Ebay is slowly dying.

[acidtactical]

Ebay management isn't doing a good job at promoting ebay and advertising on other platforms.  We've been selling on Ebay for over 20 years.  Slowly it's dying and will soon be replaced by something else or taken over completely by Amazon.  Management has allowed it to die and are doing a crappy job of promotion.  

[mam98031]

@acidtactical 

Is this your opinion or did you read somewhere that this was going to happen "dying and will soon be replaced by something else or taken over completely by Amazon"?  If you read it somewhere, please provide a link so we can all update ourselves.

Are you aware that Ebay as a corporation is profitable and has been for a very long time.  While Amazon is much larger and is NOT an apples to apples comparison to Ebay because there are so many differences, they are not always a profitable corporation.

It is much more expensive to sell on Amazon than it is to sell here.  And they aren't the dream site many like to make them out to be.

[isaiah53-57]

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

What would you suggest they do differently?

Ebay is a name that has been out there for 30 years. Everyone knows what it is. Like 7/11- they really don't need to advertise because like Cheers, everyone knows their name.

But..they do advertise; they choose a particular angle. Right now, they advertise Auto Parts on Automotive Shows, for 1

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You say: "Ebay is a name that has been out there for 30 years. Everyone knows what it is. Like 7/11- they really don't need to advertise because like Cheers, everyone knows their name."

Well I believe "knowing their name" is not necessarily a positive thing with some of the bad press and, worse, bad word of mouth going around. I'm pretty sure, based on many company health indicators and from the negative vibes I get from a high portion of people regarding ebay, "Knowing their name" is NOT going to keep them afloat over the long term.

CFO from ebay, Jamie Iannone, conference call with Lauren Schenk from Morgan Stanley. "One of the great benefits of eBay is that 90% of our traffic is either organic or free. So, we only pay for 10% of our traffic." Thats awesome, so basically saying ebay doesn't need to advertise much? Is that why they had approximately a 3.5% Market Share in 2022(down from 11.6% in 2012)?? - So how low does it need to go before they DO start advertising??

What would you suggest they do differently?  Wow - Pick just about any indicator of company health and start there - Threw a dart and it landed on Rising Cost to Sell on ebay:  CFO from ebay, Jamie Iannone, conference call with Lauren Schenk from Morgan Stanley: "To your question on take rate, we constantly look at take rate as a way to say, what's an opportunity to lean in or to grab more take rate." For a company in decline(GMV dropped 5% more in last earnings report) what makes them think they DESERVE more rate take?? They should start there - Do an about face on their Take Rate addiction and give REAL concessions to users to stimulate long term growth - In my opinion, taking more out of yours and my back pocket is the only way they are able to show any profit - And its about like putting a band-aid on a gaping wound - Another short term fix at the expense of long term growth - I wonder when the last quarterly report showed the opposite of that? hmmmm...

[pickermall]

I look at it like this... Sears was THE store everyone went to (ok... not everyone, but you know what I mean). It was largely replaced by K-Mart, then Wal-Mart. Who knows the NEXT big store?

Stores run their cycles, until the next big popular place takes over. I'm sure we are seeing that with e-commerce. I just hope the Powers That Be at Ebay embrace this site for what it should be... and stop chasing after Amazon. All my opinion.

[isaiah53-57]

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@mam98031 wrote:

@acidtactical 

Is this your opinion or did you read somewhere that this was going to happen "dying and will soon be replaced by something else or taken over completely by Amazon"?  If you read it somewhere, please provide a link so we can all update ourselves.

Are you aware that Ebay as a corporation is profitable and has been for a very long time.  While Amazon is much larger and is NOT an apples to apples comparison to Ebay because there are so many differences, they are not always a profitable corporation.

It is much more expensive to sell on Amazon than it is to sell here.  And they aren't the dream site many like to make them out to be.

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@mam98031

Wow - I want some of what you got - Seriously?? - You are comparing ebay with Amzon as a profitable company??

Not sure why I am doing this, but,  you say, "Ebay as a corporation is profitable and has been for a very long time". Profitability is only one representation of company health and not the most important one, be sure.  Several company health indicators show the company to be in an accelerated rate of decline and that even a company in decline can get real creative when showing profit.

Maybe you didnt know that ebay had an approximately 4% market share last year and Amazon had approximately a 37% market share. Given that time is money for the people who have things to sell, a venue with THAT KIND of market share can ask what they want to sell there - I would think it prudent for the laggers to be frugal with what they ask for take rate in order to increase sentiment and demand, not the opposite.

Maybe you didnt know ebay had close to 180+ million active users in 2107-2018 and they are now closing in on 130 million.

Anyway...

[acidtactical]

EBay Inc. said its gross merchandise volume, which is the value of all goods sold on the site, fell 5% to $18.4 billion in the first quarter of 2023, the eighth consecutive period in which that key metric number dropped.

The number of active buyers on the marketplace also fell – dropping 7% to 133 million during the period ending March 31, 2023. That too is the eighth consecutive quarterly drop.

Ebay's doing a poor job of advertising the platform.  We personally prefer ebay over amazon all day long but if they're only going to advertise ebay motors like they have, we have to concentrate our time where the customers are.

[ed8108]

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@acidtactical wrote Slowly it's dying and will soon be replaced by something else     


   Then you go forward into
what the future may hold.

Good luck 

[mam98031]

Again, not apples to apples.  I'm aware that Amazon has a larger business than Ebay does.  But then Amazon is a much different site than Ebay.

I'm aware of Ebay's stats, but I appreciate the refresher course.  It still changes nothing I said in the post you responded to.

[mam98031]

Yes, I read the same information.

https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/ebay-inc-reports-better-than-expected-first-quarter-2023-result...

I did not defend anything to do with how Ebay advertises the site.  I didn't even say a word on that subject.

But you are deflecting and not answering the question I asked you.  You stated "Slowly it's dying and will soon be replaced by something else or taken over completely by Amazon. "  I simply asked where you read that and if you would please post a link.  Now if this is just your personal opinion, I take no issue with that, we are all full of our own opinions, but you just didn't post it like an opinion, so I asked.

[66-catalina]

Ebay is dying because it's flooded with cheap offshore junk, listed 100 times over for each item.

the cool stuff, neat stuff, rare stuff, oddball stuff, collectible/antique/unique stuff,

is lost in a sea of arcade quality scrap plastic made overseas.

get the big business off Ebay, put it in Ebay Corporate Retail site,

and give us our cool old site back from the 1990's-2000's that sold so well !!

[craft-stash]

That's because sales keep declining year by year!!!!

My sell through rate is absolutely ridiculous!

[mam98031]

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@66-catalina wrote:

Ebay is dying because it's flooded with cheap offshore junk, listed 100 times over for each item.

the cool stuff, neat stuff, rare stuff, oddball stuff, collectible/antique/unique stuff,

is lost in a sea of arcade quality scrap plastic made overseas.

get the big business off Ebay, put it in Ebay Corporate Retail site,

and give us our cool old site back from the 1990's-2000's that sold so well !!

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Those sellers would not be selling here if buyers weren't buying their stuff.  

They have been around for so many years, even in the early 2,000.  Some may have just been becoming aware of them.

[mam98031]

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@craft-stash wrote:

That's because sales keep declining year by year!!!!

My sell through rate is absolutely ridiculous!

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I am sorry this is happening to you.  I too have taken some hits over the years.  However Ebay is doing fine.  Bouncing around a bit, but fine.

https://www.businessofapps.com/data/ebay-statistics/

[theteamsetguy]

@acidtactical 

They advertise plenty on various sport cards sites. They set up a big booth at the National Sports Collectors Convention every year. 

They also advertise on many sneaker collecting sites.

[theteamsetguy]

@acidtactical ,

In the pass couple of weeks the following companies have missed sales and earnings estimates for the first quarter of 2023.

1. Target sales were were flat and sales of discretionary items were down. Food sales up due to inflation. Expects 2nd quarter sales to be down 2% to 5%.

2. Home Depot sales down 4.2% compared to same quarter in 2022. Now expects 2nd quarter 2023 sales to be down around.

3. UPS and FedEx both indicated e-commerce package volume was down more than expected in the first quarter of 2023.

Most of the sellers complaining of low sales sell discretionary items such as clothes and collectibles. People’s discretionary items budgets are shrinking due higher food, housing, and energy costs. 

The higher interest rates on credit cards have taken a chunk out of many people’s budgets. The interest costs for every $10,000 in credit balances has increased $600.00 per year.

[rugerskick]

Well, I think a sizeable portion of sellers hold the opinion of keeping their eggs in multiple baskets.  Now I am not saying crossposting, because you can run into inventory issues and you don't need that headache, but some sites are better than others, depending on the items you are selling.  Some things just seem to do better on certain sites.  So now I think many sellers strategies are evolving to figure out what does best where, not necessarily to drop selling on a site altogether unless it basically is where the majority of their selling problems come from.