eBay Lays Off ~1000 Employees, CEO Blames Macroeconomic Headwinds, Expenses Outpace Growth

[valueaddedresource]

Breaking news: eBay is laying off 1,000 employees, about 9% of workforce. CEO Jamie Iannone says headcount and expenses are outpacing growth.

Exact details about specific areas affected have not been disclosed, so not sure what the impact on sellers will be yet but...this does not bode well for the Q4 report in my opinion. 👀

https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/ensuring-ebays-long-term-success/

We are on a path to building a stronger eBay for the future — one that is growing, and resilient in the face of any challenge. Over the past three years, we made fundamental changes in our experiences across categories and accelerated the pace of innovation at eBay. In areas where we’re investing, we are seeing consistent increases in customer satisfaction and a meaningful improvement in our growth relative to the market.

Our strategy is the right one, but there is more we can do to ensure our success. We need to better organize our teams for speed — allowing us to be more nimble, bring like-work together, and help us make decisions more quickly. Today, I am sharing news about changes we are implementing to better position eBay for long-term, sustainable growth.

The most significant and toughest of these decisions is to reduce our current workforce by approximately 1,000 roles or an estimated 9% of full-time employees. Additionally, we plan to scale back the number of contracts we have within our alternate workforce over the coming months. These are not actions we take lightly — and we recognize the impact they will have on all eBayers. We have to say goodbye to people who have made so many important contributions to the eBay community and culture, and this isn’t easy.

The Need for Change

Despite facing external pressures, like the challenging macroeconomic environment, we know we can be better with the factors we control. While we are making progress against our strategy, our overall headcount and expenses have outpaced the growth of our business. To address this, we're implementing organizational changes that align and consolidate certain teams to improve the end-to-end experience, and better meet the needs of our customers around the world.

[vintagecraze50]

I take that back. I just checked the BOD. There are some new people there but only lists a few. Must be more than that.

[nilis13]

Exactly this - I noticed since last week my views are basically zero even with adding new items daily, tweaking older listings, etc..sales are in the dumps - it's not the economy - it's the site..

[animal-house-8]

With all the great economic news ebay is having issues, sounds like a management problem.

[siamjane8]

What ebay has that websites like Macy's and walmart and amazon dont have is:

  1. amazing unique vintage products that cant be found anywhere else ( except smaller competitors like mercari and etsy).

  2. And millions of sellers that rely on and want ebay to succeed 

      Many things factor in to a businesses success or failure but non more than mismanagement. The culture at ebay confuses innovation for "just changing things".   While board members and CEO's make 10s of millions of dollars a year plus stock options at the same time as laying off 1000s of employees........there is your problem.  Upper management should not be compensated at all if their decisions prove so detrimental to the company that it has to lose 10% of its workforce to survive.

     Allot of the issues with ebays success are in its bones- by building the infrastructure in a manner that it is never stable and has so many glitches on a daily basis..... the users just cant count on it.  Everyone wants stability.

    BTW- i will never begrudge a board or CEO their insane salaries if they have good results. never- if ebay was producing good results for its sellers like even 8 years ago- have at it!- give the guy 30 million a year...... but when practically every  seller is down in sales and profitability in the double digits...... shame on them for not doing their job and taking that exorbitant amount of money out of the very company they are failing.

[meme6253]

I could not agree more!!

[gloryglorygifts]

"The problem is that they are not trying to get customers through the door in an organic way and grow money organically."

100%.

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

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@gloryglorygifts wrote:

"The problem is that they are not trying to get customers through the door in an organic way and grow money organically."

100%.

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And how we propose they do this?  Advertising is not getting cheaper, I've a relative who works for one the largest and successful digital media ad companies on the planet.  

I agree they need get more customers coming and to me that means there are two formula's:

1. They start doing a whole bunch of specialized days, "Flea Market Weekend" once a month, this, that and require sellers who are going to participate to price lock items months in advance with at least 50-70% off for those weekends and the same with HEAPS of other specialty days.

2.  Take example from WhatNot, eBay sells the items for sellers may make money might loose money but items will be sold.

Sellers just dont get it... The days of "I want $$$" for this are coming to a rapid end yet some sellers are doing just fine, better than fine in fact.  Pickers often are not and that was true even a year back, perhaps two.  We've a local large flea market, I know many of the vendors and most sales were down significantly yet others do just fine.  The reason they do just fine is pricing, they realize consumers are money conscious just as the sellers who are not doing well are money conscious, doesn't take many brain cells figure it out.

"If you wouldn't pay what you are asking for something from another seller then don't expect consumers to and that's on the total not just the item price."   It's either that or one waits for someone to buy it and they can blame whatever they like, but the fact remains.

And at eBay that equation doesn't work as most sellers are still stuck in the "I want" versus "Sell it!" mode.

I've said this before, my lady goes shopping, three times I've asked she compare eBay to other places shes looking at buying and every single time this place is significantly more expensive.  That simple.  eBay could drop its fee's to 0% but most sellers will still be in the "I value it at! So I want..." mode and they'll still fail.  Those days are leaving.

I know sellers doing VERY VERY well on here, one does all sorts of Fantasy Gaming stuff, VERY high in demand but not among the 50-60 year olds who are concerned about retirement versus buying retro items.  I set up a network with print servers in his store and home, he's 16 3D printers making figurines 16 hours a day and told me he wants double that sometime this summer.

I know a fella does computer stuff, sells mainly laptops and parts on here buying them in bulk off lease for dirt and he's been killing it on here for ages.

Yet another I know does fantasy/wargaming stuff in another state, been doing so for 20+ years now doing very very well, 28,000+ feedbacks this year alone.

Yet another set-up in a local co-op he's there Thursday-Sunday six hours he does video games and associated collectibles.  His co-op store does well but his intake of things he flips online is great.  He'd tell eBay don't change a thing, he's killing it making money hand over fist.

@inhawaii is IMHO usually 110% spot on being A. Have what people want and B. At a price they are willing to pay = C. Sales come in.

Do they come in like they used to?  No.  And they never will for most sellers as the Internet and economics have changed.  The internet has changed as big retail has embraced it as being "As important" as their Brick and Mortar stores and that's across the board.  Pay attention to what retail associations and CREDIBLE financial institutions are saying but sellers dont do that, they live in the bubble.

Economics have changed, millions of students having to now pay loans again.  Millions atop millions atop millions worried about the economy due to a political party using it as a tool to put a man in the Whitehouse who has bankrupted casinos (thats hard to do!), lied to the citizens time and again and never once even apologized or showed empathy for over a million dead Americans who died on his watch due to lies.  Some twenty million Americans with medical bills never ending due to long covid not to mention research showing basically anyone who's had Covid has long covid, there is no such thing at short covid even if they don't feel it.

Towards that end statement I listened to a researcher for over an hour.  She's been studying long covid since this all began.  She said there are tens of thousands of credible research papers been written and here's the deal. The Spike protein can bind to over 300 different human cell types that exist in 80% of the human body.  Whilst the Virus infection may well be gone the spike proteins left in invaded cells renders them dysfunctional cells in laymans terms.  Some of those dysfunctional cell types collect in masses leading to further disabilities.  Is it curable?  Surprisingly YES!  The cells can be cleaned out and through natural organic means HOWEVER every person is different and where things manifested are different.  This is what they are working on recognizing what cell types are impacted and what organics can clean em' up.  But its exponential, 300 cell types, 80% of different bodily tissues that may have been invaded nor does that necessarily result in "All damage gone" by any means.  She noted the medical expenses and stress placed on the medical system are formidable and some 20 million Americans have ongoing medical bills with no end in sight.

[chapeau-noir]

1. They start doing a whole bunch of specialized days, "Flea Market Weekend" once a month, this, that and require sellers who are going to participate to price lock items months in advance with at least 50-70% off for those weekends and the same with HEAPS of other specialty days.

This sounds good on paper but the inevitable result is buyers waiting for these days/weekends to roll around and holding purchases. This is what Wenig ran into with the initiative to issue discount coupons to people on eBay's dime. Only this would be on our dime. It's also what happened when the old Vintage Clothing and Accessories forum had quarterly 'blow out' sales which we collectively advertised - not only did sales begin to coalesce around these days, but it tended to drive prices down. On top of that, sellers started nibbling at the edges - instead of being $14.99 and under they wanted $19.99 and under and then $24.99 and under - after some years the concept was dropped.

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

1. They start doing a whole bunch of specialized days, "Flea Market Weekend" once a month, this, that and require sellers who are going to participate to price lock items months in advance with at least 50-70% off for those weekends and the same with HEAPS of other specialty days.

This sounds good on paper but the inevitable result is buyers waiting for these days/weekends to roll around and holding purchases. This is what Wenig ran into with the initiative to issue discount coupons to people on eBay's dime. Only this would be on our dime. It's also what happened when the old Vintage Clothing and Accessories forum had quarterly 'blow out' sales which we collectively advertised - not only did sales begin to coalesce around these days, but it tended to drive prices down. On top of that, sellers started nibbling at the edges - instead of being $14.99 and under they wanted $19.99 and under and then $24.99 and under - after some years the concept was dropped.

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Makes sense... Best laid plans or in my case "Brain gasses" these too shall pass.  Lets just call it Programmer Cog-notions LOL.

[blacktopautoparts]

I totally agree with you, and eBay needs to rebuild brand loyalty to their platform because at one point they did have that. With each new CEO, things have gotten worse. Now I don't think anything can get worse than Wenig because he did a lot of damage to the eBay name trying so hard to chase Amazon and also the horrible things they did to the Steiner's.

We promote all the time, run promotions, free returns/free shipping, send out newsletters and the list goes on. I know if guys see my sold items, you will think this guy is crazy because we do sell, but things have dropped off quite a bit since 2022.

I didn't get a chance yesterday to reply to your comment off of mine with regards to the economy, but that does have a hand at things too. While I sell items (auto parts) that are a necessity, there are instances where if someone doesn't have the money and lets say their door mirror gets knocked off. They will rethink this purchase of the door mirror, so they will just tape up the mirror to the car and drive around with it for a few weeks till they get their money together since inflation has caused so many issues now with us having to pay out of our noses at the grocery store for example. Do I get this $100 door mirror or does my family and I eat, I think people will pick the later.

Again, I am not one of those that blame everything on the economy as I see that a lot on these forums. A person will complain that their sales have dropped 60-70%+, and then everyone beats up on the person instead of helping them out. They then blame the economy, this and that, but never eBay. This here does show that eBay is at fault for a lot of the issues we are having. Instead of fixing the basic issues with the platform they just go off to create all new features that at the moment are not needed. You know how many web pages they still have in place from the 2000's and lets even go back to the 90's? This is the stuff that they should be fixing along with all of the issues they have caused with the Item Specifics and so forth. While they work on those legacy platform issues, they need to bust their behinds on marketing the site and also providing those incentives and brand loyalty to bring people back.

They are not doing that, they are relying on us "THE SELLERS" to bring them profits with promoted listings which is a huge mistake. The best that I love is that they have trained their CSR's to also tell us to promote our stores via all social media channels to push them to eBay. Now if I need to spend all of this extra time to send people to eBay via Social Media + while I also pay Promoted Listings (and those that use Offsite Ads), why would I not then use those efforts to bring people into my own website? This is the kind of thinking that is chasing people away.

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

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@blacktopautoparts wrote:

I totally agree with you, and eBay needs to rebuild brand loyalty to their platform because at one point they did have that. With each new CEO, things have gotten worse. Now I don't think anything can get worse than Wenig because he did a lot of damage to the eBay name trying so hard to chase Amazon and also the horrible things they did to the Steiner's.

We promote all the time, run promotions, free returns/free shipping, send out newsletters and the list goes on. I know if guys see my sold items, you will think this guy is crazy because we do sell, but things have dropped off quite a bit since 2022.

I didn't get a chance yesterday to reply to your comment off of mine with regards to the economy, but that does have a hand at things too. While I sell items (auto parts) that are a necessity, there are instances where if someone doesn't have the money and lets say their door mirror gets knocked off. They will rethink this purchase of the door mirror, so they will just tape up the mirror to the car and drive around with it for a few weeks till they get their money together since inflation has caused so many issues now with us having to pay out of our noses at the grocery store for example. Do I get this $100 door mirror or does my family and I eat, I think people will pick the later.

Again, I am not one of those that blame everything on the economy as I see that a lot on these forums. A person will complain that their sales have dropped 60-70%+, and then everyone beats up on the person instead of helping them out. They then blame the economy, this and that, but never eBay. This here does show that eBay is at fault for a lot of the issues we are having. Instead of fixing the basic issues with the platform they just go off to create all new features that at the moment are not needed. You know how many web pages they still have in place from the 2000's and lets even go back to the 90's? This is the stuff that they should be fixing along with all of the issues they have caused with the Item Specifics and so forth. While they work on those legacy platform issues, they need to bust their behinds on marketing the site and also providing those incentives and brand loyalty to bring people back.

They are not doing that, they are relying on us "THE SELLERS" to bring them profits with promoted listings which is a huge mistake. The best that I love is that they have trained their CSR's to also tell us to promote our stores via all social media channels to push them to eBay. Now if I need to spend all of this extra time to send people to eBay via Social Media + while I also pay Promoted Listings (and those that use Offsite Ads), why would I not then use those efforts to bring people into my own website? This is the kind of thinking that is chasing people away.

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Uh huh... Umm... Lets see, my Hyundai had the gas pedal go kaput sending it into limp mode.  So, new OEM pedal $700.  For everyone not knowing, "Fly by wire" the fuel pedal is a sending unit to a receiving unit in the engine compartment.  "Limp Mode" means 15 MPH, 20 with a tailwind.  The accelerator pedal is all plastic, few copper wipers over carbon strips create an electrical resistance and hence control throttle.  $700, Hyundai part, three nuts and a wire harness comes off.  So, non OEM part, $400 new.  eBay?  $90+ for a pre-own untested part.  Local junkyard, $10 each, OEM part.

Garage that diagnosed it, $800 to fix it with a non OEM part.  Me fixing it?  $10.

I'll say it again... When my lady last year shop at Macy's and Kohl's and looking for the exact same things here on her first attempt saved over $600 at Macy's compared to here and second time over $400 at Kohls THAT is a PROBLEM.  She saved $1000 thereabouts buying the exact same things at two retailers versus here.  WHY?

I'll tell you... Because the sellers here are BUYING the stuff at Macy's and Kohl's online when they have sales going on then marking it back up here.  You'll find same thing happening with TEMU.  Pickers I already went through, even most Goodwill's have changed policies, they'll sell the better stuff online versus sticking into stores to help underprivileged folks but instead get resellers snarfing the stuff up.  Those resellers damage the Goodwills as now the people wanting to come buy things for their needs or family have much of it gone as resellers snarf it up.  Here they are closing stores and the frequent flyers into said stores are being told, "Dont shop here... Gigs up."

If eBay went and suddenly promoted everything at eBay is 40%-70% off EVERYTHING right now things be flying out the door.

The days of "I valued it at and thus I want...." are coming to an end.  Its that simple.  The lower ticket items are going to blasted by the Post Office, not going to pay $10 for something and have to pay $10 to get it here.  To a consumer that means I am PAYING $20 not $10.  To the seller it's $10 but no its not, its $20 that's the reality.

Guy I mentioned making fantasy gaming figurines 3D printing.  I showed him where to go to learn how, online courseware and the tools needed.  His prints cost about .30 cents each and he sells most of them for $8 dollars.  But gamers dont buy one, they buy 5, 10, 15 and he's blowing out the door to point 16 printers are running 16 hours a day and he wants 16 more during this summer.

Nothing eBay does is going to change the reality of what has changed in peoples lives over the past five years.  Unless the mindset changes with sellers to one of, "As long as I am making more than it cost me... SELL IT!" things are going to continue where eBay simply is outcompeted.

The "Check eBay first" is now "Check Mamazon" first.  This place should go the exact same mechanism, one SKU with many offers.  Let sellers compete for the sales, thats what put Amazon on top.  Yet here when eBay did so with half.com, sellers rejected it and likely still would.

And...  The Elephant in the room is still global governments who see to basically shut all these third party points of sale down.  

[kensgiftshop]

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@timzbiz wrote:

Layoffs mean bad business. Ebay is losing business due to its archaic feedback system. Not only do the negs lose business for the sellers, it also loses business for ebay. Buyers do not buy from sites that have so many visible negative feedbacks. CHANGE THE FEEDBACK SYSTEM. DO NOT MAKE FEEDBACK VISIBLE TO BUYERS!

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Why not?

If a seller has bad feedback, buyers should know about it so they can decide of they want to trust the seller and buy from them or not.

[chapeau-noir]

retro_entertainment_collectibles

<<

I'll say it again... When my lady last year shop at Macy's and Kohl's and looking for the exact same things here on her first attempt saved over $600 at Macy's compared to here and second time over $400 at Kohls THAT is a PROBLEM. She saved $1000 thereabouts buying the exact same things at two retailers versus here. WHY?

I'll tell you... Because the sellers here are BUYING the stuff at Macy's and Kohl's online when they have sales going on then marking it back up here. You'll find same thing happening with TEMU. Pickers I already went through, even most Goodwill's have changed policies, they'll sell the better stuff online versus sticking into stores to help underprivileged folks but instead get resellers snarfing the stuff up. Those resellers damage the Goodwills as now the people wanting to come buy things for their needs or family have much of it gone as resellers snarf it up. Here they are closing stores and the frequent flyers into said stores are being told, "Dont shop here... Gigs up."

If eBay went and suddenly promoted everything at eBay is 40%-70% off EVERYTHING right now things be flying out the door.

I'm not trying to pick on you I PROMISE but I can speak to these two above issues you raised as someone who is actually in the resale and clothing business.

Why Kohl's etc. can blow out that merchandise for pennies on the dollars is both the economy of scale (huge, wholesaling) and the fact that there are still supply chain problems from the pandemic, with larger marketers still dealing with backlog and having to get rid of the old backlog (that came in too late)  because their buyers are already contracting for new seasons. It's like Target, etc., dumping their excess at the local Goodwill - cheaper to take the write-off than deal with storage, out of date merch, etc. - remember, the clothing market is volatile. The WHY most eBay sellers cannot do that is because we don't work on enormous scale.

The other point with Goodwill, thrifts, etc. - they're really not existing to sell stuff to the hard up so much as make money for their various missions. They don't care who they sell to, trust me on this. I've thrifted since I was a little kid and really know that market. Our own Goodwills price things actually out of the reach of the truly hard-up, and individuals can get clothing vouchers, etc. With easy online merchandising expanding, these thrifts are finding it more profitable to ID the good stuff and put it online and reap the profits themselves - again, funding their missions. Previously it was sold in-house in boutique style settings, collectibles areas, etc., which required a larger local market, floor space, etc., although the secondary market is so big now that just about anything that's not common muck gets put online. Again, it all comes down to funding their missions and covering expenses.

I'm experiencing the changes this is creating first hand - I'll shut my doors when I finally sell out my stock because I can no longer source the items I used to...certain brands and styles that my customers can't find elsewhere, are no longer made or difficult to find, World clothing, etc., that one can't necessarily find at major retailors to begin with, because I can no longer source them.

I see this as an inevitable progress - this was never meant to last and in fact I'm surprised it has lasted this long.

[vintagecraze50]

I’d really like someone to come up with a possible solution to that issue. As Retro stated, advertising the brand or doing something to attract more customers to the brand involves Advertising, but WHAT NOW , do they actually advertise other than the focused categories. All the authentication services? Who the heck IS EBAY NOW? Lol!

[vintagecraze50]

Amazon’s identity__ Get your stuff faster than a speeding bullet and enjoy our membership where you can get free ship and tons of movies to watch for free.

Walmart identity- We are a reliable company and people trust us as they have shopped in our stores and know we have just about most of what the average masses need.

Etsy identity- All the handcrafted items and many now that are definately  not but they are on there as well.

Mercari—Pickers and hagglers

Poshmark—-We got class and sell a lot of classy stuff especially clothing and other fashionable things. And we don’t mind haggling.