Main Reasons eBay Businesses Fail?

[back-spin]

What would you say are some of the main reasons eBay businesses fail? You can break them down into top 10 if you want. 

I think this type of info can help people to learn what to avoid doing. 

[greg5000]

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@back-spin wrote:

What would you say are some of the main reasons eBay businesses fail? You can break them down into top 10 if you want. 

I think this type of info can help people to learn what to avoid doing. 

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I think the Number 1 Reason is eBay.

They are not listening to their Customers.

[nc-daydreamer]

I agree with Greg for the #1. Second is seller's refuse to put time into learning. I studied the policies and these answer boards daily for over 6 months before I started.  If folks just paid attention to what they are doing, there would not be so many mistakes. 🙂 

[yuzuha]

1) Poor inventory choice

2) Too-high prices

You can have 10,000 things listed, but if they aren't things people want at prices those people are willing to pay, you aren't going to be getting sales.

[mam98031]

This is in no particular order nor is it all inclusive, but it is a start.

Many times people come here to sell because they think it is easy money.  They don't invest their time in learning how to sell and just jump in and hope it all works out.  They don't learn the rules are stay current on rules that change or get added.  This often leads the the seller getting frustrated and mad at Ebay, when it was within their control to learn the rules.  If you are going to make a business of this.  Treat it like a J.O.B.  Learn how to do it before jumping in too far.

Know your products.

Learn the market for the products you want to sell.

Learn the price that the market will support.

Treat your customers with respect, even when they don't extend that to you.

Have resources available so you can support shipping items out in the beginning as Ebay holds your money on new sellers or sellers return after a period of being inactive.  

Make sure you have a scale and all the shipping supplies you will need for the near future for the items you plan to sell.

Write complete and clear descriptions.

Take clear pics.  Multiple pic whenever it is something that gives the buyer more information.

Your title is prime real estate.  So treat it with that in mind.  Use words you think buyers will be using in their searches.  Try not to use words that don't matter.

You will get all kinds of advice or replies to your posting.  So make sure you have both eyes open and your mind as well.  

[beautifulbeauty2012]

1. eBay has became too progressive without enough research or capability to measure those changes = no sales

2. Pandering to fraudulent buyers/No real Seller protection =Sellers are leaving

3. Inflow of Chinese sellers with junk = very bad for both sellers and buyers (buyers get dissatisfied and leave the platform after buying from a Chinese seller, who`s "business model" is to build enough feedback with buying or selling low priced items and then grab the money and never ship  - satisfaction rating is horrible.

4. Not enough promotions for Buyers to motivate to buy - when was the last time you saw $15 off $75? about a year or so ago? Now all those eBay bucks bringing me to yawning. The momentum is gone.

5. Mandated GTC is one of the worst policies eBay made. Sellers don`t want to relist items for wrong season or they don`t want to pay a fee for certain items at that time. We can cancel (not always, as we had just experienced with double dip GTC), but many buyers wait till the last moment to buy, and if we cancel, there is no sale. Endless timing doesn`t create an urgency for some items. While it is a good format for some, for most eBay sellers` inventory is not.

I will continue my list tomorrow. Good night! 🙂

[cashvaluerecovery2011]

Ebay has not adapted to its market place or heard their clients. They chose stock price over customers.

Lack of work ethic.

Lack of understanding the site and rules.

Not figuring out shipping costs brfore buying product.

[beautifulbeauty2012]

I think you asked us what you should do not to fail eBay business? Unfortunately, it is not in sellers hands anymore, as the recent changes eBay made have been disastrous. Until less than a month ago, I had never blamed eBay for not having sales - never this thought touched my mind, and I`ve been selling for years with very occasional $0 days. But after no sales and no exposure with broken search algorithm when eBay intentionally hides your listings, and other things, your business will fail no matter what you do - just check the board to see for yourself. 

[bigdeals.etc]

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@back-spin wrote:

What would you say are some of the main reasons eBay businesses fail? You can break them down into top 10 if you want. 

I think this type of info can help people to learn what to avoid doing. 

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By "business" do you mean 1) people starting out and trying to make this a full time gig? Or 2) established seasoned businesses who have been selling here for quite some time and end up calling it quits?

Speaking generally and harshly the main reason for failure for people in:

1) Is they give up too easily and never make a REAL effort. Gotta get down and dirty, it's not all fun and games.

and people in 2) Is because they get too comfortable and set in their ways that they refuse to change and adjust to the ever-changing market. Gotta be willing to ALWAYS change your business with the times... or close shop.

[rockusone]

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@back-spin wrote:

What would you say are some of the main reasons eBay businesses fail? You can break them down into top 10 if you want. 

I think this type of info can help people to learn what to avoid doing. 

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Success or failure is relative to expectations. It's easy to make a few bucks if that's all you want. So my short list goes like this:

1. eBay's failure to implement a platform that is more inclusive to buyers and sellers' needs. 

2. Lack of a good business plan before they jump in.

3. Expectations are too high.

4. A failure to start slowly and learn through experience while the stakes are low.

5. lack of good record keeping and statistical analysis.

6. Loss of interest and/or motivation (for whatever reason).

[reallynicestamps]

Not realizing that this is mail order.

Not knowing their costs.

Not allowing for errors and problems, including charging too little for shipping.

SHIPPING.

Stubbornly doing it their way, instead of the way the landlord has set out.

Treating all customers like scammers and criminals.

[albany_sellers]

#1 - eBay is the reason many sellers fail.

• How many sellers do you think have been ripped off for hundreds or thousands of dollars, and then been told that its just the cost of doing business?
• How many sellers do you think put in a lot of hard work to make their business successful, just to have the goalposts moved every single seller update?
• How many sellers have been the victim of eBay's supposedly non existent black outs and went from making great sales to no sales overnight? 
• How many sellers have been nickle and dimed to death by eBay's constant pursuit of fees?
• How many sellers have been harmed by eBay's so called glitches and bugs that only ever seem to work out in eBay's favor?
• How many sellers do you think have had enough of these same issues and closed up shop?

Are there lazy sellers who have only themselves to blame? yes, of course, however when you look at the established sellers who know what they are doing, they are the ones now leaving since eBay does not want to support them when they are the ones who are making eBay all the money. Have you ever noticed how when you have a problem, they like to talk about how you are a business and should be able to absorb the losses, yet they never seem to want to do the same?

For that reason alone, I have been branching out elsewhere and having some pretty decent success. eBay could have been making the money off the fees, but they got greedy, selfish, and forgot that without us "dime a dozen" sellers, they have nothing.

[penguins_dont_fly]

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@back-spin wrote:

What would you say are some of the main reasons eBay businesses fail? You can break them down into top 10 if you want. 

I think this type of info can help people to learn what to avoid doing. 

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#1 Not treating it as a business.

Business = work and a professional demeanor

Anything else falls under #1, such as lazy listings, not knowing your market, bad inventory management, bad bookkeeping and not caring about policy and procedures.

[lightlily_arts]

Shipping costs are an important part of your sale. I see a lot of sellers stating that they charge exact shipping only.  That would be fine if they added that unpaid amount in to the price of their item.  What that means is that eBay charges you a 10% fee on your shipping charge and if you use PayPal as your payment method they charge 2.9% + 30 cents for each transaction.  So that means you are being charged approximately 13% of the shipping portion of your sale.  You need to build that expense somewhere into your listing.

[bigdeals.etc]

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@lightlily_arts wrote:

Shipping costs are an important part of your sale. I see a lot of sellers stating that they charge exact shipping only.  That would be fine if they added that unpaid amount in to the price of their item.  What that means is that eBay charges you a 10% fee on your shipping charge and if you use PayPal as your payment method they charge 2.9% + 30 cents for each transaction.  So that means you are being charged approximately 13% of the shipping portion of your sale.  You need to build that expense somewhere into your listing.

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Yup. I always figure an estimate of 87% after fees at least. That doesn't even include possible insertion fee costs, promotioned listings cost, eBay store cost.