Who is buying/spending money on ebay - are there demographics available?

[lauralemur]

In reading all the posts about drops in sales, it made me wonder...is there information anywhere about the average age of buyers here on ebay over the years, and has it changed dramatically or remained stable?  Is there a simplified way to track trends in buying habits accordingly (i.e. categories, specific items, themes, new vs. vintage/used).  If we could know more about the demographics of the people spending money here on ebay, and the items they purchase, we could tailor our listings accordingly or market them to a target audience.   

[coolections]

Yes, there is a way. Check sold listings and go through the items to see what people are buying. For auction items check the number of bids compared to the starting prices. Maybe not totally accurate but will get you in the ballpark as to what is selling and what is not. It lets you know what people are willing to spend o those items also. That is how I have did it for years. Throw out those items people do not purchase and list the items people do purchase. It does not matter the age of the person.

[wifetrained]

I think it has more to do with what Ebay has morphed itself into which has a greater impact. 

[retrose1]

It isn't the buyers age that matters who is buying on ebay - it is the attitude.

When ebay started the majority of buyers were collectors and those who are hopping on the new trend train.  But the people in charge of ebay realized that trends don't last and the collecting genre is not stable so they started down the road to convert ebay into an internet mall.  Since another site had cornered the market on that early on, ebay could either stay collectable or try to horn in on established territory.   So ebay did everything to convert itself into a mall, selling new stuff BIN.

Right now. there are a multitude of buyers on ebay.  But mostly the buyers are mall shoppers.  Depending on the category, there are also collectors, investors and scammers mixed in, some more than others depending on the category.

What you have to do is to take a look at what you are selling, learn the type of people interested in your merchandise, gauge the risks, and then figure out if the buyers on ebay are looking for your merchandise and understand what they are buying.

Lots of posters complain about how buyers don't read the listings.  But what they need to do is deal with that problem instead of blaming the buyers.  Often sellers will do everything to get their merchandise in front of as many eyes as possible - and that often means they are putting it in front of the wrong eyes.  Then the wrong buyer impulse buys the item and soon a snad/return/case appears and upsets the seller.

Years ago I realized that my vintage merchandise would not be understood by the mall shopping buyers on ebay and moved it.  I kept  other items on ebay to earn extra cash.  But the merchandise I kept on ebay I understand is going to take a long time to sell because there can be up to a million like items on ebay at any given moment and only maybe 50,000 buyers for them.

It is things like that the sellers need to look at, age is only a very small component.

[montanatiki]

Once upon a time .....a long time ago - there was a magazine - called EBAY.  And yes, it showed what categories were selling and the hottest items - after a few months - it stopped.  Now when EBAY collects the data, Ebay can sell it to the highest seller (CHINA) and get kickbacks for the information - you and others have to manually search for items you are interested in to see what sells in what catagory and even that is off - I know people are thrilled to see high priced items and wonder why theirs for half price don't sell - I have my own thoughts about that - money l*undering is still alive and well - and if you are only buying up stuff you see that has sold for $$$$$ - you realize you might be the last one holding the item when the hot buying commotion disappears.

[luckythewinner]

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@lauralemur wrote:

In reading all the posts about drops in sales, it made me wonder...is there information anywhere about the average age of buyers here on ebay over the years, and has it changed dramatically or remained stable?  Is there a simplified way to track trends in buying habits accordingly (i.e. categories, specific items, themes, new vs. vintage/used).  If we could know more about the demographics of the people spending money here on ebay, and the items they purchase, we could tailor our listings accordingly or market them to a target audience.   

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eBay buyers need an email address and a credit card to buy here.  That's it. They do not even have have an eBay account.  So there many not be a whole lot of demographic information available. 

And given the current climate (Facebook, Cambridge Analytics, etc.) I'm not sure how thrilled buyers would be to find out their infromation is being shared with random sellers. 

[tiramisu41]

@lauralemur

Here's a link to some very topline info: https://expandedramblings.com/index.php/ebay-stats/

If you want more detail, apparently it's available for $2.99...

HTH

[ed8108]

You are absolutely correct !

[kylerjeffreys]

I purchased the $2.99 report and it's useless info if you're searching for demographic data. It was only a few dollars so I'll withold from throwing a fit, but it was a waste of money. Lot's of the citations don't even link to active pages, instead giving you a 404. 

[ted_200]

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@coolections wrote:

Yes, there is a way. Check sold listings and go through the items to see what people are buying. For auction items check the number of bids compared to the starting prices. Maybe not totally accurate but will get you in the ballpark as to what is selling and what is not. It lets you know what people are willing to spend o those items also. That is how I have did it for years. Throw out those items people do not purchase and list the items people do purchase. It does not matter the age of the person.

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That gives you overall demand and pricing information (if not very scientific and controlled), but tells you nothing about demographics.

eBay certainly has a lot of demographic information, but they won't let you see it.  It's "proprietary".  They probably do offer that information to someone - for a fee - but I doubt they'd even sell it to an eBay seller. 

[nawlinsron2]

Here's a start...54% is international. Not sure if that's buyers, sellers, or the combination.

[fashunu4eeuh]

Ebay certainly has demographic information, and has worked with the Chinese to target markets as they present themselves. This article is from 2014 but discusses the eBay/China partnership.

https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2014/06/24/us-top-market-chinese-companies-selling-ebay/