eBay

qtdeb51 · ‎06-19-2019

zamo-zuan · ‎06-20-2019

@pauls-parts wrote:
@luckythewinner wrote:
@zamo-zuan wrote:

You can't say these problems have not accelerated over the last year.
They have. But so have the number of listings and the amount of competition over thepoast couple years.
The competition is China. When you try to search for something guess what comes up first.

eBay's gross merchandise volume grew from $84 billion in 2016 to $95 billion at the end of 2018.
That's growth of 13%
Ya you notice it is not separated from U.S. sellers and China Sellers.

But the number of listings on eBay has grown from 800 million in 2016 to 1.2 billion at the end of 2018.
That's growth of 50%.
Mostly by China.

Furthermore, we can see how many listings are in each category with a search. Motors is not more significantly different before, and actually has went *down*.

Growth does not explain 50% drops overnight, that are sustained drops that change slightly every 2 weeks when they tweak algorithms.

Nor does growth explain people having constant sales for years, then suddenly 0 sales, as mentioned in this post.

If we're going to discuss this, we need to be realistic. We can't be blaming it on things like growth when the characteristics of what's happening are NOT signs of growth.

xxlostspiritxx · ‎06-20-2019

I sold maybe 3 Units in like 40 days or something...

We would sell 20-30 Machines a Month..

We noticed the decline about 3 months ago.

I called ebay about it almost everyday or at least tell them about the spam listers, scammers that are benefitting from this system.

They seem to never do anything about the scam listers. No matter how wrong what they are doing is.

southern*sweet*tea · ‎06-20-2019

@orangehound wrote:
Actually most sellers are also buyers ...

Maybe 20 years ago, but not now.

Now most sellers are mass sellers like the Chinese, megadropshippers and big box stores, and they don't buy a thing.

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

hioctane62 · ‎06-20-2019

My suspicion is that around 3 months ago, ebay made a change in the algorithms to weigh much more heavily on PROMOTED LISTINGS. As in listings more often not being seen in search results if they are not promoted. In ebay management's greedy little mind, they believe (probably correctly) that more sellers will use promoted listings in desperation to get a sale or two.

Another short term money grab with long term negative impact, as it will get too competitive and expensive to sell here.

I'm currently at 9 days without a sale, even while I'm listing new items.

zamo-zuan · ‎06-20-2019

@hioctane62 wrote:
My suspicion is that around 3 months ago, ebay made a change in the algorithms to weigh much more heavily on PROMOTED LISTINGS. As in listings more often not being seen in search results if they are not promoted. In ebay management's greedy little mind, they believe (probably correctly) that more sellers will use promoted listings in desperation to get a sale or two.

Another short term money grab with long term negative impact, as it will get too competitive and expensive to sell here.

I'm currently at 9 days without a sale, even while I'm listing new items.

Oh for sure, that was actually earlier in the year.

When I met with eBay in person in January, I expressed the same issues with their design that I regularly discuss on the forums here.

They did understand, but were also very open and honest that this year was going to be a "year of Promotions and Sponsored Listings".

You literally "need" to use these features or else you have significantly reduced visibility compared to before.

But the problem is, this tears up the algorithms. Price is one of the things factored, and you HAVE to raise the price if you're using these features.

Combine it with the Sponsored Listings allowing the same listing to show TWICE in search results. It gives your item TWO IMPRESSIONS, but at best case scenario, it's only ONE CLICK.

This means sponsored listings HURT your SEO metrics, while giving you "more visibility" on a short term.

It makes no sense.

Then other factors, such as Sponsored Listings making eBay LESS COMPETITIVE vs other markets. EBay's one biggest advantage was cheaper prices than other markets.

Not anymore.

baantiques · ‎06-20-2019

My sales are up 60% over last month, which is great.

But I'm still down 20% from last June.

Last June was down 38% over 2017

Sales are down 50% from two years ago, and that's AFTER I managed to get them up 60% this month.

I started listing my swap meet parts in lots. Fill a flat rate box, start it at 9.99. Worked great for the first couple of rounds, now yesterday I had a bunch of really good stuff go for nothing. And I'm sure it's just a coincidence that I seem to be stuck at a certain level of sales now.

I doubt Ebay will ever be as lucrative as it was in 2017 for me.

But, I have noticed one thing. If you manage to increase your sales rather suddenly, like I did, you will experience a snap back, like Ebay puts the brakes on your sales.

I wonder what would happen if one took an approach that made the increase much slower.

uniwarehousewares · ‎06-20-2019

i have checked your listing, that is true that sale is effecting due to online tax and new tariffs but i have seen also your listings ,you need to do following to increase your sales and give it a shot.
1 : buy a store subscription, upload your most selling items on banner.
2 : run some promotions its help in difficult time
3 : clean the pictures properly on your listing to attract more buyers
Always remember, customer cannot touch the product online so make the pictures touchy so customer place order.
nothing is bad in trying give it a shot and see how your sales will start increasing slowly slowly
Good luck for your business.

linus.hux72fe · ‎06-20-2019

In answer to the original question:

Yes, my sales are down significantly on Ebay. No where else am I experiencing "the summer slump."

I received notice my invoice was due for $2.76. Shortly thereafter I sold my only item for the month. Coincidence? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

So, I am focusing my valuable time selling elsewhere and the consequence is that I have little listed on Ebay and am buying nothing, not a single thing on Ebay. I am, however, spending my money and time where I get results without the stress and without jumping through extra hoops and expenses to make sales.

To me, Ebay seems unaware things have changed in the last 10 years. Ebay is not the only game in town, any longer.

Most sellers know something changed with the exception of the usual Ebay cheerleaders. The only solution I see is to stop wasting time monkeybraining what it is, and figure out how each of us can move forward for our own success. Ebay isn't interested in hearing the thoughts or concerns or possible solutions of its smaller sellers apparently as there have been innumerable threads discussing this with no response from Ebay.

Yes, I do think the algorithm changed. Yes, search is a mess in my opinion. Yes, AI has no idea what I want to see in results. Yes, Ebay has 2 sets of rules, one for China and mega sellers, and another for small sellers. And yes, its summer, people are vacationing, the market changes for tastes and styles, bills are due, and the hundreds of other excuses people postulate to explain lack of sales, not to mention a person's pictures, feedback, too short a description, too long a description, choice of goods, managed payments and the like. And who can discount the ever present ongoing glitches?

Its Ebay bottom line. The only question for me is how to move forward and satisfy my needs. And that entails me not wasting time where it's not productive and trying new avenues, not monkeybraining 100 ways new things wont work or bemoaning the past. Once I adjusted my attitude and tried new things, things changed. Ebay is not the be all and end all in selling. If things change on Ebay in the future, I'll increase my attention here. If not, well I still need to eat, so I have to focus elsewhere and adapt. I dont have the luxury of wallowing.

Stats:

Ebay down 97%

FBMP up 99%

MCI up 94%

Outdoor set up up 96%

Estate Sales up 81%

Private Online orders up 96%

0 returns

0 refunds

0 feedback

0 promoted listings

0 GTC issues

0 no payment issues

0 cancelled orders

0 time wasted with overseas customer service issues

If it worked for me, it can work for you and you might just find you like it and there is life outside Ebay in selling!

Good luck to ya all! We can't control other's actions, but we can control how we respond.

zamo-zuan · ‎06-20-2019

@baantiques wrote:
My sales are up 60% over last month, which is great.

But I'm still down 20% from last June.

Last June was down 38% over 2017

Sales are down 50% from two years ago, and that's AFTER I managed to get them up 60% this month.

I started listing my swap meet parts in lots. Fill a flat rate box, start it at 9.99. Worked great for the first couple of rounds, now yesterday I had a bunch of really good stuff go for nothing. And I'm sure it's just a coincidence that I seem to be stuck at a certain level of sales now.

I doubt Ebay will ever be as lucrative as it was in 2017 for me.

But, I have noticed one thing. If you manage to increase your sales rather suddenly, like I did, you will experience a snap back, like Ebay puts the brakes on your sales.

I wonder what would happen if one took an approach that made the increase much slower.

Yup. This has been happening for almost a year now, I posted it when it first started happening.

If you have too large of a change at once it "stabilizes" things.

You might have an insanely busy morning, then things slow down in the evening to absolutely nothing.

If you do happen to pull off a good day or two, it's followed by slower days.

It USED to happen on large increases OR decreases, making them more gradual. But from Q4 last year onward, the sudden drops seemed to return, although sudden gains still seem to have that "stabilization" factor.

hioctane62 · ‎06-20-2019

You mention not buying lately on ebay. Might as well not. The last 2 items I bought on ebay came from Amazon. One was prime, the other through their fulfillment. Regardless... When I buy something on ebay, and it comes from Amazon, my next order will cut out the ebay middleman, and I'll just go directly to Amazon.

cat20sew · ‎06-21-2019

You mention about the selling slows in the evening. If you are selling in USA I think most buyers are asleep around those hours. I noticed the same thing and I only sell to USA. Just a thought.

hioctane62 · ‎06-21-2019

10 days and counting here. That hasn't happened since I started selling full time about 10 years ago. And I've been listing new items all week... but it's hard to stay motivated when you get the feeling that your efforts here are futile.

Just trying to get a bunch listed, then cross post them to my store's FB page. People there can SEE my items.

barclays_curious · ‎06-21-2019

I've been selling on Ebay for probably 18 years and NEVER seen it this bad. Have had the same 20 items for sale since long before Christmas and have sold literally two, has been a graveyard for at least four months. Just nothing is selling at all anymore. Dead is an understatement. If I wasn't listing monthly for free now, which I've moved to since its the only thing I can afford, I would have closed up long ago.
I can't figure out whether everyone has left for Facebook Marketplace, or some other platform? Surely not Facebook, they'd be idiots to sell there as there's virtually no security there whatsoever. Or maybe the rules have changed and I'm not doing things right anymore. Maybe nobody has any money these days?
I've got virtually 100% approval from my sales, and haven't changed myself one bit but nothing sells anymore.
I sure wish I could either figure out what the problem is, or find some other place to sell, as I'm down to living off $1 cans of pea soup myself and could use some sales lol.

barclays_curious · ‎06-21-2019

Excuse me, since my last post was rudely REMOVED.   Let me repeat what I said.
I have been selling on Ebay at least 18 years now and have NEVER seen it this bad.   In fact I've had the same 20 items posted since Christmas and have only sold 2, its been three months since I've sold anything at all.    Dead is an understatement- if I wasn't listing monthly for free, which I've moved to now to avoid the posting fees, I would have closed up long ago.
I can't figure out if people have gone to Facebook Marketplace, or some other platform- surely not Facebook, as there's no security there whatsoever.   Or maybe people don't have any money these days?
I have 100% approval rating, and am doing the same thing I always have so I can't figure out what the heck I'm doing wrong.   I wish someone would let me know because I'm down to buying $1 cans of pea soup and could use some sales!
I've copied my response, so if you delete it I'll repost.    I AM NOT 'SPAM', THANK YOU.

barclays_curious · ‎06-21-2019

Sorry for the caps, but there's just nothing ruder than deleting someone. I've been on Ebay long enough to at least have earned the right to be heard, not asking for much.... good lord.