How many sellers are closing their shops or running down their account in 2024?

[ovleisure]

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?

[pegr-834437]

You might have examples to prove me wrong but I don't think anyone has any issues with genuine private sellers so nobody flung mud at them. It was more the businesses on private accounts which everyone should have an issue with.

I've said it plenty of times but eBay should just have a simple structure, 30 sales for free and then a  standard percentage fee for everything over that. If they want they could reduce it if you sold say 1000 or 5000 to encourage people to sell more. If an account looks like its a business on the chances of probability then force them to upgrade.  The shop subscriptions really need looking at, if you get near a limit it actively encourages you not to list more, thats terrible business.

Also its no easier or harder to buy from a business than a private seller, both you just click buy it now and pay, bpf and simple delivery doesnt make it easier or harder.

Its sad the way eBay is going, it actually looked pretty simple on how to fix it but sadly eBay execs look to be going down another route which I am yet to find anyone who can explain why or how it'll be better. They are quick enough to release figures showing random things work but yet to release anything to prove giving private sellers free to sell brings in more for business sellers.

[nelle_stanton]

I agree with you, that it has become not sustainable for mini sellers which
the UK government wish to state is a ' side hustle' when just reselling
items and making quite a substantial loss but significant to the ecology
and landfill while the jet brigade feels they shouldn't be taxed for
helicopter pads, private jets and yachts ! Something is amiss here when
ghosts who pay very little in to the economy get off tax free and we are
selling on items that folk need to just get on with life !

[nelle_stanton]

I cannot agree - I think eBay was a platform to recycle and if you are
recycling from few off clothes at home or cars that need a new lease of
life and everyone is being decent about honesty ( sold as seen) then eBay
needs to be honest and open to it's AI bots and challenge UK government
that this is the best way to recycle - it should be FREE! Whether you need
to pay after £100k and I have only sold £1,400 in 25 years so it's not me
we should look at here - eBay needs to be free access .. UK .. USA and
worldwide. It will sink under the present restrictions no 2 ways about it.
I know it doesn't matter where you sell, Vinted, Etsy, Gumtree , it's now
ridiculous trying to sell and use any postage system that doesn't benefit
someone else in big business.

[lookinpandorasbox]

It shocks me  as to how it is now, to how it used to be.Ebay would advertise  with no promotions etc,a customer service you could call,feedback removal,listings fees I can remember being as low as 4p!,sunday being the busiest time of the week,no gdpr,not having to verify who you are,no protection fee,having lots of messages from customers,one main forum board which was simpler to use,paypal being an option,discounts for taking a shop subscription,messaging in your email inbox,having longer shipping times,I could go on.....The number of no sale days I have had in the last year far exceeds anything previously.Ebay needs to go back to what it used to be ,a cheap,no frills fun place to explore and shop.Its too focused on fees and making the site far too difficult for users to experience,which is why a lot of the customer base has left.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Why on earth should it be free to sell on a website that is making money from people selling on it?

Ebay is a company, not a charity!  Companies exist to make a profit!

If you want FREE, then go use something like freecycle!

[555njp]

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@pegr-834437 wrote:

You might have examples to prove me wrong but I don't think anyone has any issues with genuine private sellers so nobody flung mud at them. It was more the businesses on private accounts which everyone should have an issue with.

Precisely! Most business sellers will also have a private account for clearing out unwanted family items too (I certainly do).

The issue is 100% about businesses trading on private accounts to avoid fees. Not genuine private sellers which no one should have any issue with.
But as there is no deterent (I.e. eBay do nothing to discourage the practice) then you can’t really blame people for breaking the rules to save fees.

There is plenty eBay can do to comply with the law, appease genuine private sellers and make it a level playing field for legitimate businesses, but they choose not to.

Risky strategy to keep shareholders happy no doubt but which could cause the collapse of eBay?

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[lookinpandorasbox]

I didn't mention selling for free,just that there are too many fees.

[pegr-834437]

If its free then how would it make money? It would need people to pay to advertise and thats what it is doing and every hates it. If it just had a single charge after 30 (or whatever number in sensible for genuine private sellers) nobody could really complain as they should expect to pay for the running of the site.

I don't understand how you find it ridiculous, but if you do then thats fine, i find it rather easy and with simple delivery (as long as its not DHL) its even easier.

[theelench]

 Yes, ebay always was a place for private sellers to re-cycle their unwanted stuff, whether old or just 'nearly new', it soon became 'the place' to re-cycle collectables by giving collectors unprecedented access to a world-wide market in whatever they collected. 

Ebay grew year-on-year by doing just that, but it was never free, apart from occasional "Free Listing Weekends".  I don't remember there being any clamour on the boards that it should be free, or any great objection by private sellers to paying progressive Listing Fees and a FVF, usually 10%.  I was certainly perfectly happy paying those fees, they were transparent and the site was easy to use.

Apart from the 'Free Weekend' Special Offers no-one expected anything to be free.  Ebay introduced Up to 200 free listings a month in recompense for the withdrawal of those offers.  Probably because on Sunday evenings on an offer weekend the site was staggering / near to crashing as sellers tried to list as much as they could before midnight.

What, IMO, dented ebay's image for many private sellers was when ebay started it's 'smoke & mirrors' approach to sellers with FVF on P&P.  This was supposed to be because of widespread fee evasion.  But, in truth, it was only a minority that ever used postage to evade fees and it was in fact a backdoor fee increase.

For whatever reason, ebay has continued with the subterfuge ever since.  Instead of tackling a problem with a minority, it hits all sellers to cover its losses and profit from the deceit.   Managed payments was sold as making fees cheaper.  But, for many private sellers, only by an amount so small that it was lost in the rounding, but again ebay made billions.

Now we have SD, it isn't any more simple, probably for most private sellers it isn't any cheaper.  Again it follows the pattern as ebay twists itself to squeeze more out of sellers, making itself more difficult to use but again making billions from our inconvenience.

Would any of it have been necessary if ebay had taken the bull by the horns and suspended the sellers selling an item for £1 with £9.99 postage ?

Would 'Free to Sell' have been necessary if ebay hadn't showered private sellers with Up To 1000 free listings a month, thereby encouraging businesses to register as private sellers.  Which it hasn't had the courage to stamp out.

Most private sellers never used anywhere near 1000 free listings.  Most never wanted Free to Sell and it's only with us because ebay has caused itself a problem and lacked the courage to solve it properly.  So once again it hits all private sellers with the BPF and SD.

Hopefully, this time it will suffer enough by taking the easy way out and re-think itself.  Going back to being honest and transparent with sellers, many of whom value honesty and don't mind paying reasonable fees to a site that treats them fairly. 

[555njp]

You’ve summed that up perfectly 🙂.

[dd6art]

EBay’s disastrous simple delivery has killed it for me. I used to sell mugs featuring my artwork, each item made to order and posted directly to the customer by my printer. They have their own set up for postage and won’t change to suit eBay. To sell, I would have to have the item sent to me  and then repost it making them unaffordable. I had to delete the listings.

[cobwebcottage]

And you have just described business practices so the issue is of you own making.

SD is for private sellers selling unwanted items.

Business sellers do not use SD or have a buyer protection fee added to their listings.

[dd6art]

Not really. I run a micro business which can't afford the business seller prices. It's more of a hobby really, run along professional lines. Business fees are £25 pm or £300 per annum. That's over a third of what I make with eBay. Along with production costs, seller fees, postage and everything else it seems that everyone is making money from what I do with little left for me but the market won't stand higher prices. To make matters worse, the UK economy is in a dire strait. I normally do well at Christmas (the only time I do), but eBay are responsible for just 3 sales this season. A good job it's only a hobby.

[binnes2]

BOTH Business and Private sellers have ebay fees that they call "buyer
protection fees" added to the sale price the seller picks and other way
that ebay con it it suggesting sellers sell for "free" maybe so its just
the buyer that pays the fees rather than the seller they think we are NOT
aware such and some idiots I guess are conned into thinking ANYTHING in the
world is "free"

[cobwebcottage]

A hobby is knitting but when the knitter decides to sell their items, they become a business.

Selling online means that you have to abide by Consumer Laws and Distance selling laws.

It doesn't matter how much you make, even if it's a loss.  If you trade, you have to register yourself as a business seller.

You would probably end up not paying any tax at all but at least you would have a legal business.

BTW, you dont have to pay £25 per month. You can pay for each listing.

You never know, you may just decide to expand your business and make more money and you can sell your mugs again choosing your own postage.

[cobwebcottage]

Yes, which is why accounts need to be correctly registered.  If you buy from a private account who should be registered as a business seller, you are paying an unnecessary BPF.

[dd6art]

I agree, eBay have made themselves the most expensive place to buy my goods. Etsy sell far more – I wonder if there is a connection? I'm an artist, so perhaps it's just that Etsy is a more natural home these days, but certainly I used to do better with eBay than now. I'm looking around for alternatives but most have drawbacks, be it fees or standing charges. If it wasn't for simple delivery I could have kept my postage costs down and offered more items.

[ett1954]

"If it wasn't for simple delivery I could have kept my postage costs down and offered more items." - and undercut further correctly registered business sellers who have to pay much higher fees than a private seller.  Misrepresenting yourself as a private seller is a criminal offence; but why should you care as Trading Standards don't, and neither do eBay (they are covered under their T & Cs through which by using the site you have declared yourself to be legally compliant).