Where is everybody going?

[allthings-collectible]

Perhaps many of you have already seen this data. If not, well, maybe this will bridle the enthusiasm of those who dismiss the cries for help of those on the end of the ripple. This is the data that is usually NOT shared with Q2 results, at least without the shiny ribbon tied around it.

https://www.businessofapps.com/data/ebay-statistics/

The data reflects a significant retreat all the way back to 2013 numbers.  But the most striking number was the loss of 1-million sellers per year since 2018. Therefore, my question is.... where are they going? 

[ten_o_nine]

All the numbers show bad incompetent management looking out for their own pockets. Sorry to say

[joliztoyco]

Unfortunately it will get worse before it gets better.
IF it does get better.

From Value Added Resource:

"Last quarter, I said it was one of the least exciting earning calls I'd ever heard -apparently eBay's response was "hold my beer."

At this point it's clear they have given up on any truly innovative tech-led reimagination or growing their market share.

Instead they've settled on cannibalizing non-focus categories (or at least leaving them to slowly fade away from neglect) while subsidizing the focus verticals to give the illusion their strategy is working.

The only source of significant growth eBay appears to be interested in or capable of executing is the continued squeezing of sellers for increased ad revenue - and that may eventually have its limits, driving more sellers away.

With nothing truly exciting, fresh, or dare I say magical on the horizon, and no clear vision for a strong strategy to reinvigorate the entire platform, eBay will likely continue its slow spiral into irrelevancy."

[pls-consignments]

Yep. 2017 was the peak, and we've been heading the wrong direction for 6-yrs now. They will need a lot more lipstick!

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

I'm not planning on going anywhere....at the moment. 

I will continue to list and work towards Q4. However, if, as I frankly expect, there is nothing substantive in the ebay Open announcements that indicates ebay is providing us with changes that have a good chance of boosting my Q4 profits, and especially if it appears ebay is going to persist in only marketing the Focus Categories, not the site, for the Holidays, I will be a multi channel seller, at least in a small way, by the end of the year. 

[greatmidwestcoin]

Well, we can only hope for another pandemic.  (just kidding) 😷

[dbfolks166mt]

     There are probably a lot of potential answers to your question. A lot has changed within the last 5 years the biggest being the explosion in ecommerce sites. While I still sell on eBay I diversified across multiple platforms and venues long ago. In some cases eBay forced that diversification in others it was just good business practice. I expect some sellers simply decided to retire from eBay and pursue other adventures. 

     Some events have probably resulted in seller loss: the move to managed payments, the introduction of promoted listings, the change in 1099 reporting requirements, funding holds, lack of seller protection and the growing increase in friendly fraud............. 

     There is also the graying of America and the changes in lifestyle among the various generations which also impact market dynamics. Millennials have surpassed baby boomers as the nation’s largest living adult generation and GenX, is expected to also pass the boomers within the next couple of years but will also succumb to the millennials at some point. Only eBay would have the generational stats on it's sellers but I would guess that a lot of those departing sellers are from the boomer generation and they are not being replaced by the millennials although the millennials probably represent the largest percentage of ecommerce buyers many may not be gravitating towards eBay for their purchases. 

[slippinjimmy]

Number of sellers is an almost meaningless number, to be counted as a "seller" one only needs to have ONE paid for transaction in the past year.

Maybe 50% (or more) of the missing sellers moved to facebook to sell their handful of items?

[mam98031]

I'm not so sure how accurate those numbers are.

When you are looking at numbers you need to remember that 2020 and 2021 were unusual due to the pandemic.  They do not reflect a normal market or a normal number of buyers or sellers.  In 2022 many that came to Ebay during the pandemic both for buying and selling left.

They also do not take into consideration the first 2 quarters of 2023.

@valueaddedresource   Will have the accurate numbers.

[inhawaii]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

Number of sellers is an almost meaningless number, to be counted as a "seller" one only needs to have ONE paid for transaction in the past year.

Maybe 50% (or more) of the missing sellers moved to facebook to sell their handful of items?

---

I agree.

The number of sellers is not as important as the number of items being sold.

If you have less sellers but more things being sold, that's a good thing. 

[scifiwriter99]

You have as negative an opinion of the situation as I do. I've been an eBay seller since 2007 and have witnessed things get progressively worse. I could make a list of the ways, but one glaring example is when eBay switched from Paypal to handle payments themselves. At first we were told the difference in cost would be about the same, and they were right. But since that time, about 4 years ago I think, the costs HAVE gone up significantly. Processing payments have more than doubled, in fact, which has a significant impact on my bottom line.

Also, in the past 4-6 weeks, eBay has put my account on hold to be investigated no less than FOUR times. Every time it's happened, they freeze my payouts. And it always happens when I have payouts exceeding $1,000. Has anyone else had this happen to them?

[vintagecraze50]

They are loosing their one and gone cheap buyers and sellers. Many other sites and places to sell your junk cheap. This is not a garage sale site anymore. Innovation involves a refocus on this site being a place to attract people with money and lots of it. So if you want to be here sell something to these wealthy customers.

[vintagecraze50]

But you have to remember the focused categories attract people with money not just non paying deadbeat scammer cheap buyers . You want that do you not to be looking at your items as well as the focused categories. eBay is not going to make it peddling junk anymore they have to sustain a buyer base with cash

[vintagecraze50]

Well, designer items, high quality jewelry and authenticated items are pretty good lipstick. Lip smacking good. 

[valueaddedresource]

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@mam98031 wrote:

I'm not so sure how accurate those numbers are.

When you are looking at numbers you need to remember that 2020 and 2021 were unusual due to the pandemic.  They do not reflect a normal market or a normal number of buyers or sellers.  In 2022 many that came to Ebay during the pandemic both for buying and selling left.

They also do not take into consideration the first 2 quarters of 2023.

@valueaddedresource   Will have the accurate numbers.

---

Thanks @mam98031  - @allthings-collectible unfortunately that site is not a reliable source of information about eBay. I've actually had some emails back and forth with the site owner trying to determine where he got those numbers from and let's just say he was less than forthcoming. 😉

Unfortunately for many eBay stats, going back to 2013 doesn't give an accurate picture because at the end of 2021, eBay changed their definition of GMV (which also changed the definition of Active Sellers and Active Buyers) and restated those figures only going back to Q1 2018.

Some of those charts are not using the restated figures - so they have old numbers using the old definitions up to Q4 2021 and the new definitions after.

But even if they were using the restated figures, they would still have numbers using the old definition before Q1 2018 and the new definitions after that.

Either way, it just wouldn't be an apples to apples comparison.

Active Sellers in particular is difficult to track because eBay does not report them consistently in their quarterly financials, like they do with Active Buyers.

For many years, eBay did not report Active Sellers publicly, then they started to do so regularly in 2021 as they had seen growth during the pandemic.

Per eBay's quarterly earnings reports:

Q1 2021 - 20 Million Active Sellers

Q2 2021 - 19 Million Active Sellers

Q3 2021 - 19 Million Active Sellers

Q4 2021 - 17 Million Active Sellers

Wall Street did not react positively to those numbers dropping, so eBay went back to not reporting them again - Q4 2021 is the last public report of Active Sellers that I'm aware of.

Unfortunately, we have no way to know where that number stands today. If we were to try to extrapolate based on the number of *buyers* that have been lost Since Q4 2021, I would guess we might be around 15 Million sellers by now but that is just a guess and of course there's no real data to show that sellers are dropping at the same rate as buyers (could be more, could be less).

I do think it's safe to say it's probably something less than 17 Million at this point, as eBay would likely be very publicly crowing about it if they had seen the number go back up significantly.