Sales
Summary: auntietootieblue expressed frustration with low sales on eBay despite having 3700 items listed, while achieving better results on another platform with fewer items. wheretheloveb and others agreed, noting changes in eBay’s algorithm and promotion requirements, impacting visibility and sales. Several participants discussed issues such as higher fees, the popularity of alternate platforms for certain categories like clothing, and preferences for specific courier options. jonatjonatjonat suggested making business decisions based on current trends, while issues with eBay's search functionality and customer service were also highlighted. Some participants considered shifting their focus to alternative platforms due to these challenges.
Why is ebay so rubbish, I have over 3700 items for sale on here and only 4 sales today. Yet on vinted I have 200 items for sale and have made 5 sales today with only spending 15 min to list yet ebay I have to spend all day for nothing.
writesoon
·1 week ago · EditedAs far as I can see, eBay is the only sales platform now that has a two tier system which charges businesses for everything while letting private competition have everything for free. It’s hard to see how some businesses can thrive on the platform now. If eBay gave businesses a level playing field, and allowed us to list for free with a buyers fee, and pay no commission, the business secondhand market in particular could start thriving again on ebay before too many people move away to platforms where there is a level playing field.
It may be of course, that eBay itself sees its future as a combination of retailers of new goods with a massive private selling marketplace, in which case registered businesses in certain categories will probably find it increasingly difficult to thrive here. Which presumably is why we are seeing so many private accounts that are obviously buying and selling as traders. .
appletree23
·2 weeks agoIf you don't pay to promote you ain't selling is my take on it. This platform is slowly dying, while they keep messing with things behind the scenes, turning it into an AI driven nightmare.
wgwillia
·2 weeks agoYou just answered your own questing eBay are rubbish.
guymafo
·2 weeks ago@auntietootieblue I’m on both platforms as business/pro. V*nted is getting some slating today on some news channels, due to the customer service, AI and banned accounts.
I’ve had several restrictions and short term bans over there, I do like the platform but I feel they’ve grown quickly without investing in customer communication.
Keeping my options open.
wheretheloveb
·2 weeks agoYes I got a 3 day ban on Vinted a few days after joining. For listing a prohibited item that the Ai bot identified incorrectly ! Just like the BBC report was talking about this morning.
Vinted's customer service is almost non existent. When you make an appeal because of an incorrect Ai decision.... you get a response from AI !
guymafo
·2 weeks ago@wheretheloveb I’m going O/T here but I got a 3 day ban, with CS telling me they’d get back to me 120 hours….
I’ll give eBay that they have access to CS.
GM
auntietootieblue
OP2 weeks agoyeah I like the platform too, its like what ebay used to be like 20 years ago, I did see the news about it an yeah there's not much help on there but there's not much on here either.
auntietootieblue
OP2 weeks agoAnd we are paying fees for it here yet only buyer protection there
pillarboxred
·3 weeks agoYou seem to have answered your own question. New selling platforms arise and if they work for you, why stick around? Today, I'm demoralised by the EU regulations regarding packaging. Why bother when sales are so few and profit a forlorn hope?
auntietootieblue
OP3 weeks agoYeah I know I have answered my own question and the proof is in the figures, 7 sales on vinted today, ebay 1 out of 3600 items listed, that how dire it is on here. How can anyone run a business on here?
tressygirl
·3 weeks agoNot sure if this affects poor sales for sellers, but when I look to buy items, especially early in the mornings , no photos appear of the items of interest.
Hence I don't buy not being able to see what I'm buying, and I've turned elsewhere to look and buy those items.
From me personally, sellers have missed out many sales, for this reason.
I use a laptop with Chrome, not the hapless app.
maarsy
·3 weeks agoholidays are always slower but it just gets worse every year , it might be worth re listing old stuff . i took over 1000 items down and went to a smaller shop and while sales have been dire it has been made up when some higher priced items still sold and for the first month this year i've actually made more money .
*m99*
·3 weeks agoIt's beyond grim, 4 orders in 2 days here, utterly fed up.
the_brick_lodge
·3 weeks ago · EditedThe search is pretty poor here, if I search for Lego 12345 I get 978 results, if I search for Lego "12345" I get 54 results so what were the other 924 doing there?
Yet if I search for Lego 67890 I get 133 results, if I search for Lego "67890" I get 148 results so where did the extra 15 disappear to first time.
(Those are not the actual set numbers, using the " " means the search looks for that specific thing within them).
Doesn't make any sense but certainly seems if you search for a specific Lego set by number eBay are sometimes throwing in results of what appear to be similar sets with a different set number. You'd think that makes sense but if someone has gone to the trouble of searching for a specific set number, very likely that's what they want to buy, and eBay has found plenty of space on the listing page to advertising a load of other stuff.
I think the root cause is simply eBay has been around a long time and there are a lot of sellers which means very high competition, makes sense when another platform comes along that people are going to try it, it's likely that one day there will be just as much competition there too. Plenty of other selling platforms that weren't around 5 years ago spreading buyers out but if anything there is probably more sellers than ever on eBay.
appletree23
·3 weeks agoAs below ebay are becoming more and more greedy, pay more to promote or you ain't selling, the end. And changes to the algorithm have ruined it for me and countless other sellers, so much so i'm also selling elsewhere and will soon enough be leaving here for good.
auntietootieblue
OP3 weeks agoI agree totally. I think I will be following you.
boundarycoins
·3 weeks ago · EditedThis may not make a huge impact but I had a look at one of your listings at random and I noticed you have RM Tracked 48 postage for £3.99 as the first entry and then Evri the second postage option for £3.50. I’d switch this round so buyers see £3.50. As you may know if you have every courier enabled over there on V, the buyer can buy a piece of your clothing for as low as £1.75 tracked postage. If they go for Evri postage you’re slightly in profit on postage vs making a loss on the RM Tracked 48 after eBay fees. I know it’s not a massive thing but aside from the coupons you use it’s something that might help a bit.
jonatjonatjonat
·3 weeks agoYou sell clothes. Vinted is simply more popular for clothes.
Trends change, you can’t expect sites to remain popular forever. Instead of complaining why things aren’t selling, make the logical business decision!
auntietootieblue
OP3 weeks agoYes I know what the logical decision is and that is to move from eBay to vinted pro which I will be doing in the foreseeable future. I have been on eBay for 20 years and been fine just using this platform but as people keep saying times have changed and no one buys clothes on eBay anymore and I’m sick of paying fees for nothing and the disrespect this site as for the sellers that make it money. I did try putting evri first at my main postage option but no one was interested and I didn’t get any sales from just offering this option. For some reason buyers on eBay want Royal Mail unless this is pushed by eBay?
boundarycoins
·3 weeks agoFair enough re the postage then as you’ve tried it. I just struggle to understand why everyone there goes for cheaper couriers and I’m hardly ever going to the post office with a Royal Mail QR code but on here it’s a negative.
auntietootieblue
OP3 weeks agoYeah I know what you mean, most of my postage on vinted is relay, evri and impost. On eBay I’ve added evri and impost to a lot of my listings, I’ve not had one impost on eBay and only a few evri, everyone seems to opt for Royal Mail on eBay unless they don’t know how to choose the different options on eBay?
boundarycoins
·3 weeks ago · EditedThey don’t know how to change it on eBay in most cases. I’m fairly confident about that just from examples I’ve read on this forum. One seller had Parcelforce 48 up front and Parcelforce 24 as a free upgrade and had never had 1 buyer choose 24.
I basically use the generic other 48 hour courier freepost here for anything small parcel and above and decide what I want to use. I’m only stipulating Royal Mail on letters and large letter listings (and small parcel express postage upgrades but they rarely get chosen, the last time was in 2022 or 2023). It’s been a long time since anyone moaned about a freepost Evri or InPost delivery for me.
dwhairandbeautystore
·3 weeks agoHave you tried offering free postage and incorporating it into your prices instead? I'm with you about the massive drop-off in sales, it's affecting so many of us, but I do think customers like seeing free postage now so that might help?
auntietootieblue
OP3 weeks agoYeah, I've tried free postage numerous times and no sales whatsoever from that. They don't want to pay my prices now so to add postage onto that just doesn't work. I wouldn't have to charge the prices I do if I didn't have to pay final fees, listing fees, promotional fees just to get seen. The funny thing is anything that I do promote gets not views, what's that about? The organic listings get more views yet if I don't promote some of my items then I get no sales. I can list items cheaper on vinted because of no fees.
appletree23
·3 weeks agoAll my items are free special delivery with Royal mail, and doesn't make a blind bit of difference to my sales, but, did help with a recent Empty box scammer attempt i had last Saturday as Special delivery had tracked the weight of the item up till it was loaded on the van, so when he said the box had turned up empty there had only been a one hour window for the delivery driver to pull over, open the box and remove the item, tape it back up and then deliver it, so, his scam attempt fell flat on it's face, but has added to my reluctance to sell on here, either no sales or the odd sale i am getting was a little runt of a scammer.
wheretheloveb
·3 weeks ago · EditedEbay has fiddled with it's algorithm, and is pushing promoted listings so hard. If you don't promote you hardly get seen.
I've had exactly the same experience regarding Vinted. Put a few items on there and made sales straight away. Plus the views and watch count went through the roof.
Basically on ebay, you are a needle in a haystack, particularly with clothes. On Vinted, perhaps a needle in a haybale.
I've experienced a monumental decrease in buyer activity on Ebay the past few months. Been on here full time for 18 years and never seen anything like it in terms of reduced buyer interest. I'm in very niche categories aswell.
Ebay simply want more of your money in order to sell your items
boundarycoins
·3 weeks ago · EditedSometimes it just makes more sense to list things there rather than eBay. I listed some vintage scales and weights over there today and it sold in 2 hours. The buyer paid £27.99 all in as the postage was so cheap and zero fees for me meant I could price it quite low and expected to be packaging it tonight.
I did a bit of research here beforehand and I’d have had to list it for nearer £35 inc postage. I could see it would take a while to sell as solds were pretty sparse so eBay didn’t look very appealing. The problem there on V is the brief honeymoon period to get traction on an item, if by next week it had not sold I may have had to list it here.
As a rhetorical question for eBay how are you going to improve things here so you don’t get labelled as plan B. Regarding the OP’s issue with clothing, one way to help is to give us access to those 15% reductions on click and collect postage that private sellers can offer with simple delivery.