Why are things getting bad on ebay

[jeff-second-chance-silver]

One of my ebay store has over 11000 items listed and only 3 sales the last 2 days. The other one has 5200 items and has only 15 sales. Both top rated. Things have gone horribly south in the last few years.  

[sfau]

Garage Sale season started?

[fashunu4eeuh]

Pretty sure we can all agree that times change. People’s shopping habits change. Items that sold well for years, sometimes no longer do. Competition changes. Values change. Fashion changes. And on and on.

There are so many reasons why sales can be negatively affected, it can be hard to analyze which factors are causing the shift, so that the seller can offset them.

eBay is not a transparent company. Therefore trying to determine what they are doing internally to their platform is difficult, and whether or not that is the cause of declining sales, doubly so.

I think the question (“Why are things getting bad on eBay?) bears asking, the discourse it raises important, but the answers, i fear, will be elusive if eBay chooses not to reveal its operations. 

[sakic92710]

Hope it will start soon for me!  May??  Fingers crossed.  eBay has been a ghost town for me since Nov. 2021.  Only 1 decent month since then.  2023 is 10x worse than 2022.  11 sales the entire year so far.  Discouraging, depressing & dismal.  Triple D!   lol  Using my phone service for the internet was blocking me from 1 site I wanted to sell on.  Fortunately, once I got WiFi, the problem solved itself.  🙂   Good luck to all.   

[l5vw]

Economy is tough right now. Only other site we sell on is CL and its very slow. Our E-bay sales are up 10% from last year. Up and down but overall steady.  

[joliztoyco]

When "sellers" aren't selling anything on Ebay, what's the use? Why sell? So they walk away.
Hundreds of thousands of them.
And then there's another large group of sellers. They are struggling along on 3-4 sales a month if they're lucky. They've done the math on "Promoted Listings" and realize their "business model" can't absorb the costs and remain profitable enough to bother selling. And we're just seeing the START of the mass exodus of those sellers that will occur over the next 12-18 months. 

"eBay Inc. said its gross merchandise volume, which is the value of all goods sold on the site, fell 12% to $18.2 billion in the most recent quarter, the seventh consecutive period in which the number dropped.

The number of active buyers on the marketplace also fell – dropping 9% to 134 million during the period ending Dec. 31, 2022. That too is the seventh consecutive quarterly drop."

Now here's the tricky part. Ebay's management has to answer to stockholders. And with their lack of transparency, it's really hard to ascertain just how bad the numbers really are. And no...Ebay isn't the only company that tries to sugarcoat their negative quarterly reports with a false "positive" thrown in there. In this case Ebay "proudly" points out the increasing take they're getting from their  "promoted listings" racket. It's like they're hoping stockholders aren't smart enough to recognize the correlation between promoted listings and the subsequent loss of sellers...BECAUSE AS EBAY'S OWN NUMBERS SHOW...sellers on Ebay  also make up a significant portion of the BUYERS on Ebay. Hence "loss of buyers".
I really don't see it getting better. But let's get someone else's take:

“EBay is back to where it was before the pandemic, losing customers and declining sales,” Brian Yarbrough, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co., told Bloomberg News. “Unless you’re looking for an odd item, eBay is forgotten by most consumers. You just don’t hear a lot about it the way you do the Walmarts, Targets and Amazons of the world.”

How does Ebay turn around their loss in revenue and sellers/buyers?
My guess is they won't. We've been transitioning to direct sales...setting up at toy conventions, card shows, and around Christmas at flea markets.....which are wide open for the sales of quality Christmas presents for kids. It's a niche we've found, and the cost for a booth or lot, is cheaper than the FVF's and shipping on about 6 of our Lego auctions. It's costing us 30-37 dollars just to ship one across a couple time zones. Unless Ebay changes ...and I mean quickly, I can see us becoming one of their millions of "inactive" sellers. And that's too bad.
I was here at the beginning. And can adapt to "change" as well as most. But we can't adapt to "You're not going to sell anything unless you pay 20-30% of your sales in FVF's and PL charges. 
That's not sustainable in our business model.

[joseh1445]

Some thing is not right.  For a store of your size, you should be making more than 3 sales.  But as with ebay, its changing very quickly, only to help ebay, and the share holders.  Sellers are not on ebays mind...

[fashunu4eeuh]

““EBay is back to where it was before the pandemic, losing customers and declining sales,” Brian Yarbrough, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co., told Bloomberg News. “Unless you’re looking for an odd item, eBay is forgotten by most consumers. You just don’t hear a lot about it the way you do the Walmarts, Targets and Amazons of the world.”

I do not consider myself an eBay rah-rah-rah-er, but i would not have picked this analyst’s position to bolster my own, because he is comparing apples to oranges. Yes, eBay has had 7 straight quarters in decline. But so has Amazon, with 5 straight quarters of decline as well.

From Yahoo Finance 2-23-23:

”Earlier this month, Amazon.com Inc. reported that its core online retail business lost money for the fifth straight quarter amid slowing sales growth. The world’s largest e-commerce company is cutting 18,000 employees after rapid expansion during the pandemic left it with too many personnel.”

https://finance.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/ebay-gives-outlook-suggesting-sales-215105391.html

Don’t have enough time to research Walmart and Targets stats, but i wouldn't compare eBay to them anyway.

Walmart and Target have their own fleet of trucks supplying a nationwide network of brick-and-mortar stores. Amazon and eBay do not have physical stores as they are strictly online. But Amazon also sells, and ships (also utilizing their own transit system of delivery trucks). eBay does not.

eBay is a completely different animal from these other three. Those three are retailers. EBay is not a retailer but a platform, a venue for retailing. 

So i would not draw a conclusion about eBay being forgotten by consumers based on Brian Yarbrough’s outlook. Especially not with 134 million active buyers. Not to say eBay doesn’t have many issues it needs to address. It does, but i don’t think that eBay is headed for the graveyard either. 

[rugerskick]

I just love weekends ebay hits the switch and basically turns my store off.

[joliztoyco]

And I think you nailed it. The 3 you mention are ALL major retailers. Most have brick and mortar stores...they're own fleet for shipping, and in many cases a paid sales force.
While EBAY is nothing but a glorified flea market that has NONE of these advantages.
You can take the biggest sellers on Ebay and group them together, and they're still NOTHING compared to the numbers of Wal-Mart, Target and Amazon. So yes...even Ebay's biggest sellers are "small".  Right?
And Ebay DEPENDS on these "small sellers" to survive. Right?
And they're driving them away?? 
Like I said. Unsustainable.

[vintagecraze50]

This year has been way significantly different in terms of economic issues.

[ed8108]

Ebay has been driving away manny good buyers & sellers 

[farmalljr]

While eBay may not be quite like other places like Amazon or Walmart, JUST like those other companies, it relies on products to be sold and moved. No different that other venues that do not hold or ship products on their own. 

That lack of infrastructure may lessen costs, but it also means that if no product is moving, there in no money moving either. 

Look, the gist of the whole situation is this...... eBay is in a regular and constant decline in products sold, a decline in buyers and sellers, and a constant increase in associated fees to sellers. This "formula" isn't working. It's not magically going to work. Sellers are leaving because they can't be profitable or profitable enough here. Buyers are likely leaving because prices are not a "deal" or they can't easily find whatever they are looking for. You need willing buyers and you need sellers to provide what buyers are looking for. That simple formula is not happening here. Sellers are being forced to up the percent eBay takes or just not be seen. 

Everyone talks about buying low enough to make a profit. Well, that's a nice pep talk, but like seller here, wholesalers and manufactures are not going to sell for a loss, so YOU can make a profit. The more eBay demands to take to show your product, they less of a margin you have as a seller. To those like us that are self employed, we are not self employed to make minimum wage or even less. We do this to make a better living than we could punching the clock for an employer. 

I personally have about 10k items listed. For that amount of items, even at a 1% sell through, should be getting way more sales than I am. Even at a .5% sell through, should be getting more sales. I promote ALL of my listings, but only at 3%. The problem is, I won't promote at 10+%. That is the magic number eBay wants out of me. If I have to promote that high to make sales, it's much more profitable to sell at a local auction house at 30%. Because I don't have store fees, no shipping, and I get my money a week after the guaranteed sale of the items. These items WILL sell in an auction and I don't have to sit on them for months and pay for a place to store it for months on end. 

Like many here, I have invested in the inventory. I have invested heavily to sell here. The payoff has waned to almost nothing and is moving into - it costs me to sell here - territory. 

[siamjane8]

Simply put- ebay cannot succeed if its sellers do not succeed. Ebays primary purpose should be to help sellers connect with buyers in the easiest and simplest way possible while providing some industry standard protections for both parties.  This is what drives customer satisfaction and repeat buyers/sellers

    Anything else just gets in the way.

After exhausting all the "new" tricks and policies and bells and whistles they came up with- the steady decline in GMV and users continues.  

   Apparently, ebay is now testing a new buyer page view with larger pictures, more pertinent seller information shown up front, and the item description before advertising!....... Duh. - but hey, great that they finally on on the correct path to more sales lol.   If they can get the search to actually show buyers what they typed in the box- we will all be set.    Less  AI manipulation and more accuracy will o wonders for helping people find things.  If google search can do it- why cant ebay search?  We are all getting tired of having to go offsite to outside search engines to find live ebay listings that are not shown when searching on the platform.

[dbfolks166mt]

 Apparently, ebay is now testing a new buyer page view with larger pictures, more pertinent seller information shown up front, and the item description before advertising!....... Duh. - but hey, great that they finally on on the correct path to more sales lol.   If they can get the search to actually show buyers what they typed in the box- we will all be set.    Less  AI manipulation and more accuracy will o wonders for helping people find things.  If google search can do it- why cant ebay search?  We are all getting tired of having to go offsite to outside search engines to find live ebay listings that are not shown when searching on the platform.

     Agree but it doesn't really matter what eBay puts in front of the buyers if the sellers cannot post listings and remain competitive in the marketplace. While the eBay base fees have remained pretty much the same for the past few years the PL is driving up cost to sellers which they pass along to the buyers, at least those sellers that have a solid cost model. Shipping is also becoming a major factor in the marketplace and often my shipping costs, which the buyer pays, is more than the eBay fees or the price of the item. For a LOT of items this simply pushes the eBay price above the marketplace equilibrium price and buyers go elsewhere. 

     farmalljr pretty much nailed it with regards to seller costs and the ability to remain competitive as a seller on eBay. 

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

eBay is nothing like Amazon or Walmart, both are retailers, both have their own card processing arm, both have freighting internal to their business models.  Literally the only thing they bare in common is they have third party vendors.  Amazon Prime is extremely hard to beat for the frequent online shopper coming in with all sorts of perks such as movies/video free, music free, eBooks free atop the shipping and a low price competitive model atop it.

Walmart online has grown by leaps and bounds as their ship to store/home model is hard to beat and they are at numerous price comparison engines.  They literally dictate their "Save Money. Live Better" slogan, Walmart wants every vendor to have low price and they will suppress listings they do not, I dont mean "push em' down" they just disappear.  Atop that they are also claiming they plan expand it 50% this year.  They've the blessings of Government as they're are focusing on small and medium sized Brick and Mortar as they're vendors.

If eBay could get it's international program hopping and working as a well oiled machine I think that be a big help across the board.  I think they need display more seller/buyer metrics up front.  I'd like to see "Bargain days" put into place with strict criteria so as vendors can get higher visibility at certain points in time to move dead/slow inventories.  I think the company should have more focus on localized abilities (aka: Like FB) as an option for user search/selection/browsing (a toggle). 

I've many ideas including those whereby a better "Pay to play" can exist vs Promoted as promoted has problems.  Generally speaking on the net the first two pages are prime real-estate after that things fall of fast.  As more people use promoted listings it can't help but run up against a zero sum wall which have multiple effects.  One being the inability of many vendors unable to make reasoned profit worthwhile, other vendors being "pushed off" visibility promoted or not.  The less organic sales the less working capital sellers have to buy new items to list and that's just the tip of the iceberg.  Now if the goal is to bleed off sellers in favor of higher revenue commissions then promoted listings ultimate end is just that.  It's zero sum either way IMHO because even if the latter eventually at 30-40% the other higher traffic'd venues whereby fulfillment is handled by said venues becomes far more attractive.  As I said, there are much better "Pay to Play" models that make far more revenues for eBay than promoted listings.

It seems the current path of the company is one of trying uplift the current model .vs. innovating towards new ones as a whole per se.  If it were "me" at the helm I'd certainly keep what's in place that works but as an aside I'd have new models being engineered, prototyped and spoon fed to select buyer groups and sellers whereby said sellers don't bring in their sale item bias, that's a far far far more select crowd.