eBay is officially dead

[fashionxpress2008]

Yesterday:

17,000 listing across 13 eBay countries = no sales

200 listings on Vinted (same prices) = 10 sales

1,000 listings on Depop (same prices) = 6 sales

Shall I give up 🙂 

[bravergrace]

I didn't think Vinted allowed business sales?  Have they changed their policy?

[exponential_developments]

Well, i just looked and a page is Vinted for Profesionals, ie businesses.

[iew-signed-books]

That is only something you can decide on,  but don't do anything hasty.

[tornari-group]

No, don't give up. eBay is changing and you have to change with it. Think how your customer searches for a garment - size, colour, type, brand - and make sure that is in the title, first four words being the most important. Postage inclusive prices may also help, along with a BIN price. It's not time to give up, but we all will have to work harder and adapt to survive.

Keep going and good luck.

[magpiecorner1]

Not yet available in UK. 

Vinted Pro is only available in France.

[fatbobfan]

Best start to the year in many a year and yesterday nothing,

Seems strange but it usually kicks back in

Echoing @tornari-group this platfroms changed, make sure your up to speed with best practices

[vintagewatchpart]

Yes Ebay is changing, when you search for things you now get shown a lot of irrelevant items and that seems to be a contributing factor as to why clothing sales are poor for loads of sellers.

Search for something random, anything, I will pluck something random now... "next heels size 9" - takes me automatically to the mens shoes category and shoes 9 results.  When I edit the category myself (who does that on the app unless they are a seasoned ebayer?) it goes to 333.

Of course there is always more every seller can do.

[mark-tigers]

It's the time of year! Everything is quiet 

[simplyc-accessories]

I tried selling on Vinted 2 years ago only lasted a week, I got an email from them telling me my pics were too professional and they could see I was a business, and they politely informed me they don't allow businesses to sell on their site.

I can't find any changes to that, be nice if the open poster could enlighten us if things have changed. 

https://www.vinted.co.uk/help/1120-commercial-selling ..............looks like its not allowed.

[itdontevenmatter]

Well if they need to report sales over £1000 im sure many sellers on Vinted and indeed eBay could be technically called a business according to HMRC.

[heretoclear]

Volumes and Margins are so bad on eBay at the moment, that the net gain doesn't even cover the heat loss from opening the door to pack and post orders, and think about all those sellers who will get caught in the £1000 HMRC tax trap, end of year will result in a net loss from accounting and loads of stress for nothing.

[dariomitrovic]

The way ebay are treating sellers the hand that feeds them by paying the fees is hardly surprising. Seller gets no protection, buyer get refunded withing days, the sellers account get debited with just hours for seller to respond. Anything at all that happens with the item sold like buyer lies, changes thier mind, doesnt pick the item up, refuses delivery seller will lose the funds the postage and the item unless you got return lable and this will mean another return cost. 

Seller protection doesnt seem to exist, there is an endless amound of web page links which are looped around and dont amount to anything just go back to square one 🙂 
I have come to the conclusion its the case of "Live and Learn" but I really am perplexed as to why the ebay fee payer has no protection. Ebay investigative team dont even look at the tracking provided, the seller is treated as the foe 🙂

[the_book_seekers]

There is no £1000 HMRC tax trap. The £1,000 is a trading allowances for businesses only. Private sellers can sell their personal items and exceed the £1000 mark without having to complete self assessments.

What has changed this month is ebay and other online businesses are having to report seller's sales figures to HMRC. Anyone with over 30 sales or £1770 in a year will find their sales information sent to HMRC. Genuine private sellers will be able to sell past these limits without having to submit a self assessment, but may find HMRC gets in touch to clarify what they are doing.  In certain circumstances if a single item sells for more than £6,000 (although this amount is going to be cut shortly) then the seller could be liaible for Capital Gains Tax which is a seperate thing. 

[exponential_developments]

DEAD.......................and think it always will be going forward....... ⚰️

[typo_lee]

We are 50% down on sales compared to the same time last year. Make of that what you will.

[litp*records]

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@magpiecorner1 wrote:

Not yet available in UK. 

Vinted Pro is only available in France.

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@magpiecorner1 wrote:

Not yet available in UK. 

Vinted Pro is only available in France.

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Indeed.  What is confusing is there is a "pro seller" section on the UK help pages, but when you click through it says you need to be registered in France

Nevertheless, it does not seem to stop sellers like OP having 1000s of listings there

Now, at least it's a level playing field and every seller is paying the same fees (which is effectively nothing, because the buyer pays the fee but the buyer will take that into account with the total cost...)

However, I really don't see why they can't "offiically" open for businesses, because they would take a huge share of sales away from this place especially in the clothing sector.  I understand their list of allowable selling categories is quite restrictive though, presumably to prevent it from being turned into a Chinese junk shop...

[exponential_developments]

How are everyone's sales going, same, better, worse?

[typo_lee]

Much better. But mega on other online selling platforms!

[vintagewatchpart]

The same but my items are pretty unique.

I have a friend who sells a cleaning product on both Ebay and Amazon.

Ebay sales last year were down 90% vs the prior year, his Amazon sales are up over 100%. We're talking 6-Figure sums here.

On Amazon people just buy the product and leave great reviews. On Ebay, they message him trying to get the price down, cause issues and problems not experienced on Amazon and he had to pay more in fees just to get the product seen.

He has closed his Ebay account and only sells on Amazon now.

Just sharing this as it seems to fit the "Ebay is officially dead narrative" or i'd rephrase it potentially to...

"Ebay is dead to those who sell items available elsewhere or have competition on price"