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?

[thebeautician]

The only bit they forgot is that eBay's buyer base is precisely the low ASP. Most buyers don't even look at eBay, they go to other popular platforms, especially the youngsters. The GSP compensated for the lack of domestic buyers (and sellers). They made so many changes that now eBay is a Frankenstein platform. Nothing makes much sense, it's like they are preparing the platform to die, selling advertising to sellers who have little or no alternative, and pleasing shareholders to keep this "dead horse" going on for as long as possible. 

[candytan67]

Because of eBay's terrible search perhaps the time is now right to split eBay into 2 sections one being for antiques, vintage, collectables and hobbies and the like and the other section for new items and tat?

I know this was tried many years ago but with recent events and the demise of the site the time now seems right to do this.

Surely this would enable buyers to find things easier and more quickly (in both sections of the site) and hopefully produce more sales for sellers and reverse - to a degree - the current exodus of both buyers and sellers.

I know that in my case that if this happened then I would review my position.

[llewellyn-technical-services]

Not sure how you would distinguish between one persons collectibles and another persons tat but I agree with your concept of two different market places - I would suggest one for new items (including all imported Chinese tat) and a separate market for used and custom handmade items ??
Best Regards
Doug Llewellyn

[candytan67]

Yes something like that.

I did say " .................... and the other section for new items and tat?"

I should have inserted "Chinese" before tat.

[pg_kicks]

Could probably work better if you had a business seller site and then a private seller, each site would have its own policy for everything and it would be much easier to police. They could then stipulate the return policy for each account would need to be the same (eBay want everyone doing 60 days) and they could use the software other sites use to pick out accounts (on the private side) who are clearly businesses. This would then stop the arguments over why some accounts get the discounts but business sellers dont and what not as it could be a standard price across the board.

Basically there are so many things they could do but it would cost money and we know theyd rather create software that tells buyers I respond within 24 hours, but I actually respond to any message that deserves a response within 2 hours 99% of the time or a new way to show relevant feedback that is verified. 

The big thing for me is it seems eBay employees have never ran a business on their site and they dont seem to reach out to their customers to find out whats working or not, granted the weekly chat gets the issues but they are not passed onto management, they need meetings with good sellers where everyone can be honest and try to improve the site together.

[llewellyn-technical-services]

I like that you mentioned "eBay employees have never run an eBay selling account" unfortunately I believe they have forgotten who their customers are - the people that pay eBay's employees salaries are sellers , And we all know that any company that fails to listen to its customers and provide the product/service the customer wants is doomed - EBay management has become to complacent and just assumes it's entitled to a customer base based on past performance - in the old days eBay would have purchased Vinted , Etsy etc before they got a foothold on the ladder - I am old enough to remember eBay buying Gumtree when it started to threaten their market share  - nowadays nothing ?? just a slow painful decline  😞 

[pg_kicks]

They don't even need to buy the competition, they already had market share so they could have just made sure it was better to sell here than move your entire business to another platform.

I sell in sneakers, there is StockX, GOAT and a handful of smaller sites that do the authentication, you'd have thought that reaching out to the top sellers in this category would have been a great idea before launching the authentication scheme. There was a good chance most sellers use those sites so know how it works, what works god and what doesnt. Sadly they never, not just to me but the 'sneakerhead' community is pretty small so we all know each other pretty much and nobody was reached out to and there were numerous issues all which we predicted but as eBay thought they knew best they went ahead and some of the issues are still around.

I'm in email communication with one of the top managers and he is slowly trying to fix it but its now a beast dealing with thousands of pairs a day so any changes are a nightmare whereas if they asked for a meeting with top sellers before it would have been policy before launch.

They run on figures without any real idea of what those figures mean or how they come about. I'd love to be able to talk to them but the community team dont seem to want to invite them into the chats and the open days are once a year.

[wavesales]

Hi, Me to I was locked out of my account for 16 days and could not get back in I tried all the usual things, so contacted eBay with some help from a so called specialist that did not work I got constantly locked out and caused all manner of issues, the customer support is nothing short of useless. 20 years on this platform and it is definitely a sinking ship. There is to many things to list here but they are all very painful experiences without any single resolve with the rep stating "wait 24-48 hours to see if you can log in" This is meant to be a professional outfit and this is what you are told. The experiences I have had in the last 12 months out weigh the whole 19 years I have had on this platform!     

[iposters]

Agree with all of the above, I do love eBay and the Staff, as we have Concierage I know a lot of the Staff as I speak with them often and they are all fantastic, however, a lot of the rules are now in place have gone a step too far. Buyers have all the protections, we are capped at Feedback revisions, eBay don't remove anything anymore even when the buyer leaves feedback by mistakes etc, fee increases. However, they do bring in the Sales for my company, however most of the profit just goes to eBay.

The Fee's we pay on average is 30% (With all the addons and promoted listings) After all Costs (Inc Shipping) A £9 Poster I make about £1.00-£1.20 Profit on eBay,  where's on my Website (at the same Price) I make £4.20 Profit. Buyers leave reviews on Trustpilot however we are not capped at requesting revisions. 

I am half tempted to have a year off eBay and the amount I paid in fee's last year, (Which was about £27k) I'll just invest into Marketing and Sales Campagains on my own Website, and it will be interesting to see if Sales on my Website grow. I do agree that eBay need Sellers to Pay the Bills, but without the Buyers we'd earn no money so we all need to work with each other. However, buyers are the issue and I blame Buyers for the Fall of the High-Street and business failing with their damaging reviews etc. 

[santlache_sales]

I shop less on Ebay.

Likewise, I rarely buy on here anymore, mainly since managed payments started.

I don't like the fact eBay now control every single aspect of a sale, and I will never go near their promoted nonsense, eBay take enough already in fees and give virtually nothing back.

[ismay_2206]

Good for you!

I've been selling on eBay for over 20 years and things have just got progressively worse over the years...it feels like some sort of dictatorship.

They are not seller friendly at all (and in no way loyal to their long standing sellers) and seem to forget that if it weren't for the hard working sellers then they wouldn't even have any buyers!

Customers seem to be getting more rude and demanding...sales have rapidly declined unless you get something rare or unusual.

Completely had enough of this platform...have wasted enough of my life here.

Selling up my business and going onto pastures new!

eBay need to learn to treat their sellers with more compassion.

[ghostbay-killah-420]

No thank you as i am not planning to spend too much time on here. 

[bristoljewellerycompany]

I would agree the last six months have been very poor and I have just taken the decision to close my ebay shop and remove most of my listings. We did on average 2-4k per month which as a separate stream was a nice addition for not much work, however I have only sold two items this year and both returned after a week not fitting apparently?? I would say that having looked in to this in depth the rise of facebook market place, brexit and ebay now being a hassle to admin since the paypal loss makes it no longer viable.

Good luck to all those who stay, and I hope something comes around we can all start trading on again at reasonable rates.

[btr.style]

To be fair, it might have helped if you were on the correct account. "Bristol Jewellery Company" selling expensive items up to around £1000 each, trading on a private account (which is for those wanting to clear out unwanted items from home, not to shift goods they've purchased to profit from). 

You have no returns accepted which, not only is against the law regarding distance selling regulations and the consumer rights act (any sales done of items purchased to profit must allow returns), but, I don't think there are many people who would want to risk spending £1000 on some gold necklace on eBay from a seller that doesn't even accept returns. 

It looks to me that with bang on 200 listings, you've opted for the max your earnings approach in favour of adhering to the law, by solely listing 100 items each time the private seller fee promo (which as a business, you wouldn't be eligible for) comes around every 2 weeks. You should well know that legally before a sale is made, full contact details have to be made available (only possible on an eBay business account) and it's against the law for a business to masquerade as a private seller. 

People will also see it as untrustworthy. It's unprofessional and could only serve to harm your business as people will see it as breaking the law or an account thats immitating the real "Bristol Jewellery Company".

[btr.style]

A couple more points to make:

"I would say that having looked in to this in depth the rise of facebook market place, brexit and ebay now being a hassle to admin since the paypal loss makes it no longer viable."

Facebook marketplace - I'd be surprised if it has anything to do with this at all. FB marketplace is a mess. People want something for nothing there (even worse than eBay). Timewasters galore and even when someone agrees to buy something, it's not certain they will even turn up to collect it. It's a bad platform for any business with all the haggling which goes on. 

Paypal - Some people may dislike managed payments and not having money via Paypal. Yet what does that have to do with buyers? Buyers can still pay via Paypal as usual. 

Brexit - What does that have to do with sellers who buy items in the UK and sell in the UK? Maybe a slight increase in cost of items but people should still be able to earn a living from a business IF they are selling what people want. 

9/10 times when someone blames "Brexit" for their poor sales, they do so to shirk any responsibility as to why their business isn't doing too well. I'm sure most who say it don't know any reasons as to why Brexit has affected their business but it seems to be an easy cop out.... "Brexit is to blame" and everyone else will say "Yes, that damn Brexit". Normally the reason is much closer to home and instead of blaming something which probably didn't contribute to sales problems at all, people should look at how they can up their game and get the business back into getting the sales figures as they'd like once more. 

[qualitycardsandgifts]

My cost of sales had gone up to 32%, so I downgraded to a basic shop on 1st April.    Since then, I haven't had a sale, so will give it a few days to see what happens.  Higher fees and postage costs are making it increasingly difficult to make a profit.   I have tried introducing some higher value stock, but when it is getting zero views, it's not going to sell.   

[flutterby-enterprises]

Hi

I have sadly opted out of a middle sized Ebay shop, and down sized to a basic one.

I waited until the end of March to see how how different promotions and sales went.

As there was no improvement and selling cost got up to 64%, I can no longer afford to sell on Ebay the way I did. Post being lost, metrics that the seller has no control over (late delivery), and effectively paying for off site adds that get customers to see cheaper listings of another sellers on the sponsored section of a page, well done Ebay you get money from promoted listings but as most sellers do it the sum result for sellers is it raises nothing. The final straw I got more sales on  EBID! Yes Ebid. 

I phoned Ebay for advice to be told there was no problem but my late delivery metric was high. The agent went thru the first three to see all had been sent on time.

I have redone pictures and descriptions which is so low on the listing page no one bothers, fill out endless fields of silly item specifics. Nothing works. My stock sells elsewhere in good numbers.

I will not be attending the Ebay open day on April 18th 2024 as planned.

I think eventually I will close down on Ebay but there is nothing else left to try.

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

The problem with ebay is it just doesnt work.

When a buyer buys something it is usually the cheapest item.

This means the seller is either making a very small profit or maybe even a loss on it.

This makes selling a tedious process to make money.

It also tends to work best for big sellers who can buy in bulk.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I'm sorry, but that is not always the case at all.

It very much depends on what your selling, as to whether or not they go for the cheapest.

If your selling something that is available by 50 different sellers, then your going to have a problem, no matter where you sell said item.

But if your selling something that is unique in some way, you literally have the market for that item.

As to bulk buying, that has always been the way it's worked.  The bigger you are, the better prices you can get and the better margins you will see.  It's never been any different.

Ebay works fine.  Hell, I'm even selling stuff like batteries etc on another account and have no problems selling them at all.

My point being, it's not just about being cheapest.  Whether you see it or not, service is part and parcel of selling on Ebay and elsewhere.   It really isn't a case of list it and they will buy.  It hasn't been that for years.

Get the item to the customer quickly!  Tick!

Respond their queries etc quickly!  Tick!

Clearly describe what you are selling!  Tick!

And the list goes on.

[theelench]

So do I !!