eBay

isaiah53-57 · ‎09-10-2018

Thank You for reading this post - This post is an opinion based on my selling and buying experience here - I have been buying and selling on ebay for 15 years - I've seen the good and it appears the bad is out-weighing the good to the point of crushing the medium, small and part-time seller - As a venue, the decision-makers have outdone themselves in making this site a point of contention between sellers and buyers, sellers and sellers and sellers and ebay - If sellers do not band together and take a stand at some point, it will become an unusable site for the casual / part-time seller.

Before I get to my main point, First and foremost, sellers must STRIVE to take what they are doing seriously in order to help maintain confidence in the site - Take the "Boardroom" out of the picture and this is in fact a community! - I was purchasing collectible lots to add to my collection some 6 months ago and stopped buying due to the unbelievably poor shipping/packing methods of valuable collectibles - I simply quit buying as well over 50% of the product I received was damaged or overstated. Its hard to blame ebay for taking a buyer-centric stance given my experience - If that was the end of what complaints I had as a seller(though the policies have been poor in thought and implimentation), I would be saying GO ebay! I have little sympathy for those who reap what they sow.

Problem is, I use the site to sell more than I buy, and ebays attempts to protect buyers is the very least of my worries. To get to the point quickly, amongst the many worries I have, the most egregious current ebay noose is the "Premium Placement" Program - It is simply-stated, the drop off on the way down the "slippery slope" and it shows so clearly the method of operation for revenue generation this site have become mired in - If any seller buys into this egregious back-pocket pilfer and money-grab they are quickening the rate of decent to a degree that will eventually bring about their own ability to thrive as an ebay seller - Using the program would be relative to the type of decision-making that has led the site to its current state of decay - decisions based on short term gain at the expense of long term vision and sustainability. Mark my words, if you are taking part in this program, you have put the noose around your own neck and their recent policies and programs have literally funneled you to this point...

I would not be able, for the life of me, to understand anyone who could in good conscience use this program - The site is FALLING APART at the seams with UNFATHOMABLE glitches and problems; Preference is given to cheap overseas products from sellers with 93.8% feedback ratings scaring away buyers who come to the site; the search is BROKEN or worse yet, DESIGNED to a degree that there are no words to explain the complexity of the problems; The decision-makers have eroded the confidence in the site to a degree that, in a time of precendent setting online sales growth, they are falling further behind the herd everyday. They take and take and give less and less back using the human drives of "Fear of Loss" and "Hope for Gain" in most nefarious ways.

For which one of these disreputes are you willing to give them more of your hard-earned money? or do you simply say, its the best place to sell and I'm willing to take whatever edge I can get? Tell me, how long do you think it will be the best place to sell if you keep rewarding poor decision-making and egregious dispespect with your hard-earned money???

While other sites, through long-term vision and customer respect, have found ways to increase revenue by become more palatable, offering real benefits and reasons to use their site, eBay has mired themselves in the muck of the only way they know to increase revenue - to PILFER IT right out of the back pockets of those who use the site - they just keep squeezing and taking with a sense of indignation, contempt and entitlement - constantly proving there is no line they arent willing to cross.

This is a line we should stop them at - The idea of pitting sellers against each other to try to build up the "TRENDING RATE" is unbelievable - In analogy, you can equate it to creating a marketplace where a mass of people need to clamor over each other to try to get that next morsel at the expense of self-respect and community - the more you clamor, the smaller the morsel gets to the point where you dont even realize there is no gain for your struggles - Do you not realize if everyone was paying the fees for Premium Placements you would have the exact same placement you have now????!!!! Where does it end?????

So tell me, is this the path you had hoped for when you paid those hard-earned dues in good faith to the venue? That they would use those dues to create a marketplace that can so easily squeeze you out? Because thats whats happening - If you choose to take part in this program, it will be yet another line they have crossed and if you are concerned with nothing but the little short term gain you can get from it(?), rest assured there will be another line...

dhbookds · ‎09-10-2018

selling on ebay for 15 years

Then you remember some of the ways in previous years ebay has offered better placement for more $? It's really nothing new........they try something for a while, put all the bells and whistles in, baby it and then drop it......when someone comes up with a"new and better" idea.

Personally, I like the opportunity to get stuff shown in different areas......areas that before were "sold" to off ebay sites....if it costs me a few more %'s, I've got enough margin to pay for it.....and I'd rather see ebay seller stuff there than Target.......

zamo-zuan · ‎09-10-2018

I've mentioned a few times, the mixture of the new catalog functionality (with buy-boxes similar to Amazon) and the sponsored listings, are a disaster waiting to happen.

Amazon's buy boxes are very straight forward. FBA > FBM, and aside from that, it's just cheapest price.

How is eBay supposed to handle this?

Do they go with cheapest price still? Is it cheapest price BEFORE or AFTER sponsored fees?

Is it simply who pays most???

If how much they pay factors in AT ALL, this means eBay is contributing to a poor buyer experience, as buyers will not be seeing potentially cheaper listings for the same items they are purchasing! All in order for eBay to make more money! Therefore making eBay LESS competitive compared to other marketplaces!

Combine this with the FVF increases coming soon, eBay is becoming less & less competitive compared to other marketplaces.

I'm not sure what they are thinking, as they claim they want to be more competitive with Amazon, but simply adding Amazon's features with additional fees, and a software design that is not built around those features, accomplishes the opposite.

(This is beyond the fact that the "trending rate" is obviously falsified, just like the "Peers" comparison for returns. In the Motors category, if you take 5% off your margin, it's not possible to be competitive. Even if you are a manufacturer! And we have software that has order verification that surpasses any of the other sellers at the top of our category, and we offer free returns, and we're still told that the return rate is "high". I feel bad for all the other sellers who do not offer free returns, as they are guaranteed to have a FVF increase next month.)

psalms*22 · ‎09-10-2018

Not sure if you or I have the wrong thought on how this thing works - My understanding is this is not ad space you are buying, but you are paying for a higher search placement - So if you go with the trending Rate of say 10% on a $20 item that cost $10 to ship - Nowto keep the same margin you have to sell that item for $22.00 because the FVFs would now be $5.20 rather than $3.00 - Now you are at over 25% fees and are nearing a seller overcharge - Personally I would rather sell it for $18.00 and give the buyer a better price and a better chance of happiness and also reduce my fees by .20 cents more.

The big downside to this thing is, once again, if we ALL used Premium Placement, everyone would end up being in the same search position they were originally, but paying much higher fees with no limit as to how high the trending rate can get if people become desperate to sell - which of course is what ebay is surely counting on and will likely be coming up with new ways to make happen...

Besides that with ALL the problems with the site, ebay has NO RIGHT to ask for more fees - As a show of good will, make the site better and then consider asking for more...

ted_200 · ‎09-10-2018

Spamming buyer eyeballs with stuff in hopes of selling something that represents a bigger piece of the action for eBay is going to result in less overall sales than showing the buyer exactly what they asked to look at. And even if it is exactly what the buyer asked for (which it usually isn't), it's not going to represent the best value for the buyer because there's a lot of fat built into the price to pay eBay their promotional fee.

It's just that simple.

The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves.

zamo-zuan · ‎09-10-2018

@psalms*22 wrote:
Not sure if you or I have the wrong thought on how this thing works - My understanding is this is not ad space you are buying, but you are paying for a higher search placement - So if you go with the trending Rate of say 10% on a $20 item that cost $10 to ship - Nowto keep the same margin you have to sell that item for $22.00 because the FVFs would now be $5.20 rather than $3.00 - Now you are at over 25% fees and are nearing a seller overcharge - Personally I would rather sell it for $18.00 and give the buyer a better price and a better chance of happiness and also reduce my fees by .20 cents more.

The big downside to this thing is, once again, if we ALL used Premium Placement, everyone would end up being in the same search position they were originally, but paying much higher fees with no limit as to how high the trending rate can get if people become desperate to sell - which of course is what ebay is surely counting on and will likely be coming up with new ways to make happen...

Besides that with ALL the problems with the site, ebay has NO RIGHT to ask for more fees - As a show of good will, make the site better and then consider asking for more...

That's the thing - the only possible way to lower prices is to make it a choice.

No matter what fee is charged, it's going to be coming out of the margin.

I'm not sure if eBay thinks that a 5-10% "trending" fee is not much. But this is 5-10% of the margin, which is HUGE!

To compete at the top of a category, manufacturers usually can only afford 1-2% wiggle room, to actually have competitive prices while keeping margins high enough to pay staff.

If you end up charging an extra 5-10%, the only way to possibly make this viable for a business, is the prices to the customer are being increased.

This directly contributes to a poor buyer experience, and eBay being LESS compeititive than other marketplaces.

I'm not sure what they are thinking with this design. It's extremely flawed.

EBay has always been designed around having the lowest prices possible. EBay margins are already much lower than other markets due to design.

Now they are even pushing this further - asking sellers to FURTHER lower margins.... HOW is this supposed to combine with a system that is based around paying eBay marketing fees???

Do they not realize that sellers on eBay already had a low margin to start with? Do they think sellers were able to up-sell their items at a higher margin than they are selling it at?

Such counter-intuitive design is what makes their changes mind boggling. Especailly when they have been saying all year this is due to "Amazon having such a large market share and they are trying to be more competitive".

If they truly wanted to be competitive, the changes would be designed around making their prices as competitive as possible.

It's an uphill battle. The Guaranteed Delivery system was supposed to be their way to compete with 1-2 day shipping options of other marketplaces... yet it will never actually be as competitive.

Now they are trying to compete on prices... with fee increases across the board???

Do they think they are going to get market share through fee increases???

News flash... not going to get new customers on eBay unless they have something other markets can not offer!

EBay's past survival was 100% due to prices. That's why people came to eBay ahead of other options.

Now they are throwing away their only advantage???? All to copy other marketplaces, with sub-par offerings compared to theirs???

It does not make sense.

keepersprings · ‎09-10-2018

Thank You for your post. My husband and I have been selling on eBay for 15 years as well. We have jumped thru many hoops during the last 15 years many for the sake of being higher in search. The many changes that eBay has and will introduce this year has changed our selling practices. We now sell on a number of venues, Etsy, Amazon, Poshmark, Facebook, Craigslist and Nextdoor.com to name a few. These venues have proven to be very beneficial to our bottom line and we will continue to migrate our items to these sites.

In many ways, we understand the fact that eBay wants Buyers to have a great experience on the site. We also want this.....But you won't get that with if you shoot the sellers in the process.

The last time sellers made a dramatic impact with upper management was when sellers decided to go on strike. This was in the beginning years with John Donahoe. The media got wind of this and we have to say some strides were made.

We no longer purchase items on eBay for the same reason you state in your post. We also do not make purchases on eBay because if you slight us as a seller you are not entitled to my monies as a buyer.

We would like to add that the straw that broke the camel's back with us was Top Rated Plus only for sellers who offer Free Returns. Yes we are still a Top Rated Seller. But to take away our badge and 10% FVF credit was a huge slap in the face. All the many years we worked hard to satisfy our buyers....and means nothing to eBay.

We thank you again for the post......

zamo-zuan · ‎09-10-2018

@keepersprings wrote:
Thank You for your post. My husband and I have been selling on eBay for 15 years as well. We have jumped thru many hoops during the last 15 years many for the sake of being higher in search. The many changes that eBay has and will introduce this year has changed our selling practices. We now sell on a number of venues, Etsy, Amazon, Poshmark, Facebook, Craigslist and Nextdoor.com to name a few. These venues have proven to be very beneficial to our bottom line and we will continue to migrate our items to these sites.

In many ways, we understand the fact that eBay wants Buyers to have a great experience on the site. We also want this.....But you won't get that with if you shoot the sellers in the process.

The last time sellers made a dramatic impact with upper management was when sellers decided to go on strike. This was in the beginning years with John Donahoe. The media got wind of this and we have to say some strides were made.

We no longer purchase items on eBay for the same reason you state in your post. We also do not make purchases on eBay because if you slight us as a seller you are not entitled to my monies as a buyer.

We would like to add that the straw that broke the camel's back with us was Top Rated Plus only for sellers who offer Free Returns. Yes we are still a Top Rated Seller. But to take away our badge and 10% FVF credit was a huge slap in the face. All the many years we worked hard to satisfy our buyers....and means nothing to eBay.

We thank you again for the post......

The free returns thing was part of where policies started to become counter-productive.

The idea itself is not bad, but the issue is that the free returns have to come out of someones pocket.

It further became an issue you would not be covered for damaged items unless you had free returns, and then TRS became free returns only.

Then became more of an issue once those who actually adopted free returns, having to increase price elsewhere, noticed that the search was not updated to support free returns in shipping. The search (at the time) favored lower prices still. So those who actually adopted free returns seen a drop in sales, while those who did not adopt had increased sales.

Since then, they have continued in the direction of increasing fees, with further pushing sponsored listings, and the upcoming FVF changes....

It's just so confusing that all these happen on the same exact year that they are trying to become "more competitive" against other marketplaces...? Where they are obviously focusing primarily on the buyer experience rather than the sellers... but these changes actually make it less buyer friendly???

This is usually why software companies have extended testing phases before implementation. To make sure everything plays out in the end as intended, as various ideas don't always play well together and have unforseen circumstances that were not yet considered during the planning phase.

Now eBay is suffering because not only do they have policies that are counter-productive from their goal... but there's an overload of bugs/glitches holding back the system.

2018 was a very bad year for eBay's direction. I'm hoping 2019 is not going to be like this year!

dhbookds · ‎09-10-2018

Not sure if you or I have the wrong thought on how this thing works - My understanding is this is not ad space you are buying, but you are paying for a higher search placement

Search placement is part of it, but your items can also appear on the sides....at the bottom of listings, etc.....wherever there is/was white space. Can also be in the lines of products that show underneath descriptions....

Ebay is going to SELL that space........it's just good business to do so...As said, they used to sell it to offisite sellers, now they give ebay sellers the chance to buy it....

As to margins, I certainly understand that if Everyone does it, everyone will make less.......but everyone won't, nor is it a guarantee that anything sells with running the ads. Of course, if nothing sells from them, sellers pay nothing also. Those with low margins will benefit more than those with high margins.....as they always do.......

Ebay has every right to run their site the way they want to, which should be to maximize the profit for their shareholders, while maintaining a viable marketplace. If sellers don't like the way it's run/can't afford to sell here they have the perfect right and, indeed, alot more choice, to sell elsewhere than they ever have before.

goodluckselling · ‎09-10-2018

Your user name seems to speak different than your aggressive post? But whatever.

The promoted listing program is a separate listings than the original listing. eBay only collects revenue if a buyer opens the promoted listing and then also buys from that listing. If a buyer opens the regular listing and buys eBay collects nothing.

You scenario of putting a noose around my neck is far from the truth as much of your post seems to be misinformed from my reading.

I actually do not mind less sellers, Sellers are obviously failing to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the industry standards and I think you outlined that as well.

We participate in the promoted listing program because it generates positive revenue for us here at eBay. Most (not all) but most experienced buyers do not really take feedback all that serious any longer because eBay has had the money back guarantee for several years now so there is less worry about a bad performing seller than in the poast because eBay will guarantee they get the product they bought or there money back.

In fact we have over 66K transactions right now and less than 30% even leave feedback so the buyers do not care to make sure all buyers see a true reflection of the seller or they would leave feedback for all buyer to see. Feedback is a very poor metric to gauge a seller by, but I understand your desire to discredit some with a bit lower feedback than others.

eBay is made up of over 25 Million sellers who are have there own agenda and for you to think you can carrel and set seller centric standard for pricing and visibility is so far out there I can not even see where you are coming from.

Most sellers do not pay eBay anything until a sale is completed. Store sellers pay a monthly fee for features and benefits that we use for creating positive revenue.

I hope eBay continues to create new lines, and continues to expand on new technology and add features. Your ideas seem so much like well 1999?

Let me also mention to you that in 2016 eBay completes over ONE Billion transactions daily worldwide. My understanding is this number is jumped to extreme levels but I do not have that data to share so I use this older data. I hope this number would help you realize it is not as broken as you want to advertise it as. Click here to learn more about this

Or click this link to learn 74 Interesting facts about eBay

Good Luck Selling!

sicario_soldado · ‎09-10-2018

...25 million? Do you mean in all of eBayland (worldwide)? I ask because the Forbes June 2018 article said only 6 million sellers, but was only talking about the U.S. numbers.

"May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion."
Dwight D. Eisenhower

goodluckselling · ‎09-10-2018

@sicario_soldado wrote:
...25 million? Do you mean in all of eBayland (worldwide)? I ask because the Forbes June 2018 article said only 6 million sellers, but was only talking about the U.S. numbers.

Yes worldwide. You can see more details by using the 74 interesting facts link.

Good Luck Selling!

tunicaslot · ‎09-10-2018

As of 2015 - there were 25 million sellers on ebay - https://expandedramblings.com/index.php/ebay-stats/

Ebay;s number of active users continues to increase: https://www.statista.com/statistics/242235/number-of-ebays-total-active-users/

isaiah53-57 · ‎09-10-2018

Hi - It appears there is some misinformation or implied ideas about how the Premium Placement works in my post - I thought it was something different than promoted listings and after more research I discovered that the two are intertwined and that you would not be charged the Placement Fee you agree to if someone purchases an item by clicking on the regular listing, but only if they purchase it by clicking on an ad that is linked to your listing - So it is in fact like purchasing ad space to a degree.

I would like to recant, to a degree, my derision with the program as it remains to be seen how effective it can be for a user and Please accept my apologies for providing or impying information that was not researched as fully as it should have been. Thank You for taking the time to read through the post. and best of luck to all.