eBay

suzisdaughter · ‎06-17-2018

Our family has 3 eBay Stores. All of us ran sales/markdown manager for 5 days!

NOT ONE SALE. Somethinng is wrong. Seems like with the new store lay out changing and other new requirements have halted everything even without running a sale.

Anyone else experiencing the same thing?

Conerned!

Thank for reading.

lovefindingtreasures2 · ‎06-18-2018

Yep, same here. Lost all motivation to list this weekend, especially since they are also not sending any free listings promotions, at least not to me. None in a couple months.

Was a depressing Father's Day Weekend. If I could work out of the house, I would go get a real job. Emphasis on the real part, since trying to sell here right now is the epitome of crazy, as they like to say. Keep at it, knowing the results will not only be the same, but probably get worse.

At least they could keep us busy with free listings so we don't have time to come here and vent. Free listings please, where did they go? Throw us a darned bone eBay.

lovefindingtreasures2 · ‎06-18-2018

I have stopped buying too. A lot of that shopping was here for 'wholesale lots' to resell. Since sellers tend to buy here when they are selling, I wonder how much of the slow sales are due to sellers not spending since they aren't making? No sales here, no spending here. It tends to turn into a Catch 22. Money in, money out. No money in, no money out. Wonder what % of eBay sales are to eBay resellers?

rixstuff · ‎06-18-2018

@dugoldstuff wrote:
> At this point I ~~will~~ must stop sourcing inventory.

Me too. Just putting old stuff from the house up now. No more getting up at 4:30 AM to hunt for choice stuff at the markets; no more sitting at auctions all day in the Amish capital of the world. I used to put Lancaster, PA in the title for the neat things I found, and the majority of it went to California. Now, I guess they will have to buy fake Amish made in China "antiques." Might be cheaper, but won't be real and will never last 200 years like the Amish stuff.

Honestly most of the time that is all I sell anyway. I have never viewed Ebay as a "business" but as a long slow international electronic yard sale. If they sold what I was trying to buy at the mall I would have bought it there already. OR if the mall priced it more realistically to what I would pay, they would get the sale. They dont so I buy it here.

I dont acquire stuff to resell. It is all leftover from something else - the extra pieces that came in the lot I bought to get materials for my metalworking class, my mom and aunt's leftovers or tiredovs, stuff I get as payment for cleaning basements and attics (I often salvage it from the curb or get first pick before it goes to the thrifts). If Im at a thrift or a yard sale or flea market, I am shopping for myself or selling off the unwanteds for quick cash. The varsity team stuff doesnt go to the flea market it gets sold here.

rixstuff · ‎06-18-2018

Agree - but Ebay should DEFINITELY be displaying items that we PAY to list. Let the buyer decide what's irrelevant. They can fine tune their search to weed out more - provide more details, specify size/color/style/brand, sort by ending time, price, format, etc.

Believe me nobody hates weeding through pages of irrelevant items more than I do.

castlemagicmemories · ‎06-18-2018

@dugoldstuff wrote:
> At this point I ~~will~~ must stop sourcing inventory.

Me too. Just putting old stuff from the house up now. No more getting up at 4:30 AM to hunt for choice stuff at the markets; no more sitting at auctions all day in the Amish capital of the world. I used to put Lancaster, PA in the title for the neat things I found, and the majority of it went to California. Now, I guess they will have to buy fake Amish made in China "antiques." Might be cheaper, but won't be real and will never last 200 years like the Amish stuff.

Sadly, for many, it's a plastic, disposable society.

reallyhardtofind · ‎06-18-2018

Lucky is probably referring to ebays overall figures, not in certain categories and how they are individually performing. Its easy to say sales are increasing when there's an influx of Chinese sellers.

keziak · ‎06-19-2018

I am running way down compared to last year and often compared to the previous 3 months. I am at a point where I expect little from ebay. My books sell well on Amazon, ebay is just a bit extra. I do question the time it takes to relist stuff that may never sell. I find it very hard to tell what books will sell compared to ones that never will. I usually remove books upon relisting that are stale or improbable. I'm slow to list so I fail to take advantage of the 1000 "free" listings from my store. "List more, sell more" doesn't always work here.

freeshipusa1 · ‎06-19-2018

@mademelle wrote:
So what's your opinion, then, for decreasing sales--I'm just curious and looking for answers.

I get emails every day of sales markdown from dept stores,designer websites,etc etc and the company which sent these emails also offer a rebate if you follow its link and buy from these stores.

Yesterday I got a $10 check from them.

retailers have decided they must have a cyber presence and must pay to get customers.

the markdown from these stores are unreal,like another 25% over 50% markdown with free shipping and free return.

palaceproductions · ‎06-19-2018

I did see that after they changed to the new store format that my listing feed link in manage my store is now gone. Am I just not seeing it?

Google used that to pull in my listings to google shopping results and now none of my stuff shows in google shopping and many other places that used it.

Is everyones gone? Are they not a thing anymore?

mathamill · ‎06-19-2018

There was a recent NPR / Marist poll which has some great information about the current state of online shopping in the US. The link to the article (which you can read through online or listen to the audio recording of the report that was broadcast on the radio):

https://www.npr.org/2018/06/06/615137239/what-americans-told-us-about-online-shopping-says-a-lot-abo...

In this poll, 44% of respondents have amazon as the starting place for online shopping.

Next one down is search engine / Google with 33%

Next visiting a specific brick and mortar's online store / site / app (Walmart, Target etc) with 10%

Next is "The brand's website or app that you are looking for" with 6%

And next is "online marketplace such as eBay or etsy" with 5% of respondents.

That's a really poor showing for eBay and must be really embarassing to have such a low level of customer engagement or awareness recorded in a poll like this.

So one of the changes eBay has done behind the scenes this year is stopping Google search results from showing any specific seller's listings inside Google search results. Since eBay has actively moved to categorize and catalog all seller listings so when you google a product and see a eBay link in the results, in the past the search result was likely for a specific listing from a particular seller and clicking the search result would take you straight to the seller's listing and that much closer to a sale. Not any more. Now when you click the search result for the eBay listing it shows you an eBay shopping page which collates a whole bunch of listings for you to browse, filter, sort and shop with. eBay has actively moved to hide seller listings from direct google search results sales. It didn't used to be like this. In the past if I googled a specific listing title word for word as listed on eBay the search results would find that listing and clicking it would take you to the listing. This is bad for sellers.

We know eBay's problem is that there are already too many sellers, they have in the past said they do not show all sellers to all buyers because there would simply be too much to choose from and would be confusing or daunting to buyers somehow. eBay also wants to make more money all the while knowing they are unable to compete with amazon, and rather than bring in more sellers to sell more and generate more closing fees for them, eBay has made moves to try to squeeze more revenue from sellers by doing things such as offering marketing and promoted listings tools where they charge you a % (which you can set) taken off your sale to pay for placing an ad for your listing throughout the site and even on other seller's listings of the same product you are offering, changing the top rated returns requirement to free seller returns to entice buyers at seller's expense, increasing store subscription prices and so on.

So eBay gets to make more money not by actually getting more of seller's stuff sold but by making that little bit more from sellers.

If you don't care to participate in eBay's fees-based programs then you really can only compete on price and so start racing to the bottom.

dr.clockenstien · ‎06-19-2018

@dugoldstuff wrote:
> At this point I ~~will~~ must stop sourcing inventory.

Me too. Just putting old stuff from the house up now. No more getting up at 4:30 AM to hunt for choice stuff at the markets; no more sitting at auctions all day in the Amish capital of the world. I used to put Lancaster, PA in the title for the neat things I found, and the majority of it went to California. Now, I guess they will have to buy fake Amish made in China "antiques." Might be cheaper, but won't be real and will never last 200 years like the Amish stuff.

@dugoldstuff

Small world!

I used to live in north Leb'nen county!

I would help my dad on weekends at flea markets.

Did you ever go to Meadowbrook, or The Green Dragon?

We have some Amish here, but not like in the Am capital.

I took my wife to Lancaster two years ago to some of the shops in Warwick they have STUNNING furniture there.

I really miss the Schnitz and Knepp. : (

rixstuff · ‎06-19-2018

Welllll consider who listens to NPR. Very small (less than PBS) audience, usually with money and probably not shopping on Ebay anyway. So I would question the results of a poll asking such a tiny unengaged group about online shopping in general and Ebay in particular.

dr.clockenstien · ‎06-19-2018

@mathamill wrote:

There was a recent NPR / Marist poll which has some great information about the current state of online shopping in the US. The link to the article (which you can read through online or listen to the audio recording of the report that was broadcast on the radio):

https://www.npr.org/2018/06/06/615137239/what-americans-told-us-about-online-shopping-says-a-lot-abo...

In this poll, 44% of respondents have amazon as the starting place for online shopping.

Next one down is search engine / Google with 33%

Next visiting a specific brick and mortar's online store / site / app (Walmart, Target etc) with 10%

Next is "The brand's website or app that you are looking for" with 6%

And next is "online marketplace such as eBay or etsy" with 5% of respondents.

That's a really poor showing for eBay and must be really embarassing to have such a low level of customer engagement or awareness recorded in a poll like this.

So one of the changes eBay has done behind the scenes this year is stopping Google search results from showing any specific seller's listings inside Google search results. Since eBay has actively moved to categorize and catalog all seller listings so when you google a product and see a eBay link in the results, in the past the search result was likely for a specific listing from a particular seller and clicking the search result would take you straight to the seller's listing and that much closer to a sale. Not any more. Now when you click the search result for the eBay listing it shows you an eBay shopping page which collates a whole bunch of listings for you to browse, filter, sort and shop with. eBay has actively moved to hide seller listings from direct google search results sales. It didn't used to be like this. In the past if I googled a specific listing title word for word as listed on eBay the search results would find that listing and clicking it would take you to the listing. This is bad for sellers.

We know eBay's problem is that there are already too many sellers, they have in the past said they do not show all sellers to all buyers because there would simply be too much to choose from and would be confusing or daunting to buyers somehow. eBay also wants to make more money all the while knowing they are unable to compete with amazon, and rather than bring in more sellers to sell more and generate more closing fees for them, eBay has made moves to try to squeeze more revenue from sellers by doing things such as offering marketing and promoted listings tools where they charge you a % (which you can set) taken off your sale to pay for placing an ad for your listing throughout the site and even on other seller's listings of the same product you are offering, changing the top rated returns requirement to free seller returns to entice buyers at seller's expense, increasing store subscription prices and so on.

So eBay gets to make more money not by actually getting more of seller's stuff sold but by making that little bit more from sellers.

If you don't care to participate in eBay's fees-based programs then you really can only compete on price and so start racing to the bottom.

I wouldn't be surprised if a buyout would happen in the future.

While it seems crazy, it happens. It happened to FOX just last week.

Before that, ABC, ESPN, and Marvel, were all bought by Disney.

Too independent? I guess not...

If ebay could lower their value, then maybe, it would be appealing to someone to buy it.

I don't know why because it seems like alot of the employees are worthless anyway.

-- --

I've seen it happen with big companies like H&R Block and American Express.

I posted about it around three months ago, but I will try to make it short.

H&R stocks were pretty good in '07 and they bought a struggling AmEx. whose stock was low.

On the stock charts after the purchase, H&R and AmEx. leveled out to a near balance, (H&R Down/ AmEx. Up)

This would help out profit margins for H&R because it would lower tax liability for the company with the larger $ value.

Also, they now have another means of finace in their arsenal.

luckythewinner · ‎06-19-2018

@mademelle wrote:
So what's your opinion, then, for decreasing sales--I'm just curious and looking for answers.

That's a loaded question - because the overall dollar amount of buying on eBay has actually been increasing slowly but steadily for at least five years.

Some reasons? Here are just a few:

1) While buying has grown slowly and steadily, the number of listings has grown much faster. More sellers chasing the same dollars means that each seller gets a relatively smaller piece of the pie.

2) Some sellers are simply not changing with the marketplace. Millenials do not buy festival glass and hummels. They buy video games and superheroes.

3) Supply and demand change. I used to sell a concert poster for $100 a decade ago. I can't get $5 for it now. Everyone who wanted one has one, and the rest of my inventory is collecting dust.

4) Competition changes. I had a LP that I sold for $300, but a bunch of them came on the market and I could not give them away for $75. Three years later, that competitor has run out of stock and I just sold one for $200.

5) Buying online has fundamentally changed. eBay is not the only game in town, and even small retailers now have a sophisticated web presence. Buyers have infintely more destinations than they did even a couple years ago. More websites chasing the same dollars, and each website gets a smaller peice of the pie.

6) Buyers have gotten more sophisticated. There are no longer millions of people coming online for the first time each month, wandering around wide-eyed and tinkling money away just for the novelty of it.

auctionpet · ‎06-19-2018

@steelernation2007 wrote:
The apologists and excuse makers for Ebay are getting old . Every month, there is alway some possible excuse made for slow sales. It's summer vacation, no one is home, post-Christmas, tax return time, it's between holidays, it's spring and people are busy, it's back to school and no one has extra money, etc. This is a supposedly robust economy operating at peak and these excuses do not hold water. The truth is, many buyers either don't use Ebay anymore, or drop shippers/ cheap China sellers are getting all the business. It's not going to get any better but it could get worse.

Yup, I've heard these excuses for a dozen years, no exageration!

Maybe instead of having 3 stores, it's time someone in the OPs family get an outside job to lessen the worry during slow times. I've never understood an entire family putting all their eggs in the ebay basket. I have a large immediate and outside family, I'm the only one who sells on ebay!