@aldelbertmatthew wrote:
I've made under $400 this week which is the lowest I've ever made in my lifetime on eBay. Barely any watchers or views right now. Poshmark, Amazon FBA and Mercari are keeping me afloat.
Any other normal company would have people getting fired by now. It has to be intentional to allow the site to be in this semi-broken state for the past 2+ years.
What's broken?
Whats broken is seller not realizing the landscape is changing. Walmart literally just opened it's largest online fulfillment center ever, they've taken #2 spot in eCommerce and are going after #1 with plans even Amazon be shivering at.
What's broken is people dont have the money to spend as they used to, 3/4"s of the nations middle income families have one to three months of money, that's it. Goodwill's doing bang up numbers, just opened a huge store near where we camp and I do mean HUGE and packed with buyers. Of course who wants spent $20 on T-Shirt plus $9 shipping, $3.99 shirts at Goodwill, nicer in fact than many here. Picked up a pair of boots, $14.99, Wolverine, like new, here $60 + shipping same item.
People are looking for bargains, the online environment is changed and will continue to change. Sellers want get the price they want and those days are coming to a rapid end. That's what's happening. I look for bargains when I shop, even here. If that means I save $4 over some other seller, I save $4. Want eBay thrive? They need go reverse price competitive just like Amazon or Walmart. Walmart will block from view sellers listings that are not low Internet price, thats why they are doing incredible in their online sales along with ship to store model. One of our friends daughters at camp was working four hours Deli and four hours online pickup in store, she's now on eight hours online pickup along with three others and that store is not a HUGE CITY community.
I dont see any sellers here ever saying, "Hey... Why doesn't eBay go to a price competitive environment like Amazon?" Never. Yet, its exactly what put Amazon atop all the rest. Then, all offers come up in searches, selling "Widget A" one search comes up w/ "Widget A" and low price will get the sales. However, the side byproduct will be hordes of sellers who have the "I want THIS for THIS" finding they'll never get it and those who engage in arbitrage and yard sales no longer can buy with the "I think I can get ...." mindset.
Competition is what makes environments thrive, that's reality. The fact so many sellers here think they know what consumers want is simple insanity and the more difficult the economics times the more insane that entire concept becomes. Sure eBay is and has been loosing buyers and I'm 110% positive that most of that loss is competition and pricing.
Every one of we sellers and buyers too. Which do you buy? Stuff that is crazily priced or that which is a bargain. Sellers by nature tend shop for best deal so as they can flip items for profit. The fact ever so many consumers now are bargain shopping is the reality and it's not going to change.
