February Sales Dead 2025 - Ebay Sales Completely Dead

[theglo-68]

Any thoughts as why would suddenly ebay sales would do ZERO since start of February.

We have been closely monitoring our sales and since start of January 2025 sales are down. But they have now completely died as soon as February started.

[resc66]

There could be a number of reasons for the downturn :-

1. Ebay have now placed a buyers tax of every purchase.  When a purchase is made a "buyer protection fee" is added to the purchase price !!! Which idiot / idiots at ebay thought that was a good idea ?

2. Ebay have proclaimed that they are providing selling figures to the HMRC so casual sellers are stopping in their droves !

3, Ebay are constantly making tweaks th the site to "improve our ebay experience" when in fact what they do actually over complicates matters and frustrates the hell out of users !

Hope this answers some of the points raised

[therenewalworkshopltd]

2. Ebay have proclaimed that they are providing selling figures to the HMRC so casual sellers are stopping in their droves !

Believe what you want about the rest, but Ebay have not proclaimed anything about providing figures to HMRC.  

HMRC have TOLD Ebay and indeed every single other platform that they MUST provide this information to them.

In other words, Vinted, Amazon, Onbuy and whatever other one that you can think off must also do this!

[shooglynail72]

So has any seller actually had increased sales since the introduction the buyers fee in the 4th February? not only has our sales stagnated, they have plummeted 😩

[typo_lee]

Yes we had an increase up to the end of feb then it dropped off 28th feb.

.

[parsley2003]

Mines gone finished. I did well before bpf because i told  people it was coming but now just a handful of sales in 10 days. Even had a cancellation and my friend 2 when they realise the fee is there. People commit to buy pay and request cancellation because the fee is only shown at checkout

[valleyrc1]

January was decent. Feb started slow but picked up to the lower end of average. March is off to a modest start.

Last year, January was awful and Feb slow, so from my perspective, this time of year is typically a bit slow.

Looking at sold items from rival sellers and particular items, it seems like things are a little stale at the moment. I'm not getting the impression that it's "just me"

It's truly hard to assess the situation because I never see much consistency or rhyme and reason with ebay. Last year after a shocking Jan and slow Feb, March and April were new record highs one after the other.

I find it very hard to observe anything resembling consistent patters or cause and effect. I have days with awful traffic but huge sales and days with huge traffic and zero sales. Some of my best days for sales have had very poor traffic. It's interesting seeing the "ROAS" flare up dramatically on days like that.

My sales have always tended to come in fits and bursts, not unusual to go 3-5 days with no sales occasionally, and then some days flare up dramatically.

One thing I HAVE noticed this year is that some items that have always gotten at least some promoted views day in, day out, now sometimes go several days with no promoted views.

I tried bumping the promoted rate up on some items with no difference observed to this behavior.

I hadn't changed anything on my end to lead to this happening. Whether or not it means there's less buyers around at the moment, I don't know, but the last Sunday of Feb saw my impressions and views for both promoted and organic spiking to the highest in a long time. Organic impressions the highest since last May!

So my overall traffic seems to be fairly "normal" but some items now flatline for days on end, at least according to how ebay report it. Some items show no impressions but gain several watchers, so it could just be misreporting on ebay's part.

If there's one thing I've learnt, it's that it's incredibly difficult find any kind of correlation or consistency or patterns on here. Every time you think you've discovered a link between two things, something will happen to completely dispell it.

I can make zero changes to my listings, prices, promoted rates etc and see absolutely huge changes in traffic and sales from one week to the next, so it often seems pointless obsessing over what competitors are doing, as there have often been times I outsold them whilst charging more and times where I've undercut them viciously and sold way less.

Again, it feels like there's no matter what you do, ebay is going to decide how much you sell from one day to the next, regardless of your pricing, promotion, quality of listings etc.

I've tried lowering prices and sometimes appeared to have direct results but I've also done it and observed zero difference, how can you reconcile that!?

Likewise, I used to do a lot of "end and sell similar" to try and keep things fresh, but again, mixed results. I've also seen "stale" listings flare up out of nowhere, and have tremendous runs of sales before going dormant again, and something else taking over.

I'm sure different sellers have different experiences, and I can only talk from my own perspective.

I tend to have circa 110 items at any given time with an average value of maybe 100, so it's a lot different to a seller with 0000s of low price items who have dozens of sales per day.

Some months I sell 1 or 2 items per day consistently but other months there can be a 4 day gap then as many as 10 sales in a day.

Apologies for the meandering post, but it is a reflection of how random and unpredictable ebay can be, even with an established business account!

[whf-southampton]

We have been waiting to see if things improved at the beginning of March - they have not, which is unheard of for us in 20 years of selling on ebay.

We are now certain that our analysis in our previous post is reality and have decided to clear out all our stock and close.

Such a shame that ebay cannot see that they have now managed to successfully alienate business sellers, private sellers, and buyers.

Time to abandon a sinking ship for us - so sad. 

[valleyrc1]

January for me was way up on last year, which was awful. Feb was up a few % against a slow one last year.

But again, I don't even see enough consistency to say which month will or wont be the best and worst apart from Q1 generally tending to have slow patches.

Jan and feb were slow last year then march and april amazing.

This year, Jan was decent and Feb a bit slow. I wonder if March will be slow, too and maybe April and May better months this year.


But again, trying to find a pattern is nigh on impossible.

August 03 was great for me and August 04 was my worst month ever.

August being decent makes sense for what I sell, so again, you think maybe there's something consistent in it, but then the next year the same month is absolutely awful with no tangible cause.

Even after all these years, new patterns and experiences pop up.

I would say try and hang in there, at least a bit longer, unless it's better for you to focus on other platforms.

Nothing surprises me at this point with ebay.

If I had a year where I sold nothing for 11 months and then had a years worth of sales in a week it wouldn't surprise me at this point.

I've had record worst months and then record best ones in succession.

I've had nice solid run from September till January, so I can't really grumble. I was due a slow patch.

[valleyrc1]

2023:

Jan: Poor
Feb: Decent

May and October also poor

2024:

Jan: Poor
Feb: Poor

May and August also poor (despite conventional wisdom saying my "niche" should be at it's peak from May-September)

2025:

Jan: Decent
Feb: Poor but better than prior year

[555njp]

---

@valleyrc1 wrote:

I can make zero changes to my listings, prices, promoted rates etc and see absolutely huge changes in traffic and sales from one week to the next, so it often seems pointless obsessing over what competitors are doing, as there have often been times I outsold them whilst charging more and times where I've undercut them viciously and sold way less.

Again, it feels like there's no matter what you do, ebay is going to decide how much you sell from one day to the next, regardless of your pricing, promotion, quality of listings etc.

I've tried lowering prices and sometimes appeared to have direct results but I've also done it and observed zero difference, how can you reconcile that!?

Some months I sell 1 or 2 items per day consistently but other months there can be a 4 day gap then as many as 10 sales in a day.

---

All of what you said above I have experienced too. especially eBay deciding how much you sell through restricting visibility.
There was a thread about staying positive and trying to improve sales. I tried every trick and tip on there but over a period of several months it made absolutely no difference as did stopping all PLs. Tried PLs for a while at 2%, 5% and even an eye watering 14.7% (eBay’s recommendation!). Sales didn’t change but occasionally I got charged more in fees for a sale.

I sell hardware and garden equipment/spare parts (which tend to be seasonal) to GB only.
I’m very low volume and part-time but also 100% pos FB and TRS (counts for nothing!).

The spares usually sell quickly and for me the sweet spot in terms of number of listings is incredibly low at 30-40 giving a couple of sales a day which running part-time is all I’m after.

The absolute max I’ve had listed at any one time is around 75.

For me, eBay sales have gradually been declining, no matter what I do.

I put it down to far less people these days having the technical skills to say replace a motor on a lawnmower nowadays, choosing instead to throw it away and buy a new one rather than fix it. However, even simple fixes (strimmer wires, new blades, handle clamps and grass boxes) aren’t selling either so it can’t just be that.
Also, general household stuff that I put on my private account takes an age to go as well, whereas a couple of years ago it would often sell same day. Just far less people buying I think, certainly not the go-to platform for anyone under 40, so that doesn’t help.

I don’t promote anymore but talking to a techie guy, having done so in the past may have affected my account. He reckons the algorithm is smart enough to know that if you promoted once, you’re likely to do it again so it may reduce your visibility until you do?
No idea if he’s right or not, but it could be plausible as search is so manipulated.

Thanks for your lengthy analysis though, it’s so similar to what I’ve seen on both accounts.

[knit-in-styles]

Promoted Listings completely baffle me. 

I have an item listed on another account which is promoted at 2%. Weirdly for this particular item I have a daily email alert set up on this business account so that whenever anything is listed in this category it is included in the daily email. My promoted item is NOT included in new listings detailed in the email. I therefore went to the link in the email to see all items recently listed and again my item is NOT there and NOT shown. Last week this item although promoted had zero views.

[probi9246]

Yep, makes you wonder how the CEO is still in a job. They also let go of 10% of their workforce last year, are they rehiring them again to give customers 24/7 access to customer support because of the new BPF. 🙄

How many new initiatives have been rolled out then delayed because of technical faults, honestly it's beyond a joke.

[*_vins*]

Why not change 1.000's to MILLIONS?

Sinking and ship come to mind!

[6kitkat]

As a private seller I was selling 5 items a month and buying about 15 items.

Since February , and the introduction of the new rules, I’ve stopped selling and bought nothing. Zilch.

There’s no real reason to stay on eBay - I’m not going to pay an eBay sales tax of 75p and 4% on items for private sellers. Business sellers I just go to their main websites now and cut out eBay.

The eBay CEO has completely fluffed it up. 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Yet, you will probably go to the likes of Vinted and pay exactly the same type of fee.

I really don't get what issue people have with this.  Whether it's added on, or included in the price, the customer ALWAYS pays the fees at the end of the day.

It really doesn't matter where you buy from.  Even buying from a shop, you are paying "fees", in regard to stocking the item, paying the rent, paying the staff and the list goes on.

The only difference, is that on Ebay, you pay a fee directly, instead of built into the price.

And far from all business sellers have their own websites.  So you are literally refusing to buy from the many small business, that survive using Ebay.  All because Ebay put a fee on Private sellers listings.....

[6kitkat]

Yes, I’ll go direct to the business and give them my money, rather than eBay. 

I’m simply not paying an eBay tax. Nor am I waiting for payment for two days after a private sale.

Watch as eBay slowly circles the drain….less private sellers = less people on the site = less buyers overall.  An eBay sales tax  = less purchases. You might not like that, but it’s the reality of the situation.

Ask yourself the question, is eBay a better marketplace now compared to a month ago. No.

[theelench]

"I really don't get what issue people have with this."

I think the reality is that most buyers and private sellers do not think like a business seller or anyone who has been 'in business'.

Yes, we know that the buyer always pays the fees.  Were you here when MP was introduced?  Do you remember how many times sellers had to have it explained to them that under MP they were paying slightly less in fees than they were when paying ebay and paypal separately?  

It became obvious that many sellers were un-aware that they were paying paypal any fee at all, neither did buyers.  Because ebay put their fee in big numbers and made the paypal fee disappear into the 'small print' while quietly taking 12.9% of the price the buyer paid from the seller.

Now, they've drawn attention to their fee by putting a big, fat, brightly coloured label on it for every buyer to see. 

All the buyer sees is "Buyer Protection Fee" where there was no fee before and automatically, especially now when everyone has become so used to regular rises in the cost of everything, assume it's yet another increase.  Even if the seller takes the hit on the fee and even more so if they reduced their price when it became 'Free' to Sell.

As a way to destroy genuine private sellers sales, it's another ebay masterstroke

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Actually, I'm finding that it is.  I've doubled sales in the last month!  🙂

And no, not on this account.

But if your that much against Ebay, why on earth are you commenting on this forum?

Just go elsewhere.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Yes, I was here back then.  Just not so active on Ebay at that time.

But it's the same whenever anything new is introduced, and I'm not limiting that to Ebay.

People just don't think and really don't understand.

But give it a bit of time and it all smooths out again.  They all forget about it, until something else changes.

It's farcical that anyone would get upset about paying a fee, when no matter where they go, they pay fees of one kind or another.  Or do they all think it's free?

[exponential_developments]

If you were so busy you wouldn't be on here chastising everyone for having an opinion based on their experience from their perspective which you can't argue against because you haven't a clue about them or their circumstances.

You cannot argue against subjective points of view.

There are bus loads of people both private and business sellers on here saying they have had enough, whether you like it or not that's their prerogative.