Slow Sales are known at all.

[vsb1146]

What has happen to Ebay? We were getting sales regular. Now it just a  trickle. Every sense their new update. Are buyers even really seeing items. Every time they update are change something Sales plummet are down to a trickle. 

[ryanrobyn]

It's a very common maneuver to blame all problems (esp designed ones) on a bug glitch. If really is a glitch it's because Ebay won't pay to get good software engineers but instead relies on 3rd world country employees. One never sees so many glitches on Amazon.

[banknotes_1]

The following steps ebay has taken are slowing down sales significantly since buyers and even sellers no longer return to ebay for shopping and go to alternative stores and venues instead:

1. Sneaky VAT where you realize you must pay VAT only after you've already committed to buying the item(s).
2. Confusing interface and functionality where at the front listing it says "WE SHIP TO "COUNTRY NAME HERE"
but when adding to a cart or committing to a sale all of a sudden it says something like CHANGE YOUR ADDRESS in order to have it shipped to you. The seller confirms they do not ship to your country.
3. In the middle of the item listing  other items are being listed for sale, making finding the item info difficult to concentrate on. Scrolling down from top to bottom the item for sale information is scattered and interrupted by other listings.
4. Sellers now MUST allow ebay to withdraw funds from their bank accounts and no other payment alternatives are allowed. Which is a safety concern.
5. Other issues with functionality and interface that often do not make sense and disrespect the buyer.

Since around year 2000 I have stopped selling on ebay and I kept shopping on ybiai in a minimal volume, only for the very necessary items that I really needed and could not find elsewhere. Yet this year I finally stopped using ebay 100%, because of # 1 and # 4.

[banknotes_1]

Read my response to the OP post for possible reasons why sales are slow. My own single listing (book for sale) was recently shut down by ebay because I did not want to let ebay dig directly into my bank account. No alternative payment methods provided. While shutting my listing down (no big deal, it was rather a test of ebay's functionality) Ebay has never asked me WHY I did not want to provide my bank account for a direct debit. I've been had my bank account abused by other corporations by letting them do direct debit, so I will never allow direct debit ever again. Especially when tons of and a variety of fees and charges are involved that are related to a sale of an item and hell knows what else.

[soh.maryl]

Don't know where you're located.  But would imagine that anyone in Europe whose country (not eBay) charges VAT on imports would be aware of that fact.  So I am wrong about that? 

[mrdutch1001]

Hardly believe VAT would be a problem since EU has announced that to the world , so only those persons living in a cave or under a rock wouldn't be aware...

Since many online selling venues require its users to have bank account for depositing funds, this is nothing unique to eBay, but for anyone not comfortable with that aspect of online selling, their online selling ventures will be reduced to whatever other smaller selling venues available that don't require banking account but the audience for buying will also be greatly less than sites like eBay...

As to functionality & interface workings, well one can take issue with any selling venue regarding those aspects. NOTHING is perfect...

[beachychicd]

No sales here either. Seems I was dropped into the invisible zone too. Normally had around 10 sales a day. NOW 0 in the last 2 days. I have steady sales and for the drop like that FOR NO REASON is NOT NORMAL! I called CS 3 times this week. They either are uninformed of what is going on or know and of course not letting sellers know. One told me their was a glitch and a lot of calls about this. That was 6 days ago and nothing has changed. They say they are putting in a "TICKET" to the technical dept. I don't believe that because I never have gotten one message about any of it yet. We are being lied to as we PAY THEM MONTHLY STORE FEES! We are paying for them FOR NOTHING!

[hurricane954_3]

My sales are nearly nonresistant.  I haven't sold a single item in 2 weeks.My items are

HTF collectibles and I rarely have anything to compete against them for sales.

I'e never experienced anything like this. Whatever they're doing, it's causing Ebay stocks

to drop too.

[patrickd2390]

I believe it's their new algorithm

[patrickd2390]

Something is re-directingtraffic away. Possibly their algorithm

[patrickd2390]

What did rep say?

[jackson69925]

My sales have dropped off to non existent too. I sold between 4-13 items a day. This week I have sold 5 items total. Something is going on

[xr95]

Sales are down for everyone on the net. I've been noticing more and more complaints about this on various forums. Not a good sign.. 😟

[shoptreat]

Me too, I even contaced Ebay, they say everything is fine. Well is not fine on my side 😞   I've been lowering prices, adding free ship on some items, send offers, use the marketing tool, add auctions .. nothing .. crickets 😞

[joemazeh]

Hi,

I have been selling on eBay since November of 1998...That is a good 24 years of abundant sales. I used to ship up to 30 items per day and it is now turning into a mere 3 items a day and sometimes not even a single item. What is going on? I just don't understand the reason for the slow sales curve. Please explain.

[christinegreywolf]

Here is my theory which I am sure will get me into trouble and yes lower my sales more, lol.   I too have been selling with Ebay since the beginning under a few different names at the same time.  Back then I would have hundreds of views per item and I would sell about 15 items per day.  I now sell maybe 5 items give or take per day.  Ebay now uses an algorithm that maximizes profit and continuing profit for Ebay.  It is all about squeezing every penny because as we all know, they add up.  I am positive that only a small section of similar items are shown when an item is searched.  The algorithm takes the listing that maximize the profit Ebay can gain off each sale.  For example; distance for shipping as we all know that Ebay charges fees on the amount collected for shipping too.  They gain a few pennies more the further the item has to ship.  I am in Colorado and I have to pay the highest shipping fees to get to the eastern side of the US.  Thus almost all of my sales are from there.  Obviously I do make some sales to the western part also, but very few overall.  You must follow all of the "suggested" recommendations if you want to keep your sales higher.  To keep higher, I run non stop promotions.  I always list higher than I want and send offers at the price I wanted in the first place.  Yes, I almost always offer free shipping.  I also attended several Ebay course (very boring info for the experienced), but they admit you have to use the recommendations or you will not fit into their selling algorithm.  Everyone  thinks they can now be a full time seller and get rich and this huge amount of sellers pricing their items at a loss also impacts what you can sell.   I suggest having several people you know (not people who have you saved as a favorite seller and search for your specific items you are selling.  Check to see how easy or hard it is to find your items.  Don't pick the race item you are selling, but maybe something that a lot of people are also selling.  I found this very informative.  Some items showed up and most were quite hard to find even though they were competitively priced.  As more people keep entering into reselling, I am backing out.  I now actively closing down my stores slowly because heck I still want to make the most out of what I already invested in.