ZERO TRAFFIC ZERO SALES
Summary: Several eBay sellers, including littlethingsuneed, discussed a significant decline in sales despite high ratings and long-term presence on the platform. littlethingsuneed noted their drastic drop in daily sales and questioned whether they were being penalized. fosterandson and lynnuktv shared similar experiences, attributing the downturn to increased fees from Promoted Listings, making eBay uncompetitive. knickersboxersglory highlighted the compounded fees, stressing that eBay's increase in fees now makes it costlier than other platforms, while santlache_sales expressed frustration about eBay's diminishing seller loyalty and its impact on their ability to earn a living. The consensus suggests that high fees and reduced visibility are pushing sellers to explore alternative platforms.
ZERO TRAFFIC ZERO SALES
for a business seller with
top rated seller
and 99.8% feedback over 17 years
i use eBay postal facilities mainly royal mail
being a loyal eBay sellers with good standing
am i being penalised for something because
if i am i have not been informed why
i sell petrol garden tool spares
i am used to selling between 10 and 20 items a day
at a rate of approx £100 - £200 a day in sales
yesterday i sold 1 item (overseas)
the day before i sold 1 item
total sales for 2 days less than £10
it is the height of summer in the uk
i should be a lot busier than i am
santlache_sales
·4 days agoIndeed, this is the third month in the last five sales have been so bad, that eBay are going to deduct the shop fees from my account directly.
25 years I have been on here and the site is now awful, you do all the work and ebay grab all the money, they show zero loyalty to their customers (sellers) and all we are now is a cash cow for their shareholders and executive bonuses.
They are failing us, the site is a mere shadow from when I first started on here and all I can say is thank goodness I am due to retire, as you certainly can't make a living on here anymore and their fees for non-existant exposure have become a total rip-off.
knickersboxersglory
·5 days ago · EditedeBay used to be the platform with the lowest fees, therefore you could sell things at a lower price. Customers could find the same item on lots of marketplaces, but eBay would be the cheapest. This meant that a lot of people would shop on eBay.
As others have said, once they introduced the extra fees for your listings to actually be seen, the fee percentage increased dramatically, therefore prices did too. So for a lot of listings your choice is now don't use promoted listings, keep fees low, but never sell anything OR use promoted listings to get seen, fees increase massively and what you do sell you usually make a much smaller margin on.
Of the marketplaces that we sell through eBay now has the highest fees of all of them, when you include the extra fees for promoted listings (even if the minimum is used). For about 12 years it was the lowest.
When eBay make more profit than you do on some lines now, then it's only going to end one way. For a lot of businesses the fees now outweigh the cost of rent/rates for a shop.
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Where fees used to be about 10%, then eBay included fees on postage, so that was another % increase
£8 item + £2 postage x 10 % = 80p fee
BECAME
£8 item + £2 postage x 10 % = £1.00 fee
THEN IF YOU ARE USING PROMOTED LISTINGS, ANOTHER 5% MINIMUM INCREASE
£8 item + £2 postage x 15% = £1.50 fee
So where you used to pay 8% in the above example, you now pay 15%
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If you pay 10-15% for promoted listings, which is often recommended by eBay, then that 8% becomes 20-25% fees
There's lots of fees that aren't that clear as well,
Final value fee – fixed
Final value fee – variable
Regulatory operating fee
Very high 'item not as described' fee
Below standard performance fee
International fee
Promoted Listing fees
Return postage label fee
eBay used to be our number one platform, but the fee rises have basically driven us to use other platforms.
jlovie
·5 days agoAdd the shop subscription fee.
And add extra listing fees if a business seller wants to carry the levels of stock a private seller can.
lynnuktv
·2 weeks agoI know the problem and i think there are a number of factors effecting sales on eBay but as far as I`m concerned the main thing is the introduction of Promoted Listings(eBay advertising). Promoted listings has resulted in sellers increasing prices to cover the, in some cases, massive increase in eBay fees. This means that eBay as a platform has become uncompetitive in the market place.
I have been selling on eBay for nearly 25 years and I am a top rated seller with a feedback rating of 99.9% yet these days that stands for nothing in the search rankings unless i am prepared to pay an additional 15-20% in additional fees.
littlethingsuneed
OP2 weeks agoi cannot increase my prices anymore
most of my items are less than £10
its a carb kit to repair petrol garden tools i used to sell for £6 with free post
but between ebay fees and royal mail have pushed my prices up
almost 40% over the past 10 years
it is hard doing free postage but i try to keep it free
lynnuktv
·2 weeks agoIts not your prices its the perception the buyers have about eBay. If a buyer searches for a specific item generally they will look at the first two pages of listings which these days tend to be as eBay puts it "sponsored listings" . Generally a sponsored (promoted listing) listing will have an inflated price to cover the advertising cost. If the buyer can`t see a competitive price they will go elsewhere to make there purchase.
Generally buyers are not going to wade through page after page of listings until they find yours, they will just go as in my case to Amazon, Temu or Shein.
littlethingsuneed
OP2 weeks agoi used to be a professional SEO for holiday extras
so i know how to keep a product at the top
lynnuktv
·2 weeks agoi don't doubt you do know what you are doing. What I`m trying to say is that the buyers are not looking on eBay anymore. eBay just isn't getting the traffic it used too.
littlethingsuneed
OP2 weeks agoill have to start selling on temu and other platforms
littlethingsuneed
OP2 weeks agolol i can offer ebay SEO services
i kept holiday extras at the top of google page 1 for 8 years
until they farmed the job out
i think ebay need it now get them back up the top of google again
always seems to be amazon now days though
lynnuktv
·2 weeks agolol. i bet you can.
c_of_e84
·2 weeks agoLots of SEO services on Fiverr.
littlethingsuneed
OP2 weeks agomine are also promoted listings
littlethingsuneed
OP2 weeks agoi had a shop put up in 2005
it was a feature store with over 3000 products
was a gold powerseller with 99.8% feedback
selling motorcycle parts and accessories
come 2016 the new raceme took over
and took favour of the big guns in china
lack of traffic and sales
downgraded my powerseller status first to silver then bronze
then top rated seller
and just got worse after brexit
with all the sellers claiming to be in the uk when they are based in china
so downgraded my store
at one time i had the idea
that ebay was run from dublin and it was the EU's way of punishing the uk seller for voting out
i closed the shop 2 years ago
just was not making enough money to keep it open
and just use the account now and again to sell on customer returns which is not very often
what i sell now
are petrol garden tool spares
ie: carb kits , service kits, ect
but it is the height of summer and i should be a lot more busier than i am
santlache_sales
·4 days agoOh yes, I remember the 'Featured Shop' and it was handy to have, you pay similar fees like we do now (nothing extra) but you got good exposure. Then they quietly dropped the 'Featured' bit several years ago, ruined the search engine and now you get absolutely nothing. I remember the fees being 3-4% too, not the rip off we get today.
All ebay have done is make changes, more changes and then some, and each time they did they also hiked the fees and lost more and more people. Now ebay is just a thorn in your side, not pleasurable in any way whatsoever.
fosterandson
·2 weeks agoSame, business has been in decline from March this year. Only 2 sales in the last 3 days, yet I'm listing and working every day.
The (fake) private seller issue has almost destroyed my business.
I have had to start downgrading on ebay and removing listings. Which are now being moved to other sites (i was only on ebay, but that loyalty has gone).
littlethingsuneed
OP2 weeks agoits been going on a lot longer than that
i have 2 ebay shops
i have this one here
my other one i opened in 2006 and was a feature store
selling mainly motorcycle parts and accessories
with over 3000 products 98.8% feedback
gold powerseller
then about 2016 the new raceme took over
lack of traffic and sales again
my powerseller status went first down to silver then bronze
then struggled to keep top rated seller
then downgraded my store
2 years ago i pulled down my shop
then reopened it to sell customer returns
not that often but i do get returns
now i mainly sell garden tool spares on my main site now
some are niche to me
and cannot be obtained anywhere else
the company that produce the machine i supply my niche part for
sold and still sell 10s of thousands a year
ryobi homelite and jcb
i was working for them when i had the commissioned to be made for me
it is only a carb kit
but you cannot even get this part from the manufacturers