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?

[sheba-knows-best]

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@vintagevilarosa wrote:

Back when we lived in the UK we used to buy vintage cars that didnt work and my husband would get them working because that was his hobby.  In the end it was impossible to find any vintage cars because of the search not working correcting and all the new cars that were listed!  So he gave that hobby up...I was glad because he had 10 cars sitting on the driveway all in various states of disrepair!

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For anyone reading this who feels disheartened...

Try the make of the car followed by 'non runner' or 'project' or 'for breaking' or 'running project'. Click a few. eBay learns what you are after and will show you more.

[jayfive2001]

They are, once again, following Vinted's lead.

If you put even a very specific search string into Vinted it will almost never give you less than 20 results.

I have tested this by exactly copy-pasting my listing title used on both ebay and vinted from the former to the latter - every time it's 20 or 21 results including my item near the bottom. Some items shown are completely unrelated.

[typo_lee]

We were considering closing our ebay shop after 25 years selling on here however for whatever reason this January has been one of our busiest on record. Having searched for some of our items we are back at the top of search however a few months ago ebay had dropped us right down the pecking order. In fact last July which is our traditionally busiest month our sales halved which I think was due to the search being broken. So for now we are staying on here.

[greencrest-intl]

We have noticed a slight pattern change upwards in recent weeks compared to previous 6 -12 months, but way to go compared to 18 - 24 months ago...

It seems ebay have turned the google search back on in a limited capacity and now some ebay items are featuring on google 1st page results again! (including in shopping filter results..)

Not enough for us, though. Glad you are doing well.

[game_raid]

eBay won't have any control over the Google search results as much as they would like to, the algorithm updates that Google does every few months can increase or decrease a websites page visibility.

There was a core update that finished December 18 which improved UK ecommerce product pages, the updates can take anything from a few days up to a few weeks to see any difference in the results page.

There was also an update a week or so ago which targeted spam web pages so this will remove a lot of results from the search and push other pages up.

[insidethe93]

I wonder if it's a case of postcode lottery?

Because a lot of recycling, upcycling, donations and re-homing seems to go on. For instance, a London and south-east firm I employed to clear a relative's house a few years ago still has on its website:

 

Donating & recycling 95% of the items we clear

Saving waste from landfill is our mission. To do that we created the ReUse, ReHome & ReLove guarantee. More than 95% of all the items we clear get reused and donated to local charities, sorted and recycled at our recycling facility, or upcycled and rehomed with local families.

95% sounds too good to be true so I checked with the staff by phone, and with the lovely lads who did the house clearance (who came 5 times). The detail they gave and what they thought of it convinced me they did what they advertised they did, even if I still think 95% has to be very much an upper figure.

Our local tip (much nearer Edinburgh than Surrey) has a permanent display of the percentage they manage to recycle: 60% to 80%, typically 65%-75%. Obviously they have ways to sort things so that they know the figure. They have (or used to have) an area for items to be donated or re-homed, for items not too large, and a couple of times the staff ask if a customer would donate an item instead of putting it into the rubbish container such as a hardly-used fireguard which, I was told, would be used by a local society to safely stop hands from touching the hot-water urn.

[moonspender]

Yes im with you, certainly felt like a change last year around about July drove sales down but like you January hasnt been too bad but ebay has become more unpredictable to have all our eggs in our basket. Seeing Ebays decline we set up an airbnb last year as a 2nd revenue stream so are spending less time selling on ebay and next financial year starting a third venture so will put even less time into Ebay.

Its just not a fair playing field and you cant operate a business like that plus buyers are looking for more value but ebays fees ( if you promote ) make it hard to pass a reasonable discount onto the customer.

Eu / international market  in major decline with Ebay charging fees on postage, tariffs and VAT they collect.

[martfe53]

I understand completely your frustration. I am glad that I didn't get to rely on ebay for income, I saw this coming years ago. On my tiny number of collectible listings I get many views and dozens of watchers, but what good are watchers to me? I waste a lot of my limited time trying to understand the technical aspects of distant selling when I'd rather be doing something else. Ebay makes us giddy with it's stupid stastistics and mind boggling algorithms. However, this is how business operates, self preservation. These young code wizards like to change the layouts buttons etc just to show how clever they are, and justify their jobs so that I have to spend ages learning the new procedure, as an older person when I'd rather be baking a pie. Ebay will come tumbling down eventually, but I don't think it's operators could give a damn, there's so much lovely lolly to be made, for early retirement to the Caribbean. Companies are like humans, selfish. Wilko put a lot of shops out of business in my town, later they got their cumupance.

[sicura1]

hi

well with no sales for weeks no wathers or offers thats it , after 11 yrs as shop  closed it down today, cant flog a dead horse any longer,,,,,, ebay are making more than us , with subscriptions fees etc,    they keep your shop active for a month so they can rob the fees for in advance subscription,, im un happy about whole deal, was once a good income,,,, now is dead  loss,,,,  ive lot loyal customers for horology spares,, sorry just cant go on like this

[flutterby-enterprises]

Its not easy to continue when you feel such. You have obviously put alot of work in to your shop.
I have a smaller shop as I think the new Buyer protection fee could be a huge problem.

[eyewear247]

I have just received my lowest weekly pay-out possibly ever. Every month in 2024 was significantly lower than the previous year, even with more listings. Since September sales have been in total free-fall.

With private business sellers rife I can see nothing positive to look forward to, certainly there was nothing positive to look forward to from the eBay January business seller update. 

[vintique*violet]

Good way to go... your " little old website" is lovely, well done - I have bookmarked it for the future 😉 @krafty-kreations 

[julies829]

£10-12 for a scarf.. no that is expensive! 

[krafty-kreations]

Thanks, it needs a lot of work

I am lucky enough to not rely on eBay sales, and only open when I know it will be busy, so open September once schools are back ready for Christmas and then close again around Feb or March.

I am holding out now to see how these new changes affect the site, I don't like the changes and I feel for genuine private sellers but It will be interesting to see if it has the desired effects on those business sellers who use private accounts.

[vintique*violet]

I'm sure it has, and that is such a good idea to utilise eBay as you are... in the early days you could link websites etc but not for a long time now I don't think, unless it has changed again?  I have you bookmarked and would probably go to your site 😉  It is such a shame  the business/private accounts have been allowed to get this far, and I lay that responsibility on eBay alone. I am less hopeful that the changes will make any effect. I'm holding out too, but SD I just cannot get around due to personal circumstances once it becomes " mandatory"... so will probably just close or leave it as away, as I don't think you can use the community board if no account, unsure? 

I hope your website/ business goes from strength to strength. @krafty-kreations 

[headphoneharbour]

Totally Agree for me it’s not financialy viable option anymore.

Ebay have got a lot to learn in fact I wonder how long this can continue.

Now they have implemented get paid two days after delivery, buyers protection tax.

Do they have any idea that the items they hold the money back for don’t belong to them and in fact have been paid for long in advance of listing them.

EBay have no right to hold money that does not or ever did belong to them.

They are just making millions of pounds in extra interest.

I am very disappointed in all these changes none of them in favour of the hard working sellers that spend hours every day boxing shipping and testing items to make sure a good level of service is maintained.

This is EBay now……………….

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I am very disappointed in all these changes none of them in favour of the hard working sellers that spend hours every day boxing shipping and testing items to make sure a good level of service is maintained.

Seriously?  The only sellers affected are private sellers.

So why are you complaining about something that only affects them?  Oh, your a private seller......

[headphoneharbour]

I don’t get your beef with private sellers to be honest.I’m actually one of the good ones.All I’m saying is the new rules seem a bit harsh.It’s not a personal issue it’s actually a business issue.


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[therenewalworkshopltd]

It's very simple.  Private sellers who are in reality business sellers are BREAKING THE LAW!

It's got nothing to do with the rules being harsh.  The fact of the matter is, that this has been the way the law is for a LONG time now.  It just happens, that the likes of Ebay are having to report turnover to HMRC and as a result, looking at sellers who are in fact business.

It has always been the case that this is breaking the law.  Nothing in that regard has changed.

And if you really are a proper private seller, why on earth make the statement quoted?  Especially in a business seller forum.

[headphoneharbour]

Actually you’re not factually correct at all.I don’t break the law I pay tax and all the things I should do to be law abiding.Your assumptions are not correct maybe you should ask your self should you be voicing on here.You’re making false accusations and none factual comments which don’t add up.You’re also taring everyone with the same brush.


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