eBay

sandmansales · ‎07-19-2018

Shares of eBay fell 9 percent in trading Thursday.

The online marketplace reported sluggish growth in its marketplace business and lowered its revenue forecast for the the rest of the year.

Growth for eBay's subsidiary StubHub is "likely to remain challenging near-term," Raymond James analysts wrote in a note to investors after the report.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/19/ebay-stock-drops-after-weak-growth-lowered-revenue-forecast.html

~Why be a second rate version of someone else when you can be a first rate version of yourself~

hioctane62 · ‎07-19-2018

I had no doubt this would happen, and expect the slide to continue. Ebay is creating barriers to smooth business.

Based on my own sales this year, as well as tons of reports here on the boards of slow sales, it's clear that the buyers just are not coming to ebay anymore.

Compare ebay to a restaurant. You can't put a picture of a giant steak on the menu, then serve a tiny burger, and expect customers to return.

hioctane62 · ‎07-19-2018

Oh... I forgot. A giant "kick-ass" steak.

zamo-zuan · ‎07-19-2018

@hioctane62 wrote:
I had no doubt this would happen, and expect the slide to continue. Ebay is creating barriers to smooth business.

Based on my own sales this year, as well as tons of reports here on the boards of slow sales, it's clear that the buyers just are not coming to ebay anymore.

Compare ebay to a restaurant. You can't put a picture of a giant steak on the menu, then serve a tiny burger, and expect customers to return.

Most eBay markets I've seen are UP in revenue. Right now is the 2nd slowest time of the year in our category, and our market is up over 6%. Buyers are still here, that is not the problem.

But top sellers are down (confirmed by Terapeak, in our category, the top 20 sellers lost almost 25% of their market share in 1 year).

The problem right now is that businesses focused 100% on eBay are not able to survive in the current climate.

If top sellers are not able to survive, how is anyone supposed to?

They are literally driving sellers away right now.

If you consider the fact that the hold time for eBay customer service has more than doubled in the last few months, it's obvious their overhead is being spent in other places, such as CS and hiring more designers to implement the huge amount of changes eBay has.

Without the sellers, eBay does not have anything.

hillbillymedia · ‎07-19-2018

@zamo-zuan wrote:
@hioctane62 wrote:
I had no doubt this would happen, and expect the slide to continue. Ebay is creating barriers to smooth business.

Based on my own sales this year, as well as tons of reports here on the boards of slow sales, it's clear that the buyers just are not coming to ebay anymore.

Compare ebay to a restaurant. You can't put a picture of a giant steak on the menu, then serve a tiny burger, and expect customers to return.
Most eBay markets I've seen are UP in revenue. Right now is the 2nd slowest time of the year in our category, and our market is up over 6%. Buyers are still here, that is not the problem.

But top sellers are down (confirmed by Terapeak, in our category, the top 20 sellers lost almost 25% of their market share in 1 year).

The problem right now is that businesses focused 100% on eBay are not able to survive in the current climate.

If top sellers are not able to survive, how is anyone supposed to?

They are literally driving sellers away right now.

If you consider the fact that the hold time for eBay customer service has more than doubled in the last few months, it's obvious their overhead is being spent in other places, such as CS and hiring more designers to implement the huge amount of changes eBay has.

Without the sellers, eBay does not have anything.

You mean like the new unnecessary change on the community forums we are seeing today? When will they ever learn? I wonder how many glitches this change made today? We will see soon enough. SMH

"There`s always barber college" - Dalton - Road House

hioctane62 · ‎07-19-2018

That is awesome that your sales and the sales in your category are up. Congrats! I think auto parts will always be strong.

With smaller sellers like me, it's a bit of a domino effect. Slow sales means I can't invest in new product or product lines to expand my inventory. There are tons of sellers in that same boat right now. And all ebay wants to advertise is fashion, electronics, and "always free shipping". Maybe culling some smaller sellers is their intention. They never really make their intentions very clear.

hioctane62 · ‎07-19-2018

I do realize that it's an "adapt or move on" situation, and I'm working on a bit of both.

zamo-zuan · ‎07-19-2018

@hioctane62 wrote:
That is awesome that your sales and the sales in your category are up. Congrats! I think auto parts will always be strong.

With smaller sellers like me, it's a bit of a domino effect. Slow sales means I can't invest in new product or product lines to expand my inventory. There are tons of sellers in that same boat right now. And all ebay wants to advertise is fashion, electronics, and "always free shipping". Maybe culling some smaller sellers is their intention. They never really make their intentions very clear.

Oh sorry. I do not mean my sales are up directly... just the category is.

We used to be #1 in this category, more than double the sales of 2nd place. For 4-5+ years. Not anymore.

Most of this year we were down 40-50% of our usual sales. We have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars due to these issues. We had to let a lot of good employees go. A year ago we had 13 full time employees, now we have 6. We are still struggling, even though things are slowly returning to normal.

So I just want to let you know, it's not just smaller sellers like you who are suffering. Even the "top sellers" are struggling.

Smaller sellers such as yourself are not doing better, large sellers are not doing better, but there's more sellers "total" in the pool that are increasing total market value.

It's very rare to find any "serious" sellers who concentrate on eBay doing well right now. That is the problem. EBay needs sellers in order to make money. And eBay needs more sellers, which offer more variety in items, and more competition = better prices. That will in turn bring more buyers. Sellers are integral to succeed.

castlemagicmemories · ‎07-19-2018

@hioctane62 wrote:
Oh... I forgot. A giant "kick-ass" steak.

clu3 · ‎07-19-2018

I'm not surprised at all. They're focusing way too hard on "cheaper" and new.

I have another account that I haven't turned off regular promotion emails and I get discount emails daily. Gap & Banana Republic started doing this about 15 years ago, customers grew accustomed to the sales and decided to never pay retail again.

Ebay has a great thing going with the used and unique, too bad they seem to hate those sellers so much.

Unrelated, but I always wondered. Why are guitars subject to such low final value fees on Ebay??

siayan · ‎07-19-2018

If eBay is going to accept payments and control the money in the future I put it as a BUY

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Prov 20:14 It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.