eBay

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎02-27-2024

For those who are interested in this stuff.

I'm expecting to hear GMV was basically flat, revenue, if up, was due primarily to first party ads , little or no mention of buyer and seller numbers (with the possible exception of some numbers for "enthusiast" buyers), and "our strategy is working" but we face "headwinds"....

But, those are just guesses. We'll know soon enough.

If you don't have the time to delve into this on your own, you can always check the summary that will be posted to the Value added resource blog later ....

farmalljr · ‎02-28-2024

@chapeau-noir wrote:
I've never heard of a North American fulfillment center, either, so I'm curious as to where this is. In fact, a great deal of Temu's success lies in NOT having a particular fulfillment center, but decentralized logistics between seller/manufacturer who ships direct to the individual buyer, coordinated by Temu. This small-packet, decentralized model helps them ship under de minimis trade exception where all packages are beneath the $800 customs threshold (for the US) and not dutiable. They don't stock in the US because shipping in bulk to a warehouse for fulfillment would defeat the purpose, and they deal with something like 100,000 different manufacturers.

They do have a US headquarters in Boston.

That is not how I understand Temu to operate. From what I know, they ARE a giant warehouse in China that manufactures send products to, Temu pulls off the shelf, and packs in their own bags. They then send it out to buyers. There may be some local manufactures that send daily to Temu, by my orders are always pulled and packed in about a day. Fast tech used to be one that they waited on manufactures to send the product to them, before packing and shipping to buyers. Temu is much better in those respects. They either have it on hand, or it's out of stock.

I've noticed that out of stocks sometimes become back in stock after a month. This would make sense to me Temu is shipping from their own shelves and not waiting for product to ship out, like other sellers do.

nuclearomen · ‎02-28-2024

idk, pay no attention really to those reports anymore. For me the facts are in my activity/sales, don't need read all their (often bloated) facts.

In hine sight, sales have been better past Q or 2 from past years horridness. I believe they finally ironed out some of the site visibility and PL issues, others wise sales would have been continuously slow. Growth on the other hand is something still struggling with but I'll take better sales per month from previous months past year for now and be happy.

The great truth is there isn't one
And it only gets worse since that conclusion...
...There is something about the rigid posture of a proper, authentic blind
As if extended arms reached to pass his blindness onto others.

farmalljr · ‎02-28-2024

@tobaccocardyahoo wrote:
@slippinjimmy

In spite of the oft touted numbers for Temu consider this WSJ article

https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/temus-u-s-entry-is-an-orange-flag-for-etsy-957adb29?st=io4ssttzf...

Particular interesting is

"Temu’s success isn’t inevitable. If the platform’s main appeal is that its goods are dirt cheap, then U.S. sellers may find it difficult to compete on the platform to begin with. And while Temu has been effective at capturing U.S. customers, it hasn’t been as successful at luring them back for a second purchase. While over 30% of customers who shopped on Temu in September returned a month later, only 14% of them came back four months later, according to KeyBanc Capital Markets, which also found that churn rates have been increasing over time"

I think that article sites statistics that it chooses for it's agenda. All of the girls my wife works with shop on Temu and Shein. They all return over and over. I have not heard anyone around me that shopped there that said much anything bad about the stuff they got or said they would not shop there again. I'm pretty sure way more than 30% of the people that shop Temu return more often then the article wants to lead you to believe.

Here is something for you to chew on. Most stuff is made in China. I can buy buckles from US based retailers or I can buy from China based sellers. Same product and quality, but about 1/10 to 1/4 the price of US based sellers. Should I pay 12 bucks for a buckle or 1.99? I choose 1.99....

The problem US retailers have is, the products are made in China. There is no advantage for me to buy from them. A large retailer will buy product for way less than I can buy from China directly. But I can still cut my costs significantly for the parts and pieces I need.

Clothing is another thing people can cut costs on, ordering direct from China, rather than buying from a US based retailer. The article just seems slanted that they want to make China direct sellers seem like a passing fad. It's been a thing for quite some time now. People aren't stupid and like bargains.

It akin to the market for fakes. Loads of people want those luxury things, but can't or won't pay the price. This is why places like DH Gate have been so successful.

Temu may not last forever, but buying direct from China is here to stay, unless there is some law passed that stops the commerce flow. All people want cheap goods. I have not heard anyone yet begging for bread to be $300 a loaf, or T-shirts to be 1K each. Consumers can't consume unless it's cheap/affordable. No one is running over car dealers for 100K trucks, when the average wage is far below that.

valueaddedresource · ‎02-28-2024

In case you didn't get to listen to the whole call, I know some around here will get a good laugh out of envisioning Jamie kicking back after a long, hard day sweating away to earn those millions in annual comp and reading the message boards to cheer him on with how much we all love the AI features. 😂

toomuchstuffagain35 · ‎02-28-2024

As I already knew, delusional.

So now their customers are the sellers? As sellers are the ones using AI to list (IF they do).

Exactly WHEN was the last time ebay sped up the listing process rather than making it longer and more tedious?

"If a product doesn't sell, raise the price" - Reese Palley
"If it sold FAST, it was priced too low" - also Reese Palley

reallynicestamps · ‎02-28-2024

I took a look at Temu Canada and found the prices similar to those at WalMart for the things I was searching, (tee shirts in 3X) .

It may be that they are supplying Canada through the US warehouses which would increase their costs.

At the moment it seems that advertising and publicity are a lot of the reason for the buzz.

go-bad-chicken · ‎02-28-2024

@valueaddedresource wrote:
In case you didn't get to listen to the whole call, I know some around here will get a good laugh out of envisioning Jamie kicking back after a long, hard day sweating away to earn those millions in annual comp and reading the message boards to cheer him on with how much we all love the AI features. 😂

Of course he does. The boards are eBay's own in house exit polls.

tobaccocardyahoo · ‎02-28-2024

@chapeau-noir wrote:
I think those they do capture and keep may be those 'enthusiast buyers' that CEO Jamie wants - it's really addicting shopping there.

You could be right but that was the story of Ebay in the growth years, and is now why Ebay is not growing and the auction portion of the site is well past its prime.

I predict that Temu will probably affect Etsy and the smaller marketplaces in the next 12 months to a large extent.

It is hard to believe that most Ebay sellers other than the sellers of cheap Chinese products could meet the expectations of Temu buyers. An influx of typical Ebay sellers would probably blunt the appeal of Temu.

For many cheap Chinese products, there is no way to go any lower than the prices on Ebay. There is nothing on Temu that appeals to me. But there never was anything on Home Shopping Club that appealed to me, and addicts were created.

My wife has made some purchases on Wayfair. IMO they are crap. In the interest of marital harmony, they were not returned. Temu strikes me as a step down from Wayfair. If we have a recession or stagflation, Temu will look more like a winner, but my hope is that we will not have either.

Shain, on the other hand, strikes me as a godsend for young workers in a time of declining wages, which some economists say we are already seeing.

tobaccocardyahoo · ‎02-28-2024

@theteamsetguy

Share buybacks are some of the most intelligent uses of capital.

When a company decides that it cannot generate enough profit by reinvesting their capital in the business, it buys back its stock increasing the value to shareholders who can find a better return on their investment.

The multiples many stocks sell at are based on return on investment that can only be generated by growth. Buybacks help avoid the crash that a drop in growth rate can cause.

retro_entertainment_collectibles · ‎02-28-2024

@tobaccocardyahoo wrote:
@chapeau-noir wrote:
I think those they do capture and keep may be those 'enthusiast buyers' that CEO Jamie wants - it's really addicting shopping there.
You could be right but that was the story of Ebay in the growth years, and is now why Ebay is not growing and the auction portion of the site is well past its prime.

I predict that Temu will probably affect Etsy and the smaller marketplaces in the next 12 months to a large extent.

It is hard to believe that most Ebay sellers other than the sellers of cheap Chinese products could meet the expectations of Temu buyers. An influx of typical Ebay sellers would probably blunt the appeal of Temu.

For many cheap Chinese products, there is no way to go any lower than the prices on Ebay. There is nothing on Temu that appeals to me. But there never was anything on Home Shopping Club that appealed to me, and addicts were created.

My wife has made some purchases on Wayfair. IMO they are crap. In the interest of marital harmony, they were not returned. Temu strikes me as a step down from Wayfair. If we have a recession or stagflation, Temu will look more like a winner, but my hope is that we will not have either.

Shain, on the other hand, strikes me as a godsend for young workers in a time of declining wages, which some economists say we are already seeing.

I've bought a few things at MeMu LOL, no problems. But there are sellers here buying there an upping prices. For example when this Chainsaw sharpening Jig hit the market I bought one only to find a 300% here than there. Same with some wood screws. If any of that mission critical I'd probably paid through the snout at home depot. The Jig works fine if one care take an hour and half to sharpen the chain, the screws I've ordered from both eBay or Temu well... Like I said, not mission critical thankfully.

Shein has a very interesting production model in that they design clothes at times with ripped off patterns from others. But they have hundreds of small textile operations in China when the clothes are made. This allows them to test market different things and if they are good sellers they can instantly ramp production in big fashion (no pun). If a given item is a looser they've not vested much into whatever it is. The companies advertising model is mostly social media gifting away clothes whereby influencers take the "Hauls" and model/comment on them in front of their followers.

Things in the world "is what they is" my friend as 98% of America is still blind as a bat (baseball not rodent) as at least the rodent edition thinks. Last week I posted an sort of, "What need know about the border" on this rather large political forum I've been asked step back into sorta/kinda. They even want me open my Tweeter ("X Tweeter!") back up but well... Thats real work! Ya' get every fruit cup both fresh, pre-packaged and in years of rot. Regardless to say the poll I put out 72 hours after my post which had thousands and thousands of reasoned and New ADHD (N Ah duh? Huh duh?) was rather startling. About 35% actually learned something rather than simply responding like Drone Bee's.

Ya' know my friend I always thought that the lions share of adult America was forward thinking at least one or two steps! Yet the last seven years have proven me WAY WRONG and I'm beginning to think much of the Insect and Coral Reef world have it all goin' on in comparison to American adults these days.

theteamsetguy · ‎02-28-2024

@tobaccocardyahoo ,

You are correct my friend. Warren Buffet didn't get to be one of the world's richest people making dumb investment decision. He loves buying stock in companies that are buyback machines such as Apple. He is by far the largest individual shareholder of Apple stock. He has finally started selling because the value keeps on going up and it has now surpassed 50% of his portfolio.

The Home Depot has bought back and retired 30% of its share in the last 10 years and the price of its stock has almost quadrupled over the same time period. The dividends has done the same thing. The annual dividend has gone from $1.88 to $9.00 per share. Stock price went from $104 to $376 per share. I've been riding the Home Depot train since 1993 and it been a great ride.