eBay

watangems · ‎10-11-2023

Hi,

This year is pretty bad on eBay. Sales, traffics and views are down by a lot. I was wondering if our eBay stores are getting impacted by other apps and sites? I never seen like this slow for years.

I have stadards ads, advanced ads, and display ads, but nothing is helping. selling cost have gone up, but profits and sales down significantly.

Is there any app that can help drive traffic to a eBay store? eBay was my income. Now, crazy slow. I really don't know what is going on?

Any advice would be appreciated.

doubledz-a2z · ‎12-15-2023

25yr seller here. Always done well with limited listings. Paid off home etc now retired on SSI. I have curtailed any excess selling as I refuse to bust my butt and pay our gov’t taxes just to have it go to support folks who do not have any work ethics. Plus people forget there is ALOT of smash n grab/stolen Merch being sold right now for a song. Not like it used to be. Young folks do not have the tenacity to be self sufficient. They are spoiled with freebies and handouts.

lawnmowerpartsstore2 · ‎12-15-2023

Ya about that 😞

mam98031 · ‎12-15-2023

@doubledz-a2z wrote:
25yr seller here. Always done well with limited listings. Paid off home etc now retired on SSI. I have curtailed any excess selling as I refuse to bust my butt and pay our gov’t taxes just to have it go to support folks who do not have any work ethics. Plus people forget there is ALOT of smash n grab/stolen Merch being sold right now for a song. Not like it used to be. Young folks do not have the tenacity to be self sufficient. They are spoiled with freebies and handouts.

While I agree that SOME young people are like this, every generation has had them, there is nothing new in that statement. But there are a whole lot of good young people too that are getting far more involved in politics and how to make the world a better place from what I see. And from what I see it is more than there was when I was a young one too. I never cared about the world at large until I was well into my 30's.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

jewelcollect01 · ‎12-16-2023

Jewelry seller. Vintage and Antique. Historically, sales are usually low for me this time of year with sporadic buy it now's. Pick up usually come after Christmas. I do both low start auction and fixed price. I am not saying my auctions are not still selling, they are, but my overall per item has gone significantly with only rock bottom offers on my bins that I simply can not accept.

However, with all that said. I have been around since 1998, and 2005 jewelry only seller this has been my worst year since 2015 and that is saying something.

I think collectibles are down as a whole.

We could be competing with those using promoted listings advance, or pay per click, but with sales low who can afford that right now. Will it increase sales, who knows, but shouldering the increase in fees right now is not an option. With promoted listings and the 13.5 percent fee jewelry sellers already pay anywhere from 25-26 percent in final value . Add shipping cost and we are talking about 33-35%

aldelbertmatthew · ‎12-16-2023

If it already hasn't been pounded in by now: Crosslist onto other platforms. Ebay is no longer a solid and steady income source. There's many people on this board with thousands of listings and decades of reselling experience who've powered through multiple recessions selling only on eBay suddenly having the worst year of their lives and being forced to diversify. The moment they cross-list to other platform, sales start to return.

This website is heavily broken and eBay is continuing to do nightly shut downs and updates in the 4th quarter which is something they haven't done historically. Cross-listing is vital to survival now as a reseller. Except in highly specific cases, you can rely on eBay alone.

jewelcollect01 · ‎12-16-2023

I think most sellers, even those part timers, like myself, diversify. . The only issue is that certain collectibles do not do well in other markets. I literally have had stuff sitting on other sites for years. I will say with ebay it always eventually sells.

What I do is also a passion so it isn't like I actually don't keep or collect some that I buy. Just saying, historically, this has been an off year, and, I am a survivor of all you mentioned, hence why part time and no longer full time. I didn't want to grow to hate what I loved.

ittybitnot · ‎12-16-2023

historically, this has been an off year

@jewelcollect01

I have been an avid buyer of vintage/antique jewelry and related items for many years. Most items are sold in the auction format, or BIN/Best offer. After enjoying eBay for over 20 years when eBay placed those "requirements" on a seller's account with a default set to YES and started to FORCE buyers to comply, it was basically all over for me.

Though it was pitched to me and buyers in general as something new, a wonderful experience, smoother and beneficial it was nothing of the sort. As a buyer it reduced my payment options, and did away with invoicing for combined orders to save on shipping. There was no more incentive make offers, or bid on auctions. Why would I want to pay $50 and tax on shipping alone for ten items that could be easily combined in a 6 ounce parcel for $8? I don't NEED jewelry, it is simply something I like.

You can check your own here:

https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/buyerrequirements

Buyer Payment Requirements

*Require buyers to provide a payment method before they place a bid.

*Require buyers to provide a payment method before they make an offer.

Click submit.

Though there has been some recent indication that eBay is 'rethinking' this, but perhaps the damage has already been done. I know the buyer that signed up for the new "experience" (in order to proceed on the postage stamp auctions) likely won't be back after his $20 shipping for ten stamp listings was auto-billed. Lucky for me that I read here, and knew the real consequences of setting a default payment source in order to bid BEFORE I became a victim as well.

This was a poor attempt to solve a problem with buyers that don't pay. Instead of sanctioning those non-payers, they decided to discourage those that actually DO PAY with system that actually was monetarily beneficial to eBay. Sellers can turn these off providing they know that they are even there.

It was nice to hear from a seller the other day that reported that their "offers" and sales were back to normal after becoming "buyer friendly" once again.

mam98031 · ‎12-16-2023

@aldelbertmatthew wrote:
If it already hasn't been pounded in by now: Crosslist onto other platforms. Ebay is no longer a solid and steady income source. There's many people on this board with thousands of listings and decades of reselling experience who've powered through multiple recessions selling only on eBay suddenly having the worst year of their lives and being forced to diversify. The moment they cross-list to other platform, sales start to return.

This website is heavily broken and eBay is continuing to do nightly shut downs and updates in the 4th quarter which is something they haven't done historically. Cross-listing is vital to survival now as a reseller. Except in highly specific cases, you can rely on eBay alone.

I have listed on other sites for years. However I never crosslist unless I have the inventory to cover both sites if the item sells. Cross Listing without the inventory to support what might sell when you aren't looking is very dangerous and could cause the seller issues. So it is something I do not recommend. I know some sellers do it, which is fine it is their choice. But they need to know there are dangers in doing that.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

jewelcollect01 · ‎12-19-2023

I had someone else contact me about this as well recently. I do a large amount of combined shipping and so I have this option turned off, I only use buyer restrictions for those with unpaid item strikes. For some reason though, for my buyer, it did auto payments on them even auctions which I had never seen before. Now I do buy quite a bit on eBay and it is 50/50 for me when it comes to BINS to ask for payment method upfront but I have never experienced this on an auction till theirs.

And I mean I have buyers who buy 40-100 items and pay over a period of a month that setting would never work for me.

bashort · ‎12-19-2023

I hate the whole idea of promoted listings, as a buyer when I do a search on ebay the top results are no longer what matches closest but rather who paid the most to be in the top results.

I had a ebay rep call and explain all of the benefits of promoted listings, when they told me that It works best if you promote your best selling items I hung up. I refuse to play the promoted listing game.

robbinsnest · ‎12-22-2023

I've been on Ebay 25 years, and no, it's not the Ebay of yesteryear anymore.

If it's a decent deal relative to the market it sells quick. Otherwise it doesn't. If its a hot item, I get offers literally within a few seconds of posting it. Other stuff just sits and sits, especially collectables.

IMHO part of the problem is how clunky the listing process is, they really need to take a page from Facebook Marketplace where I can list an item in 30 seconds.

The biggest problem I have is with shipping, packages are treated so horribly that the packing cost is eating away the profit, I no longer deal in old radios, clocks, lamps, or anything easily broken.

woodrowmo-30 · ‎12-22-2023

Promote your eBay store on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Share engaging content related to your products to generate interest.
Consider running targeted ads on social media to drive traffic.
Experiment with eBay's Promoted Listings feature to increase visibility.
Analyze the performance of promoted listings and adjust your strategy accordingly.

dagwoodsdigs · ‎12-27-2023

That is not it. I have been selling on eBay for 10 years. This s*** hit the fan when they started charging sellers to place their ads in front of everyone else. It was the stupidest thing I have ever seen! Not only can't the people that sell at lower prices be the first on the list, the shoppers have to spend twice as long or more looking for the lowest prices, because they are all mixed up and at the end of the que! I already shop on other sites more and more because I can't stand looking through all of the items I feel I am forced to look through to get to the deals. What made eBay great in the beginning is suffering like all of the other site that have tanked. It is about time for eBay to have a REVIVAL or just stop advertising to save money.