eBay

studioreclaim · ‎04-02-2019

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

waltermooreart · ‎04-02-2019

Best of luck to you, I hope it picks up.

Walter

div_style · ‎04-02-2019

Two weeks into the new regime, even if you have been listing for 30 days and then relisting, I fail to see how GTC has so seriously affected sales, since nothing will have changed to this point.

List more, sell more. Goodwill that other, uh, stuff.

Feeling sleepy? There's an app for that.

ekmadonna · ‎04-02-2019

His sales look GREAT since March 18th, most people here would gladly trade for his numbers I see no drop off.

flamingraphics · ‎04-02-2019

Your right ebay goal is to cater to the big corporate sellers and us the small guy are side effect damage on there bottom line

I bet your listing has went from sales to watchers with good til cancel there is no longer a call to action for the customer to make a purchase how they can just wait you out to lower the price or time for them to find the same product cheaper I guess screwing with people lives is OK as long has if benefits there profits I have looked at dozens of posts with everyone expressing the same feelings ebay can not sustain there business model playing games like this there is not enough big corporations to do it

maybe ebay is finding now they are slowly going down the drain ,and this is one bad mistake attempt to turn things around

Good Luck to us all myself its time to look in other directions to find a vendor EBAY Your not the only one

you need to show respect for the sellers without them buyers mean nothing

vintagecraze50 · ‎04-02-2019

It's too soon to make a decision about the GTC format. The drop off in sales could be coming from buyers just not here right now for your particular item. Could be a generally slow time for everyone. Always there are peak times when sales come in, and then times when they drop off to some degree for who knows reasons. Try to list something new as many days as you can as well to get back into the newly listed rank. Stay positive.

xyzzy1234 · ‎04-02-2019

I love eBay and have been a member since 1999! Twenty years! And for the first time I'm starting to use other platforms. I sell a lot of used clothing, so fortunately for me there are a lot of options. I know that's not true for everyone. Many of my items are seasonal so 30 day postings work well; other items that aren't getting a lot of views I take down for a month or so and then maybe relist. Or i relist them when I get the occasional offer for 100 free listings.

With GTC and the end of Turbo Lister simply makes it difficult to manage my inventory. I'm not going to pay for third party software to manage GTC listings I need to take down but might want to relist later (so I don't have to recreate them every time).

Even if I decide to stay on eBay I will end up posting less, not out of spite, but simply because it's not worth my time to list some oddball item, that may or may not be of interest. Good luck to anyone looking for quirky or weird stuff on eBay anymore.

I'm not angry just disappointed, it seems they are ripping the heart out of what made eBay in effort to become Amazon. If they want an Amazon like platform then they should spin off a Commercial version of eBay or something, but not this.

studioreclaim · ‎04-02-2019

I hope you're right, and thanks for the encouragement.

gamersbaystore · ‎04-02-2019

Don't let it deter you! I'm not, and you shouldn't either. You already have a lot of nice stuff for sale, list more! I agree, its rough no longer having the option to set listings for shorter duration's, but we can make up for this by having larger inventories.

Likewise, I too think ebay is making some terrible mistakes. The grouping of items is causing prices to fall and causing sellers to lose tons of money, not good. Another issue at hand here is the economy, its not good either.

One of the even bigger issues is ebay's inability to understand effective ways of marketing. Go look at their Twitter account. They have over 700,000 followers, yet they have practically no engagement on their posts. ebay executives think pumping ads out in front of people will drive revenue, but there's so much more to marketing they just don't get. They constantly alienate all their potential buyers with the way they approach the public. They understand money, but they don't understand people.

ebay created a lot of unnecessary road blocks, but its not the end of the world. I too am looking at alternatives as a backup plan. But I think ebay is still worth fighting for, even if its leadership doesn't make the best of decisions.

studioreclaim · ‎04-03-2019

Love this, I appreciate the perspective. Thanks for adding to the convo--it's tough to reconcile being really appreciative of this platform but also be genuinely affected in a tangibly negative way by its marketing tactics and questionable business decisions.

kathieskorner · ‎04-03-2019

I just experienced the worst March in 19 years on eBay. However, while I believe that the uproar over the mandatory GTC has had an impact, it is too soon to judge whether GTC itself is going to result in a long term down turn. Especially since there were also numerous technical issues with eBay during March which their IT and management staffs seem unconcerned about since they have been blaming a lot of it on browsers and software used by those having problems - even though the problem is limited to eBay and not other sites.

At the same time I don't believe the March down turn has much of anything to do with tax season or normal fluctuations in sales. This time eBay has managed to turn off both buyers and sellers all by itself.

gamersbaystore · ‎04-03-2019

Life is full of challenges my friend; challenges we must learn to overcome. Perseverance is key to overcoming those challenges.

I faced similar obstacles working in a restaurant last year. But I managed to overcome them, despite the limitations of the business itself. They sold cheeseburgers for a dollar, lol! Yet, I managed to scrape as much as $300 a night in tips anyway. While the business was ultimately a failure, I still prevailed.

And there's nothing wrong with switching gears if something isn't working out too (such as my leaving that restaurant because I was tired of working with angry people). For now, I plan to keep my ebay store open while I also spend time focusing on my own e-commerce website. I did my research and am putting plans together to launch it soon. This way, if the situation with ebay should continue to deteriorate, I will have a viable alternative to fall back on.

ohnojoey · ‎04-03-2019

Your photography, attention to detail, and presentation of your listing photographs, is among the best I have seen on ebay.

FWIW

yccomo · ‎04-03-2019

I feel your pain and am in a similar situation.

Time will tell..... I don't have the answers.....

yccomo · ‎04-03-2019

Amen, we're both 20 year members and amazing the similarities.

Everything works out in the end, one way or another....

@xyzzy1234 wrote:
I love eBay and have been a member since 1999! Twenty years! And for the first time I'm starting to use other platforms. I sell a lot of used clothing, so fortunately for me there are a lot of options. I know that's not true for everyone. Many of my items are seasonal so 30 day postings work well; other items that aren't getting a lot of views I take down for a month or so and then maybe relist. Or i relist them when I get the occasional offer for 100 free listings.

With GTC and the end of Turbo Lister simply makes it difficult to manage my inventory. I'm not going to pay for third party software to manage GTC listings I need to take down but might want to relist later (so I don't have to recreate them every time).

Even if I decide to stay on eBay I will end up posting less, not out of spite, but simply because it's not worth my time to list some oddball item, that may or may not be of interest. Good luck to anyone looking for quirky or weird stuff on eBay anymore.

I'm not angry just disappointed, it seems they are ripping the heart out of what made eBay in effort to become Amazon. If they want an Amazon like platform then they should spin off a Commercial version of eBay or something, but not this.