Very Slow Sales November 2019

[rapidresol]

We have been selling on Ebay for 15+ years now, but since March sales have struggled.  Ebay seemed to make changes to the search engine meaning items we had sold hundreds of units of were no longer selling.  They became almost invisible. 

Today we only had 8 sales on EBay.  A few years ago we were averaging 50 a day.  

I would be interested to hear how other sellers are doing at the moment?  I am extremely worried about the way things seem to be going!

[jandj-8]

Sales are down 50% from last year and this month is ridicules. Two stores, 2k in listings, promoted, TRS, and I got one sale today!!! This is Q4 2 weeks before Christmas and only 1 sale.........eBay has mucked this up pretty badly for sellers.  

[countrypleasures]

I am finding the same as you. I have been on eBay 20 years, and it used to be such a unique site. Nearly 100% of the items I put up sold. Now, gee, still doesn't sell after 3 or 4 relists. I think, in my opinion, eBay is catering to the Amazon frame of mind. They used to feature "Hot" Items on the homepage, and certainly the unique ones. Now it's all electronic gagets and fashion geared to the millennials with much advertising from sponsored sites. The lifestyle has changed as well. Ebay is so overcrowded if so much junk. Like, look up antique ring, thousands, and sadly, most of which are not antique. Plus ebay makes it very difficult for the "small" sellers. Ebay buyer protection is abused. Ebay always sides with the buyer. Also, look at how we are now responsible for the postal service as well. If item doesn't arrive, arrives broken, or gets lost in the "mail", eBay refunds the buyer 100% of the sale, and we loose and left to fight with the postal service, no quick solution! So with that, selling on eBay today, you also need a wing and a prayer and a lot of luck. I have looked into other sites, but I am so familiar with eBay, hate to start over after all these years. I have to practically give it away to make a sale. It doesn't pay, for me anyway, to do free shipping and free returns, along with the fees, may as well have a tag sale or do a show. Ebay really needs to protect it's sellers at a better level. Well, looks like there's more sellers in the same boat.

[jeweloftheheart]

I really appreciate Jordan Sweetnam addressing us sellers. He was somewhat vague but I am still hopeful.

I wish Jordan would be "Candid", "Transparent", and "Honest" about what is happening here on eBay, a once wonderful selling platform for used items. Sales have seriously plummeted since October.

This tragic drop in sales, for so many of us sellers who count on this once wonderful sight as an income, leaves us spinning in circles as to which direction to go. If this is the new eBay, please, please, be forth coming so we have the answer. Then we can move on and find a different source of income.

Happy Holidays to all and good luck selling!

[rockmineralshop]

very excited here got my first order of the month,,,,

ebay is rockin for me now,,,,,, 

Christmas coming early,,,,, now can plan a vacation,.

[bargainbigly]

The NASDAQ reported that eBay's sales dropped 9% in November. You can Google this and find the article from last week.

There is no information on why this happened. One can only speculate it's related to the glitches we've all been experiencing.

Happy Holidays

[bid*bandit]

You're response is super accurate and hitsa very special subject. China! China and google searches . I've said this recently in another thread. Everything is changing now and noone is telling us about the changings. We are experiencing changes in every thing. Everyday life is changing. Prices, taxes everything. This also includes eBay's methods, products, search results etc. So what's going on? Why is this change in everything happening? To make it short. The nation, the world, all has geared china up for t to be world's consumer seller. They pay no taxes. The shipping is basically free. They can ship super cheap small items are big items with almost no cost to them and they don't get taxed. Can't compete with that. It's all a plan . Remember the whole Trump tax deduction for corporate America and then china went to zero. ? All a plan. Plan is to have not only local stores sellm of China products they have set it up for china to be majority seller of internet products as well. The old way of doing things is gone now. Everything will be replaced soon. Methods, products, shipping, procedure, everything. Taxes, fees, the way we shop all about to change big time. Look at the stores. All catering now to online selling. Soon everything will be stored in a wherehoiue and you order it online, go pick it up. No more walk around. Except for some things. Things will start to escalate quickly now. You will see big changes in money system..the value will decrease. We will see a new currency on Facebook and eBay will be a china based seller. Your local malls will be closed. .. eBay is now just about dead. And it happened fast. All planned. Sell everything and prepare for a new world. Not like anything you imagine. 

[bid*bandit]

Yes they want you to all go-to facebook and make a account and be on the social platform now. Soon facebook will have it's it' currency called libra. It will be the new Bitcoin. All of this is planned. No more eBay. Everything will be tracked to you. Your pic. Your name. Witha a Social score. 

[aliceinabundanceland]

😳

[stephp4007]

I come in these boarded every morning just to confirm I’m not alone. I couldn’t sleep last night because as a single mom who’s only income has been eBay for 6 years I’m freaking out about its future. If this slow down was gradual , I could understand things more, but generally speaking, the lack of sales was sudden. October 15th being the day everything fell apart for me. 
I have to keep up hope that this will be resolved, mostly because I don’t have any other choice. 
do any of you watch eBay vlogs or follow other sellers on social platforms ? Not everyone is feeling this slump like we are. That makes me even more confused. Why are things dead for some of us while things are selling normally for the rest? 

[mam98031]

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@stephp4007 wrote:

I come in these boarded every morning just to confirm I’m not alone. I couldn’t sleep last night because as a single mom who’s only income has been eBay for 6 years I’m freaking out about its future. If this slow down was gradual , I could understand things more, but generally speaking, the lack of sales was sudden. October 15th being the day everything fell apart for me. 
I have to keep up hope that this will be resolved, mostly because I don’t have any other choice. 
do any of you watch eBay vlogs or follow other sellers on social platforms ? Not everyone is feeling this slump like we are. That makes me even more confused. Why are things dead for some of us while things are selling normally for the rest? 

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It appears for your sold items that you do a very nice little business, congratulations!!!

In Early October Ebay updated the site with new requirement in structured data for those in Fashions and some Health and Beauty.  That update created a great deal of problems on the site for many in those categories.  It was late November before they got the problems fixed.

I hope that your sales start climbing again and that 2020 is your best year ever.

@stephp4007 

[dhiltong]

The problem with November is everyone is waiting until BFCM. Nobody wants to buy anything extra this month. Really with the way things are now you need to sell across ALL the platforms you can...especially that other one that EVERYONE buys from now. 

[stephp4007]

I have started branching out to other platforms, but I don't want to loose hope. ebay has been my home, and I still want to love it.  I sell in a saturated market (womens clothing) , but I always did well here. I know the updates messed things up for a while, and Christmas season isn't best for used items, but every morning I am hoping to wake up to an increase in sales or finally figuring out what im doing wrong in my store 

. Does anyone else here sell in clothing? 

I was late in discovering my sizes were missing on ALL of my item specifics, I am wondering if there was another glitch I may be missing out on fixing? 

[mikeossur]

I have a few camera items for sale. People are looking but no buyers. I have a "no returns" policy because I have been getting a sudden (pattern) rash of returns for bogus reasons - right up to the 14 day return policy. I suspect people buy lenses, use them for a job or evaluate whether it is what they want, then return it once they are done with it. Sad.  

[telsworlduk]

Hi, my sales are around 15-20% down this NOV/DEC year on year when up until last year I had growth every year.

I'm up year to date so it's a bit of a surprise my Christmas sales are significantly down. Maybe the country is a little distracted with the other stuff going on in the UK?

[abfabvintage]

It was late November before they got the problems fixed.

sorry, beg to differ with the above comment... the problems in fashions and many other categories have not been fixed and today is 12/14. maybe for those who sell in the home beauty areas but not in fashion overall...all ebay did in late november was remove some kind of code as a workaround... so that when you would relist or revise they would not stop the listing from going through if you didn't put in their required IS.

prior to the nov 18 last announcement (between the 10/15 fiasco and 11/18), if you tried to do a new relist of a listing, or wanted to tweak an existing listing using Revise you were stopped dead in your tracks if you didn't include their incorrect IS elements. even listing thru my program was stopped dead during that period...of course the GTCs kept rolling over whether corrected or not...but you would take a chance of not being seen in search if you didnt go in and do a revise and include the ebay fixes. am posting this because i dont want misinformation out there that the overall problems are fixed, they are not in my categories. and according to the 11/18 ebay announcement, they are not tackling any further fixes...IS in particular...until 2020.