How many sellers are closing their shops or running down their account in 2024?

[ovbargains]

We have been a seller on here over a couple of our accounts for many years now.   Over this time we have seen a reduction in sales from a max of £13k pcm to £60 pcm.    We have been through mass seller culls, more and more control over the seller/buyer relationship, the forcing of managed payments, increases in fees and requirements to use promoted/advanced promoted and now bid for clicks, to the point where ebay is taking an unsustainable percentage of profit.  

This in turn has lead to such search manipulation as to be virtually impossible for any of our listings to be shown unless we implemented all of the additional promotions, and even then since everyone is in the same boat, it makes little difference.   Search has been broken as a result of all this, and whereas in the past, if your product met the search terms, you could get your item to show, this is now not much short of a miracle!

Maybe you could argue some of it is the economy, but when your listings barely get any visibility unless you pay through the nose for it, it becomes a weak argument at best.

We have closed our shop and have halved our listings, and will be running down all of the stock we do have via other marketplaces.  

I'm just curious what other peoples plans are in 2024, are you bearing with ebay in the hopes of better times, or moving on?

[handbagperfume]

I've been selling on EBay for 20 years and will be closing year end (or sooner) 31/3/24

Seen so many changes, some good, some bad.

But now I've had enough and want to do something different x

[simplyc-accessories]

I have lost all enthusiasm to even want to list at all anymore. I am making myself work and hate every minute of it at the moment, there is no incentive like there used to be. I certainly won't be buying any new stock for months if I ever do I have 700 new lines not listed yet. Not upgrading to a featured shop just to list them I am sticking with the basic shop.

Christmas sales were dreadful £126 for all of December the worst in 15 years trading  (I think) on here.

eBay needs to wake up and smell the reality of what it has done on its site not like we have not dropped thousands of hints in the past.

The only thing I find that works is to list every day and keep the shop active every day.

I went to set a sale this morning and can't I forgot I upped all the prices before Christmas to upgrade postage to first class so I am going to try a higher percentage on promoted listings and see if that works.

[simplyessential_uk]

I went to set a sale this morning and can't I forgot I upped all the prices before Christmas to upgrade postage to first class so I am going to try a higher percentage on promoted listings and see if that works.

Hope you dont mind me saying - Ive looked at your scarves and they are very nice but expensive and I think rather than leaving them so expensive and upping the % promos actually remove that from the price and and maybe also offer multibuys.  OR if you are offering 1st class as an option, hard to see that with Ebays systems so maybe pop that as an extra on the image to make you stand out (justify the price) 

Also just wondering why you have A/W on all your listings, The first 4 words in the title are the most important and I cant workj out what that stands for if its relevant. 

The only thing I find that works is to list every day and keep the shop active every day.

Yes this is a proven for lots of sellers - close old listings to start again but I have loads in my drafts just to send live 2 a days and now add 2-3 auctions a day - rarely get sales from the auctions but I believe its helping the algorithms as Ebay thinks your shop is constantly listing new things

Good luck and hope things pick up 

[goingfishinguk]

Yes running it down, probably shutting it.  Down from £1000 a day to be lucky if I get £50.  Been lied to too often, had eBay not follow their own policies more often than not, bust search, eBay greed etc etc the list goes on even though we are stuck with that annoying mug on the homepage of this forum stating how they have listened to our feedback...mmm

In short too much greed, not enough support = lack of effort from me now and I feel a hell of a lot better for it.

[darth_baggins]

I sell on eBay, Amazon and Etsy.  eBay has typically been my main source of income, around 70%. For the past year or so it's just dying and it's not just the economy.

Amazon has remained about the same and Etsy has increased. In December I made more money on Etsy than I did on eBay, with less than half the number of listings.

I'm not quitting, but I'm also not putting much effort in, eBay has now become my lowest priority and I won't be replacing some lines that sell out.

[btr.style]

eBay have put me off business altogether. For many reasons Inc the private biz seller stuff (let's not open a discussion about it here, plenty of other threads for it). It's take take take with no fee promos for us business sellers anymore. We work hard and have no extra boots such as a sudden promo. Nothing for Xmas, nothing for new year. 

Anyway. I'll just run things as it is. Carry on diving just under the 85k threshold and aim to be selling up and done in the next few years. 

I just need to get to that goal, had it not been for eBay fees we might have gone VAT reg'd but that's by the by. 

It will be more of the same this year, sell galore, work most days and keep to the future aim. I'd close up now if I could. 

[theelench]

I should say to start with I'm not a business seller, I sell a low volume of one-off items and over time the number of items I sell has slowly declined.  Over the past couple of years I'd guess I've been selling about an average of 1 item a month.

Back last May(?) I realised that I was heading for more like 1 sale every two months.  For the first-time ever I started increasing my listing numbers by re-listing unsold items as "Sell Similar".  Previously all I did was a weekly 7 day auction and if it ended unsold with a few Watchers, re-listed as BIN for a month or two but still got 'regular' sales.

Letting numbers grow seemed to work for a while and sales again were roughly 1 per month but towards the end of the year they grew fewer again.  I guess because ebay realised that I wasn't going start doing PLs as a 'next step'.  I ended 2023 with 13 sales.   

There is no way that I'm going to give ebay PL fees on top of the 13.8% they already take (which I don't object to).  Before Christmas, if I remember rightly, they recommended I Promote at about 12-13%.

Back when they wanted to, they could sell more of my items for a basic 10% + PP fees.  I'm not going to pay any extra for a worsening service.  So this year, after my winter break to avoid late delivery defects, I'll continue doing the same as last year.  Auctions + re-lists and Sell Similar but with dwindling expectations of selling anything no matter how many listings I have and ebay will come to an end for me "naturally".  With fewer and fewer sales until eventually a whole year goes by where I sell nothing.

It will be a sad way to end but when a selling site thinks it can make more from me by not selling my items and just collect fees "On a promise", it's no longer what I signed-up to and of no use to me.

[the_book_seekers]

I'm keeping things under review. I've been on ebay for 20 years and the last year has been some of the hardest I've seen since 2008. ebay has created a monster with promoted listings which the site as it stands can't cope with. With so many sellers promoting their listings ebay has had to invent places to display promoted listings hence the intrusive nature of ads in our listings. The latest way of promoted listings - off site ads - how does that actually work? How much is used to advertise listings off site and how much does ebay take off the top? Since it's introduction I've seen about a 30% drop in external hits. Something I don't like about promoted listings is so much is known only to ebay, same with service metrics and EDDs calculations.

[simplyessential_uk]

agree - my thought process lets me believe that due to promoted ads, many decide to up prices to pay for top slots however they are then priced out of the market by other platform/sellers not using promos and buyers are more savvy now and shop around (well I do) so either there will come a time Ebay realise that their money intake on Ads may be a lucrative income as it stands but enevitably stops buyers coming to Ebay - I shop less on Ebay as alot of the prices are more expensive than Amz - My fees on Amz are 15% which is similar with my 2% promos, which Im happy with,  but if I was one of those sellers paying 10-15% promos as Ebay suggests I do, then who can sustain that 12% fvf +10-15% promos = 20-30% fees  without upping their prices.  I stick around as its actually a good source of buyers to convert to direct sales and also putting eggs in one basket is never good as Ive done in years gone by.  

[spence0175]

I wonder what would happen if everyone stopped using PL...

[the_book_seekers]

Nice thought, but ebay has created a sort FOMO with promoted listings. Sellers think they will miss out on sales if they don't use promoted listings. So it will go on with ebay inventing new strands of promoted whatevers until the idea is utterly exhausted.

[simplyc-accessories]

"Also just wondering why you have A/W on all your listings, The first 4 words in the title are the most important and I cant workj out what that stands for if its relevant. "

A/W stands for autumn and winter same as S/S for spring and summer it indicates that A/W scarfs will be more suitable for that season it helps the buyer find the item quicker if they are looking for winter scarfs same for summer items. It takes the guesswork out of the picture if the buyer is trying to decide if it is a thick scarf or a flimsy thin scarf. 

As for prices my scarfs are far from overpriced check any retail website most start at £14.95

upwards. An example I sold a good quality winter pashmina this morning total price of £12.20 included in that price was £3.69 postage Leaving the scarf selling at £8.51 That is a good price for the quality of the item.

I could easily sell much cheaper lines in scarfs but I would rather go for quality any day over cheapness.

Of course, I would love to sell them at their real value but eBay is known for selling cheap items. 

Plus we are now competing with the site Temu. 

The real problem is eBay has messed the site up beyond ever putting it right to many faults to much money-grabbing. Just look at the face of the lady who did the video just before Christmas " How we acted on your feedback" Her expression says it all she doesn't even believe what she is preaching to all of us.

I wonder what other disasters they have for us in 2024 it certainly won't be anything positive.

[spence0175]

Luckily I do not suffer from FOMO.  🤪
Yes I guess they would carry on inventing more ideas to strip cash from sellers.  But where will it end. At this rate they will  be giving most of their profits to stay at the top.

Another scenario. What if  everyone used PL.. who would be at the top.

[the-nutwood-collection]

Who would be at the top?  That's an interesting question, and one that I've given some thought to.  Not, of course, because I expect eBay to ditch PL - it's far to good a cash cow for that to happen - but just as a thought exercise.

The most successful items could be at the top - they're the ones that buyers like.  But do the buyers only like them because they're at the top and the buyer is too lazy to delve further (the PL philosophy)?  Also, that means that other sellers don't get a chance, it's the principle that 'nothing succeeds like success'.

eBay could institute what I call a 'lava lamp' listing priority.  Those of you that aren't old enough to remember lava lamps can Google it.  All listings get a turn on the first page, they bubble up to the top.  If they attract sales, they earn 'algorithm points' which makes their turn to bubble up again faster.  If they don't attract sales, then they are consigned to the depths.  This allows new listings to compete with the regular seller listings and to themselves become successful.

The problem with lava lamp is that sellers will keep refreshing listings - the 'sell similar' rouse that is so often promoted on these boards.  Also, the pestilential duplicate listings with just a few words changed in the title will proliferate, the principle being that the more listings you have for an item, the more chance of one of those listings getting a turn at being at the top of page one.  eBay don't seem to be able to stop these duplicates, or perhaps they don't even try.

In short, I don't know what would be a good listings presentation algorithm to give all sellers, established and new, a fair crack of the whip.  I will continue to think about it.

Perhaps another seller can come up with the perfect solution.  A solution, so perfect, that eBay will ditch PL and provide a level playing field for all sellers.  A solution that will increase FVF fees overall, because buyers will flock to the site because they know that 'You can find anything on eBay'.  Those of you that aren't old enough to remeber this strap line can Google it.  

There - I've set a seller challenge for the new year.  I'll get the pigs fed, and ready to fly.

[goingfishinguk]

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@spence0175 wrote:

Another scenario. What if  everyone used PL.. who would be at the top.

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Said it many times, if everything is promoted then nothing is promoted... 

[messier44000]

Ditto your last line.

Got several years before I start to wind down for semi retirement (if all goes to plan)

But when I do, eBay will be the 1st to go. You-tube the last

[rainbowtrax]

Your lava lamp priority is not dissimilar to setting the default sort order to one determined solely by listing date, giving everyone a time at the top, which should work very well. There's a novel idea.

Oh wait, that's exactly how ebay used to be set up before they dreamt up the hideous "Best Match" sort order which, right from the start, has never been anything remotely approaching a best match for the search term. And before they started fleecing sellers right, left and centre for"promoted" listing status just to stand a chance of a sale because ebay no longer provide a useable or useful default sort order.

So they've deliberately wrecked the sort order then introduced multiple paid for services for sellers to try and buy their way out of the dreadful sort order.

We all know the solution is as simple as ditching PL and ditching Best Match but it'll never happen because it makes ebay a ton of money. Carry on saddling up those flying pigs.

[theelench]

Perhaps I'm being both ridiculously niave and showing my ignorance of technical issues but wouldn't the whole mess that ebay has reduced its search to be resolved if they just went back to believing and searching for what buyers write in the Search Box?

If I search for "Blue Glass Vase" and the search returned results for that and only that, there would not be a  'Best Match', but a Perfect Match?

It was only when ebay started deciding that my simple search might mean 'blue glass window pane, blue glass bowl/ candlestick, or even blue grass music CD'.   That it needed to invent a "Best Match" at all.

Another case of ebay inventing a problem and then "solving" it to its own advantage?

[gothicrosegallery]

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@simplyessential_uk wrote:

Hope you dont mind me saying - Ive looked at your scarves and they are very nice but expensive

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You think £10 - £12 is expensive for a scarf! lol.

That's very cheap.