Dramatic Drop in Sales/Very Slow October 2018

[delawareoutdoordecor]

Hi everyone, I have been having a regrettable October, with sales from 10/1 to 10/6 as abnormally slow, then a small spike in sales 10/7-10/9, then a sheer dive to 1 sale over the past 42 hours. I started a sale in all 4 of my eBay stores on 10/11 at 8:30am EST, with one purchase on 10/11 at 5:36pm EST. Yes I have 4 eBay stores, near 3000 total listings, close to 125,000 total available inventory items....and I’ve had a total of 4 sales in 3 days (including the 1 purchase in the past 42 hours). I’ve contacted eBay twice (once today and once yesterday) because this has not happened to my stores before. I generally have 6-12 sales a day as an average (all 4 stores combined), and I have followed slow times and higher selling times as usual ebbs and flows. Every promotion/sale I’ve started (10% off usually with combined shipping) has purchases being made with some consistency everyday. It’s now 2:30pm EST on 10/12, and again no purchases across all 4 stores. 

I feel like I seeing a deficit on eBay’s part here. They’ve assured me that my listings are visiable, I’m using the correct key words, I’m running promotions....and yet there is no explanation for the stunning drop in sales. 

Is anyone else seeing something similar? I’m very concerned....

[jeremberge-4]

Hi I sent an offer for 10 dollars on the brand new Gucci Bag I hope you will accept.

Congradulations idiot you have earned yourself a front row seat on the list of blocked buyers.

[skishack2016]

What ebay should do is undercut amazon by lowering the fees to let's say 10 %.

[kizzmyglass]

I am going through the same thing!! Its terrible! I do not know what E-bay has done to its platform but I'm not going to hang around for this much longer. It's very upsetting because after 10 years I'm tired of feeling like nothing matters to E-bay as far as the sellers go. Its not worth the stress. Its like going to a job every day & being told I'm not pulling my weight so I'm not getting a paycheck. It's about time to try Amazon or another platform. It's sad because I used to LOVE E-bay & would tell everyone how great it is but know I'm not promoting them to anyone because frankly I think its lost its appeal. RIP EBAY! We all miss you but its time to move on!

[weschurch]

And on the other side of the coin, I am a buyer on ebay only. I want to use Ebay but its gotten to the point so many sellers are leaving I can't find anything I want. When that happens I I just stop considering Ebay as a place to get stuff.  All Ebay ever had to do was listen to its sellers. They refused and now people like me, hardcore Ebay buyers, have stopped even looking for things on here.

[lelety]

Selling since 2003 and sales got really bad in the last 2 years and getting only worse with no sign of recovery very sad but it is true!! 

[neve2]

Yes, likewise. This is the worst 60 days I've had in 20 years.  I have tried everything; doubled the ad fees, discounted 15-30%, free shipping, everything. Doesn't make a difference.  No interest whatsoever.

[midwesterncollectables]

Having the same problem as everyone else in this thread.  My sales have almost flatlined the past month and I'm starting to get worried. Something is seriously going on and I'm considering taking my business elsewhere.

[equid0x]

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@oz_in_ohio wrote:

You do realize that if these sellers have multiple accounts then they have to have more computer s

to go into it and use it.... You see ebay can tell the ip adress from where the item

was listed and bid from. 

If one has 3 different ebay accounts then that = 3 different computers

Do you really think that the dramtic drop in sales would make sellers go out and purchase

multiple computer systems??...I DONT THINK SO!!!!!

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No. They rent a micro instance on Amazon AWS for $0.15/hr and do it from there. 

Maybe I am in the wrong business.....

[equid0x]

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@kandlwil wrote:

Hi

Yes, you are right, this seller does have multiple accounts.  We called Ebay customer service yesterday and and they confirmed this seller is PURCHASING THEIR OWN ITEMS.  All the purchases are linked to the same address for buyer/seller.  This gives them a boost in the Ebay best match search engine because the search gives preference to multiples of the same item being sold.  Ebay also confirmed this is against Ebay policy and called it search and browse manipulation.  

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The more and more I read around about all the ways people will game the system, the more I believe that all of this algo automation for searches isn't really good for sellers or eBay in the long run. 

There are just too many ways to game the system. The more complex you make the system, the more ways there will be to game it. Eventually, you just end up playing "whack-a-mole" on system problems and scammers more than you actually sell anything at all. 

It seems to me that before this whole AI search system was put into place, eBay and its sellers were making substantially more money. At some point, won't they have a fiduciary responsibility to their investors to roll back the changes?

[equid0x]

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@skishack2016 wrote:

What ebay should do is undercut amazon by lowering the fees to let's say 10 %.

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Way back when eBay first started... I believe the fees were something like 3-3.5% across the board. 

B&M auction houses charge 10-20%. The whole point of computer automation is to make things cheaper. Why are the fees higher with automation than without?

[stockjedi]

Same here worst I've seen in 20 years. Sales down 75% from $1k + a day to a few bucks. This place is doing down fast and about to get much worse.

[oz_in_ohio]

i believe that ebays fees are about 9% already

[altherionsilver]

So we are all saying the samething. My sales are down 85% for the l;ast three months.  It is as if I have nothing up for sale.  Then< out of nowhere, I wil get a rash of sales, 95% from Texas and Florida.  Obviously there is a problem with Ebay, not us.  But what do we do?  Something has got to be done.  We are still paying the fees but there is a big problem.  I have addressed it with Ebay and they pretty much blow it off.  How can we all ban together and take formal action against Ebay.  This has got to be investigated.  I don't do this for fun, this is my sole source of income.  If any other "Employer" had an issue satisfying their "Employees" work flow success, they would act on it immediately.  Obviously Ebay could care less.  They get their money whether we sell or not.  Who do we call?  What agency should be contacted? What investigative service would look into this?  My only thought is to get an attorney at this point and have this opened up as a true case against Ebay but legal fees are rediculoous. We all can't just sit on our computers wining about this.  I am just at a loss of what to do to light a fire under Ebay's you know what...   This has cost me a a lot in sales and maintenance.  What do we all do to get this resolved?  This is not a passing fancy.  It is now going on 4 months.  If it corrected itself tomorrow, what about the last 4 months? Insertion Fees, etc... HELP!

[cassidycollectibles]

I have also seen a slide in both visits, watchers, and sales in October through December. I am wondering if this reflects a general concern about the economy or if eBay has made some search changes again.

[bohemianspirit18]

My sales are down 98% I keep asking google is ebay dead and i get loaded of complains from sellers i am here almost 20 years the small artisan seller get thrwon like trash we made ebay what it is today once large corp enter and China dominite ebay with the thousands of negative from ebay buyers and they still in busniss and making money we lost our rights our protection our buyers and money that makes me feel as a victime in a nation of laws that creat many loop holes for farce byers that use return in abuse way for mail that was not recive by the country that sent to and i must pay for it lost my goods and the money SOMETHING MUST BE DONE GREED CAN NO LONGER TAKE OVER ON ACCOUNT OF GOOD SELLERS