Sales down 44% YTD and impressions down 30%
My listings have a good cross market segment span and I’ve been selling for 11 years on eBay. This year is my worst decline in those 11 years. The nose dive really started when I stopped using Ebay advanced promotion and ads after trying it for a few weeks back in March 2024.
I get the feeling that Ebay is trying to get as much as they can out of you with these additional ad fees, and if you don’t play along, none of your listings get the impressions that they used to get. Before I started using the advanced fees, my impressions were doing just fine.. After the advanced ad fees, impressions did go up, but Sales stayed the same. So I stopped using it in impressions and Sales fell off a cliff accordingly…. That’s a fact.
they love the ad fees because they stand to make a lot more money than they would if your item actually sold. I’m refusing to play along because my 12 to 15% commission should already cover those fees. Now they wanna be like Amazon and take 25%-30% of your sale.
everybody should stop paying their advanced ad fees and let them suffer to with NO Sales comm If that’s how they gonna play. They are no longer incentivized to have your item sell.
reelworks
·2 years agoI list for several accounts at work, we sell mostly clean out items, closeouts, and random items they acquire doing real estate clean outs.
Sales up until about 8/22 were rock solid, the numbers were fantastic and fairly steady going back to about 2016 or so. Things got strange around August of 2022 and numbers fell off steadily from that point on. Even items that were fairly regular sellers just died. We went from doing $40k on one account to less than $2k and now its pretty much completely dead. a few items sell in spurts it seems but eBay has been mostly dead, maybe even a waste of time, both as a seller there and as a buyer as well on my personal account.
The search is a mess, personally I get tired of searching for something and getting three pages of Chinese junk before I find anything remotely related to what I searched for, if its there at all.
Something i did notice which was pointed out to me by my boss a few months ago, we were going over a few items that I had listed and I was trying to get him to look at the ad on his computer at home once night, he was logged in on his wife's account. Even when he typed in the exact title it didn't take him to that item. Only when I emailed him the link could he find it.
The search kept showing him things completely not related.
I've had the same thing from others who called me said there's something I should look at on ebay but I can't find it without a link, then I find out its a mile away from me.
In my 26 years listing on eBay, (not this account), I have never once had a 'local' sale. Every last item I have ever sold, o that we sold at work has gone over 1,200 miles away or further. For a long time, prior to 2008, about half my personal sales were to Japan. The other half to the west coast or Pacific NW.
International sales are sparse these days though due to the high cost of the Global shipping program.
Most domestic sales still go to the opposite coast though.
I've often wondered if that's not buy design to discourage 'local pickup' type sales.
The few large items that we have listed that were not shippable never got a single look, they were cars, machinery, and even an airplane. But none got so much as a single hit.
Most of the items we list at work are one and done listings, but many are bulk lots we're liquidating at half price or less, when $150 bath towel sets don't sell at $40 plus shipping or $60 w/Free shipping, or collectible items or vintage parts which are selling from other sellers that often are listed higher, and we don't get a single looker, it don't make any sense, especially when the titles are basically the same and they're in the same category. Selling options and frills don't help, they just make it cost more to sell. We don't generally sell items you would expect to go on sale.
One common item we often see is auto parts, or the contents of closed up car dealers, parts warehouses, or specialty shops. All items that seem to sell at first then die out. My guess is that when dumping a large number of parts for one particular category it may saturate the market and quell demand. For instance, how many people are likely looking for say a 1961 Chevy emblem or 49 Buick hub caps etc. Or, pinball game parts, or say the contents of a closed up Radio Shack store. The hard part to believe though it was only a couple of years ago when all of that sort of stuff sold and sold fast. Now it gets no looks.
Shipping has gone up, in many cases nearly doubled but as a seller I can't control the cost of shipping. Especially for smaller items. I would better understand it if we were selling items with a ton of competition but most are similar but not the same at best.
I hear similar stories from other sellers, who all sell very different items. One buddy sells only stamps and coins, another sells figurines, and one sells only used CDs and DVD's. All say their numbers have tanked in the last two years or basically came to a complete halt.
caldreamer
·2 years agoItems you are selling have a very narrow appeal and only people in that specific medical field will need them. I am assuming you have "very little competition" if that is the case...there is no need for you to pay extra money to promote your items. Promotion only makes sense if you are selling "extra same thing" as thousands of other sellers.
Honestly, I never pay attention to "impressions" because EBAY said that means customer is ONE CLICK AWAY from your listing page (basically that means nothing). That's like saying customer was standing outside your store and looking inside. Number of actual PAGES VIEWED is what is important.
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoI looked at what you have listed, and what you have sold in the past 90 days.
I do not see anything I would identify as a fast seller or high demand item.
Just good merchandise which should appeal to someone who is looking for it.
There are fewer people looking for many items and more competition for many items. I doubt if promotion or the need for promotion will affect your sales for better or worse.
Promotion works best for high demand products with lots of competition.
qualityrandomitems
OP1 year agoYes, I agree, most what I am selling is not high turnover an specialized .... but that's been that way for years. Even then, all things being equal, my sales have been absolutely destroyed this year. Worst decline ever. I really think they trying to punish those who don't pay for the advanced promotions (pay per click). If you don't use it, you may as well sell your stuff on Craigslist. I tried the pay per click back in March 2024 for one month, and only saw may sales cost increase, but not my sales. So I stopped, and that is the precise moment I saw all the impressions and clicks tank - far below what they were before I did a trial on the pay-per-click.
I think there is some underhandedness going on by eBay to tell you the truth, and my senses are usually not wrong.
selsa84
·1 year agoBeen on eBay for 15 plus years and have NEVER seen this many low sales posts, interesting how the tech glitches and issues seem to coincide with this.
bryo_3145
·2 years agoMcDonalds, Burger King, Wendys, and Starbucks are all having specials.