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End of eBay? Sales and traffics are down significantly
Hi,
This year is pretty bad on eBay. Sales, traffics and views are down by a lot. I was wondering if our eBay stores are getting impacted by other apps and sites? I never seen like this slow for years.
I have stadards ads, advanced ads, and display ads, but nothing is helping. selling cost have gone up, but profits and sales down significantly.
Is there any app that can help drive traffic to a eBay store? eBay was my income. Now, crazy slow. I really don't know what is going on?
Any advice would be appreciated.
46 comments
kh-vince
·2 years agoHi everyone,
Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.
Thank you for understanding.
cardenas262002
·2 years agoebay is dead my friend, my sales are down over 90% with ebay, so I moved 90% of my business to Amazon Seller. No point in giving ebay any business when they can't sell s....h..i...t.... easy, fire ebay and go somewhere else, I closed my 3 store subscriptions, I only have a basic account now and I don't care what sells because I replaced worthless ebay with amazon, which is ran by the devil himself Jeff Bezos, but at least they sell all my inventory and fast.
osaunt
·2 years agounfortunately right there with you...at the most I've had 200 listings at a given time over 24 years and now it's just not working. I had a decent '23 and a mild start to '24 but now it seems to have stalled. ..and I don't mean for a day or two I'm talking a week now--that only happened one other time several years ago. I called yesterday and the guy who answered told me there was a problem and he would escalate my account.
cardenas262002
·2 years agoyeah, the problem is ebay not your account. Ebay blows hard, they need to disappear, just a worthless company that can't do what it was designed to do. SELL THINGS ONLINE! now they think their job is: DON"T SELL SH>>>IT, just charge the heck out of advanced promoted fees to sellers and run them out of the ebay platform for sure.
chickadee8618
·2 years agoThe end of Ebay? No spoilers please, Im only on Chapter 2. I dont want to know how it ends.
inhawaii
·2 years agoYes, I think this is the end of ebay.
I decided to keep selling here until the bitter end.
obob501
·2 years agoEbay better days are over for sellers because:
What once were watchers are now sells watch your sales and then start selling the the same items I once sold exclusively but ebay sells as many.
EX: I once had a item I would sell 1 a week that become once a month so I moved to Facebook and sold over 60 in a year .guess what now there is more than one there selling it. Their fee is only 5%.
Ebays fees. now average 13.25 to Over 20% if your seller rating drops and they. give you a shipping discount on postage but then take 13,25 of that and same on sales tax and your profit margin drops .
and now you are sent a 1099K and and you are paying income tax on top of it.
I looked at at and found ebay is making more money than I am so when I rid my self of inventory I purchase most from ebay I am done buying and selling here,Its time to consider another avenue, its over
cardenas262002
·2 years agosmart conclusion, I'm done with ebay also. I feel like am being robbed of my inventory with ebay. Ebay blows hard, they need to disappear, just a worthless company that can't do what it was designed to do. SELL THINGS ONLINE! now they think their job is: DON"T SELL SH>>>IT, just charge the heck out of advanced promoted fees to sellers and run them out of the ebay platform for sure.
ulfesharpe
·2 years agoNo wonder, when they're charging ~30% to intnl sellers + basic promotions. it can go to 40% or more if you follow their % suggestions... Even their exchange rate is higher than it should.
mam98031
·2 years agoPlease provide a link to the Ebay policy that has higher FVFs for International sellers.
If you are using Promoted Listings, that fee is determined by the SELLER. It is a choice to use the tool, not a requirement.
countrygirldoggy
·2 years agoI've been on Ebay for nearly 20 years as a casual seller. I have 100% buyer and seller feedback. However I got a shock a few months ago when I sold an item and the buyer decided that it should have been something than she saw, bought and received. She requested a return and silly me, thinking that she got what she paid for and I stated no returns, I declined. She got nasty and abusive really quickly and filed an INAD. Now, me living in the world of fairness, thought that since she got what was in the listing, that I didn't have to accept the return. Nope. I soon found out that the seller is always in the wrong. Ebay ended up TAKING the money out of my account without me even getting the item back. This whole thing gave me so much grief and wasted so much time before I found out that since she arranged her own pick up by courier that I didn't have to refund her. Ebay eventually refunded me the money. But I learned my lesson. Never ever selling on Ebay again, it's not worth the grief for a few bucks.
And the loss of goodwill means that I will only buy something on Ebay now if I'm really desperate, I rarely even log on now.
woodrowmo-30
·2 years agoPromote your eBay store on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Share engaging content related to your products to generate interest.
Consider running targeted ads on social media to drive traffic.
Experiment with eBay's Promoted Listings feature to increase visibility.
Analyze the performance of promoted listings and adjust your strategy accordingly.
toomuchstuffagain35
·2 years agoThanks for the cut and paste.
robbinsnest
·2 years agoI've been on Ebay 25 years, and no, it's not the Ebay of yesteryear anymore.
If it's a decent deal relative to the market it sells quick. Otherwise it doesn't. If its a hot item, I get offers literally within a few seconds of posting it. Other stuff just sits and sits, especially collectables.
IMHO part of the problem is how clunky the listing process is, they really need to take a page from Facebook Marketplace where I can list an item in 30 seconds.
The biggest problem I have is with shipping, packages are treated so horribly that the packing cost is eating away the profit, I no longer deal in old radios, clocks, lamps, or anything easily broken.
bashort
·2 years agoI hate the whole idea of promoted listings, as a buyer when I do a search on ebay the top results are no longer what matches closest but rather who paid the most to be in the top results.
I had a ebay rep call and explain all of the benefits of promoted listings, when they told me that It works best if you promote your best selling items I hung up. I refuse to play the promoted listing game.
toomuchstuffagain35
·2 years agoIf they're your 'best selling items' wth do you need PL anyway?
mam98031
·2 years agoBoy that is not true for all products. Some categories that are over saturated PL can be very important. In other categories not so much. Most sellers do not use PL.
But if you are a seller that is considering it. Test it out, see if it does improve your sales. Keep in mind you need to test it for a few months. Just a week or so really isn't going to tell you much.
bashort
·2 years agoThe reason is simple, my best selling items would make ebay the most money, If I promote something unlikely to sell ebay makes no money
aldelbertmatthew
·2 years agoIf it already hasn't been pounded in by now: Crosslist onto other platforms. Ebay is no longer a solid and steady income source. There's many people on this board with thousands of listings and decades of reselling experience who've powered through multiple recessions selling only on eBay suddenly having the worst year of their lives and being forced to diversify. The moment they cross-list to other platform, sales start to return.
This website is heavily broken and eBay is continuing to do nightly shut downs and updates in the 4th quarter which is something they haven't done historically. Cross-listing is vital to survival now as a reseller. Except in highly specific cases, you can rely on eBay alone.
jewelcollect01
·2 years agoI think most sellers, even those part timers, like myself, diversify. . The only issue is that certain collectibles do not do well in other markets. I literally have had stuff sitting on other sites for years. I will say with ebay it always eventually sells.
What I do is also a passion so it isn't like I actually don't keep or collect some that I buy. Just saying, historically, this has been an off year, and, I am a survivor of all you mentioned, hence why part time and no longer full time. I didn't want to grow to hate what I loved.
ittybitnot
·2 years agohistorically, this has been an off year
@jewelcollect01
I have been an avid buyer of vintage/antique jewelry and related items for many years. Most items are sold in the auction format, or BIN/Best offer. After enjoying eBay for over 20 years when eBay placed those "requirements" on a seller's account with a default set to YES and started to FORCE buyers to comply, it was basically all over for me.
Though it was pitched to me and buyers in general as something new, a wonderful experience, smoother and beneficial it was nothing of the sort. As a buyer it reduced my payment options, and did away with invoicing for combined orders to save on shipping. There was no more incentive make offers, or bid on auctions. Why would I want to pay $50 and tax on shipping alone for ten items that could be easily combined in a 6 ounce parcel for $8? I don't NEED jewelry, it is simply something I like.
You can check your own here:
https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements
Buyer Payment Requirements
*Require buyers to provide a payment method before they place a bid.
*Require buyers to provide a payment method before they make an offer.
Click submit.
Though there has been some recent indication that eBay is 'rethinking' this, but perhaps the damage has already been done. I know the buyer that signed up for the new "experience" (in order to proceed on the postage stamp auctions) likely won't be back after his $20 shipping for ten stamp listings was auto-billed. Lucky for me that I read here, and knew the real consequences of setting a default payment source in order to bid BEFORE I became a victim as well.
This was a poor attempt to solve a problem with buyers that don't pay. Instead of sanctioning those non-payers, they decided to discourage those that actually DO PAY with system that actually was monetarily beneficial to eBay. Sellers can turn these off providing they know that they are even there.
It was nice to hear from a seller the other day that reported that their "offers" and sales were back to normal after becoming "buyer friendly" once again.
jewelcollect01
·2 years agoI had someone else contact me about this as well recently. I do a large amount of combined shipping and so I have this option turned off, I only use buyer restrictions for those with unpaid item strikes. For some reason though, for my buyer, it did auto payments on them even auctions which I had never seen before. Now I do buy quite a bit on eBay and it is 50/50 for me when it comes to BINS to ask for payment method upfront but I have never experienced this on an auction till theirs.
And I mean I have buyers who buy 40-100 items and pay over a period of a month that setting would never work for me.
keziak
·2 years agoThank you for posting the link. I have changed my requirements. I was blase about this but have had complaints so this post gave me a little s hake to do something about it.
mam98031
·2 years agoI have listed on other sites for years. However I never crosslist unless I have the inventory to cover both sites if the item sells. Cross Listing without the inventory to support what might sell when you aren't looking is very dangerous and could cause the seller issues. So it is something I do not recommend. I know some sellers do it, which is fine it is their choice. But they need to know there are dangers in doing that.
doubledz-a2z
·2 years ago25yr seller here. Always done well with limited listings. Paid off home etc now retired on SSI. I have curtailed any excess selling as I refuse to bust my butt and pay our gov’t taxes just to have it go to support folks who do not have any work ethics. Plus people forget there is ALOT of smash n grab/stolen Merch being sold right now for a song. Not like it used to be. Young folks do not have the tenacity to be self sufficient. They are spoiled with freebies and handouts.
lawnmowerpartsstore2
·2 years agoYa about that 😞
mam98031
·2 years agoWhile I agree that SOME young people are like this, every generation has had them, there is nothing new in that statement. But there are a whole lot of good young people too that are getting far more involved in politics and how to make the world a better place from what I see. And from what I see it is more than there was when I was a young one too. I never cared about the world at large until I was well into my 30's.
Unavailable member
·2 years agoLike Medicare and SSI?
mam98031
·2 years agoDang you are exposed to some hardships for sure. The majority of young people around me are doing much better than that. The majority of the work hard and have real careers. They have drive and self reliance. I have to say that most around me are Millennials.
Now I have to say I've seen / notices some differences in Gen Z that lean in the direction of what you have said. Absolutely not all of them and I don't know about the majority of them, just speaking from my personal experience, nothing more.
mam98031
·2 years agoPosters have sang this cry every so often every year since the beginning. Reasons may change, but Ebay is always on the verge to going down according to some.
There are always sellers that do OK with sales, do great with sales, or do very little with sales. It moves back and forth year after year.
I too have noticed sales are down on Ebay just like many others, but I absolutely am not going to say Ebay is in financial trouble because they aren't. If you haven't had the opportunity, you should go and review some of Ebay's recent financial statements.
Now that isn't to say things don't have room for improvement because that simply would not be the truth.
I'm unsure as to why you are upset since it appears you get about 400 sales per month. I realize you have a lot of listings but for many sellers they would be very happy with that.
I enter my hottest selling time after Christmas through about mid February or more. So for me, I'm stocking up right now.
I hope the new year brings great things for all of us.
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoAmong the most common slow sales sufferers who post on this forum are jewelry sellers.
I think an analysis of the state of the jewelry market on Ebay, the Internet, and in the real world might be in order.
I am sure if someone has about $50k to spare, some market research form would spend a week for a quick look.
IMO the problem is not EBAY. But EBAY certainly reflects the problem.
I think Ebay does need to look for a new business to be in, but like other marketplaces including Amazon, it needs to be run as a "cash cow" which funds new businesses. I see plenty of evidence that it can give milk for years to come. But that does not mean that all EBAY sellers can count on dairy products.
jewelcollect01
·2 years agoJewelry seller. Vintage and Antique. Historically, sales are usually low for me this time of year with sporadic buy it now's. Pick up usually come after Christmas. I do both low start auction and fixed price. I am not saying my auctions are not still selling, they are, but my overall per item has gone significantly with only rock bottom offers on my bins that I simply can not accept.
However, with all that said. I have been around since 1998, and 2005 jewelry only seller this has been my worst year since 2015 and that is saying something.
I think collectibles are down as a whole.
We could be competing with those using promoted listings advance, or pay per click, but with sales low who can afford that right now. Will it increase sales, who knows, but shouldering the increase in fees right now is not an option. With promoted listings and the 13.5 percent fee jewelry sellers already pay anywhere from 25-26 percent in final value . Add shipping cost and we are talking about 33-35%
mightymouse
·2 years agoAll I worry about is sales, could care less about traffic. I sell many items with little traffic. November was my 3rd best November in 26 years. I'm on track for my 3rd best year. (best 2 were the lock down years)
thesuperstarbikecollection
·2 years agoAnother thing that I forgot to mention is it Ebay now charges you additional money on top of the 15% final value fee to place your ad at a higher ranking, it’s called a promotional ad placement so now they want 25% or more of your total sale amount, not sure adjusted gross income, the total sale amount which could be 80% of your adjusted gross income or more just to get you good ad placement. They are so greedy and so money hungry that’s a 15% FVF doesn’t get you top placement, you still have to pay to get additional placement for people to even see your ads. Somebody really needs to come out with a new platform because this thing is an obsolete, archaic broken marketplace.
mam98031
·2 years agoThat is called Promoted Listings and it is up to the seller to use the tool or not. You do not have to use it, it is an option and you set the additional FVF you are willing to pay to get the sale. You do NOT have to pay 25% unless you CHOOSE to pay that much.
You would likely be better off adding more inventory. Giving your buyers more variety to shop through.
I sincerely hope things pick up for you very soon.
thesuperstarbikecollection
·2 years agoAs of December 14 2023 my eBay store is in peril, nothing sold in last month and I am on,y attracting bad actors that try to scheme their way into free stuff by opening item not as described claims, of course eBay takes their side 100% of the time and this has made many food sellers leave, when good items leave, buyers leave. I sell very specialized vintage BMX bikes and parts, these are not drop shipped or widgets that you all sell from common places like goodwill or Salvation Army. My stuff is rare and valuable. The people with the cash aren’t coming here anymore, only the bottom feeders and scammers. eBay has forgotten it’s sellers and left us all out in the cold, they made a huge mistake and it won’t be their last, their platform doesn’t have the trust of the sellers who have been here since the start like me and we’re going to other platforms to sell for free, forget their 15 FVF it was once 3% and they have gotten very greedy. That 15% isn’t a duck walk and it’s all the profit sometimes, their new shipping price structure was another stupid move, they are too controlling and destroyed this marketplace with fascist ideas and overreaching policies that hurt sellers.
inhawaii
·2 years agoI'm a long time seller.
I'm not experiencing any of the things you are talking about.
"That 15% isn’t a duck walk and it’s all the profit sometimes"
I adjust my pricing so that after paying all fees and all other expenses, I make exactly the profit I wanted to make.
"their new shipping price structure was another stupid move"
As far as I know, ebay does not set shipping prices, the individual carriers do.
meme6253
·3 years agoYou have made a lot of sales, But I noticed you have very low priced items for the most part,Very difficult to make a great profit after all the fees, & depending on your cost of acquiring your product, If you are looking for better profit, you might consider adding some higher value products as well!
luckythewinner
·3 years agoSales on eBay could be impacted by a vast array of factors:
Any combination of these factors could have affected you.
But eBay turned over $18.2 billion in GMV in Q2, and I just can't see that evaporating and the end of eBay coming in the space of three months.
mam98031
·3 years agoBecause things are slow for you doesn't mean it is slow for everyone, nor does it mean that it is the "end of ebay".
I get what you are saying, but realize that there are millions and millions of sellers. We don't all have the same experiences and the next seller does. There are some sellers that are reporting the best year ever, others are doing fine and then others not so much.
According to your sold items you run about 325+ sold transaction per month, in the last 90 days. For many that is quite a few sales. What is the normal amount you get on an average year?
This is merely a suggestion. But start your Titles off with the most important words. I see on some you have the size of the item first, it is more likely that the keywords would do better upfront for those buyers that scan titles with their eyes on their search return pages. The first thing they should see are words to describe what you are selling, IMHO.
dbfolks166mt
·3 years agoBecause things are slow for you doesn't mean it is slow for everyone, nor does it mean that it is the "end of ebay".
I get what you are saying, but realize that there are millions and millions of sellers. We don't all have the same experiences and the next seller does. There are some sellers that are reporting the best year ever, others are doing fine and then others not so much.
According to your sold items you run about 325+ sold transaction per month, in the last 90 days. For many that is quite a few sales. What is the normal amount you get on an average year?
I had the same thoughts and was wondering what the OP considered to be slow or "down significantly". 😀
This is merely a suggestion. But start your Titles off with the most important words. I see on some you have the size of the item first, it is more likely that the keywords would do better upfront for those buyers that scan titles with their eyes on their search return pages. The first thing they should see are words to describe what you are selling, IMHO.
allthings-collectible
·3 years agoI believe eBay is in the process of changing its colors. It is retooling itself in order to gain a foothold in the new AI-era marketplace. In the midst of many new platforms competing for market share, eBay can no longer sustain itself with its original identity as a platform for selling used vintage items. I believe they are rebuilding a marketplace for bigger, faster money. The target? Current and future generations of younger buyers who are expected to fuel the economy. This approach is common for large corporations trying to rebrand themselves during unstable economic times. I doubt all the site issues were the result of primitive efforts by unskilled tech. When a company become this big and public, there is ALWAYS a purpose behind it. I feel that, like many companies, eBay is trying to appeal to a younger demographic who are more interested in modern trends than collecting vintage collectibles. Ironically, one of the current trends for younger buyers is vintage clothing. But, like any trend, it changes. Therefore, don't be afraid to let go of dead inventory and look for what the buying generation wants. I'm in the process of doing just that 😉
dbfolks166mt
·3 years agoI also could not help but notice you have sold 989 items in the last 90 days, more than a lot of sellers even have listed. Not sure what your past sales looked like or what your expectations are but there are options/alternatives.
dbfolks166mt
·3 years agoDiversify across multiple platforms and venues. One of the effects of the COVID pandemic was the dramatic increase in ecommerce sites. EBay is no longer the only game in town and is slowly loosing market share to other venues/platforms. Ten years ago eBay accounted for about 80-90% of my sales but since I diversified long ago that percentage has degreased to where it is now less than 20% and I expect it to continue to decline.
dagwoodsdigs
·2 years agoThat is not it. I have been selling on eBay for 10 years. This s*** hit the fan when they started charging sellers to place their ads in front of everyone else. It was the stupidest thing I have ever seen! Not only can't the people that sell at lower prices be the first on the list, the shoppers have to spend twice as long or more looking for the lowest prices, because they are all mixed up and at the end of the que! I already shop on other sites more and more because I can't stand looking through all of the items I feel I am forced to look through to get to the deals. What made eBay great in the beginning is suffering like all of the other site that have tanked. It is about time for eBay to have a REVIVAL or just stop advertising to save money.
toomuchstuffagain35
·2 years agoAnd even when it works reasonably well by price sort you STILL have to try to ignore all the non related stuff that's nothing LIKE what you're searching for.