Christmas Sales Completely Dead **December 2024** ‌

[theglo-68]

This is perhaps first Christmas where we are hitting flat zero sales with over 100 Listings.

What has gone wrong to this once wonderful ebay where we used to get many sales starting November December . Last year 2023 was okay but not great. This year we are on flat zero even weekends are dead.

Has anyone else noticed same issue. What do you think has gone wrong. People are still buying stuff other platforms amazon, tiktok but nothing on ebay.

Please share your ideas.

[tornari-group]

Our eBay orders are steady (and our WS), so about the same as this time last year. We don't have much gift-type stock so we don't plan or expect a surge in orders. Our weedkiller range is obviously quiet in Winter but the cleaning products sell all year round. Ebay still works for us, and some other sellers are doing well here, so consumers are out there, but it will be harder to reach them. Keep working, it's not time to give in. Good luck.

[typo_lee]

People are def using other platforms more but they have also returned to the high street in droves so unless your selling something niche on ebay its going to be a struggle IMO. Next year is going to be tough and I think we are in for a recession as businesses lay off staff due to the governments NI and minimum wage increases.

[darth_baggins]

It's not terrible for me (for a change) but compared to previous December it's way down. Etsy is outperforming eBay though 2 to 1, with half the number of listings.

[billtev]

My sales are down to virtually nil 3 sales in past 11 day.  Havent even reached the costs for my next ebay bill!  November was down 70% on last year and October was down 80% - becoming a complete waste of time - cant even be bothered to list anything new as they are just getting buried.

[vintagechinashop]

My sales are fairly good so far. Compared to every month last year aside from January   I’m nowhere near where I was last December but it’s early days. I’m expecting a slow down after the weekend when people realise they probably won’t get things before Christmas  but for now I’m happy with the progress so far 

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

I had a good November.

First 12 days of December i have sold a couple of things.

Might get busier after xmas when people have money presents to spend ?

[tabletop-hobbies]

Always an unpleasant feeling when things go quiet.  Are you keeping an eye on terapeak?  Someone might be undercutting you, promoting, offering a better service or a combination of those.  If so this will tank your sales.

Is your shop in good standing with ebay?  Having top rated does help your visibility , and losing it can have a negative effect.

If things are quiet it's normally helpful to have a trawl through your shop and improve your listings, have a sale on slow sellers etc etc.  Offering premium service helps with visibility, as does of course promoting if you're willing to pay.

Best of luck!

[myretrostore-uk]

Sellers are abusing the private/business accounts. There are so many listings with private accounts so they don't have to pay fees - you can clearly see these are businesses.

They can now undercut legitimate businesses with lower prices which is  why I have seen my sales tanked since eBay announced this.

[mrob7487]

My sales have been dead since the end of October, luckily for me the other sites I sell on are doing ok. There are so many businesses registered as private sellers who can sell for 20% less and it’s impossible to compete with them, in today’s economic climate who’s going to pay £130 for a piece of jewellery when they can get the same/similar elsewhere for £100. I’ve made the decision that if things don’t improve by the end of January I’ll be removing most of my listings and closing my shop.

[macy337]

Same for me in the US. I havent had any sales all week. My guess is that Amazon and shopping malls and other platforms have probably taken some business away from eBay. Right now. People are busy doing last minute shopping and they won't shop eBay now because it won't arrive in time for Christmas. It's kind of just in the middle. Let's be positive and hopefully things will start ticking again with the new year arriving. There's been some crazy politics on the entire planet and I'm sure that isn't helping much either, people being concerned about money in the economy and with America with our Trump coming back into office. Office a lot of people are nervous not just here in America but everywhere. I don't know what anybody's afraid of, but I'm sure that has something to do with it. If anything, he's going to help the economy, but I wish you folks the best of luck. Blessings and have an amazing Christmas!

[vintagechinashop]

I thought my December sales were ok till I looked at last December. Yes I’m up on last month already but I’m a staggering 50% down on last December. I decided to check my monthly sales this year. January and February were good then we hit March and sales fell off a cliff and have not really recovered since  My monthly sales compared to each month last year are 40-50% down. I can’t blame that on the zero fee business sellers mascerading as private sellers. Maybe it’s just my category but I’m feeling the glory days have been replaced by mediocre days 

[typo_lee]

We are exactly the same. Since March our sales fell through the floor. In August which is our busiest month traditionally we were 75% down on eBay. Thank god we sell on other platforms as we would have been under. I am dreading the new year with this lot in charge of the country and don’t feel much positivity right now 

[theelench]

To repeat what I've said on other threads, my sales had a reasonable start on ebay last January and the other site had the best start to any year that I've been selling there.  But come the end of March and into April sales on both sites stopped, with only a couple on each site since.

I know from personal experience March and April was when I got Notices of Coding from HMRC and first payslips from works pension and part-time job.  Due to the April increase in the State Pension and frozen Tax Allowances the tax taken from the other income streams was hiked again.  Last year my work pension code was reduced to 93T and the part-time job went onto BR tax.

Allowances will still be frozen for next year so I'm expecting that the works pension will also go to BR in '25.  With inflation hitting living expenses and increased tax I'm not much better off than I was 5 years ago (if I'm any better off at all).  I'm also reading horror stories about big rises in Council Tax and Southern Water charges coming in April.

All in all I don't see myself having much left to spend next year and like millions of other pensioners won't be spending much on ebay, ebid or anywhere else.  So, being realistic, I can't see my sales going above the levels of this year after the April slump.  If so, that means total sales in single digits for the whole of next year.   😭

[exponential_developments]

DEAD...................Pointless logging on, only doing so at specific times from now on.

[decal_wraps]

So I'm based in Norther Ireland, and I went to click on your listings and this came up?

Would this be also whats hurting our sales?

Or is it a glitch. I dunno this place has really gone to the dogs. I have another account and sales have been dire for 2 years now.

[exponential_developments]

Had a couple of listings on my private account....... 500 x 2 jiffy type envelopes.

Been on for 2 months.

Now deleted.

No views...........No offers........cheapest on ebay............... Either nobody needs them as they aren't selling anything or they aren't being seen by buyers........either way i'd rather a kick in the donkey than have them listed.

[theglo-68]

Perhpas the worst December we had since 2019- sales less than 5 each day and no profit. How can we run our business on ebay like that. AI totally destroyed our ebay business. An item droped price to 99p does not even sell indicates something is terribly wrong with ebay search algorithm.

[vinylvinnie]

I am about 80% down on this time last year on Ebay.  I sell  CD's & records.  The other big site is about 20% up year on year, so before the usual 'economic' excuses come back at me, I feel that there is an Ebay issue here.

[davrman]

"So I'm based in Norther Ireland, and I went to click on your listings and this came up?"

I don't know if this is the issue with the seller you asked about, but many UK sellers have switched off availability to Northern Ireland (and the EU) due to new regulations called GPSR. There are numerous threads about it here.