Ebays PL .ITS A SCAM

[jasoheat_0]

so i recently ended all my promoted listing , as my sale and views were down to single digits ( 75% ) , now i get this ad from Ebay stating HEY BUY ADS FROM US , what, i had all my listings promoted for at least a year , then all of a sudden in march sales went NUCLEAR thru the middle of the earth ....  what is wrong with the people that run this platform ( DONT NEED CHEERLEADERS AS I WILL GIVE NUMBERS TO SHOW EBAY IS FAILING ) , are they serious , do they have any clue , IAN by himself has dropped active buyers by 25% ( if not more ) GMV ( as he stated may drop to levels of 2019 / but hey its IAN were back down to levels of 2013 ) wow ,  those are HUGE numbers , less we forget about Market Share YEAH thats dropped 40 % , OOOOOOH Ebay employment total has dropped by 4% ( hundreds of employees got FIRED ) what an amazing CEO THANKS IAN ( ebay go ahead a censor me we all know EBAY could careless about FREE SPEECH.. ,.... OH and your  Useless customer support 

[inhawaii]

It'd s voluntary program.

If you think it's a scam, my suggestion would be not participate.

You seem to have a lot of anger towards ebay.

Just curious, why do you still do business with them?

You currently have over 100 items listed for sale. 

[mam98031]

It is difficult to have a civil conversation with you since you feel you have all the answers already.

I wish you the best.

[yuzuha]

Promoted listings do not and never have guaranteed SALES. What they do is get your item in front of more eyes-- it's still ultimately up to a buyer whether they want to purchase or not. This is why they are of more use in overly saturated categories (where there is tons of competition from other sellers selling the exact same thing) than in categories for OOAK items.

You can promote an item at 100%, but if buyers aren't interested in it or they feel the price is too high, it won't sell.

[fashunu4eeuh]

I think your anger is justified. A bit blunt, but i think i see what you are driving at.

I find it egregious that eBay is not marketing itself to all potential users through tv, radio and internet, but is targeting sellers with ads for the promoted listing programs. (eBay Motors enjoys some advertising, too.)

What i take issue with is that rather than trying to grow their user base, they are trying to squeeze more dollars out of existing sellers. Promoted listings has been a boon for eBay. It is a really nice revenue stream, so I understand their reasoning here (it is short-sighted, but i understand). It is evidence of their long game that is left wanting.

But you mentioned eBay is “failing”. Did you mean as in dying? Math has never been my strong suit, but i looked at the active user chart (see link below) that shows that the high point from 2020 to 2023 was 163 million users. Now it is 133 million. A loss of 25% of users would be 40 million, give or take. Right now it is a loss of 30 million, just under a 20% change.

This graph only follows the three years of the pandemic when the online surge took place. The loss of users was inevitable, sadly. The numbers were going to change once life began to normalize. I don’t think that by itself is evidence of a dying company. Not exactly robust, but not failing either.

(This chart does not break out buyers from sellers but defines users as anyone who who bid on, bought, listed or sold an item within a 12 month calendar year. It is hard to divide users into buyers or sellers since there is considerable overlap.)

https://www.marketplacepulse.com/stats/ebay-active-buyers

[clown_car_driver]

Don't hold back.

How do you REALLY feel?

[jasoheat_0]

if you go back to 2018 ( prior to the pandemic ) the total number of buyers were 179 million , i did my research off a full historical chart , and sales have been following the drop in users/ buyers ( so i think the writing is on the wall with that one ) a drop in at least 25% of the users while at the same time GMV fell . 25% is a HUGE number  especially in 5 years .  my frustration is with the CEO and where he is taking ebay and im not seeing any positives ( meaning more customers or more sales )  , especially with promoted listings ( as thats the only numbers going up ) yet views are down ( and there are plenty of conversations about that ) again that was an IAN thing as well , and i understand views arent sales but when views and sales keep dropping with what seems to coincide with all his updates ... well it gets very frustrating , i still sell on ebay but its dropped to 3rd on my list , failing yes ebay is failing sales and customers , will it die , not anytime soon( if it ever does )  , but they are sure hemorrhaging sales and customers ... that in my opinion is a complete FAILURE by IAN's and the direction that he is taking ebay in( as just on his watch he has lost 29 million users and sales have no sign of going back up  , and as far as the pandemic what did Ian try to do to keep users on the platform nothing that i could see , he squandered a perfect opportunity when there was one year we gained 1 million users then they left again with another 29 million in 3 years , thats 10 million users a year .. thats not good 

[siamjane8]

I think we can all agree that the site changes and updates have negatively effected sales.  Its hard to avoid the obvious conclusion, as all other online venues are still showing growth while ebay is still losing market share and GMV.   

    Simply put- buyers will follow the goods and where they are available (especially the unique and hard to find items), and sellers will offer those items on platforms that offer the best margins and has the most traffic and have the least amount of headaches listing there.

     The problem is that ebay - long ago decided that the seller did not matter.   They took the sellers for granted and now the sellers have left- leaving the void to be filled with overseas junk sellers.   

     Worse yet- ebay panicked and instead of making the platform better to use- they opted to raise fees and come up with ways to squeeze more money from sellers- effectively choking them out. Biting the hand that feeds them.

[kabilab]

jaso,

Read "inhawaii's" post. It is concise, logical and, IMHO, succinctly replies to your comments.

[jasoheat_0]

did you read what i wrote , because i do believe it says , i had all my listings promoted and then ended all of them so yeah i cancelled them all because i think it is a scam now as views and sales are so low , no not anger Frustration with this CEO and the direction ebay is going ( losings buyers and GMV HUGE amounts ) , ebay use to be number 1 on my sales platforms now its 3rd after this horrible xmas season ( but i did much better elsewhere ) im a business man so i use all avenues  available , I've had a lot more than 100 items listed , but many are selling elsewhere so i do not list as much on ebay as i use too ... locally is doing real well numbers are going up , One thing i dont understand ... how can people state that a platform is doing so well when all the numbers show other wise ( keys numbers as well ) , if user and GMV keep falling it will eventually affect everyone on this platform as it is affecting millions already , maybe part of the reason for the speeding up EXODUS (not that i want this ) but you cant act like its not happening , if enough users voice there dissatisfaction with what is going on it may help change ebay for the better , i want ebay to thrive ... but what is happening is going in the wrong direction 

[jasoheat_0]

exactly ... 

[toomuchstuffagain35]

Who the heck is Ian?

[luckythewinner]

I WILL GIVE NUMBERS TO SHOW EBAY IS FAILING

Since Q1 2021, USA per capital disposable income has dropped 19%.

Since Q1 2021, eBay GMV is down from 27.5b to 18.4b which is a drop of 33%.

I would not be surprised if the two are not related.

[doc-holmes]

What I'm starting to find a little frustrating, and they are increasing, are the posts that state "l'm going to rail against ebay and don't bother saying anything unless you agree with me. I want my own little echo chamber." 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@jasoheat_0  A couple things to consider:

Yes, ebay has lost quite a lot of active buyers. But expecting that loss to continue at a similar velocity might be an error. Many sites saw a similar post pandemic loss, and I think it's safe to say that much of that loss can be attributed to the post pandemic situation. And some of it can undoubtedly be attributed to ebay's decision ---a choice ebay made---to focus on "enthusiast buyers" and to allow the active buyer number to decline (remember , an active buyer is one who has bought even one item in the trailing 12 months....if a lot of those who are no longer on the active rolls were buyers who bought only one or two items in 12 months, the dollar loss is not terribly dramatic.

So, could we continue to see a decline in active buyers? Very possibly. But the pace is not likely to be as fast as it had been. And, from ebay's point of view, as long as they are seeing solid growth or at least stability in enthusiast numbers, they are probably satisfied.

In short, I'm not sure the decline is going to pick up speed as you seem to suggest. 

Same with GMV. No one really expects GMV numbers to go back to pandemic levels anytime soon (if ever). While much of the decline is attributable to post pandemic conditions, I think some of it is attributable to ebay's Focus Category strategy. ebay thinks this is working well, and I think ebay believes they will be able to reverse the decline as they expand into more Focus Categories (all of which do show some GMV growth). I'm less confident of that strategy, but I see nothing to indicate a shift in ebay's viewpoint. 

Personally, I suspect ebay is in the midst of trying to rebrand the company. And that might be good for some sellers and not so good for others.  But, if I am right, then I think ebay might be quite willing to see a further decrease in active buyer numbers and even GMV while they work on the rebranding. 

That doesn't mean they are necessarily failing. It means they are deliberately changing some things, and will emerge as something rather different from the old ebay. For us, as sellers, the important thing is: does ebay see us as part of that transformation, or not? Just an obvious example: If I sell expensive designer handbags, ebay is glad I'm here, and I'm part of the transformation. But what I sell....is that something ebay sees as being important to rebranded ebay? Well, we'll see. 

In the meantime, you are multi channel. You have at least 3 channels, because you say ebay is now #3 in terms of sales. OK. What that tells me is not "ebay is failing" so much as you are focusing on YOUR business and finding what works best for you.

That is what we all need to be doing. There is far more competition than ever before, but there are also far more opportunities---more platforms, both on and off the web, and more interest in a more diverse type of inventory. Focus on your own business and on what you can control.