Sales 50% from last year - top rated seller - better fb rating - more listings - worse sales - why?

[callistodesigns]

So I’ve been selling on eBay for 14 years now. I originally ran eBay accounts for 2 previous companies prior to my own ID now, but I digress. I‘m just generally talking about my specific sales from last year - this exact week - to this year - this exact week.

I’m a top rated seller and have been for years.

     So last year our sales were $37,800 in a 60 day period. At that snapshot in time I had 1,300 items up for sale. I sold only on eBay.com (the  US only site), my feedback rating was 99.5%, my repeat customer rate was 25.5%.  All great numbers, but could always improve.

So this year our feedback has increased from 99.5% to 99.9% - our repeat customer rate has increased from 25.5% to 36.7% and we now have our listings instead of only on one site we increased to have all of our listings  interpreted into other languages and available on 7 different eBay sites like eBay Germany, eBay italy, eBay France, uk, Australia and others. Our number of listings have gone up from 1,300 listings to 7,700 listings and we also have better rankings in all other areas like returned items, seller defects, cases closed without resolution numbers, and more.

We have across the board - and on ALL levels  put in more work than ever and had better customer relations than ever and have better rankings than ever and YET - our sales are currently HALF!   Yes - HALF of what they were this time last year! Last year we made $37,800 in 60 days - as of a minute ago our sales are $18,204 in 60 days (of course these totals include all shipping and don’t take into account fees so they are not an accurate portrayal of real income just so you know). This is like a month before Christmas. Things should be amazing right now!!!

I am beyond appalled and I have called eBay a couple times about this and all they ever really suggest is refreshing listings which seems to do nothing.

We should be seeing an increase in sales instead of a rapid decline!

It makes me just feel like it isn’t me.

The entire 15 years I’ve ever worked on eBay I have always said to people “the more work you put into to it, the more money you’ll make off of it”.  This statement has been true literally for the entirety of this 15 year span until just about 6-8 months ago.

I never see advertising on tv anymore for eBay. I don’t know what they are doing with the money they take from my fees  (that are more expensive than my rent)  I feel like they probably have enough money from all of our fees to properly market and promote for us.

I sure have seen tons of commercials and advertising for mercari, poshmark, threadup, amazon and other competitive type sites where individual people are selling things collectively like eBay - but I’ve seen no marketing for eBay recently.

Is it just that?

Is it that they are cutting the ties with paypal?

What is it??

I'm baffled.

I feel like if they are not scared as well they are not paying attention. Because I literally googled “eBay sales terrible” and I got a ton of results and one forum had 55,000 views which means that 55,000 other people have probably been as bothered as me to search for a reason why and some help to get it remedied.

I don’t want to leave eBay. I have loved selling on here for so long. But this is how I feed my child so I can’t remain on a sinking ship for shear loyalty. I will be forced to find another way.

Why are they not bothered?

I called 3 times to eBay to talk about this and they said all 3 times that there really isn’t a department for marketing and promotions and help with increasing sales for sellers that are trying to do better.  REALLY?? There isn’t even a department for that? I’m appalled by that even. You would think a giant company like this would have several departments dedicated to helping the sellers thrive and do amazing.

It is like they don’t understand or realize that if we fail (the sellers), then they fail too (the company). If we make half the amount of money - they do too.

Also - how long can sellers go with such drastic decreases in their sales?

We have had to even remove the auto-payment for our fees every month for 7 months now because we never have enough money to pay the fees until it is literally almost too late!

Anybody else??

Is it just us??

Anyway - if anyone can relate to anything I said just now please help and let me know. I want to know I’m not going crazy here.

Anyone else have any other ideas than “refresh your listings”?

I have heard no other advice from the customer service representatives that I have spoken to.

So I am hoping that going straight to the community can help me get some real world answers because this seems to be an epidemic on eBay right now.  And a frightening one at that.

Again - this is how I feed my kid (& myself) so I take personally that I’m working harder than ever with better stats than ever with lower sales than ever.

Thank you in advance for any help anyone can provide. I will be so very thankful.

[monstertoybox]

I'm so sorry to hear about your troubles. Unfortunately you're just another seller adding their voice of concern for the fact that a lot of experienced, long-time sellers are having no/ slow sales.

If you look on the board, you'll see many, many posts, saying they know it is Ebay and whatever they are doing behind the scene. You'll also see a handful of people saying it's not Ebay, but us the sellers that are the problem. The many voices of concern are heavily outweighing the other. So it definitely seems to be an issue with visibility and their control over it.

What can be done? That's the magical question. All we can do is keep posting and hope that someone is listening. Hello? Anyone?

[coolections]

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@monstertoybox wrote:

If you look on the board, you'll see many, many posts, saying they know it is Ebay and whatever they are doing behind the scene. You'll also see a handful of people saying it's not Ebay, but us the sellers that are the problem.

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@monstertoybox 
What they are saying is Ebay is not hiding your items because that is completely untrue. What they are saying is you have no control of what Ebay does so thinking it is all EBay's fault is a waste of time and energy. In the last couple years internet selling sites have grown tenfold. You can only control things that are within YOUR control. You have to stay competitive. For every item listed on Ebay there are up to hundreds (depending on the category), of other sellers selling the same thing. A buyer must choose which seller to purchase from so it is up to each seller to compete against their competition.

[monstertoybox]

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@coolections wrote:

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@monstertoybox wrote:

If you look on the board, you'll see many, many posts, saying they know it is Ebay and whatever they are doing behind the scene. You'll also see a handful of people saying it's not Ebay, but us the sellers that are the problem.

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@monstertoybox 
What they are saying is Ebay is not hiding your items because that is completely untrue. What they are saying is you have no control of what Ebay does so thinking it is all EBay's fault is a waste of time and energy. In the last couple years internet selling sites have grown tenfold. You can only control things that are within YOUR control. You have to stay competitive. For every item listed on Ebay there are up to hundreds (depending on the category), of other sellers selling the same thing. A buyer must choose which seller to purchase from so it is up to each seller to compete against their competition.

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We are not all shown in all search results 24/7 in all states, so with that, is the reason why we are all having problems with sales. If we were all being chosen to be shown in the original search results of a buyer, we would all be having better sales. 

[gwzcomps]

On of the worst years to sell on eBay in my opinion.  I'm gonna mix it up and blame aliens in this post I think. 

Nothing will change the fact that eBay actively suppresses listings.  Nothing will change the fact their search engine is broken and gives inaccurate results. Nothing will change their bad policies.  Nothing will change the fact they are having some issue with google search results.  I assume they just don't care anymore personally.

[callistodesigns]

That is what I had read. I actually had not seen any posts that said it was sellers’  fault. 
 
I almost secretly wished it was my fault because I can change myself and my actions. 

But at this point I don’t know what else to do. I have not had a 99.9% positive feedback rating since literally 2002. So I’m better than ever when it comes to all successful scoring eBay can put on a seller:

- top rated seller 

- lower than ever opened resolution center cases 

- best feedback in forever 

- selling on more sites than ever

- selling in more languages than ever

- posting more items for sale than ever 

- paying more fees than ever

- promoting more of my listings than previously 

all improvements with the drastic drop to HALF the income.  

HALF! 

It’s so alarming. And I feel like NO ONE FROM EBAY IS LISTENING!!!

Please hear us eBay.  PLEASE. 

But I also wonder this too - don’t you think they all of a sudden see and realize that their top rated seller population is having declining sales? 

If all these posts are true, then eBay should be able to see graphs and statistics that should be very troubling for them.  

I feel like starting my own website but the daunting nature of that is almost too much to bare. It would be like starting my life over in a way. And then I would need to nurture it and pay to advertise for it and I wouldn’t really ever be able to afford both - all my eBay fees (with my new WebInterpret fees added on now too) they equal more than my rent every month and also money to advertise my own website ?! 

We barley make ends meet as it is now. So I just don’t think I’d have that extra it would take to make a baby website successful.  Maybe I am wrong. I wish I could predict the future.  

If eBay is just being ran by the type of people that drove the super profitable toys R us company into the ground then maybe they just don’t care that we struggle. 

Maybe they are just trying to cut all corners they can to make the most profits they can - so increase fees but market less - totally profitable for them ...in the short term. 

But I’m starting to feel like those people that worked at ToysRus for like 35 years and we’re just about to retire when the whole thing just crashed. 

Are we all on a sinking ship? 

I wished I could predict the future because I don’t want to be on a sinking ship. I got a baby to feed !! 

[callistodesigns]

What do you mean by that? 
why would we not show up on searches that are asking for what we have up for sale???

[callistodesigns]

Yes it’s aliens!! For sure !!

[monstertoybox]

I hear you! And I'm right there with you. Ebay is not going to claim fault here, even if every seller came here and said something is wrong. It would still not be them. They are driven by things we don't even know. Maybe it all changed when the stock market came into play, now we are just pawns in their game. They control everything on the site, down to who is shown and where, so if you aren't one of their huge sellers, you aren't that important in their eyes.

So we can continue to voice our issues, but it would be smart to look else where, because there are many sites available now-a-days to sell on. Doing your own website is hard, because of the advertising. It's almost impossible, unless you have something super unique. I, like you, have spent many years building a business here on Ebay, which took many personal hours away from my family and to see it come crashing down is devastating, to say the least.

I wish I knew the answer, because like you, I would rather not be on this board. This time of year, last year I wouldn't have been able to post, because I was way too busy. I really wish it would be that way again. They say you can wish in one hand ...

[luckythewinner]

Sales 50% from last year - top rated seller - better fb rating - more listings - worse sales - why?

IMHO feedback rating means nothing to buyers and has almost nothing to do with sales. 

That aside ... 

First, the number of sellers and the number of listings on eBay have been growing steadily year after year, but the volume of merchandise sold has been stagnant (or in the case of the pat year dropping by about 5%). This means that every year, teh average seller has a small piece of the pie. 

Second, the ecommerce marketplace is maturing and buyers now have mqny more options that they did before. I suspect some categories are seeing a lot of competition from other websites (Amazon, Etsy, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Staples, etc.) and those categories are probably taking a hit on eBay. 

Lastly, tastes change over time. Items that sold well in the past may not necesarily sell well now. I have items that sold a few years ago for $50 that I cannot get a $5 bid for now - and neither can anyone else on eBay (elsewhere).  

[ludamo83]

I had a relative who worked for toys r us for a decade, they even had a Facebook group of employees fighting for there money they were promised. After I look at the stocks on eBay it doesn't look for. Sometimes I wonder even after the CEO left couple months ago, is ebay being sold off to one of these private equity firms? Or is it purposely being throttled to the ground so a bigger company can buy it at a lower price? I'm baffled by the results as well.

[ubcensored]

Go to DigitalCommerce360 and read their story on the millennials doing most of their shopping on Amazon. 

I was trying to share some insight on this but ebay kicked me off saying I lost authentication.  I'll be short this time. 

[domin-tomas]

Ebay is broken. Things seem so slow at times when I make a sale, there is no ambition to package it up and ship the item out. The ambition and excitement is gone.

[monstertoybox]

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@callistodesigns wrote:

What do you mean by that? 
why would we not show up on searches that are asking for what we have up for sale???

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Ebay controls the search results, with their AI algorithms. Your items will not always be the ones that are shown. Other sellers have posted stories of being on two different computers and searching for the same items, but the search results will be different.

They will claim we are all able to be shown, if a buyer knows about this special "show all" button. And Like I've said before I've been here for 10 years and just now have learned about it, so really how many buyers use it. So yeah, visibility is not guaranteed, which is also noted in their user agreement, that we all have to acknowledge when we start selling on the site. 

The problems come when we are continually not shown to potential buyers, then we see the huge drops. When going through solds I constantly see my same items being sold by sellers for higher prices, with worse feedback. Why would someone pay more for someone with worse customer service? The main reason would be that they didn't see our item.

By the way, my sales are down by 70% compared to last year.

[monstertoybox]

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@monstertoybox wrote:

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@callistodesigns wrote:

What do you mean by that? 
why would we not show up on searches that are asking for what we have up for sale???

---

Ebay controls the search results, with their AI algorithms. Your items will not always be the ones that are shown. Other sellers have posted stories of being on two different computers and searching for the same items, but the search results will be different.

They will claim we are all able to be shown, if a buyer knows about this special "show all" button. And Like I've said before I've been here for 10 years and just now have learned about it, so really how many buyers use it. So yeah, visibility is not guaranteed, which is also noted in their user agreement, that we all have to acknowledge when we start selling on the site. 

The problems come when we are continually not shown to potential buyers, then we see the huge drops. When going through solds I constantly see my same items being sold by sellers for higher prices, with worse feedback. Why would someone pay more for someone with worse customer service? The main reason would be that they didn't see our item.

By the way, my sales are down by 70% compared to last year.

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... for SOMETHING from someone...