eBay

vintagequeennyc · ‎05-05-2019

As I said in earlier threads, my sales are down atrociously the past two months. And not getting any better.

Well, a few weeks ago, I started keeping track more closely of some of the sales of sellers I watch in my selling categories. These are sellers that sell very similar inventory and are what I consider to be fairly big sellers. These are the sellers I watch to gauge the market, prices, velocity, growth, etc. All of these sellers have very consistent sales and have shown continued growth, or at least stayed constant with their sales volume for at least the past year.

Over the past few weeks, every single one of these sellers has also seen a massive decrease in sales. Their number of sold listings for the past 90 days has been dropping steadily every day I’ve checked. Most are now MANY hundreds of sold listings below what they are normally. Even a few of these sellers, the biggest ones, have seen a tremendous decline in sales. Its very sobering to witness.

I’m not happy that others aren’t doing well either. But there is some small measure of comfort to see that it’s ‘not just me’ who’s experiencing this crazy drop off in sales. It’s definitely happening across the board here at eBay. The real question is WILL it ever pick back up or are the pie pieces just going to get smaller and smaller till we’re all starving?

I think anyone who says ‘my sales are great!’ are the anomaly and outliers here now.

mam98031 · ‎05-05-2019

Great observations.

Speaking for myself only, my sales typically drop off this time of year. It does normally pick up a little after tax day, but this year it hasn't.

There are some that would like to blame it on the GTC claim, but even by your own description that can't be the reason as you noticed the downturn BEFORE it became mandatory. Whatever is causing it, I hope the ship rights itself very soon.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

southern*sweet*tea · ‎05-05-2019

Are you tracking ALL the sellers? Or just certain ones? Are other sellers that you aren't tracking now getting those sales? Is the category as a whole down in sales?

Just because some sellers are down, doesn't mean that all, or even a lot, are down. Some are up, some are down, some are steady. Only if the category as a whole is down would there be cause for concern (in my mind, I can't speak for anyone elses')

The easier you are to offend the easier you are to control.

We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did. - Thomas Sowell

gamersbaystore · ‎05-05-2019

You can thank ebay's CEO for cutting out external traffic to this platform. He thinks ebay doesn't need third-party advertising. Its obvious that cutting advertising was not a bright idea. Wenig is focused on producing profits for shareholders at any cost. But he's actually doing tons of damage trying to meet those shareholders demands. They want big returns and want it now, and don't care if ebay falls apart as long as they get more free money.

As long as Wenig is too cheap to pay for advertising, this platform will continue to lose money as its sellers lose sales. Increasing fees wont help either, it just pushes sellers to call it quits.

No traffic means no sales! Then of course there's the mountain of other bad policies ebay executives pushed that only add insult to injury.

tunicaslot · ‎05-05-2019

I follow a lot of different sellers and vloggers. Most sales are down - on the vlogger videos - what they are selling are low cost items - which do add up - but their profit margins are way down.

I sell mainly clothing - but have branched off a bit into hard goods so have been following different vloggers with different inventory.

Friends use FB and their sales are consistent in their groups. I don't know if it's a downturn because of the change in people's buying habits or a combination of many things. I've run into a lot of glitches here and we're having a problem notifications possibly due to all the changes that have to be put in place. Hopefully - that ends soon and we can at least see some sort of increase in sales.

vintagequeennyc · ‎05-05-2019

I understand what you’re saying but I think you’re nitpicking. I track a lot of sellers in my categories. And all are experiencing a significant downturn in sales. I don’t know why people keep trying to say this isn’t happening. I also track sales by brands, style, size, etc. Sell through rates across the board are down on Terapeak. This is not a conspiracy theory. It’s a fact. The numbers don’t lie.

And yes. According to my dashboard, sales in these categories are down 10%. I highly suspect it’s actually more than 10% but don’t expect eBay to put a higher number than 10% out there for sellers to see.

holidayshopper201 · ‎05-05-2019

eBay Marketing Pullback Causes Q1 Sales Drop By: Ina Steiner
Sponsored Link

Incredibly, eBay's top executives admitted they had expected the sales drop that the eBay Marketplace experienced in the first three months of 2019, saying it was caused by a significant reduction in marketing, primarily in North America.
...snip...

It's not just you, and according to the article quoted above from Ina, it's by design.

willowinthewoods · ‎05-05-2019

Vintagequeen, I thoroughly agree with your reasoning and input.

If more sellers (especially the newer ones) were aware of the discussion boards and used them, there would be less opposition to the fact that something is amiss.

I am down to approx. 4% to 10% of where I was. Portions of my account are not working and I can't get any help or resolutions. IMHO my account is not visible 70% of the time. To spend 100's of hours listing and only sell so few items over 30 days is troublesome, frustrating and defeating. No more.

I started selling to pay for my chemo meds. Thank God, was in the good days and my sales kept us from going belly up. I feel bad for Americans that are trying to survive on ebay sales right now.

Is the economy really that good? Are Americans actually putting more money in their wallets?

Just some thoughts and if I go any further, I am sure my post will disappear or I will get some

un-called for replies.

Respectfully, Willow

gracieallen01 · ‎05-05-2019

A more telling tale would be if you were to track the sales you have been on ebay, AND an equal ratio of sales/sellers from Amazon.

Is it just ebay sellers - is the 'other guy' selling and ebay isnt? Is it all sellers? It would be more telling whether it is time of year, economy, the platform, sun spots, or what.

Not saying 'NO' doesn't mean 'YES'.

The foolishness of one's actions or words is determined by the number of witnesses.

Perhaps if Brains were described as an APP, many people would use them more often.

Respect, like money, is only of 'worth' when it is earned - with all due respect, it can not be ordained, legislated or coerced. Anonymous

vintagequeennyc · ‎05-05-2019

I definitely think part of the problem is internal, i.e. related to something eBay is doing or not doing. I strongly suspect there’s been a major change to the algorithm and the frequency of listings being hidden/suppressed.

The other scenarios don’t offer a rosier outlook: either buyers are not coming to eBay or people are just not buying. Both of these are equally scary.

tunicaslot · ‎05-05-2019

Willow - I'm also in clothing but I've noticed the past few years that the younger crowd is shopping elsewhere - those who are middle age and older - use to buy my Alfred Dunner and Chico's as soon as it was listed. I got rid of most of my women's clothing as it just wasn't selling and focused on vintage more.

I'm no longer in the work force so have no need for anything besides jeans and tops and I think a lot of women are like myself - despite the number of women working - I've seen many businesses open the option for casual clothing- especially if a person won't be in the public eye. I also see many more people shopping at the thrifts. Goodwills on Saturday in my area is loaded with professional women because the tag color of the week is $1. We can't beat that. That doesn't mean that we still shouldn't have sales but as others have stated - the slow sales became even slower the past 2 months for me.

mam98031 · ‎05-05-2019

@tunicaslot wrote:
Willow - I'm also in clothing but I've noticed the past few years that the younger crowd is shopping elsewhere - those who are middle age and older - use to buy my Alfred Dunner and Chico's as soon as it was listed. I got rid of most of my women's clothing as it just wasn't selling and focused on vintage more.

I'm no longer in the work force so have no need for anything besides jeans and tops and I think a lot of women are like myself - despite the number of women working - I've seen many businesses open the option for casual clothing- especially if a person won't be in the public eye. I also see many more people shopping at the thrifts. Goodwills on Saturday in my area is loaded with professional women because the tag color of the week is $1. We can't beat that. That doesn't mean that we still shouldn't have sales but as others have stated - the slow sales became even slower the past 2 months for me.

@tunicaslot

Thank you for clarifying that for us. And here we thought you came to the boards in your Birthday Suit !!!

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

tunicaslot · ‎05-05-2019

LOL - didn't say how much clothing I was in tho!!

lawnmowerpartsstore2 · ‎05-05-2019

If your sales are slowing down in which im sure they are like most everyone else. You should Google: March 2019 Core Update , The internet is in a massive overhaul per Google. Its gonna be a interesting ride......