Ebay Sales completely stopped in last 2 months October 2022

[ad2030]

Hello, I have been on ebay for 20 years selling off and on. I opened my ebay stores in 2013 and have been having great sales until the last 2 1/2 years. Sales have been declining slowly and steady for the last year and a half. 2021 and 2022 have been horrible nothing but a downward spiral..

I have done updating, relisting, sell similar, new listings, new pics, updated coded listings, added promo, having sales 10%-15% off. new titles Nothing is giving. 

I know my listings are not being found on the search results. I'm pretty much ghosted even though i can see them myself. No page impressions.. Not to mention china sellers are always at the top of the search results because of multiple never ending new accounts from the  same seller and low prices.

This is it I'm calling it quits as the business has dwindled to $100 dollar weeks. 

I sell industrial filtering media so the demand will be there. I keep reading how online shopping  is down all around ebay, posh, mercari etc. This is an ebay issue.  Looks like they are weeding out sellers quickly.

ebay sent me a message to try the new beta marketing campaign $500 off **bleep**! to get listings at the top of search results. 

Anybody having a similar experience, I would like to hear from you. 

[vintagecraze50]

I was wondering how in the world you can get an accurate picture of how many of your listings are really showing in the first few pages. When I look while i am logged into my accounts they seem to show up, high. Sometimes when I am logged out of my account they also show up high. Is there really anyway to get an accurate picture of this here?

[deosil111]

Thank god for other online platforms plus b and m and t and t (tent and table) picking up the slack. Losing interest in feebay 

[greatvintagebuys45]

Try Mercari--it is great, they don't "hide" listings and actually want you to sell something

[greatvintagebuys45]

I do most business on Mercari--it is a great platform!!!  Ebay is a joke!!

[greatvintagebuys45]

try mercari

[greatvintagebuys45]

Try Mercari--great platform to sell on--no "promoting", actually get views & sales--they actually want their sellers to succeed as they know when we sell, they make money!!  Their fees are about the same or less than Ebay's, and their shipping is way more supplemented & affordable!!

[femmefan1946]

@chapeau-noir 

The only Poshmark ads I've seen were Bright Young Things being amazed that they could make money selling their clothing, without the realization that they had paid for those things, including sales taxes, and were now going to sell them for less.

It was like they'd never seen that Sex and the City moment where Carrie learns that she could have had a downpayment on her flat, if she hadn't bought all those shoes.  And then realizing that if the BYT was born the year SatC first aired she would be 24 years old.

[chapeau-noir]

@femmefan1946   Posh's thrust with their advertising is that you might make more by reselling your old stuff than just donating it.

[client462]

Yep whatever algorithm changes ebay made no longer show any or few views I have small biz on these $150-$200 a month went to barely $50 a month after August. It's now November same thing getting a few looks very few sales set up Poshmark and generated some sales there but Poshmark has its own issues. Not sure what it is except whatever Ebay did back a few months ago pretty much destroyed the business for me. 

[paupers-paradise]

Good to know it isn't just me....I guess. I've tried PL, coupons, lower prices, and sell similar/relisting and It's been over a week since I've had a sale. I don't have a large store (starter) but I've been selling consistently for at least 2 years.  I upped how mush I was listing everyday and have listed consistently.  In the past, when I would do this it would pay off. So frustrating. It was like my items just weren't being seen. The silence was getting a little eerie, so I jumped on here.   Thank you for the post ad2030 and everyones responses.

[femmefan1946]

A stamp dealer on eBay Canada has been testing Promoted Listings vs Customer Discounts.

Basically for his bottom line, a 10% Promoted Listing fee going to eBay is identical to a 10% Discount going to the Customer.

Emotionally many sellers will resist this. Because eBay is your landlord not your friend.

His hypothesis is that PL gives a higher position in Search to his PL listings and by extension to all his listings, while the Discount is more focussed on the specific item, which can be  very niche indeed.

No reported results yet, but he likes playing with numbers so we may hear in six months or so.

[newmatics]

@ad2030

We have been selling on eBay since 2008. We Air Suspension parts & vehicle specific Air Ride kits on eBay motors . Here are some details about our company on eBay (do not want to boast about us, just stating some facts). We are a Top Rated seller since the beginning of  Top Rated Seller program. We have 99.8% positive feedback with 99.62% on time shipping as well as on time delivery plus we never lost our Top Rated seller status. We are also experiencing quite a bit slow down in sales since 14th October 2022. I am pretty sure something has changed on eBay or buyers are not spending money due to current economical condition, fear of recession etc.

I have done quite a bit of research on eBay key words related to our selling category. Our listings are ranking almost on first page at very top or at number 2 or 3 . We are offering almost 90% items with one day handling, free shipping as well as 30 day money back guarantee & free returns. Our return rate is 1.61% for 1000 plus items sold in last 90  days. We have been sponsoring almost all listings with 5% -9% ad rate. Technically we are doing everything possible to have a consistent sales but despite of all this we are seeing a decline in our sale volume especially after 14th October. We are still getting some orders but not the way we used to during this time. I have compared our sale history for last 3 years, noticed our sales are going down any where 14% - 22% compared to same time period in last 3 years.

I think this downward trend of lower sale volume is just temporary (at least I hope), this will change when buyers are confident enough to spend money, where they are not too much worried on how to pay for their daily needs, bills etc. Consumer confidence always goes down with high inflation, high interest rates and banks not lending money to borrowers like they used to in past. I think sale volume will improve as soon as over inflated housing market prices will come down.

I will suggest not to lose hope just keep on doing what you have been on eBay since so many years. You may have to adjust /lower prices on some items to get through this rough phase (slow down on sales). You may not be making same profits but at lest we will be getting some revenue. In my opinion eBay will definitely do something about this, eBay do not want to lose sellers and buyers at any condition. I hope things will turn out to be good in coming months, just keep your hopes alive. Do not give up (close eBay stores etc.) All of us selling on eBay spent quite a bit time & energy to list items, so do not let this go to waste. Best of Luck to all of you sellers selling on eBay for so many years.

Thanks

[newmatics]

I agree with you on this. We have been running promoted listings for this entire year as well as last year. Our sale is down but our items have much better ranking . You can either do a 5%-10% markdown sale or simply promote listings to get better ranking.  I will rather have better search ranking than doing markdown sales.

[merseyglo]

But you are already paying 9% plus 2.5%transaction fee on everything buyer pays (including shipping and sales tax). It's coming to around 15% in fees out of one sale..does it make sense to pay more (20-25%) out of a sale promoting on a site where 8 out of 10 people are offering less or low balling ? It makes more sense to improve search results where the sole purpose is to find the buyer what they are looking for to make more profit that way not presenting stuff people aren't looking for because they are promoted.Buyers will lose patience working to find what they are after.I did a search today for Mottahedeh Tobacco Leaf Lamps and other things came up first..you have to scroll down and find them spread out with non lamps in between..that's poor search performance,no reason for it.I searched for Gibson L5 Strings..no Gibson L5 Strings came up only L5 guitars but that is not what the customer is searching for. There should be a straight forwards transparent search to show customers what he is looking for and then closest similar after that. In my humble opinion 

[card-527]

Yes you are 100% correct!! It's not economy it's the algorithm and the clowns that keep messing with it. I don't buy that you get all your sales in a 1 hr window everyday.  It's like they show your listings for just enough sales then it shuts off. I have Free Returns 100% Feedback Top Rated does not matter. I will search a item I sell and the top item has no Returns and a 96% Feedback rate. That is a slap in the face !!!