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......

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

The stock is also being supported by the fact Ebay are buying their own stock back.

Many would argue this could have been better spent on the platform and making it much better.

[ett1954]

"The stock is also being supported by the fact Ebay are buying their own stock back." - Exactly, most of the operating profit (ultimately provided by promotional income) is being used to sustain or increase the share price through share buybacks; thus keeping the investors happy, and no doubt, maintaining executive bonuses and share options optimised.

[theelench]

The management is adept at "smoke and mirrors" and kicking the can down the road, by always promising "jam tomorrow".

Ebays numbers for GMV and active buyers have been on the slide, or at best stagnant, since before Covid.  But profits and share buy-backs have continued even though the numbers for real sales have seen a decline.

As you say, the growth in advertising revenue has propped up the share price so far but the last quarters financials did show a slowing of the growth in that revenue stream.

Do we hear much about ebay's previous can kicking exercise, Focus Categories and the way they would turn high-end buyers in regular buyers of more luxury goods,  these days ?   It seems ebay has gone quiet about how they are growing and how they will save the day when these new high-end buyers become regular shoppers?

Netting the extra income from taking over what were Paypal fees on the introduction of MP propped the share price for a while before that.

I'm quite sure that the execs. can see the bubble of continuing growth in ad. revenue is beginning to falter and deflate (rather than burst), so it's time to kick the can again. 

The latest smoke and mirrors trick is "Free to Sell" for private sellers.  Once again "the plan" relies on ebay attracting large numbers of new sellers who will list like crazy (as it's now fee free) combined with a dusted off ebay wallet / balance.   Which never materialised when ebay dumped PP although so many private buyers / sellers said they wouldn't buy so much without it.  Without doubt the execs. will explain that it may take a bit of time to come to fruition, giving them a few more years to produce some growth in real sales.

It's integral to "the plan"  that all the cash from private sales will now be held in the seller's wallets in ebay's bank account and only released quarterly unless the seller requests earlier release.

Hey presto!!  A new revenue stream of interest to continue propping-up the share price for another year or two.  It looks good on paper but IMO there is a flaw.

Private sellers have been leaving because ebay is now so complicated and user unfriendly for private sellers.

They've also been leaving because without sponsoring their listings ebay has made it increasingly clear that they will sell little or nothing.  But most (I would guess) know nothing about how sponsorship works and have no inclination to find out.  They want "List it, sell it, get paid" as it was pre-sponsored listings.

The way ebay is set-up now they still won't sell much, so how long will these new sellers stay ?  How much will they build-up in their wallets?  Only time will tell, but the execs. are probably safe for another year or two and can work on their next plan to kick the can down the road one more time.

[future-worlds-uk]

The problem also from my point of view is that I use eBay to buy stock, so its a double shot in the foot for them.  No sales for me, means I am not making purchases from other people...

[moonspender]

I think we need to remember there are quite a few external factors as well impacting sales

EU VAT didnt help

German packaging requirements affected sales

Economies around the world struggling

Cost of living / inflation

Budget fears

I sell a " want " rather than a " need " and these will alway drop down the list of what people spend their money on when times are hard.

Totally agree ebay need to take action as well though. Making sellers pay for promotions etc just wont work in this enviroment .. sellers need to pass the savings onto buyers but at the moment with astromical fees ( mine was 36% last month ) thats hard for business sellers to do - until ebay recognise that and improve things its going to be challenging

[socknroll]

Not really any increased sales here, and we currently have a coupon discount on too lol.

Funnily enough, I was selling a lot of personal things on my private account and before the fee removal, over the past 2-3 weeks, and I made close to £1,000. Since the fee removal though, i've had like 2 sales on there.

I suppose the fee removal is to bring more sellers in, not customers lol

[theelench]

That's the intention, ebay did say at the time fee removal was announced that they had evidence that buyers who also sell buy twice(?) as much as buyers who do not sell.   Which I agree is probably the case.

But, as I said above, the influx of new sellers (accepting that there will be an influx) will be trying to sell on a site that is in some ways structured for businesses and works against private sellers, so you can't expect to see much in the way of increased sales yet.

It's less than a month since the announcement.  Accepting that some new or returning sellers immediately started listing to take advantage, how much will they have sold, if anything as ebay was seeing less buyers before the announcement ?

Assuming they sold anything at all, they probably won't have accumulated much in their wallets yet and might decide to use the proceeds for more pressing needs before building a surplus and buying anything.

But the biggest hold-up will be ebay itself and its policy of Holding payments for new and returning sellers for up to 30 days.  That I presume is automated, so it's highly unlikely that any of them have seen any of their money yet, even if they listed and sold an item on the first day of Fee Free Selling.

[themartian82]

Ebay has indeed lost a huge marketshare. Reminds me of when Sky started to put prices up and it made us change the way we watch TV, ie Netflix and prime only, and then it became normal and we have not missed live TV since. In the time eBay has gone free, we have purchased from Shein, Aliexpress and Amazon for new stuff we need. I still use ebay for rare 2nd hand stuff, but it's no longer my 1st goto place, not when Amazon Prime has been proven to be cheaper on a number of instances for us. 

[bittyboy101]

Only 1 sale late last week after 5/6 weeks of solid NOTHING !

You would think now that it is free to sell on eBay for private sellers... there would be more people visiting eBay to sell and buy = a boost in new buyers who don't normally visit eBay...

eBay gets advertised on telly all the time now... with this Indian man and woman couple selling on eBay all the items and gifts they dislike ! lol 😆 😁

[polarlight3]

I started selling again when Fee Free started. I’ve not used eBay to sell for many years but when I did I found my items sold very well and always seemed to get plenty of interest.

Since I started listing again recently I haven’t had one enquiry via eBay! Hardly any traffic according to the Seller Stats etc.

Seems unless I pay for some kind of promotion then I’m not gonna sell much at all! 
Doesn’t  give new sellers who are just starting out much confidence.

We all have to start somewhere and ultimately if a new seller sells well they will likely add promotions or set up as a business eventually. 

As things are now new sellers will just go elsewhere or not bother selling at all. 

[badd-lands-comics]

I am  business seller my sales have dropped 70% since they introduced private sellers no fees 

[i-love-u-baby]

ruined my sales completely!  

[bittyboy101]

blame Vinted ! - eBay had to copy them with "FREE TO SELL FOR PRIVATE SELLERS" in order to prove a point and remain competitive !

[reskufashion]

This has been my quietest ever month on eBay.

Thankfully I also sell on Vinted which is still going strong, although this could be because we list more on Vinted due to not having to pay any listing fees. 

I'm also seeing Vinted buyers offering/paying as much as buyers on eBay now, which nets back considerably more after fees etc.

[jokers_toybox]

Many Many people are forgetting this basic fact.

The decision was rushed much like Vinteds launch of Pro in retaliation to free clothes listings on eBay (which considering it's in their T&C's that they suppress Pro sellers listings is amazing how so many say it's great or did!) 

So what you have is 2 companies trying to outdo each other instead of concentrating on making the best platform to gain customers rather than badly planned one upmanship 

[insidethe93]

wysiwyg_steve wrote: Quick prediction which I leave here for posterity to judge:

eBay will fail within 12 -18 months of announcing that fees are being passed on to the Buyers.  2 years tops and they'll be dead in the water.

Poshmark's 'buyer protection fee' was soon withdrawn after customer backlash - fee introduced 3rd Oct 2024, abolished 24th Oct 2024.

How many eBay customers (buyers and sellers alike) are 'on hold' waiting and hoping eBay will sort out its mess? but not likely to wait forever! Business sellers are presumably also watching events, but they're not far enough up the beach that the tide won't reach them, as fewer buyers (buyers-only and private sellers who're buyers) affect business sales too.

From using search engines the consensus I'm seeing is that eBay sales this Feb have "plummeted" or similar words not merely slowed, but of course that's not definitive fact as you can't rely solely on internet searches, so it'd be good to have an eBay announcement hopefully to help consumer confidence. To be fair, possible reasons given are BPF, Feb is a quiet month anyway, and Feb's eBay app problems reduced transactions. Searches say eBay has not itself reported how Feb sales have gone/are going (or not yet).

It's not logical that I'm happy to pay eBay fees that are incorporated into seller fees yet object to them when levied as a buyer fee. But logic isn't the factor here; what's more important is the impression it gives and the feelings it arouses, and not just in a few customers but en masse.

I really want to shop on eBay, but eBay has badly misjudged the psychology, because in this country it's sellers who pay fees (apart from one, just one, major rival V...). That's a massive Normal to try and overcome. eBay's new Normal isn't even one customers must accept as they can go elsewhere.

Please, eBay, reinstate private seller fees, give sellers back full (and straightforward!) control over their pricing. Likewise Simple Delivery - more control to the seller, less to eBay. And please do so before too many customers leave and establish new selling and buying habits elsewhere.