Had no choice joined amazon fbm

[ts-trade-uk]

For months my sales have been slow on ebay I've tried a few things as I have a background in tech to try beat ebay algorithm  no luck or change  as a diy and hardware seller we can't use adds put the price up too much  I like to offer good value for money not rip people off  but seems ebay have decided no adds no sales  so decided to try amazon  I joined listed a few boxes of screws and within a few hours  I was getting sales  now I've been selling on there for over a week and  my sales have x10  now why can't ebay do the same go back to the old search algorithm  and get rid off the promo all your doing is driving us good seller away from your platform this is why new platform are doing well because your killing us with your fees  it's cheaper to shop on amazon then here your not only hurts your sellers but also your buyers s

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

As a seller it gets very frustrating when things stop selling.

I am getting short bursts of sales then nothing for a few days.

Ebay likes to make changes and many of these have made it more difficult to buy and sell on ebay.

Ebay was working ok so heaven knows why they need to change it.

[honeymonster007]

Buy a lot of items that your selling but the first got to is Screwfix as you can normally get what your looking for the same or next day or even delivered the same/next day.

Have brought on eBay before as sometimes the smaller quantity's listed can be ideal, your packs of 10 packers for example the only downside is the delivery times of 2-3 days  which means some forward planning on a job or juggling the day.

Amazon could work well for you with their next day delivery's 👍 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

You make it sound so simple.

You must have registered your account quite some time ago and not just a week ago?

They are notoriously slow in getting accounts approved, so if you are actually selling, then you need to double and triple check that your account is fully approved.  Otherwise, you are going to be sat there selling things, building up a balance and not able to withdraw it.  Along with the fact that you will be waiting about 3 weeks or so before you actually start to get any money anyway.

Be sure to use the correct listings on there.  There are very many that although they might look correct, they are not.  If you use these, then you will likely get suspended.

The river has a VERY steep learning curve and something that you need to understand very quickly.

So only trying to warn you of the major pitfalls that I've seen time after time happen to new sellers.

As regards better sales, it's not that surprising, they have at least 10 times the number of people using the site.  And what does help, is the catalogue system.  There should only be one listing, for one item.  Whereas Ebay, you can find 1000 listings, for one item.....  So your not just competing on price.

The obvious disadvantage being that it is generally a race to the bottom over there.

As an aside, an awful lot of your pictures on Ebay are breaking the rules, you are not supposed to have your company name splashed across the images.  Your not even allowed to use watermarks on them.

So I would suggest that you remove them, before someone reports you.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/listing-policies/picture-policy?id=4370                                                  

But anyway, if you have been selling for more than 5 minutes, why on earth aren't you on other sites anyway?

It's not good to just rely on the one, where you can lose everything at once if you get suspended etc for some reason.

[ts-trade-uk]

I am getting short bursts of sales then nothing for a few days.

same here one day we have good sales the next it be dead for 2 days or longer

[vintagechinashop]

Same here. I sold an item on Sunday then nothing for 4 days then this morning 3 sales within 5 minutes. I’m always suspicious when that happens to me it sounds too coincidental 

however my sales on V have been quite consistent this week true I have to sell things a bit cheaper there but there’s no fees or postage to pay so to me thats so much easier. I know eBay do simple delivery and zero fees for private sellers but I still get angry how it’s the business sellers that suffer for this. This month it’s cost me £102 to sell £230 because of the shop fee.  Out of that I pay postage of approx £50 and packing materials so unless I have a good month on sales this month I’ll be making virtually nothing and when you consider your time it’s probably a loss. V on the other hand I’ve sold £125 and apart from the packing materials I’ve got £125 in my pocket  

[superchallenge]

I think this is a problem that a lot of people don't consider when they're complaining about a lack of sales on eBay, to be honest.

People aren't going to wait 3 days for a 100 pack of M4 locknuts at £10.25 when they can get the same thing delivered next day from Amazon for £6.39, or pick them up from Screwfix today (if they have one local) for £4.25.

Plus, I don't know how many people would think "I need to get some DIY supplies...I'd better check eBay" in the first place.

[typo_lee]

You won’t regret joining. They are about 10 times as big as eBay. If we had not started selling on there as well as eBay we would be under by now. EBay is dead and is a dying platform in its current guise. 

[superchallenge]

...for your product line.

Yet my eBay sales are up in terms of both value and number for the third month in a row, and tracking to be up by both metrics for a fourth. I hear the same from other sellers in similar and adjacent niches, too, both here and in the US.

As someone who buys custom vinyl and printing services fairly often, I've never once thought "I know...I bet I can get that on eBay" when Etsy, VistaPrint, Amazon, StickerMule, Noissue, and a million and one other services exist. Heck, if I wanted a custom nametag for my bike, I'd probably rock up at my local Halfords before I even thought about eBay. Maybe people are being pushed in a better direction with the rise of AI search? If I search for "where can I get a nametag for my bike?" on Google, the AI response doesn't even mention eBay. But it mentions Amazon and Etsy.

There are changes happening for sure, but the place most assuredly isn't "dead" no matter how many thousands of times you roll in here to declare it so. I see it as being in a period of reconfiguration. Maybe we're going back to the days of eBay being a place for second-hand and niche items, rather than being a place where the results are flooded with new items and services that would probably do way better on Amazon or regrEtsy?

[theelench]

"Plus, I don't know how many people would think "I need to get some DIY supplies...I'd better check ebay" in the first place."

I think you might be surprised just how many private sellers do just that, if not for next weekends DIY project then for the toaster that just went bang or a thousand other eventualities.  That's why ebay was such a success for so long, there were enough private sellers doing that with ebay as their natural first port of call while checking on their listings.

It began to stop working when ebay started discouraging private sellers from selling here while encouraging more and more businesses.  With the current round of new restrictions on private sellers the situation will only get worse.

[honeymonster007]

Going by your vase it looks like you know what your doing and sell some pretty nice items, but just out of curiosity do you watch the markets? 

[theelench]

Sorry, I don't understand.  I price check on ebay, etsy and google shopping.  I even check ebay's share price once in a while.  I don't get to any of the B&M collectables / antiques fairs / auctions these days.  Not sure which markets you mean? 

[insidethe93]

Amazon's Premium delivery (delivery next day, usually, or 2 days, and not for all items) isn't free so calculations are needed to compare Amazon with eBay. Amazon Prime is currently £95 p.a. or £8.99 p.m.  People kind of forget they've paid and the delivery cost per transaction isn't shown, so delivery feels free; there's bound to be a limit, unofficially, probably up to £95 p.a.?

But with eBay (shipping &) delivery is per transaction so you're always reminded of costs, which can help you do the maths if you're on a tight budget.

Amazon's possibly easier to compare with eBay if you look at Amazon's options if you're not a Prime member: "free" delivery requires £35 minimum order but free whatever if it includes £10 or more of books, delivery is "Standard" (not next day), otherwise £3.95-£4.99 delivery charge. But as "Standard" can be several days sometimes a week, on paper eBay's couriers should often perform faster than Amazon.

[insidethe93]

When you search on Amazon, it can report "70,000" finds so buyers filter searches to, for instance, Prime only and "customer reviews 4 stars and above". At how many searches will a buyer's eyes glaze over: 100, 300, 500? If you're a seller and your item doesn't have any reviews yet, how much visibility will you get?

Sellers considering moving to Amazon are probably sensibly looking at the new system, e.g. whether to go for "Fulfilled by Amazon" (fees are charged; it increases the chances of winning the coveted Amazon Buy Box even if only on rotation [new items only]) or Prime-equivalent "Fulfilled By Merchant" or other. The first two are probably the two most popular buyer choices being the most visible choices, but on both Amazon impose very strict criteria. (Apparently 80% of 3rd-party sellers use FBA, with an average of 45% gaining an advantage by winning the Amazon Buy Box.) My point is that a precipitate rush from eBay to Amazon is likely to mean just different stress and pressure, so I understand why many private sellers are trying to see if they can work with eBay's recent changes such as SD.

I don't know how small a thing it is, but Amazon long ago got rid of Community Answers whereby short questions were asked of all buyers of an item and its sellers (normally you'd get a good handful of replies), whereas eBay has the far wider-ranging discussion boards whose posters include experienced eBayers including particularly the mentors. Se https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Community-Notice-Board/Community-Mentor-Programme/ba-p/7612430 for mentor constraints including "advocate of eBay". It depends how important it is to you, if at all, being able to ask questions and/or to vent! though unforunately not that many eBayers frequent the boards. I myself have found the discussion boards to be of great help, especially when I first joined eBay and was finding my feet and that was just as a buyer.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

People kind of forget they've paid and the delivery cost per transaction isn't shown, so delivery feels free; there's bound to be a limit, unofficially, probably up to £95 p.a.?

To my knowledge, there is no official limit.  If there was, it would be insanely high.  To do any different would be hurting their deliveries.

But the payment is not just for delivery.  It also gives access to video and so on.

However at the end of the day, it's just an extra perk that they offer to reel customers in.

As regards the actual cost of delivery, what your talking about is people sending items into their warehouses and then being charged for the delivery and storage.  So the sellers have to add on sufficient to pay for it.  It is NOT subsidised in any way by that original payment.

[insidethe93]

Yes I know the last bit, but thanks for explaining in case I didn't. I was probably trying to cover too many topics in the same post.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Was a long time seller on the river, till I got sick of them!  🙂

The forums over there used to be brilliant, but up until the point where they had the issues with one particular seller (she who won't be named), they changed everything around and it's now a desert in comparison.

Such a shame as it was an extremely helpful place to be.

Even the mods used to join in and help specifically, rather than give out the none specific rubbish that you get bother here and there.

[superchallenge]

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@theelench wrote:

"Plus, I don't know how many people would think "I need to get some DIY supplies...I'd better check ebay" in the first place."

I think you might be surprised just how many private sellers do just that, if not for next weekends DIY project then for the toaster that just went bang or a thousand other eventualities.  That's why ebay was such a success for so long, there were enough private sellers doing that with ebay as their natural first port of call while checking on their listings.

And since the "good old days" that everyone seems to be pining for - you know, where you had to post a cheque to the seller, then when it had cleared two weeks later maybe the seller would send you the item in a month perhaps - Amazon has risen to cover nearly every possible requirement. Also, retailers like Screwfix and B&Q have improved their online offering and delivery times, and it has become cheaper and easier than ever before to set up your own e-commerce platform if you're a small business. There's next to no technical knowledge required. All barriers have been removed.

I don't think I'd be surprised by the amount of people who look for M4 locknuts on eBay. I've done it myself. And I then went and ordered elsewhere because they were cheaper and the delivery time wasn't "maybe next week possibly."

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@theelench wrote:

It began to stop working when ebay started discouraging private sellers from selling here while encouraging more and more businesses.  With the current round of new restrictions on private sellers the situation will only get worse.

---

Discouraging private sellers? When did that happen? Was that when they gave private sellers 80% discounts on fees every other weekend? Or was it when they removed listing fees altogether? Maybe it was when they killed off final value fees and essentially allowed private sellers to choose whether they would pay the FVF, split it with the buyer, or just let the buyer pay?

Simple Delivery is not good - I get that - but to claim that eBay has been actively discouraging private sellers takes some serious mental gymnastics.