eBay

datemike1 · ‎01-28-2020

Thought I'd post some metrics to see how everyone else is doing this January. This will end up being the worst month of sales since I started selling on eBay 5 years ago. And before anyone chimes in and says well there is no demand, don't bother. I opened an Etsy shop end of November 2019 with the same exact listings and not only did I outsell my eBay account in December by about 30%, I'm currently at 55 sales on Etsy mtd and i'm outselling eBay by about 500%. Yes, i'm sure some people aren't selling because maybe the demand isn't there for their particular items, but in a very crowded sea of tv memorabilia, there is still plenty of demand it seems everywhere BUT eBay.

The issue is traffic. If you're wondering why your sales are down so drastically and haven't looked at your traffic metrics, I'd suggest you do so...

Impressions are down 55% this time period last year and down 63% compared to 2018. Page views down over 60% from 2019 and down 70% from 2018.

There simply aren't enough people shopping on eBay anymore. But, this decline in traffic is drastic. eBay has to be aware that this is an issue and their lack of action has me struggling to justify continuing on with eBay. I guess I keep hoping they'll get their heads out of their a$$&$ and start getting people back to shopping on eBay but I fear it's just too late.

baantiques · ‎01-29-2020

It's the new low. Down 25% from last year, which was pathetic. This time 3 years ago I was selling 6-8K/month, now I'm lucky to break 2k.

I don't put any effort into it anymore really. I discovered I can work a couple of hours a day and sell $2k/mo, or bust my ass 10 hours a day and sell $2200.

mcdougle4248 · ‎01-29-2020

I am not doing well here either. My sales started the decline in September of last year. I lowered my expectations for 2020, unfortunately I may not have lowered them enough to keep up with reality.

datemike1 · ‎01-29-2020

Oooof, I feel your pain. 265k impressions last year to 82k this year is a huge drop. But consistent with what I think is going on, that there just aren’t nearly as many people using eBay.

gwzcomps · ‎01-29-2020

Looks like the impressions are about the same. Just the percentages that are lower.

domin-tomas · ‎01-29-2020

Last year Jan 2019 I paid in fees $164.24 and this was without all the MP fees. .................

Now this year Jan. 2020 I am paying so far with 2 days to go $87.13 and this is with all the MP added fees. This is basically a dead month of sales.

mcdougle4248 · ‎01-29-2020

@datemike1 wrote:
Oooof, I feel your pain. 265k impressions last year to 82k this year is a huge drop. But consistent with what I think is going on, that there just aren’t nearly as many people using eBay.

From Terapeak data, last year sometime between August and September, eBay changed the distribution of sales in the niche I sell in. The top 10 sellers enjoyed 40+% of market share. The percentage of market share for the top 10 sellers dropped to 26% in a very short period of time and my sales plummeted. I do not know why, but for some reason eBay decided the top 10 sellers should not have such a high percentage of the market share.

sakic92710 · ‎01-29-2020

January 29th and haven't hit $300 US for the entire month. Making my decisions about this site SO MUCH EASIER! Good luck to every seller! 🙂

datemike1 · ‎01-29-2020

I'm not familiar with Terapeak, and don't see the value in spending another $15 a month on it, but couldn't the issue just be that that niche had changes that eBay didn't have anything to do with? How would eBay even control which seller gets what percentage of sales? They can't even get their site to work glitch free, why would you think they're adept enough to control something like this?

datemike1 · ‎01-29-2020

@gwzcomps your click through rate and sales conversion rates are what i'd consider flat or essentially the same from 2018-2020. There isn't much variation, your rates are very consistent. So if your impressions and page views are also similar to prior years, then if your sales are significantly down the only metric left to look at to narrow it down is you must have far fewer listings than you did this time period 2018 and 2019 vs 2020.

gwzcomps · ‎01-29-2020

Looks like double the number of listings in the previous years. I do have a higher quantity of items available though. I guess I need to list more.

datemike1 · ‎01-29-2020

@sakic92710 I don't like to tell sellers how to price their items, but have you considered your sales are down because your pricing is too high? Take for example the SHER-WOOD 9950 S.O.P. GOALIE HOCKEY STICK you have listed for $75 plus $22-38 for shipping. Why would someone purchase that used on eBay for lets say $97 with shipping and plus tax, when they can just buy it online for $99 new with free shipping? Also, as someone who used to play hockey, it wouldn't even be a consideration, i'd just buy the new twig because is it essentially the same price new vs used. I didn't look at every listing you have, but you may want to ask yourself if you're overestimating the value of your items if they're not selling...

datemike1 · ‎01-29-2020

@gwzcomps logic tells me that given your consistent click thru and sales conversion rates, if you want to increase sales, you'll accomplish that by listing more items, assuming you have them or can source them. That's a good problem to have!

gwzcomps · ‎01-29-2020

Well I have 4000 sq feet of stuff I need to go through so that isn't a problem. I just need more time or employees. Thanks for the insights @datemike1 Hopefully I can figure this out. Hopefully this will help take the business to the next level.

mcdougle4248 · ‎01-29-2020

@datemike1 wrote:
I'm not familiar with Terapeak, and don't see the value in spending another $15 a month on it, but couldn't the issue just be that that niche had changes that eBay didn't have anything to do with? How would eBay even control which seller gets what percentage of sales? They can't even get their site to work glitch free, why would you think they're adept enough to control something like this?

IMHO, the search algorithms are in control.

sakic92710 · ‎01-29-2020

Then they can send me an offer. This is what best offer is for. Maybe I'll sell it for 1/2 price. If they are too afraid to offer then, they miss out. I'm going to lower my price to half then, have someone offer half of that?