, and ebay's inability to stop that competition from chipping away at the buyer base, the seller base, and market share.
ebay is nowhere near collapse, but serious GMV growth appears elusive, and the more dependent ebay becomes on ad revenue, the more frustrated the seller base becomes, and the more attractive other venues look.
ebay Open (and probably the Fall Update) will be here in a few weeks, and it is an opportunity for ebay to make some real pivots. But I doubt that will happen.
I read bunch of news and basically always have, various retail associations and such. Many people are tapped out right now due to school buying, college buying etc. July was above retail expectations for many retailers.
Retailers in general have been embracing the online universe since the end of the pandemic which hasn't ended but sounds good say it has. We don't hear it called "Endemic" which is the new reality. All that aside online retailers since the alleged end of the pandemic claim retail webs are up 40% in traffic and 30% in sales across the spectrum since. That stuff gets measured by places like the NRF and others where retailers reports varied things to.
Q4 associations have said will be likely the most aggressive in retailer modern history due to multiple factors including the election uncertainty of course.
Now I never said eBay is verge of collapse, what I said is the last two weeks sales have been just dismal for me not that I have what would be deemed product that the masses now seek. It's all vertical market now but once was mainstream... I don't make oodles on it in whole but generally been pretty happy given the stuff and my pricing structure which is admittedly high and sales tend be by offers.
See what happens but if things stay the course of the past two weeks everything I have is going to end up over at FBA as its just not worth me keeping at it. I'll go back to writing Wordpress Plugins or take my hand at trying code some mobile games or something.
Someone advised off the forums here I carbon copy over to Mercari but I'm not a real fan of the place. I'm not a fan of Amazon either but since at least the past two weeks it appears my sales have completely tanked here that's the option, FBA and just let it roll.
@retro_entertainment_collectibles Just to be clear, my statement about collapse wasn't a direct response to what you said, just a general observation.
If your sales are that low, then FBA might indeed be your best bet.
I do agree that Q4 will see some very aggressive retailing---it is a highly competitive environment, and I expect to see many retailers pushing their holiday shopping forward ("Black Fall" rather than "Black Friday") , aggressive discounting (some of it real, some less so), and aggressive marketing, from TV ads down to using social media micro influencers. As always, there will be winners and losers, and I think everyone pretty much expects Amazon will be one of the bog winners , especially in terms of market share and gross sales. So hopefully that will carry over to your FBA stuff.
All that said, if I were selling in the entrenched focus categories on ebay, I'd have more hope that ebay will push hard to gain or at least maintain share. But I don't sell in the focus categories, and if the CEO continues has past strategy, the holiday marketing focus will be almost solely on focus categories, with the rest of us praying for the trickle down effect to actually trickle down. Given that ebay has more competition than ever, including in the non focus categories I sell in, the failure to market the site as a whole will once again hurt many ebay sellers.
I'm sticking around, I'm making changes and trying new things, but I realize there's only so much I can do as an individual seller.....there are many things the platform could do, but I have zero expectations about that happening.
Car insurance rates up 26% from last year -- wait for the sticker shock. 10 years of car insurance costs more than the new car in today's world. LOL. Postage rate increase too high too on the commercial side (12oz package over 5 bucks, too high, that should be 15oz, and watch out for the 1 lb rate if the package is 15.999oz....USPS thieves stealing dough from sellers who have to pass it on to buyers.).
The first American car to figure out how to sell a new sedan for $15K will get bangup sales. The first Chinese car company or Indian company to figure out how make a new sedan and sell it for $15K will be far ahead of anyone.
nikjo_4
·1 year agoThanks for all commentators to answer. I really like peninsula truck lines tracking it. This blog is very helpful for me.
southern*sweet*tea
·1 year ago@nuclearomen Thanks! No doubt they will. I just hate when things happen all at once. Why can't it spread out all throughout the year?
Oh well, life goes on 🙂
nuclearomen
·1 year agoi think it does spread out through the year but every now and then get "a few things" that all happen round same time.
It's not without experience, have our own cascading pile of niceness here, and yes, vehicle maintenance is also coming up here, brakes for sure.
southern*sweet*tea
·1 year agoSOME buyers have money.
Not this one. In the past 30 days I've had two air conditioners that died (had to replace because of 100 degree heat and I'm a wuss), my washing machine died (and going to the laundromat was costing $30+ a week), my brake light came on and never went off, had to get new brake lines run, AND I had two new tires put on my truck (out of necessity, wires popping out of your tire are never a good sign lol) and a front end alignment. $1600 in one month. I don't even make that much a month, so thank goodness for the trusty rusty emergency fund (which is beginning to deplete.
I ain't buying anything for a while, and I'm sure not paying for any experiences lol
nuclearomen
·1 year ago@southern*sweet*tea ouch...things will get better.
simba6
·1 year agoIt's rebound from all the time Covid kept them in.
lakefor94
·1 year agoQuite a few folks got out of the habit of traveling and are on the move in the last year or two. We took our first real vacation in 8 years this summer. Our lapse was due to one thing after another happening and then the pandemic hit though we are quite pleased right where we are, so vacationing has not been at the forefront.
Still, a lot of people just don't have the extra money to spend on wants. Inflated cost of groceries, rent, utilities, gasoline etc. take a major bite out of their spending habits. This is a significant portion of the population. A lot of families have also switched to one income as one spouse now stays home. Two out of my three sons have done that. Two of the wives now stay home and out of the workforce.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·1 year agoAll true yet there are some 8 million open jobs and claims are if you can believe claims if those were filled would generate near 7 trillion dollars of wealth over the next 10 years. I'd like see the math myself but that's what I'd heard out of WashingStone DC. I call in that now because I think we're headed to better times like the Flintstones had and according to a Facebook Group the Flintstones were actually real people they modelled cartoonomics after. "Bam! Bam! Bam Bam Bam!" wasn't just a slung together repetition of actionable term but instead a highly effective campaign phrase of the day like, "Make America Great Again" but better!
The skilled trades are really hurting for people who can make wooden axles and stone tires and lush ergonomics. Yet here we are wanting to exile heaps of illegal aliens from the Planet South Ummerica who are willing to work. Send money back to their planet folk and raise they're standards of wiving making for a more stable hemisphere for all to strip mine and devour the natural resources. Its just terrible.
Why I remember being a young lad and playing "The Game Of Life" where the little car had a husband, wife and four kids. Now they are small hybrid SUV's costing more than I could ever make in the game and I've no clue who's in the drivers seat next to me and in the back there is only room for two kids or one and my Jack Russell Terrier. I guess all things change and that's why the underwear I just adore is now behind lock key in plexiglass cases at Walmart. Thinking back I knew something was adrift last year when my Horoscope one day said, "Before you look ahead be sure and check whats behind..."
mike_jayroe
·1 year agoYes I do. Every time I turn a corner or move a couple boxes I seem to find more coins in my brothers house. Just found a jar today that must have weighed around 15 lbs. filled with everything from pennies to $1.00 coins. Getting sick of taking them to coin star machines in multiple stores. Don't want to use just one since I typically wind up with over $100.00 per visit.
It is the only thing making me going with this cleanout.
Already filled a ten yard capacity dumpster to the 2/3rd mark, and five loads to donations to drop off spots.
UGH.
inhawaii
·1 year agoI went to a mid-level restaurant last night.
About $50 per person.
There was a line out the door and a 1 hour wait.
Yes, people do have money to spend.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·1 year agoThey are spending... July for example saw better than anticipated sales for school and college materials spending, a significant uptick in fact.
Sure there are many financials still way out of whack due to the now endemic pandemic such as housing, rental for example. I don't know how that straightens out as if homeowners loose equity caused by lack of inventory during the pandemic were to normalize back to pre-pandemic people are going to go batsomatic. It might the first time in 50+ years (likely so!) that so many homeowners paid off or not had such a gigantic equity boost, largest in US history perhaps.
Food of course has always waxed and waned and there exist countless factors involved from harvest issues be they good or bad to war and all things between. Restaurants cope with increased minimum wage and it too is a double edged sword if folks continue pay the pricing well, pricing stays. Unlike mainstream grocers who cant slap $10 on a carton of eggs without consumers hitting up media or contacting State AG's in respect to gouging restaurants can set the price.
America has had a far far far better recovery from the botched handling of the global pandemic than pretty much anyplace in the world. Perhaps that's in large part due to the "We must consume the entire universe twice over" mindsets but I also there is more to that and it does effect us all at eBay.
Most retailers considered the web a sideline venture and thus much of supply chain did as well. Caught with their pants down via the closures their models shifted and they've been innovating those models ever since. Take for example delisted merch. Delisted merch is not wholesale nor surplus its product who's shelf life has reached its peak and waned accordingly. Happens to literally every product. Traditionally that merch go on sale then whatever left in stores or warehouses be managed in varied way from being destroyed and writing off loss to being offered up as "delisted merch" whereby the cost of manufacture and a bit more be taken in. Only after that would it go surplus/wholesale as varied lot sizes. The delisted merch still only sold to Authorized Resellers not Third Party Sellers. So for example as say an authorized seller of Mattel Inc. I could get my hands on that stuff before it ever go to being destroyed, reclamation, or surplus sold out to wholesalers in lots. The third party seller be buying off the wholesaler who'd knabbing a good chuck of profit.
Now, models are shifting... The retailers leveraging the Internet are able to sell that delisted merch to consumers offering these gigantic discounts up to 80%. Its not necessarily in many cases even the retailer who is performing fulfillment but instead contracted firms doing that work. It affords manufacturers to move the inventory using the retail webs and revenue share (along with other models) with the retailer. Meanwhile the fulfillment is sub-contract affording the tax benefits and the online retailers the consumer traffic which is hard to just buy.
For these open marketplaces and even their core 25-35% of authorized resellers they are now in a direct competition with those retailers webs for the traffic. For the consumer spending dollar. There is no open marketplace that can effectively compete against unified supply chain models that afford consumers such enormous values. In fact many the Third Party Sellers are trying source through those models which can ONLY ultimately fail those sellers. See it here allot. There's the merch they got at 70% off shipped to them only to try markup and the stuff wont effectively move, it just depreciates as the supply chain is a constant of delisted or surplus merch.
Retailers also have advantage within using Brick and Mortar with ship to store, store to home delivery and more as well as an ability to better leverage the technology. eBay for example cannot make a notification app targeting consumers with blowout deals when you've millions of sellers. Kohls however can and as AI comes more into shopping play it can only get worse. We're going to see places like Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile etc offering up value added capabilities to their offerings and brands in conjunction with online retail. Supply chain has both the resources and capability to use the technology to very effectively at high resolution target consumers.
All that said in the past I'd mentioned a concept I called "The Auction Mall" that I'd invented in my brain strudel. Several weeks back at camp I'd sat down for a handful of hours thinking about how these open marketplaces might be able to survive the wane supply chain is creating not to mention the legislative wants in supply chain and retail that Mr. Trump opened the door to and now can't be closed. The Auction Mall concept CAN effectively compete against big retail online and supply chain!
If eBay were to reinvent the site towards that concept now there is an engine that CAN! I was pretty surprised to see that, in fact very surprised. The irony in it all is over the past two weeks sales have fell off a cliff for me not that they've ever been real robust in recent times given my merch and I get that. So now I've been forced to consider just taking all of it and I've BUCKETS of it that's not listed and shleping it all off to FBA and just washing of all of it. Use my time to get back to programming be that Wordpress Plugins or mobile apps, whatever.
Why is stuff not listed? Well its like this... I've the basic storefront which affords me some free listings. Whilst I could go listing crazy as it appears eBay wants me to do that, go over what is the said limitation before getting hit with listing fees there exist no guarantees of tomorrow. So lets say I list 5000 items and haven't paid a listing fee, one day I awaken and and I'm facing 9000 of 10000 listings at .35 cents a pop. So get the proper level storefront right? Well if sales justified that okie dokie but they dont. With Mamazon whom I cant stand $40 and away we go as many items as I care put they're way.
I wish I had hair to pull out LOL.
chapeau-noir
·1 year agobrain strudel
Acid trance band!
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·1 year agoAs in ​hallucinogen, sick to stomach or both? Inquiring strudels want to know!
norskmediashop
·1 year agoInteresting post, here's the problem with mamazon now....while we do huge revenue on there...they are pretty much doing away with third party sellers and businesses. Their new shipping rules are insanity and come Sept 24th everyone is being automatically enrolled into their ship automation system which requires 1 day shipping and expedited services in most cases. There's no way around it, and if you don't make their stupid 90 whatever % ship/delivery date your out. They want everything to arrive on an exact certain day and time (completely impossible) and if you ship early your in trouble. So as it is were being forced to withhold shipments, because of their new handling time gap policy. So were out on mamazon probably come October, these geeks running these platforms are doing everything they can to do away with small business and small American business owners. Yes that's mamazon and not ebay thankfully, yet....... but when you rely on both and have to have both to run your business, we don't know what's going to happen now because we cant comply with the nightmare of the new ship system. Ebay wont cut it alone when one does far better on mamazon. Do you have any thoughts on that or know more?
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·1 year agoI gave Mamazon a small try sometime ago and it was ok given the limited stuff I sent their way. Way back when I was an "Anchor Tenant" there but that was long ago before FBA even existed.
Now outside looking in Mamazon has far far more competition than ever and not from eBay but from the likes of Walmart and big retail who have or are now mainstreaming web sales. Its purported Walmart now has in excess of 600,000 external vendors and they certainly have advantage over even Mamazon. Those advantages include to shipping to a brick and mortar retail outlet where consumers can look at what they bought right there. Walmart recently build a gigantic warehouse facility and the company has perhaps the finest freighting arm of any retailer in the world. Now because of Walmarts leap into success online sliding into the #2 spot other retailers are both reacting and inventing new models for eCommerce. As I noted in a prior post they've many an advantage over the small fries be they Authorized Resellers or Third Party sellers given the unified supply chain and unique abilities for the online retail outlets to better target consumers.
There are many questions such as how places like Target Merchandise can stay sustainable in respect to what say Walmart is doing. Does it become a if you cant beat them, join them and how? Targets online infrastructure last I knew is powered by Amazon Web Services.
The "Crunch" online to not only acquire and try sequester targeted consumer traffic and spending by big retail and the unified supply chain spells IMHO even worse times for these open marketplace formats. Atop all this is evolving technologies whereby mobile shopping is now the rage versus the traditional PC or Laptop. 3D Headsets have finally began getting a growing market mainly do to the Meta Quest offerings and Meta's vision of the Metaverse. That has resulted in both Apple and Samsung working towards 3D technologies to also try and revolutionize the Internet. Towards commerce and hard goods if you could imagine shopping in 3D where does that leave sites like eBay or other open marketplaces? It be like MSDOS versus Windows IMHO.
The question here at eBay if I were up in the board room is how does eBay navigate into the future but also whats going on right now. I'd imagine creating a price competitive mechanism like Mamazon's "Race to the Bottom" with re-pricing would be quite helpful BUT sellers surely revolt and with the diversity here of products and ability to create listings would be a formidable engineering and changes task for the company.
Now the concept I'd come up with some 20 years ago through experience not only in these open marketplaces, Mamazon itself but also the myriads of business to consumer sites that existed led me to create the concept. I vended at sites such as Auction World, iDeal Networks, Surplus Direct, uBid and the former giant that were the Onsale Supersites having had a merchant account as well.
I'd called it "The Auction Mall" as it had all the elements of all of the above format sites and more. Here at eBay now due to sheer mass everything is driven through search and filters which is cumbersome, time consuming and wrought with elements of frustration. That in a time when consumers are more and more seeking ease and confidence in shopping online right from the moment they begin to look for something be that at Google, Mamazon or here for example.
Thus a logical step would be a natural partitioning of eBay categories easing that process right from word go. eBay storefronts are not robust at all in comparison to traditional shopping applications and that should not be the case IMHO... They need be robust and potential buyers need have a landing page just like sellers do. This provides instant access to their prior shopping and affords better targeted search and exposures. eBay has addressed this in some respects but its not robust. The focus here seems remain that of always search dependency versus storefront dependency affording the sellers far more capabilities.
Things such as more focal advertising and sales partnerships with other vendors and much more. Its my feeling that extensibility of sellers working towards mutual successes is a key in combating big retail gains. For example, I peddle mainly ancient PC games which once were mainstream and now very much not. I'd have no issue at all partnering with a handful of traditional video game vendors whereby our storefronts provide a better focal shopping experience to the consumer and we do a revenue share type arrangement or some form of fixed mutually beneficial arrangement. The Auction Mall afforded all of this and more, a platform that is able to continually evolve and be extensible.
Take for example how big retail via mobile app notifications and shopping can target consumers highly effectively yet we've nothing of the sort. Yet a concept such as the Auction Mall it fits right in like a glove whereby consumers can get an app that delivers them offers from multiple vendors working as one per se to bring the consumer to bare.
Localization is another huge missed opportunity here. Facebook Marketplace is not only a disaster but its a big disaster however that said, allot of commerce takes place there that isn't happening here. Facebook is not about that marketplace, its about the Metaverse, a convergence of technology long under way. 3D travel, shopping, education, on and on and the capability to drive it via its enormous social media platform.
The problem with localization within an eBay is fee avoidance but this can be shattered via a decent authentications mechanism with strict penalties of misuse. Localizing shopping can have many many benefits for both sellers and consumers, facebook marketplace is proof albeit a disaster implementation from my software engineering perspective.
If all of whats going on wasn't bad enough we've government wanting to regulate gifting supply chain unheard of controls and placing absolutely no onus on them for acting wrongfully.
Sellers here who succeed well the last thing they want is upheaval of change towards eBay's longevity and future IF its going to impact them in a negative fashion now or in the future. Sellers who struggle need change to occur on the site in order to be sustainable. As sellers fail ultimately a cascade IMHO over a time span also impacts those who are succeeding as a whole across the platform. Its ALWAYS been a misnomer that if sellers fail that OTHER SELLERS reap gains... Completely untrue. This was actually a key aspect of why the two big guys back in the day (Onsale Supersites and Surplus Direct) both began failing. Their brilliance was to combine both venues and that caused the entire thing to collapse. Both sites had trained on competition and naturally focused on those sellers making the most revenues. But the myriads of sellers failing ended up causing prices to rise, traffic to wane resulting in a cascade of even the sellers making good hay to wane. Many of those sellers who were failing came to here, eBay and Amazon and both ultimately destroyed literal buckets of these once very successful business to consumer sites such as Onsale, iDeal Networks, uBid, Surplus Direct, Overstock.com and others. Point being what erased them from the planet was a cascade that came forth INTERNALLY not EXTERNALLY. By the time the external impacts were felt its already far too late.
There are many many challenges eBay faces from literally every conceivable angle right now unlike any time in its existence and sellers need realize that. Instead of blowing their tops at eBay the question needs to be how does eBay be sustained and what changes need be embraced to make that a reality. The challenge of mobile devices alone in a "list based venue" with so much data is a HUGE formidable task.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·1 year ago@retro_entertainment_collectibles A lot in your post. I'll confine myself to this:
"eBay storefronts are not robust at all in comparison to traditional shopping applications and that should not be the case IMHO..."
In the brief period between Wenig's departure and Iannone's arrival, I actually had hope that ebay, after years of pernicious neglect, had finally realized that ebay stores were an incredibly important resource. Provide robust, full featured stores , and ebay sellers could compete (and cooperate) with each other , as well as compete with other sites. And most sellers want a feeling of ownership--it's MY store, and I want it to be the best it can be.
But no, I was wrong about ebay's direction. I'm not even sure there's an actual Stores team anymore. And we've seen that ebay does not value the concept of seller ownership....witness what we used to think of as "MY" listings, now crowded with competitor's ads, and with less and less ability to really customize a listing.
Once Iannone came on, I think any plans to really develop stores went out the window, in favor of First party Ad revenue.
And how has that worked out?
Well, the ad revenue has certainly helped ebay itself, no question, but many sellers have grown to dislike ads, even some who were advocates initially. But, as far as I can tell, all those ads, all that Focus Category marketing rather than sitewide marketing has resulted in....no substantial improvement in GMV. Instead, a shrinking share of the overall ecommerce landscape, a reduction in buyers and sellers, and , if such a thing is possible, even more discontent among the ebay rank and file than under Wenig. For many sellers, growth now comes primarily from going multi channel, rather than from ebay itself.
ebay lives in fear of sellers taking transactions off ebay, but ebay itself has pushed more sellers into multi channel selling, which probably had the net effect of moving more sales off ebay than if sellers were sneaking some off -ebay sales into the mix.
If ebay would reduce its focus on First Party Ads and focus on giving us the tools to compete based on merit rather than based on how much extra we are willing to spend, ebay might actually gain back some of the ground it has lost.
rosszonebricks
·1 year agoI mean, I just spent more on eBay in the last month as a buyer than I have in the last 10 years combined. 🙂 Some good deals out there.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·1 year ago@rosszonebricks We have so much stuff here in death, I mean, profit piles, that I shouldn't even be going to yard sales. But I agree...for anyone with sufficient funds, this is a good time to be buying (selectively, of course, plenty of over-priced stuff out there right now too). But a lot of people are downsizing or cleaning up estates, not to mention people who need ready cash. So spend wisely today, and reap the rewards tomorrow.
onefootflipper
·1 year agoThis weekend was my best weekend all summer. $1400 between various seller sites.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·1 year ago@onefootflipper Would you mind sharing the breakdown ---how much was ebay, how much was this site or that site?
onefootflipper
·1 year agoEbay card only store. $166.12
Main ebay store. $1074.15
District.net $129.76
Facebook $40
$1410.03
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·1 year ago@onefootflipper Thanks!
Could you provide some info about District?
Do you sell wholesale lots there, is that the idea?
onefootflipper
·1 year agoDistrict has a lot of little niche sub-sites, I mostly only use the commons one, which is supposed to be seller to seller wholesale. They don't charge fees on shipping on the commons part of the site, which makes it perfect to unload stuff in bulk that I don't personally like dealing with. And you can equally find bulk lots of the stuff you do like to deal with. It is one of those deals that you have to check it frequently though as the best lots vanish fast.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·1 year ago@onefootflipper Very interesting. I suspect I could find some stuff here that I don't really want to list, but I also don't want to just toss....stuff that still has some meat on the bones if I sell it at a low enough price, and I'd be making space. Thanks!
liawri-75
·1 year agoDing ding ding! You finally figured it out )ðŸ˜
I'm a consumer and have stopped buying clothing and whatever electronics & appliances I have will just have to last and be worn longer.
Yes, there's money out there consumers just not spending it on items they already have like clothing and appliances. Spending it on trips and experiences. Also, remember credit cards have to be paid off.
sakic92710
·1 year agoThere is little doubt on that. How many $ millions are spent every day on this site? Well over 100 million buyers. God forbid anywhere from 1 to 51 of them buy from me! lol
nuclearomen
·1 year agomy sales are good and after I did this past months tally in excel this morn profit was up $130 from previous 2 months (still not best month this year, but bit better then past 2 prior)
norskmediashop
·1 year agowe use to be swamped here on holiday weekends with orders, not anymore, the entire weekend not a single order. Meanwhile amazn has been doing gangbusters all weekend long. There is something wrong with ebay. Yes people are off work going and doing, but when one site is flowing in orders nonstop and this one seems turned off, its telling.
lawnmowerpartsstore2
·1 year agoYou also have to remember that the BIG A also advertises a heck of a lot more then Ebay does. Back in the day Ebay use to be printed on all your USPS Priority mail boxes, they advertised on TV and radio. Not so much anymore...
ed8108
·1 year agoSome " Buyers do have money to spend ! "
Ebay appears no longer to be the extremely popular spending destination it was in past years. I suspect manny people are spending more of their discretionary money for sensory experiences.
Optimism
Your 2024 ebay happy holiday buying season will soon arrive
Wishing you have Good luck
femmefan1946
·1 year agoMixed residential /commercial is a big deal in high rise building here. And the low rise malls are looking at it too.
There are more parkades* and fewer parking lots at the 21st century malls too.
The only problem I see is that most of the downtown ones seem to think that the shops will be boutiques or mom'n'pops, but as with a lot of new construction, rents are high for those owners. And the big chains prefer the malls.
Our provincial government is offering a lot of financial support for building "affordable " housing much of which is high rise or townhomes in central Victoria , and shopping is certainly a part of that.
I'm waiting to see the first highrise with preschool to Grade Six classrooms. That could work too, especially if adjacent to a public park.
*A Western Canadian -ism. A parkade is a parking garage, usually mostly above ground, and open to the weather.
stainlessenginecovers
·1 year agoThe all important 18-49 age group have wanted 'adventure' over stuff the past 5+ years now- especially since the Pandemic when staying home buying stuff got old REAL fast.
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoBingo.
Add in Boomers/GenX who are getting rid of stuff and wanting to travel, go back to school, etc.
I recall the "sport buying" years of the 80s and 90s when many people went to the various malls to shop as a sort of pastime. The retail sector boomed and kept building and building...then the bubble burst. Internet shopping came along, new generations aren't interested in constant consumption. The pandemic I agree got people thirstier to get away from the screen/stores and doing something else and that accelerated things.
Stores here are busy, though our local mall is being converted into mixed use shops and housing, something that has shown a lot of success.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·1 year agoA good deal of the retail sector (online/off) doing rather well at least in the USA presently. I'm sure there are many sellers at eBay doing decently as well. I don't know what's going on here, sales last few weeks been so poor its not worth continuing on here.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·1 year ago@retro_entertainment_collectibles
Most Q4 retail forecasts I've seen are making fairly rosy projections for ecommerce (somewhat less so for B&M) , with the hedge that much of the growth might go to a relatively few sites---Amazon being the Number One site, of course. I tend to agree that , barring something unforeseen, ecommerce overall might see some growth. How much of that will ebay see (especially in terms of actual sales growth, not ebay's revenue growth via first party ad income)....well, that's open to question.
My gut feeling is that neither consumer anxiety about the upcoming election nor the state of the economy overall is the biggest issue for ebay. I think it is the enormous increase in competition, and ebay's inability to stop that competition from chipping away at the buyer base, the seller base, and market share.
ebay is nowhere near collapse, but serious GMV growth appears elusive, and the more dependent ebay becomes on ad revenue, the more frustrated the seller base becomes, and the more attractive other venues look.
ebay Open (and probably the Fall Update) will be here in a few weeks, and it is an opportunity for ebay to make some real pivots. But I doubt that will happen.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·1 year agoI read bunch of news and basically always have, various retail associations and such. Many people are tapped out right now due to school buying, college buying etc. July was above retail expectations for many retailers.
Retailers in general have been embracing the online universe since the end of the pandemic which hasn't ended but sounds good say it has. We don't hear it called "Endemic" which is the new reality. All that aside online retailers since the alleged end of the pandemic claim retail webs are up 40% in traffic and 30% in sales across the spectrum since. That stuff gets measured by places like the NRF and others where retailers reports varied things to.
Q4 associations have said will be likely the most aggressive in retailer modern history due to multiple factors including the election uncertainty of course.
Now I never said eBay is verge of collapse, what I said is the last two weeks sales have been just dismal for me not that I have what would be deemed product that the masses now seek. It's all vertical market now but once was mainstream... I don't make oodles on it in whole but generally been pretty happy given the stuff and my pricing structure which is admittedly high and sales tend be by offers.
See what happens but if things stay the course of the past two weeks everything I have is going to end up over at FBA as its just not worth me keeping at it. I'll go back to writing Wordpress Plugins or take my hand at trying code some mobile games or something.
Someone advised off the forums here I carbon copy over to Mercari but I'm not a real fan of the place. I'm not a fan of Amazon either but since at least the past two weeks it appears my sales have completely tanked here that's the option, FBA and just let it roll.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·1 year ago@retro_entertainment_collectibles Just to be clear, my statement about collapse wasn't a direct response to what you said, just a general observation.
If your sales are that low, then FBA might indeed be your best bet.
I do agree that Q4 will see some very aggressive retailing---it is a highly competitive environment, and I expect to see many retailers pushing their holiday shopping forward ("Black Fall" rather than "Black Friday") , aggressive discounting (some of it real, some less so), and aggressive marketing, from TV ads down to using social media micro influencers. As always, there will be winners and losers, and I think everyone pretty much expects Amazon will be one of the bog winners , especially in terms of market share and gross sales. So hopefully that will carry over to your FBA stuff.
All that said, if I were selling in the entrenched focus categories on ebay, I'd have more hope that ebay will push hard to gain or at least maintain share. But I don't sell in the focus categories, and if the CEO continues has past strategy, the holiday marketing focus will be almost solely on focus categories, with the rest of us praying for the trickle down effect to actually trickle down. Given that ebay has more competition than ever, including in the non focus categories I sell in, the failure to market the site as a whole will once again hurt many ebay sellers.
I'm sticking around, I'm making changes and trying new things, but I realize there's only so much I can do as an individual seller.....there are many things the platform could do, but I have zero expectations about that happening.
Best of luck, whatever you choose to do.
goombaymama
·1 year agoThis just popped up in my email. Not sure if it is behind a paywall. Go see how you spend your money - generationally. I ended up mixed.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2024/spending-habits-quiz-generation-z-boomer-millennial/
shado-x
·1 year agoCar insurance rates up 26% from last year -- wait for the sticker shock. 10 years of car insurance costs more than the new car in today's world. LOL. Postage rate increase too high too on the commercial side (12oz package over 5 bucks, too high, that should be 15oz, and watch out for the 1 lb rate if the package is 15.999oz....USPS thieves stealing dough from sellers who have to pass it on to buyers.).
bennotbill
·1 year agoThere was me thinking it was just the miserable UK car insurers that bumped up the prices to ridiculous this year.
Insurance on petrol/diesel vehicles are subsidising insurance on electric vehicles? True or not that line of thought is gaining a lot of traction.
liawri-75
·1 year agoThe first American car to figure out how to sell a new sedan for $15K will get bangup sales. The first Chinese car company or Indian company to figure out how make a new sedan and sell it for $15K will be far ahead of anyone.
sin-n-dex
·1 year agoWe spent our mad money going to the African Lion Safari (in Ontario Canada) and buying new used skates to enjoy the ice rinks this winter.
C.
meme6253
OP1 year agoThere you go, Money well spent!
kensgiftshop
·1 year agoThat doesn't mean they have the money.
They just rack up their credit card bill more and hope they can pay it down before Christmas.
meme6253
OP1 year agoVery wishfull thinking that they can get it paid down by Christmas.
richard1rst
·1 year agoAnd in that same vein, how much of the travel is voluntary and how much is obligatory.
I remember in years past my mother calling me and stating, more so than asking, You're coming up for thanksgiving. RIGHT?
Go ahead, try and say no.
inhawaii
·1 year agoI was going like gangbusters until yesterday.
As I like to preach, highs and lows are normal in this line of work.
A no sales day followed by a record sales day is normal for me.
liawri-75
·1 year agoOn EB, no sales for a week, but on other sites they are trickling in.
tobaccocardyahoo
·1 year agoMy usual end of month spurt was weaker than usual. But it still exists.
Brought this month up to about 50% of a normal month.
I was not surprised.
Brings back this oldie from 1983
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOR6Vx-Ogbk
inhawaii
·1 year agoI love Anne Murray!
My friends tease me about it all the time.
"I hear you're rocking out to - Just another woman in love."