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

[ovbargains]

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?

[rickja-81]

yeah, to be fair eBay is just full of *bleep*, they don't care about the seller or the buyer, the only thing they care about is that it doesn't affect their bottom line.  also, I would like to know what happens to my money when eBay decides to put a hold on it ? is it sitting in eBay's account along with everybody else's money earning them interest?????  I also reported a dodgy car seller the other day had proof and reported this to ebay and they did nothing, not one Fing thing so much for bulls excuse they give you for the reason for why they hold your funds "We are just trying to make ebay a safer place" Really Say it with me now buuuuuuuullllllllllS

[alphadotomega_3]

Moving on. The number of viewings has plummeted to the point where it becomes meaningless to use time and energy to list an item that.

[daddymaher]

Yes, we've had a similar experience - reviewing our options as of now with a view to running the store down and looking for growth on other platforms

[grapple69]

I been a power seller with eBay for 20 years and now I am just about to hang it up with eBay, taking my business elsewhere. The sale percentage is ridiculous, after paying 13.25% fees plus a final value fee and then having to pay the IRS their part it's already nearly 50%, this a pretty much a total loss. There is not much to profit after all the payout and having to deal with BS buyers. I'm out end of year. ADIOS!!!!!!

[radetek]

you are completely right, the screws are being tightened more and more difficult for us to start selling to new sellers

[ablic-89]

have been with ebay for 25 years and it is 1,000 times worse than just 2 years ago

[nidis_36]

I've come to this page because Ebay do seem to be on a self destruct journey, 

me myself have been appalled by the -  buyer always right syndrome and nothing you can do to alter their narrow minded way of thinking, that together with the increased scamming, fees, hoops etc has made Ebay sort of not nice a nice place to trade,

l had a shop before lockdown and was paying through the nose for very little return so it was a good time to stop, get myself retired and then started slowly back into it mainly to get rid of stuff l no longer want, but since January it's gone downhill more than ever, hence putting in a search to see how bad it is with everyone, And that's how l found you.

not sure what the solution is, or even if there is one, all l know it was on the cards 5 years ago to come to a crashing end as growth of Ebay  has been stagnant for many years compared to other online businesses.

sorry for the rambling but l would be happy for other  fokes opinions and or solutions, me for time being can happily enjoy a quiet time, 

hope you manage to latch on to something lucrative and share if it's beneficial to all.

Nx

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

Ebay do a good job of running down my sales by trying to force promoted and sponsored listings on me.

I wont use either.

If it doesnt sell then it doesnt sell.

If I use sponsored listing I have to increase my prices to match and then no one buys the items.

[flutterby-enterprises]

I have downgraded my shop from featured to basic and listing on other platforms that work.

Paid for promoted to find all my sales when I got a few were all unpromoted.

I like Ebay but it seems it wants to be the Temu of the selling platforms.

Selling costs were 38% last month,  now at 78%.

The amount of technical glitches.

My hearts just not in it any more.

[qualitycardsandgifts]

My cost of sales shot up from 40% to 55%.    Queried it with CS and was told it's because my fees have just gone out and with continued sales it will start to drop over the month.     Down to 52%, so hopefully that info is correct 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Why are you all having such high cost of sales?  I've just checked mine and for the period 1 Jan to now, it's at 25%!  I do use promoted listing standard, and offsite ads, but I'm nowhere near the percentages above.

And last year, though only from June ish.... I averaged 24%.

Are you all using heavy advertising?

@qualitycardsandgifts   CS maybe right, but you need to change the period that your looking at, so that you have an entire month, quarter, year etc to get a better figure.

Just thought, you may see higher, if you are purchasing all of your postage through Ebay.  If so, you need to discount that cost from the total, as it is skewing the figure.  

Wherever you sell, there will be a postage cost and should not be included in Ebay costs.

[eco-green-chicken]

my plan is to diversify, and reduce/sleep (or close) my ebay business late december/Jan25.

 I'm trialling other methods/venues/sites to see if they do better long term. ( I know thier fees are lower, they have a good sales rate too ). It's a pain loading the van and driving many miles to the location. Flipside is no postage costs, no callers, no waiting in the unit all day only to have a "peeper" come round eyeing up the security.... or a fake return case.

 My ebay sales are, like yours, through the floor ( again ).

Or.... is there a viable business in the UK today ? anywhere ?

Also trying other things - like doing part time work, selling different products in new sectors.

So....for me, it's diversification.

[qualitycardsandgifts]

Not paying to promote, but my sales have dropped, hence my cost of sales has gone up.   Trying to build back up again, but when listings are getting zero views, it's hard.    I'm not purchasing my postage through EBay, so that's not skewing the figure.   

Year to date averages at 33%.

[blinkin-bonkers]

I have been selling on eBay for 20 years and regularly send approx. 2,500 parcels a week so I don't understand how your items are not showing as we are regularly on the first two pages. I do, however, agree with you on the selling fees, they are absolutely appalling. Coupled with that the customer service for sellers is non-existent. I was left negative feedback from a buyer saying that the delivery was late but the tracking shows it was delivered on time but apparently it doesn't meet the criteria for removal!!

Their Trustpilot rating is 1.3 out of 5, one of the worst I've ever seen and equates to 26% positive feedback. If I ran my business the way they run theirs I'd have closed down a long time ago but when you try and reason with them it is like talking to a robot. They are an absolute joke!!!!

[messier44000]

All options on the table at the moment, including closing the shop to concentrate 

on the website , monetized you-tube channel and public open days.

Already started on promoting the above even more.

Like trying to get blood out a stone finding listing fees if I had no shop.

Did ask on another post. 37 views with no reply. So guessing no one else can find it either 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Why on earth is it like trying to get blood out of a stone to find the fees without a shop.

It's on the fee page.  Did you not search?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/fees-business-sellers?id=4809&st=3&pos=4&q...

[messier44000]

Like a lot of things when you get to a certain age. Can be right in front of your eyes and not see it.

Yes I did search for listing fees to find many of the google pages linking to my shop listings and 

not the link in the link above.

Sales on the website / public outlet up 100% in 2023 compared to 2022 and so far up another 70% comparing 2024 vs to 2023. So to ditch the shop and concentrate on where customers can find products 

is very tempting.

[pillarboxred]

The VAT can decide that if someone is consistently near the threshold then they must become VAT registered. It's like if a shop opens just three days a week and nearly hits the 85k threshold they will decide that the shop would top 85k if open for a whole five day week and must register. I had a friend who passed away thirty years ago who was an internationally renowned VAT expert (VAT is important for international businesses) and he told me what went on.

[madmadscorpioman]

Well finally going from Ebay and this time for good. Website and ( Ebid Shop 2% commission on sales only and no monthly charge ) now fully operational ( Both were set up because of ebay fees and few sales here ) 

Sorry it has ended but as of 31st May we are gone. 

Good luck all, maybe see you on Ebid 

[theelench]

I've been there for years.

One piece of advice that I'm sure has helped my sales there.

Make sure your listings qualify for up-loading to google shopping.