Ebay clothes sales down

[sarahq1962]

Hi all,

I have a business account and sell high end clothes - mainly used. I have been recently wondering if Vinted if causing a drop in sales on Ebay. I know that at the moment you can't be a business seller on Vinted ( that may change )....does anyone know the pros and cons of buying and selling on Vinted compared to Ebay. Do we think that Ebay can survive the likes of Vinted in the future? I would be interested in people's opinions. I am going to continue to sell on Ebay as I have no choice really. Looking at Vinted there do seem to be some very cheap even new with tags items on clothing. Has anyone had experience buying on Vinted? One thing I noticed is if there is a problem you only have 2 days to report a problem! 

[the-nutwood-collection]

I read an article recently about Vinted https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/the-vinted-phenomenon-how-one-woman-sold-her-clothes-and-creat...

I've been considering emptying my wardrobe, but this article put me off.  Apparently there's a Facebook group that names and shames buyers and sellers and, according to the article, is like 'a soap opera' and 'highlights include a potential buyer who offered 17p for a single pair of baby socks, a user who found a piece of broccoli in a pair of shoes and a pair locked in a tense six-page message thread over a minuscule stain on a £1.50 top'.

eBay's far from perfect, but they don't allow these sort of shenanegans.  INRs and INADs are annoying, but at least they're handled in a civilised way.  Vinted sounds like the Wild West, gunfights at twenty paces over a frock.  I think my clothes will be staying in the wardrobe.

[ojewellery]

My middle son has bought a few tops on Vinted.  Its not been a great experience.  They weren't cheap.  One was a vintage Nike hoodie sold as Adult medium mens.  When it arrived its an age 12-13 boys.  He's a tall 18 year old and this is not suitable and not as titled/ described.  The sellers response was its dimensions are in the listing (they're inaccurate) and it isn't an adult male medium.  I went round and round in loops trying to help him sort the issue before giving up.  

Of three items purchased one was okay, one very poor condition and one (above) not as described.

As for eBay its blue week (should be blue fourtnight because the turn is end of month).  Its that point in the year where the post Christmas build up feels long past.  Lots of people have 6 weeks between pay packs as they get paid early in December and not again until end Jan.

There aren't yet big events that people are buying clothes for.

Soon it'll be Valentines build up, then nice outfits for Mother's day lunches, Easter, Wedding season and on it goes.

It'd be lovely to be able to put feet up and not stress at the quieter times - I'm no master of this.

Do you look at metrics and have the option to compare this period to previous years?  I felt quite flat but when I look at last year my metrics show I'm up a few percent so not quite as down.

[technthread]

Many people are preferring to sell on Vinted because the listing process is a lot more streamlined, they don't require too many item specifics and the postage options are simple. Once a buyer pays the seller has a postage label sent to them instantly. The postage costs are also cheaper, Packlink on eBay aren't competing with the prices Vinted are getting for InPost, Yodel or Evri so it is more attractive to buyers. 

I have business policies set up for my postage on eBay but looking now at how a private seller would create a new listing on the app, it is a confusing mess. You can't find all of the postage options you want on large letter or small parcel (or padded envelope / shoe box in eBay's world). In the time it takes to fiddle around with eBay on 1 listing a seller can get 2 or 3 up for sale on Vinted.

You are right that if there is a dispute on Vinted it is not very buyer friendly. 2 days to report an issue and the buyer has to fund a return on INAD cases isn't great but overall with all its flaws they are doing a lot right by understanding that sellers want to buy and sell quickly and catering to that whereas eBay gets more time consuming by the day.

[knit-in-styles]

I have never bought on Vinted but do sell and have been successful. Vinted is great as far as I am concerned. The listing process is very simple and the major benefit is no fees to pay as a seller. I am an honest seller and would not sell any tatt and would only sell items in very good condition.

Designer goods are popular. I sold a Guess bag which was in excellent condition which sold the minute I listed it so obviously I seriously underpriced it.

The only issue I have is most people use InPost lockers as I think that is the cheapest option. Just before Christmas I had an item that was picked up from the locker I had dropped it off at and then 13 minutes later the tracking showed it was being returned back to me. It then took over a week to come back to me. This morning I woke up to another "your parcel is being returned to you". My buyer tried to collect the package from the lockers yesterday and was greeted with a message "this locker is temporarily out of service". I am tempted to remove InPost from my postage options but am afraid this might limit my sales.

[sheba-knows-best]

We're in the same business.

I am selling well - having to keep an eye to stay under 85k. I can't comment on Vinted but top tips as a clothing seller on ebay:

use most of your photos allowance, and do lots of close ups (I think you normall take 5-6. I spend a HUGE amount of time photographing)

write detailed descriptions of the item - mention flaws - your prices are high and I really cant see from the photos if the Aquascutum coat is nearly new or not

mention that you offer returns in your listing and state that you tag your items (as they are preloved), and do tag, don't those dresses  come back worn?

don't put the brand name in the first four key words unless it is a brand name that is sought after (ie TIMBERLAND leather jacket 42 is okay - but if it is GUISE - then it should be DISTRESSED vintage leather jacket 42  (Guise can go at the end or in the specifics).

And something like 'stylish' probably shouldn't be inthe first four words at all, but then I use distressed... so I dunno...

I have to use PL/dynamic ads for visibility and i think you need to as well, because you wont win visibility on price

Maybe you know all this? I can see you are a seasoned seller.

Selling on ebay as a clothing seller used to be... not too tricky... now, frankly, you need your wits about you

Vinted? Yeah, its big competition. And Vinted Pro hasn't even started yet. Truthfully, you need to enjoy the cut and chase - enjoy trying out ebay's tools - enjoy business strategy because this is all just going to get a whole lot harder.

[sarahq1962]

thanks everyone for the replies - they are very helpful. Just a follow up question -  I have never paid for promoting listings thinking the ebay fees are bad enough as it is! I wonder what other people find with this? does it work/ cost etc. Also, do people feel sales/ markdown sales etc work? This is another thing that I am tending not to do.....TIA

[knit-in-styles]

personally, I do not think it is worth paying to promote. Sometimes I do a few things. On my private account I pay to promote more on there and can go a whole month without a single view for promoted items! I have always said if everyone or the majority of sellers pay to promote, then what is the point as your listing is never going to get to the top.

[technthread]

If a lot of your items are unique with few or no matches on eBay then it may be better to reduce the price by the % you would promote at, and see how that works. Maybe do a sale, if it doesn't give any results cancel it and promote by the same % and compare which worked best. 

Alternatively you could promote just a few selected items and through those, people may then go into your shop and find other things that are not promoted. Personally that's what I would do first on old items that aren't selling anyway. 

Another thing to consider is becoming a top rated seller by reducing your dispatch times, do free postage and free returns. You could use the eBay fee reduction you get towards the minimum 2% promoted listing fee so it's only costing you 1% to promote. 

It might also be worth changing your shipping to tracked 48 to reduce postage costs. Signed for isn't ideal for buyers who know they will be at work and may end up having to collect from their local RM depot. 

[thebeautician]

Ebay gives visibility primarily to items in high demand, whether they are promoted or not. If the items are not in high demand, you won't get much visibility even if you promote, that's how eBay optimizes sales. How do they determine what and when an item is "high demand"  it's harder to figure out from where we stand.

But do keep in mind that promoted listings is just a service eBay sells to their sellers to generate revenue lost from leaving buyers/sellers, its efficacy is limited.

As for Vinted... yes, buyers are moving there because you can find good items at a decent price, and even bargains (like eBay used to be). High prices on eBay push buyers away in my opinion. Last week I bought a John Lewis real leather backpack and paid £10.29 in total, which is close to new, with a retail price above £100. It makes sense that everyone is buying there.

I think that if you want to sell items at a high price the only chance of making good money on eBay is to sell internationally and risk the occasional false SNAD, as Vinted at the moment is focused on the domestic market. 

[returns_andexdisplay]

If I am selling cloths I no longer want then Vinted wins. So much quicker and easier to list. Few pics, then few boxes to fill in and if you got your title right the boxes are pretty much filled in or easy to select. Write a few bits in description. Select price and postge and item is listed. 

ebay more item specifics to fill in with things like requirment for things like style. Often no clue what style to put an item under. But if you put the wrong one you can gurantee ebay buyer will use it as an excuse for a free return. 

ebay for a technology company that are meant to be on a great journey of tech lead reimigination sure are making things more difficult update by update. 

[bricklanebargains]

Buyer protection basically doesn`t exist on Vinted (they state UK buyer protection laws do not apply, not sure if this is even legal) so I definitely wouldn`t recommend paying high prices for any item, designer or not. That said, some really good bargains can be found there. From a seller`s perspective, I don`t think I will use Vinted anytime soon for a few different reasons, average sold price being the main one.     

[the-nutwood-collection]

As I understand it, Vinted is only for private sellers.  I don't think the Consumer Rights Act applies to an individual selling their own possessions - happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.

I guess the buyer could take action through the Small Claims process but, from what I've heard about the prices realised, I don't think it would be worth the bother.

[ett1954]

@the-nutwood-collection 

You are correct, however the item should be as described.  If it isn't you can ask for a refund however if they refuse you will probably have to write it off; as it wouldn't be worth pursuing through the Small Claims process as you state.

I don't know anything about Vinted but I would imagine that is why they currently don't allow business sellers on the UK site - their rules would be unenforceable if purchased from a business - any buyer buying online from a business would have the full protection of the Consumer Rights Act.

[btr.style]

Dresses barely sell most of the time anyway and some 1300+ of your items are dresses. Not every woman wears them (unlike coats and jumpers) and the ones who do may only want 1 or 2 in their collection as they aren't really something to wear all year round. 

Vinted is a who knows from me..... Business sellers aren't allowed on the platform at current and yet there are lots of people flouting the rules. I've abstained from selling there for that reason as I'm not going to build up a decent reputation and put the time in the then end up banned which would be a total waste of resources. 

"You might do better opening a little shop in town to sell your higher end goods"

Not a good idea, especially with dresses. Come winter sales are going to completely slow to potential losses when factoring in business rates and so on. The rest of the year may well prop it up but the only way to have any slight chance would include going VAT registered. Not worth that risk at all imo. 

[technthread]

Whatnot would probably love to have you on their platform with the amount of stock you have. It wouldn't necessarily affect your ebay as you can cherry pick what isn't shifting on here and sell it there.

There are a multitude of reasons why it wouldn't be for everyone, being on camera and much lower prices achieved being 2, but something to consider. I expect eBay may cotton on in future and roll out something similar on their platform. 

[btr.style]

No way will eBay ever consider some camera based auction system. That ship has long sailed and if they were ever going to do it, they would have done it when auction listings were at their peak. If it became the new way of selling full stop, there would be a slight chance but at current a host your own auction "look at me" social media style platform is very niche indeed. 

Whatnot is a fad. The outlook long term isn't too great for them and there is much talk in the industry of it likely going to pot or stopping with UK sales at some point. I've not been on it, but I've seen bits of it and heard a fair bit about it and I've just shaken my head (no doubt we'd do very well there with the extremely rare Ralph Lauren stuff we have shipped over...but no....). Anyway then there's having a decent enough camerabto host auctions, plus having to keep track of multi platform sales so they don't exceed 85k VAT threshold. 

[technthread]

Maybe you're right, I hope it doesn't fail here though. I have a had a mooch on it and bought a few things and I kinda liked it. A lot seems to be changing, I know Poshmark withdrew from the UK, whatnot seem to be making a real push now, depop have gone to % fees, Mercari 0% fees in the US.... maybe eBay will shock us all at some point with a major change we didn't see coming  

[btr.style]

By all means, can't fault them for coming out with something different that isn't just the norm. It's tricky to know where it will all go next. I remember the days where there was that win expensive electronics for cheap auction idea. You have to pay for bids and the price starts very low. When very few people used it, bargains could be had. The bigger it all got, the fewer the bargains. It could well go the way of too many cooks with more and more sellers joining. 

Definitely fingers crossed eBay pull something out of the bag. 

[pg_kicks]

Whilst Mercari have dropped the seller fees, they do have buyer fees and if the buyer returns the item the fee's are not refunded, they are also charging sellers $2 to get their own funds, so as much as I'd love eBay to have 0% fee's id hate them to do what Mercari are doing. Seems like Mercari are wanting to close their site down overnight.