Good Til Canceled: How It's Affecting Me Personally (my first Community post)

[studioreclaim]

I have never started a discussion in my 10 years on ebay and in 3 years of selling on ebay as a sole proprietor. I did $87,000 in sales last year and was on track for significant growth this year, until this new policy went into effect and has killed my sales. I am genuinely in fear of going out of business and I felt I have to share my experience in hopes that ebay takes it into account, although I know it's not going to matter and I'm going to be at the whim of ebay's decision makers.

I've started promoting all of my listings, and I am now offering free 30 day returns on almost everything just to try and make up for lost exposure and the massive drop in sales, and it is doing nothing. I am lucky to do more than $100 in a day now, and that doesn't factor in the inevitable returns that will eat into that figure, and my overhead, albeit relatively low (I try to run my business as lean as possible), cannot be sustained on those numbers.

As it stands, my business is not sustainable long-term due to the mandatory Good Til Cancelled policy. If sales don't come back up to previous figures or at least grow like they were before the change, I will have no choice but to diversify and move to other platforms to make up for what ebay took away. It is essentially pushing out the small-time entrepreneurs like me who do this for a living, and favoring the giant sellers who deal in mass quantities and high volumes.

I don't want to leave ebay. I am incredibly grateful that I can work for myself and enjoy my work and personal life as a self-made entrepreneur on this platform. I want to see it succeed, because if ebay is succeeding, that means I succeed. But this new policy is forcing me to reconsider my entire business and how and where I have to do it in order to be profitable.

I just thought I'd come in here and share how this is impacting me as a person. It's frankly quite terrifying to see the very real negative effects that a seller update like this can have on my business and my life in general. I don't know what the future holds for me and other sellers like me on this platform. I'm going to try and ride out the storm as long as I can, but if this policy stays in place or the algorithm doesn't make some adjustments to counteract the severe drop in sales, I will have to diversify how and where I sell my items in order to keep my business afloat.

-Tyler

[biloxibaglady]

I agree with you it is going to run off not only the small sellers like me but also some of the large sellers who like to change up their listings items ever month sad ebay has done this to us

[nmemoryof]

I am unclear as to how GTC  is already affecting your sales.  It hasn't even been 30 days yet.  No one has been charged an extra relist fee -- YET.  You can manually end your items so that they do not automatically relist.  While I get that the relist fees will cut into profits, I don't see how that would change your sales total.   Shouldn't it only lower your profits because you are out relist fees?

BTW, WOW regarding your last year's sales.  I wish I could figure out how to do that.

[bohemiandreams7]

I totally agree. I'm not anywhere near what you'd consider an "average" eBay seller, but I am still a seller on here, so I'd like to give my two cents. I make handmade decor items and don't have many listings all at one time. However, I've been doing this since 2013 and I've actually been able to make quite a bit of money selling my stuff on here, up until about April of last year when I saw a steep decline in sales. It's never rebounded since and my items have only gotten better in quality and variety, so that's not the issue. Also at the same time my eBay sales started to slide, the opposite happened on my Etsy page. So I have to wonder what's happening on eBay. I used to make a sale at least every other day, now I go weeks at a time without a sale. I've read extensively on how to utilize keywords in both the title and the listings, I've fiddled around with pricing, Best Offer, etc. None of it seems to matter.

I've let my eBay listings die off with the inception of this forced GTC rule as I am still not understanding how letting items sit on here for weeks on end, despite possibly getting more eyeballs on it, will equate to more sales as there's no push to "act quickly" when a listing's time is running out. Maybe someone can explain it to me in layman's terms because I'm not understanding eBay's generic rhetoric when they're asked about it. Items will just sit on here, people may watch them, but they're not going to purchase right away, they'll watch and wait until the price gets chopped lower and lower. Unfortunately with the rising fees and shipping costs, I can't afford to sell them for any less than what I sell at right now. I think this is why eBay sends us so many of those "There are eyes on your item! Go for the sale - drop the price!" Seems insulting to have eBay telling us what we should be selling our items for. We know what our costs and time is worth, thank you. Anyway, what I've been doing seems to be working just fine on Etsy. I hate to give up on eBay altogether as I've had great success from 2015-2017, but things have definitely, tangibly changed on here.

One of my biggest issues with eBay is that they allow these gigantic overseas sellers from China list their items as "handmade" when in fact they are mass-manufactured by machines, not hands. They undercut us actual handmade sellers because they can afford to sell their items for a third of what we have to ask. I don't think that's fair, but that's just me. It's become glaringly obvious that they're catering to the bigtime overseas sellers. They just don't want to be the cool, unique, online flea market they once were. For them, like so many others on here have already said, it's about being like Amazon. Really sad and annoying.

[digivites]

My numbers weren't nearly as big as yours but I also have experienced a great drop in sales. Very disappointed as I've been a member for well over 10 years. I've now moved most of my business to Etsy and only use ebay now so i've got a bit of money in PayPal.

[johnstonfab]

I have always used the 7 day listing. Most of my sales are impulse buys and are made on the day of listing and the day they end. I could have new listings every day and items ending every day. Since GTC started, my sales have dropped to nothing. If this is not changed, I will be forced to end my 19 years of selling on Ebay.

[flo_mingo]

You have some great items on your store and an impressive short story on your success. I would love to hear more. You must consider applying for the eBay shine awards that are acknowledged at eBay Open. I am sure you are a contender. 

[dcarroll99]

I just got off the phone with customer service concerning several issues. I didn't get past my first problem of GTC. I am also a small Seller & I don't appreciate eBay relisting my items. I never pay listing fees because I use the 100 free listings that come with my store & any other "special" offers eBay may give me.  As a small Seller, listing fees can add up to $30+ a month! That may seem very small to others but to me it's a lot! eBay is saying GTC is better for me, the Seller, it's NOT it's only so eBay can charge even more fees & make even more money!!!!!!

[castlemagicmemories]

I'm really sorry you are going through this, OP.  I know saying that is really inadequate to uplift you and I wish it wasn't like this.  So many are in your situation.  So much pain, questioning, and upset.

I wish you all the best.

[marviolet]

I just read your post and share the same sentiments.  This whole GTC thing could have been done with a lot more consideration for sellers.  There should have been an option for sellers to choose 30-days or GTC.  As a community, I think sellers who are experiencing a decrease in sales, to make eBay aware.  I cannot believe they are aware and is allowing this to slide.  They benefit from sales and loose if there is a decline.  I am going to check it again, but I thought I saw something about eBay having a weekly discussion session.  I have no idea what good it will do but maybe sellers should contribute by participating.  Thank you for sharing your experience regarding GTC.

[jober_49]

This new politic of eBay is affecting my sales 100% down !!!! I'm just keeping watchers and watchers and nothing force them to buy items . Ebay Is trying for me to bring down the price all the time and let the watchers know about it .This **bleep** new politic is impacting all my sales . I have not sold an item for more than 3 weeks now. Maybe is the time to try out some other platforms since eBay doesn't care about us .