eBay

myestate-treasures4u · ‎06-19-2023

I don't think I've ever seen so many sellers complaining about slow sales as I have in the last couple months. Anybody who has been selling for even a few years can see it. Why is it happening? Well, there may be a legitimate reason for it.

Perhaps if you're a larger seller, you may have noticed an unusual number of nightly slow/shut downs by eBay, where sales completely turn off until the next morning. Several Youtubers have mentioned it. I personally have noticed the same pattern in two of my larger stores where nightly sales have fallen by the wayside.

Could this be part of eBay's "improved" Promoted Listings "tool"? After all, we have watched this "tool" morph into what I like to call a gladiator arena, where sellers now have to fight each other to stay alive. In fact, it would be naïve to think that eBay isn't aware of the fact that when sales are "unusually slow" for an extended period of time, sellers will try to bid up their visibility against their competitors with PLS or now with PLA. I'm not saying that they are doing this on purpose in order to get more sellers on board with PL. However, what I will say is that eBay has made a great effort to NOT be transparent about all the glitches, shut downs and slow sales. No emails, no explanations, no effort, no concern. That is what concerns me as a 24-yr seller. Yet, what we do receive from eBay is an extensive marketing campaign aimed at sellers in an effort to convince them that these are beneficial "tools" or "assets" for sellers. Are sellers really that stupid?

Remember when individual sellers were the lifeblood of eBay? It's what made eBay so unique. Sadly, eBay is now just another marketplace that happens to have the same name as they did 28-yrs ago.

714ricki · ‎06-19-2023

Very interesting hypothesis. The most likely reason for all the disgruntled sellers complaining about the lack of sales could be as simple as understanding that buyers' discretionary income is very slim these days & are shopping less. Plus, you have more sellers flooding certain categories & sellers are also chasing a smaller population of active buyers. Sellers just need to understand that buyers aren't flush with money these days!!! All businesses are struggling these days!! Hang in there!!!

fashunu4eeuh · ‎06-19-2023

”Perhaps if you're a larger seller, you may have noticed an unusual number of nightly slow/shut downs by eBay, where sales completely turn off until the next morning. Several Youtubers have mentioned it. I personally have noticed the same pattern in two of my larger stores where nightly sales have fallen by the wayside…”

I am not a large seller and i know of the nightly slowing of sales.

I see you sell to the US and not internationally on this ID. I also have a compelling theory. If one is primarily selling to the US, then the slowdown you speak of is a result of the primary market of shoppers going to sleep for 8 hours.

myestate-treasures4u · ‎06-19-2023

I was expecting someone to chime in with words about the economy, which is always part of the litmus test. However, it's noteworthy that retail is still growing month over month with May up 0.3%. Of course, those are economic expressions that refer to long-term trends, which are not commensurate with the abrupt, less sublte realities of recent eBay sales. This is much different. 😉

buyologist-3 · ‎06-19-2023

I agree. Lots of $$ is going to grocery stores. If inflation gets lower, only business/stockholders will benefit. Watch how groceries won't change that much at all. I hope things get better, of course.

myestate-treasures4u · ‎06-19-2023

Well, that would sound like an easy explanation. However, our market category has always been primarily domestic. 😀

myestate-treasures4u · ‎06-19-2023

I'm hoping eBay gets better.

shar_27 · ‎06-19-2023

I share the same sentiment. The economy undoubtedly impacts all platforms.
However, if you engage in crossposting, it becomes quite apparent that a certain phenomenon consistently occurs.
Whenever my eBay sales stalled, orders from my other venues pour in. It's worth noting that my selling prices on those platforms are nearly double what I offer on eBay.

I was attempting to update my eBay listings prices, However, due to persistent errors, I am unable to proceed.
My eBay sales stop now, let's see how my other venues doing from now?
Undoubtedly, eBay's enormous glitches are certainly the main cause of the Sales stagnation on eBay.

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vintagecraze50 · ‎06-20-2023

I have seen numerous posts trying to figure this out and the only conclusion I can come to is that consumers are still struggling with paying their bills. It’s getting better as I read in the news but not quite where it needs to be again to ramp up sales on the internet.

vintagecraze50 · ‎06-20-2023

Also. I see no reason whatsoever for ebay to turn off sales for any particular seller and that includes those who choose not to use promoted listing regular advanced or pay per click. It’s just a tool some seller may need to use if they are in a wildly over saturated category of products with steep competition. Ebay cans use that to create more revenue in these categories.

vintagecraze50 · ‎06-20-2023

It takes a long time for prices to go down once they get up so high.

femmefan1946 · ‎06-20-2023

Here on Vancouver Island, gas is now $1.999 a litre.

There are about 5 litres to a gallon, so that's $10 or so a litre.

Somewhere between $7 and$8 US a gallon. At minimum wage it takes 3/4 of an hour to earn a gallon of gas.

On the other hand we're starting to see local vegetables in the stores, now that the winter crops from the South that are expensively trucked or flown here.

Canada has a lot of Free Trade deals which keep down duty on imports, including the Pacific Rim TPP that the USA refused to join a few years back , and another with the EU. So that helps.

The biggest problem is that we don't have enough workers in the trades for the demand, although I noticed that migrant workers are back in the Golden Horseshoe in Southern Ontario farm country from a discussion of public transit vs taxi/rideshare on FaceBook.