02-01-2024 12:08 PM
We have been a seller on here over a couple of our accounts for many years now. Over this time we have seen a reduction in sales from a max of £13k pcm to £60 pcm. We have been through mass seller culls, more and more control over the seller/buyer relationship, the forcing of managed payments, increases in fees and requirements to use promoted/advanced promoted and now bid for clicks, to the point where ebay is taking an unsustainable percentage of profit.
This in turn has lead to such search manipulation as to be virtually impossible for any of our listings to be shown unless we implemented all of the additional promotions, and even then since everyone is in the same boat, it makes little difference. Search has been broken as a result of all this, and whereas in the past, if your product met the search terms, you could get your item to show, this is now not much short of a miracle!
Maybe you could argue some of it is the economy, but when your listings barely get any visibility unless you pay through the nose for it, it becomes a weak argument at best.
We have closed our shop and have halved our listings, and will be running down all of the stock we do have via other marketplaces.
I'm just curious what other peoples plans are in 2024, are you bearing with ebay in the hopes of better times, or moving on?
Solved! Go to Solution.
10-11-2024 2:17 PM - edited 10-11-2024 2:19 PM
12.9% final value fees, 16% plus VAT promoted listing fees, operating fee, postage costs, shop fee, listing fees, international transaction fees etc would add up to circa 40% of my revenue.
Not sure Ebay understands the difference between revenue and profit.
They have openly admitted to everyone that private sellers won't pay to use the platform yet they expect businesses to pay them circa 40%. No wonder this platform is such a mess at the moment.
10-11-2024 2:27 PM - edited 10-11-2024 2:27 PM
I helped someone list some oil on canvas paintings on eBay that an auction house valued at around £30 each.
The auction house decided it wasn't worth taking them in due to their fees so we did £15 start bids on eBay (free postage) just to get them gone. We sold a couple to US buyers who paid around $40-$50 on GSP but not a sniff from UK buyers.
It seems like hard work it's cost more in time and packaging than it has been worth so far. I know you have nicer more valuable stuff than we listed but I can understand why you have to promote in your category it felt like it was a real challenge to get seen.
10-11-2024 4:23 PM
Yes, this is the problem these days, decent auction houses generally don't bother with items with a guide price of less than £50 and if they do they charge for many different things that it makes it unviable to sell.
There is way too much on Ebay now, if you search oil painting 370,000 items appear, it has made it very difficult. Free to list has killed it.
10-11-2024 5:01 PM - edited 10-11-2024 5:07 PM
Or you could look at it as business sellers now having to pay for all the graphs, sales data, research data and other assorted whistles, bells and gimmicks without any further contributions from the armies of private sellers FVF of 12.8% + the same on their P&P costs. For years private sellers have been subsidising all this stuff that we didn't want, never used and a lot of which we don't even understand.
Most private sellers still adhere to ebays old slogan of "List it - Sell it - Get paid" using basic listings, none of the trappings that have been added to and overlaid on the site over the years almost entirely for the benefit of the business community, whether correctly registered or not. Not one of these "improvements" has ever increased my sales in any noticeable way.
Yes, the site is mess and has been heading in that direction for years from the point of view of a private seller like myself as ebay re-configures itself as a site primarily for businesses and where it doesn't matter how many free listings it hands out or how little the fees are right now (don't forget that "Free to Sell" doesn't always mean what it says, even now.)
Like so many others I've stopped listing on ebay, the final insult being when my handful of ads. were all sliced to pieces by hundreds of Sponsored Listings mostly to advertise vaguely "similar" items paid for by business sellers. The final straw being the attempts by ebay to get buyers to NOT buy my items by even bombarding them with alternatives at the checkout. The chickens are definitely coming home to roost, ably assisted by HMRC and its new reporting rules.
It could even be that "Nearly Free To Sell" is a last desperate throw of the dice because ebay might have realised just how thin on the ground real private sellers are these days and the rate at which they're leaving for other platforms where THEY might get a level playing field and the odds on them selling anything aren't so blatantly stacked against them.
It seems to me that the business community is going to have to pay for the resources that are really only of use to them until ebay finds a way to coax back the swarms of private sellers that used to be one of its biggest assets.
Will it succeed? I find it hard to see how. Already there has been an up-swing in private sellers complaining about re-verifying their MP info. for the same reasons as before. Rejection of valid forms of I.D, still not sorted out since they occurred with the original registration, years ago. This is leading to another increase in "Why are my funds on Hold", because they cannot get through the process or were not told by ebay that all new sellers will have funds held.
The site is what its morphed into now and which so many experienced private sellers gave-up on. I doubt inexperienced new sellers will like it any better, nor will they find it any easier to sell on. They may come and try, fail as so many others have already and soon leave again.
11-11-2024 10:21 PM
eBay account blocked for no reason 650 positive feedback *bleep* um
12-11-2024 6:37 AM
My sales have dropped dramatically and for a time due to below seller standards, which is ironic I accept returns (I sell handbags) because if you do ebay says your listing's go further up the algorithms, but in doing so I get returns genuine it doesn't match my shoes it's too big it's too small etc, then this goes against me and I get penelised for it, YOU CANT WIN EBAY.
looking for other market places..
12-11-2024 7:07 AM
Your images need work, they need brightness turned up. I use MS picture Office Picture Manager and turn up the mid-grey until the background turns white. When selling pictures, they have to look good instantly, just an observation for you.
12-11-2024 10:01 AM - edited 12-11-2024 10:05 AM
Thanks for the observation, I will take it on board.
Thanks again.
12-11-2024 11:51 AM
@british-ceramics-and-paintings wrote:
There is way too much on Ebay now, if you search oil painting 370,000 items appear, it has made it very difficult. Free to list has killed it.
It seems to me that your search for "oil painting" has suffered in the same way as my (Saved)search for "art deco glass" has, I've had that search saved for about 10 years. Do you remember how many results your search would have generated 5 or 10 years ago?
I do for my search. Ten years ago it had about 18,000 (UK Only). The last time ebays results gave a more or less accurate figure for "All Categories", around 4-5 years ago, by then the total had dropped to just over 10,000.
The side-bar, headed by "All" listed all the sub-cats. of Pottery Porcelain & Glass that made-up that number. Click on any of them to home in on (say) art glass, date-lined or style. Very easy and intuitive.
Then came the removal of all the old sub-cats. and their replacement with far more new ones like Home Decor and DIY or Decorative Cookware & Tableware. Not surprisingly the total leapt to what it is now 40,000+.
Private sellers already had Free to List up to 1000 items a month and, for many, regular 70 / 80% off FVF offers. We've had Free To Sell for a few weeks now but the 40K hasn't been increased by a surge in new listings.
I don't think Free To List or Free to Sell had much to do with the surge in numbers (that was more about concealing the DECLINE in numbers). the surge ONLY happened when ebay did away with the familiar sub-cats. and replaced them with larger ones and most of that increase can be accounted for by the huge numbers of irrelevant results that came with them.
Another day and the Spell Checker is STILL broken.
12-11-2024 3:34 PM
This message was sent to me earlier today from Ebay customer service, usual cut and paste scripted reply:
Hello ******,
Thank you for writing to eBay Customer Service with regard to business account. My name is Subham and I will be glad to assist you. I can see that you have opened this account more than 19 years ago, thank you so much for your loyalty.
I can certainly understand your query that you are not happy for being registered as business seller because of new private seller fees structure.
As per your query, I would like to share that this will benefits more to our business sellers. We are confident that removing fees for these private sellers can drive a positive sales impact for our business sellers, and this is for two reasons: increased buyers and increased diversity of listings. We know that those who privately sell on eBay, shop twice as much as buyers who only shop, and this increases sales opportunities for our business sellers, like you.
Additionally, we are convinced that more private sellers on eBay.co.uk will bring in a diversity of listings, increasing the marketplace’s attractiveness. Remember, private sellers are not in competition for business sellers. We also see that private sellers are also much more active as buyers.
We have also taken various measures to prevent business users from pretending to be private sellers. Sales limits apply to all sellers on the site. We want sellers to grow sustainably so that they can be successful in the long term. Likewise, popular and/or high-priced items are subject to sales limits. In some cases, only previously verified sellers or only a certain number of these items can be sold. We regularly review our sellers’ trading activities. If we have reason for suspicions, we will take action. These can vary and are not visible to outsiders.
We have planned some simplifications and changes for business sellers, which were announced throughout 2024. Beyond free, we are investing in eBay to create a modern marketplace of the future, such as AI-driven accessible listings, fashion visual searches and automated social sharing.
It was my pleasure to assist you today and I trust I have provided you helpful information with regard to your query. Thank you for contacting eBay Customer Service.
Have a great time ahead. Stay safe and take care.
Kind Regards,
**********
eBay Customer Service
12-11-2024 3:46 PM
@british-ceramics-and-paintings wrote:This message was sent to me earlier today from Ebay customer service, usual cut and paste scripted reply:
Remember, private sellers are not in competition for business sellers. They are when they are a business
We have also taken various measures to prevent business users from pretending to be private sellers. Sales limits apply to all sellers on the site. So they still think the only way to tell the difference between a private and business seller is the amount of ££s you make.
Got some popcorn in ready for tomorrows weekly I hear wher you are coming from chat team
12-11-2024 6:08 PM
It's good to be told, officially, that private sellers aren't in competition with business sellers.
I now feel a lot better about a private seller in one of my categories who turned up when fee-free selling was annouced.
Seven different items, each with 10 options. Most options have more than 10 available. A conservative estimate of the stock required to service the listing is 2300. Of course they're not in competition with me - silly me for thinking they were, and reporting the listing for evading eBay fees.
eBay's action in response to the report? Zero. I didn't even get the standard reply of 'We can't find anything wrong with the listing'.
13-11-2024 10:14 AM
I went through a dozen or so 'private' listings reporting each one. Only reporting option was for avoiding fees other catagory and having to type out a reason. No wonder the reports are never acknowledged or acted on. The new reporting feature I also tried out and there is no option to report or even to flag a private account as really being a business account. The option to report such accounts is conspicuous in it's abscence. At the very least there should be a one click button dedicated to flagging a private listing as a potential policy violation. The fact that such a simple yet critical tool is not available speakes volumes about the real commitment to dealing with this unfair practice. Mega antitrust action incoming unless they make big moves to correct this me thinks!
13-11-2024 10:26 AM
Just completed the " 4 minute survey " ... i wonder if anyone will read it ?
13-11-2024 10:42 AM
@british-ceramics-and-paintings wrote:This message was sent to me earlier today from Ebay customer service, usual cut and paste scripted reply:
We have planned some simplifications and changes for business sellers
Kind Regards,
**********
eBay Customer Service
Does anyone else hear the theme from JAWS when you see this line in any eBay communication?
13-11-2024 10:50 AM
I hear the music from Psycho. eBay is Norman, business sellers are Marion.
13-11-2024 10:58 AM
Interesting .. at my old place of work we used to send surveys out before big changes and then after to see how it was taken .. some big is brewing.
13-11-2024 7:50 PM
Having cancelled my shop subscription and now have nothing selling I have kept my ebay account open and get emails on the thread so was not in the least surprised by the customer services message.
The management at ebay is showing worrying signs in that if they are themselves believing that private sellers are not in competition with business sellers and passing that message down through the ranks that is bad in itself. However if the don't believe that but are still trying to get that message to business sellers then that is just treating business sellers as idiots!
No matter who lists an item, say boots, then it is directly in competition with all other listing for boots, just that private sellers can offer items at a lower price than business sellers because they have less overhead costs to cover (listing fees, final value fees, shop subscriptions, etc etc) - the platform is no longer a level playing field.
In my career as an accountant I also came across management consultants who touted a saying along the lines of 'just as we were coming together as a team, someone would come along and change things and this we learnt later was a wonderful way of creating the illusion of progress' - I think ebay has got hold of this. It is more important to change the messaging system (which worked quite well) than face up to the real problems within the platform.
It sometimes appears that the ebay board are working for Vinted!
14-11-2024 10:02 AM
IT has a different way of creating an illusion of progress.
Funds are pitched for at a programme level, and the programme includes a whole raft of stuff - the major project is an an important game changer, and this is garnished with loads of 'nice to haves'.
The major project is difficult, so difficult that nobody even wants to think about putting a spade in the ground. The rest are 'low hanging fruit', so that's where the resources are allocated. Progress against these projects is progress against the programme as a whole - giving the illusion that all is going well.
When all the low hanging fruit has been eaten, we've run out of time and budget, so funds have to be pitched for again ... and so it goes on.
18-11-2024 1:14 PM
I also am finding it very different now with eBay I am not a business,
I am just a person selling some unwanted items and always have done.
But with Royal Mail prices so expensive now and eBay fees my profit is wiped to half the value of the item or less.
It is becoming unsustainable I may have to look elsewhere to sell my unwanted items.