Unfortunately, eBay is a For Profit Corporation, Their Board of Directors and shareholders only care about one thing and that is Profits, I'm not sure what eBay's reasoning about all the decisions they made but here is some of what I think has Happened.
Thing were great on here when We first started in 1997 everyone wanted to be a part of this new enterprise if you didn't sell you were a buyer it was Great. Then something changed Drastically when other Tech Savvy entrepreneurs saw how well eBay was doing, they all started getting into it. They all started popping up ETSY, Shopify, Rubylane, Poshmark, Bonanza Temu Amazon I can think of about 10 others and others started eating into eBays Profits, and unfortunately ours also. So, they went after alternative ways to pad the bottom line. and make shareholders happy. ie Revenue Producing advertisements and Promoted listings.
I remember seeing eBay Commercials all the time on television and Radio so they would stay a relevant marketplace, Sales went upp so did eBay revenue and we maintained pretty well but when is the last time you saw a real eBay marketing plan done for the average seller other than eBay Motors Lately?
In one way I can't blame them because if I was the owner or shareholder all I would care about is my stock Price and its return. You don't really care to much or even think about the long-term future of the company because you trust the Directors. Pretty sure I would do the same. but as a Seller it's been horrific Just read the Boards almost Dailey you see sellers who have been on here over 20-25 years leavings because of no or slow sales. and everyone on these boards has their own opinion of why it is what is causing it. It actually just causes more divisiveness. (if that's a word)
Then came the woke period where everything was getting pulled because it was in violation of some new Policies that almost daily were becoming part of the platform. but we all adjust and modified our products to comply. but many people just refused to be a part of it. Stopped Buying and Selling it affected the marketplace.
Our Company did an experiment when they went to their Promoted Listing on here, first we tried the recommended amount, which at the time I think it was 5 or 8 percent, and our sales went up drastically actually didn't want to tell anyone about it because we loved the increase in sales.
But then in short time we started getting messages from eBay that our products were not going to be seen on here paying such a small amount, so we went up to 10 percent Again our sales drastically increased after a short while we got another Message saying we were not going to be seen if we continue paying so little. now they were recommending you pay like 20-24 percent promoted on top of the already like 17 percent after you pay your 14.5 commission on top of the total (Sales Tax and Shipping which you don't receive). we ended up going up to where our fees were over 44 percent of our sales and of Course Our sales went up Drastically. Unfortunately, we were paying to sell our merchandise.
it's Sad but somehow whoever is in charge of making these decisions must think merchandise is Free. that You're selling out of your house and have no overhead, and the labor is only you. This may be true for a certain number of Vendors that just want to get rid of something. they have been led to believe they just need to list it on eBay, and it will magically go away. It's just not that simplistic
You cannot payout 50 percent of your revenue to any Platform (which is Not 50 percent of Your Profit, it is far More than that). Pay say 30-40 percent to acquire your merchandise Your time to source it, acquire it, stock it, list it, pack it, and pay your help and overhead. at the end of the day the only one that made any money was eBay. You will make more money flipping hamburgers at In and Out I think they are paying 22 an hour to start now. I certainly don't Know the answer, to this Problem and this is again only my perspective which I hate posting because every time I do the algorithm picks it up and my sales always seem to get shut down. But I Believe eBay should open its Headquarters to someone that actually makes their living on this Platform and not just an executive in Silicon Valley that assumes he knows how to squeeze every dollar out of the seller which they do a pretty good job of doing.
