Anybody else noticed a huge increase in sales since Fee Free for Private Sellers started?

[john8150_0]

No, me neither.

It's like being on holiday in tumbleweed town......

[simplyessential_uk]

22% ? Are you paying promotions? 

Ive removed all promos and will not pay ads, just paying the basic fvf now and no more (which i think is 12%?) I was paying 2% promos for years (used to be 1%) and dabbled with higher upto 5% but my margins just cant go any more so just had enough of Ebay holding sellers to ransom of "pay us or we will restrict your sales" but then give private sellers a free pass. It just stinks.

[simplyessential_uk]

Same, i needed something last week and saw many "private" sellers (now says next to the login) which i avoided, but many wont see this or know the difference, buy the item then realise they dont have the same return rights (distance selling regs). This really brings ebays reputation into question as a buyer. By pushing the "free private selling" increases this problem for buyers. Ebay want to attract used goods and tax dodgers? no wonder less ppl are choosing ebay to buy.  Whatever happened to Wish? Their bad reputation soon caught up with them too

[theelench]

I agree with you that ebay is holding sellers to ransom and restricting their sales if they refuse to bribe ebay with extra Promo Fees, I suffer the same restrictions as a private seller.

IMO it's the main reason why I've sold only 4 items on ebay this year, but managed to sell 27 in the same period on another site.

Part of my point above was that most of the hoped-for influx of private sellers will suffer the same restrictions.  It won't matter how many items they list, their chance of selling them (unless they're giving them away for next to nothing) is even worse than for experienced sellers (business or private who do know the ropes and hurdles).

It might now be Free to Sell on ebay, but how many will stick around for long when they've spent time listing stuff, very little or none of which actually sells ? 

So what that they can undercut business sellers in a direct competition between identical new items ?  They have one or two, the business has a pallet full.  In collectables / second-hand items they'll soon find that sales are few and far between if they don't sponsor with the added disadvantage that most of the "buyers" are re-sellers and not interested in anything that they can't mark-up by at least 100% and only ever buy stuff that they can get dirt-cheap. 

Just like I have, they'll eventually realise that ebay is no longer much use to private sellers and I don't think that many of them will persevere as long as I have because they won't know of ebays past glories and hope for better days.  IMO a good many will list a handful of items, sell none and give-up.  Or even worse, sell an item, find they won't be paid for a month and give-up.  Or worse still sell their first item, have it stolen by a 'buyer' who knows how to claim INR two days after purchase due to ebays FDD's and give-up. 

IMO ebay just isn't built for real private sellers any more.

[john8150_0]

No I have never used promotions and never will. 22% is the average monthly percentage of ebay fees against sales. That is shown on your monthly breakdowns. It includes shop fees, relisting fees for each item over the 1500 "free" listings included in the shop fee, the utterly inexplicable Regulatory Operating Fee, currency conversion for the dwindling number of International sales etc.

The amount ebay takes each month is jaw dropping and it now offers very little in return.

[john8150_0]

I had a "private seller" contact me about a coin yesterday. He wanted 33% discount. When I checked his items for sale there were around 40-50 of the same sort of thing he wanted from me and all at large prices, some over £500.

When I pointed out that as a business seller I couldn't give anywhere near that level of discount he chirped up that I should cancel my business account and sell on a private one. When I responded that it would put me in breach of Trading Standards/Distance Selling Regs he went very quiet. Therein lies the problem.

[just-got-personal]

Anybody else noticed a huge increase in sales since Fee Free for Private Sellers started?

Ha Ha, nice one centurion😁

[simplyessential_uk]

Its like Ebid - Free to list so prices are stupid high or drop shippers who can leave a listing to sit for ever at no cost in the hope that they may get a sale - The market place will be flooded and buyer will not be able to find what they are looking for.  Theyre trying to compete with Vinted for the "preloved" sector except ebay isnt a "preloved" site so anyone can sell anything for free - If they want to offer free then it should be free only to preloved stuff and anything "new" is a business and be blocked from listing new stuff on a private account (as it isnt new if you are reselling) 

[theelench]

I said something similar when ebay introduced GTC  --  that it would create the same scenario as on ebid with items endlessly going round and round but never selling.   (Although I haven't noticed much in the way of drop-shippers.)

IMO their search is better than ebays, as it's still Key-Word based and doesn't suffer from the visibility games that ebay, with its millions of listings does.  No need for the faffing around needed here with re-list as Sell Similar to keep items visible or sponsorship to buy a space on P.1 of the results.  My last sale there was on 7/10, the item was listed in Jan. 2020 and still as visible as the day I listed it.

What really makes the difference (IMO) is that ebay likes new listings that sell quickly, but with ebay's search hopelessly biased towards sponsored listings and preferably new listings with quick sales, more buyers are searching using google and from my experience on the other site, google likes to show older listings in its results and that won't help sales on ebay.

[simplyessential_uk]

oh i see youve included the listing fees and shop fees, that makes sense. I only every did 2% promos as actually including promos put me on p1 but thing ebays changed their algorithms so it wants more.... no thankyou. 

[nutrafituk]

If any business account is to see their sales increase is most likley those who offer postage related products. I can imagine sudden demand in packing tape, envelopes, boxes, etc. All those 'private accounts' are going to get way busier now.

[the_book_seekers]

The only thing I've seen increase is the number of offers ebay has given me to use promoted listings. I now have two on the table. 

[tribalgiftsuk]

My sales have dropped off a cliff since mid September and i have private sellers with the same or similar items as me for about £3.00 less and paying for promoted listings. So their items are showing on my listings! Why are private sellers listings even allowed to be promoted on business sellers listings? 

It makes our listings look a mess and look the same as private sellers listings and we are paying for this.

Also why are private sellers allowed to promote their shops? They shouldnt even have shops! 

Surely it would make more sense for Ebay to get my 14.9% plus 30p plus regulatory  operating fee plus VAT on a jewllery item than a private sellers 0%  selling fee and probably between 5 - 8 % promo fee. They need to stop allowing private sellers promoted listings on business sellers actual listings pages.

Recently searching myself for clothing and shoes for me and son i couldnt believe how bad the search is and i was glad i use a lap top to look on here as trying to find anything on a mobile phone would be awful and it would use so much phone data that you would not bother to look for long.

I cant see this free listing for private sellers helping business sellers much at all, all of the UK now knows that business sellers on here will have higher prices now so they will shop savy and if its a cheap item they wont care who they buy it from. 

I am so annoyed with all this free listings for private sellers and i have kept quiet about it until now. But it is getting to the point of desperation and unless we see something good at the start of the New Year i will be listing a lot of my unique items elsewhere and will just sell old stock on here until its all gone.

[wyntersemporium]

Actually yes for me. Had a few sales Friday and Saturday it exploded 

[tribalgiftsuk]

Im glad your busy @wyntersemporium its gives me hope. Im having the worst weekend of sales i think i have ever had on Ebay since i started here 8 years ago. 

[vintagechinashop]

I have a similar amount of listings. Up to the beginning of this year I was sending out about 20 parcels a week and clearing over £1K in sales as an average some months less some more depending on the season 

due to some ill health last year my main income has become significantly reduced and my hope was that eBay would make up the difference. Don't get me wrong I'm still making sales but I struggle to have more than 10 parcels a week which is reflected in my monthly sales of just over £500. I should be really busy now but with 3 sales over the weekend already packed and ready to go there is no sign of sales picking up 

I'm hoping things do pick up otherwise it's going to be a very frugle Christmas in my household 

I'm not sure the reason for this downtrend maybe the cost of living but it's turned a very busy business into a very quiet one. The only benefit is that I seem to have a lot more time on my hands 

[future-worlds-uk]

Something is very, very wrong.

I've been dealing on eBay as a private seller for well over ten years and year on year I've had a steady increase in sales.

Since May, sales have dropped.   Since the beginning of this month, they've gone off a cliff.  Generously, I would say I am down by 75%.

Now the products I sell are mostly toys and games, but the range of stuff I sell within that category is quite varied.

I also have private accounts which I sell my own personal items on.  And those too have taken a hit.

I am guessing that eBay is in trouble as a whole.  The recent decision to waive fees for private sellers show they have been hit by platforms like Etsy and Vinted.  But those platforms don't sell my type of products.  So I am starting to get concerned about what is happening here.

Also, with more private sellers selling for free, what incentives and protections are in place to ensure loyal, long term business sellers are willing to and able to continue to use eBay?

[future-worlds-uk]

And to reply to my own thread, it is sad but gratifying to hear that it isn't just me that is having a problem!

[santlache_sales]

eBay have been turning the screw on sellers for years and not only hiked commission up .......

And now it has started to come back and bite eBay in the backside.

Good I say.

They had it all their own way for years, abusing their position and they certainly milked it, except sellers and buyers became totally turned off by it all and deserted Big Brother eBay.

I'l be joining them soon, I'm not going to keep paying £90 a month for £6 sales like I've had in the last week.

[tribalgiftsuk]

The bottom line is if business sellers are not selling they are not buying either.  I have purchased very little new stock for this Christmas because of this. I buy stock mostly components on here from other business sellers. So for some it will be a double whammy no or hardly any new customers and little from the usual returning customers. Its very sad.

[simplyessential_uk]

this is all Ebay care about ....... Share price and as you can see since Ads and promos were intorduced its been a 50% increase for them.  We all know its llke tumbleweed town so until sellers stop plowing money into their coffers then nothing will change - if people arent buying or selling as much its like a platform of smoke and mirrors where the money is rolling in for nothing other than ads.  This is why they can offer free sales for private sellers, the bubble has to burst at some point when business sellers realise that they are not getting anything in to sustain a living.