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.

[arboretum-carpentry]

I converted to a business account in February, because my activity went from "side hustle" to main income. A lot of people seem to think it's a black and white thing. It is not. The introduction of the buyer production fee also made my prices ugly as sin, and I wanted to keep them competitive without using a calculator.

As part of my account conversion, I had a "seller clinic" call, where the eBay rep actually questioned whether converting to a business account was best for me at the time, purely on the basis of cost. They didn't care whether the items were new or whether my business was registered.

This is an online forum, so this post will get hate from all sorts of heros. But the reality they have to deal with is it's not the seller's fault if they choose to keep a private account. It's eBay's. They don't care. And if I was a private seller and got a message from a business seller whining at me, I wouldn't care either. I do what's best for my business, my retailers and suppliers, and I always will. If eBay tell me to do it, I do it. But they simply don't. 

But my account is a business account, purely for the other "benefits" which never materialised. If anything, like seemingly everyone else, my sales are way down. Oh well, there are other places to sell.

To those whose nads this tightly grips, campaign to eBay to make a change and stop complaining at others who are simply doing the best for their pockets. This isn't some prestigious club - it's the car boot sale of the internet, a yard sale, and that's the direction eBay want it to back to after years trying and failing to compete with *others* as a marketplace for new products. Don't expect to be treated like royalty.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

This is an online forum, so this post will get hate from all sorts of heros. But the reality they have to deal with is it's not the seller's fault if they choose to keep a private account. It's eBay's. They don't care. And if I was a private seller and got a message from a business seller whining at me, I wouldn't care either. I do what's best for my business, my retailers and suppliers, and I always will. If eBay tell me to do it, I do it. But they simply don't. 

This is not about hate at all.  And from your post, you really don't get why people are upset with this.

To be absolutely clear here, it IS the sellers fault if they choose to keep a private account when trading.

They are literally breaking the law.  And as such, they are the ones that will get prosecuted and not Ebay.

So you cannot blame Ebay for this, as it is not their responsibility to ensure that a sellers is registered correctly.  It is very much the sellers responsibility to comply with a legal requirements and by using the wrong account, they are not doing so.

Ebay should however be policing this properly, as it is not only losing them fees but it is also putting them in a position where they will be liable for issues with GPSR.

As for the agent questioning whether or not you should change to a business account, they are clearly not trained properly and have no understanding of the reasons to change.  That doesn't make it good advice and should be addressed by Ebay management.

But frankly, a lot of the support from Ebay staff is atrocious.  They regularly give out wrong advice.  Particularly those who are based outside of Europe.

Oh, and by the way, it is a black and white thing as to when to use a business account.

It's actually quite simple.  You must register as self employed once your turnover goes over £1000 and you are buying to sell.

Many are not aware of this and continue blindly and frankly, I really don't have any real issue with them as long as they are staying low.  The problems come from those who are out and out traders, with thousands of listings and who are not providing their customers with their consumer rights.

[lucy_farmer]

'This isn't some prestigious club - it's the car boot sale of the internet, a yard sale, and that's the direction eBay want it to back to after years trying and failing to compete with *others* as a marketplace for new products.'

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Really?

Late last year (I think) Jamie Ianonone CEO was talking about wanting ebay to be a 'high-end Luxury shopping site'  (yes I know that seems a little unlikely to happen 😂, but he really did say that!)

And a lot of the (un) 'improvements' to the private selling side seem to be trying to push away the sellers of second-hand cheap stuff by making it financially pointless.....

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I still can't find anything about about him wanting the site to be luxury.

I have a sneaking suspicion, that this has been confused with his various statements about wanting High value buyers on the site.  By which he means those buying at least half a dozen times a year, and high value purchases.  ie. more than a few hundred.

[billus89]

Totally agree with all you've said.

I just wanted to add that the reason why "ebay don't care"  is because they don't have to! They distribute all the numbers directly to HMRC and they then can let HMRC decide whether someone is a business or not and owes tax.

As far as they are concerned, as long as you are making them money, they are happy regardless of the onward tax liabilities. Onward tax liabilities is not their problem, hence why we've seen all these "ebay ins't implementing a side hustle tax", because technically they aren't. HMRC are "the enforcers" and ebay just provides them with the evidence to  root out the guilty parties.

Its been like this for years and everyone should be aware of their tax liabilities. What has changed is that ebay and HMRC operate more openly now (hand in hand if you like), and with the use of AI the process has become a streamlined ocean trawling net for the tax evaders.

[vintagechinashop]

Just to add. EBay do care a little because after all they make more money out of a business seller. That is the only reason they care though let’s be honest   I agree they care not is a private seller is trading as a business for the tax implication. However I’m sure they are rubbing their hands every time some private seller decides to come over to the dark side 🌚

[therenewalworkshopltd]

It's not even about taxes.

The fact is, you can sell on a private account on Ebay and pay your taxes quite legitimately.

The issue, is the legal one.  ie. these kind of sellers are not adhering to the law.

Your right, this kind of thing has gone on for years, but it has generally been very much the tiny sellers.

What changed, was the Ebay gave private accounts free fees and as a consequence, those traders who have no scruples moved to those accounts.  Which is why we see so many with thousands of listings breaking the law.

But as I said, in itself, Ebay does not have an interest to ensure that these people are trading correctly.

It is very much the traders that must comply.

What is the incentive to them, is the loss of fees in the main.

And this is why they need to police accounts much better.

[theelench]

I think that might have been the year-before-last when he was enthusing about ebay's new "Vertical Strategy" of building relationships with high end buyers who bought "Luxury Brands" half-a-dozen times a year (at least) in "Focus Categories".  These relationships were to be built-up by ebay offering "Verification" services to guarantee that they didn't get fooled into buying nasty Chinese fakes.

The Focus categories that I remember were Watches, Trainers and Hand-bags at around $6000+ a pop.

One of his later press releases was quite up-beat about its success and how the number of "low value" buyers had decreased, being replaced by those of a higher value. 

Personally I thought it was just more smoke and mirrors to cover ebays continued decline in buyers of all values.  Kicking the can down the road by stressing the need for some time to build the required relationships for its success.

I think that last year hope was beginning to fade as no figures for growth in the Vertical Strategy were given and towards the end of last year it wasn't mentioned at all.  Like so many of ebay's alleged quick fixes, it's probably failed and has been allowed to wither away.

By that time he was extolling the virtues of private sellers and telling the press that "buyers who also sell tend to buy twice as much as buyers who don't sell" (and that he had figures to prove it).  Leading up to the "Free" to Sell ploy last Autumn to increase private sellers numbers and setting the stage for ebay to make its latest cash-grab from them with its recent raft of money making restrictions.

I wonder what he'll come up with when they begin to leave, having sold virtually nothing unless they pay for ebay's Sponsorship (or as it used to be called  --  visibility)?  With private sellers in even shorter supply, perhaps he'll decide to dump the BPF 💩, the 2 week payment holds 💩 and mandatory Silly Deliveries 💩 on business sellers?  IMO he'll need to get the funds for the next share buy-back to placate the shareholders from somewhere and he's running out of options.

[the_book_seekers]

I remember this. It was after one of the quarterly results. About the time he talked about ebay's 'tech-led reimagination'. That's going well too!

[modalman57]

Same here.  Except for a specific item and two repeat customers, ZIP, ZILCH, NADA.  And I sell nothing that is affected by tariffs.  Either sumpin's wrong w/ ebay or folks have frozen their spending all around thanks to the upcoming tRump recession or depression.

I personally have largely frozen spending (tho, sadly, forced to buy a new car).