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?

[expresstuga]

ebay has been making every effort for years to get sellers to close their accounts, with changes and requirements that make sellers' lives a real hell, I don't understand the idea, but I think they will get what they want.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Wow, some people have some very strange ideas.

If ebay wanted to close accounts, they simply would.  They don't have to get you to close it yourself.

But why on earth would a company that relies on commission from it's sellers, want to close their accounts?

The changes and requirements that Ebay have made are far from onorous.  Maybe you should try selling on Amazon and compare it.  It's far even to get an account approved, let alone sell something.

Selling on Ebay is easy, if you know what your actually doing.

But of course, you are the one who is breaking the rules.

You are quite clearly a business seller, masquarading as a private seller.

You are trading illegally.

Go complain elsewhere.  

[exponential_developments]

If you bothered to read the thread on this and the comments in the weeky chat from an ebay rep then you would understand the issue.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I am perfectly aware of what the thread is about.

And I disagree with it.

Sales are growing for me.

But you seriously believe that poster I answered is making a clear and concise point?  Ebay are making sellers close accounts.  That's farcical.

Never mind the fact they are complaining about sales and breaking Ebay rules!

So your ok with that then are you?

[exponential_developments]

Dorment accounts get closed after 12 months, and the other poster OBVIOUSLY means that the more difficult it is to list etc etc then the more likely people are to give up, as has happend to many old posters on here, if you can't see that or haven't read the posts then that is your loss.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Oh for goodness sake.

Why wouldn't dormant accounts get closed after 12 months.

They are DORMANT and as such, not doing anything.

Maybe the poster did mean that it was more difficult to list etc, but that is NOT what was written.

The problems with Ebay are not do with losing sellers, which means listing etc, but losing buyers.

Whilst it may be part of the problem, it is not the worst issue in the world.

And frankly, it's no more difficult now to list than it was when I first signed up to Ebay.

There maybe a few more specifics etc, but nothing that a touch of common sense enables you to comply with.

And again I repeat, you are happy to defend the comments from someone who is breaking the rules?  And in actual fact breaking the law!

[vintagewatchpart]

Of course Ebay are making sellers close their accounts, it's what they want obviously as they are a site reliant upon individuals and businesses to list items to sell, you can imagine they'd want to be totally rid of all those folks until none are left and there are no items for sale...

And it seems perfectly legit for a private individual to have hundreds and hundreds of their own personal toiletries and beauty products that have never been used to sell...

!

[jpredman1]

Ebay is IMO reaping the consequences of always changing its rules to side with buyers. This started most egregiously with making it impossible to leave negative feedback for buyers , no matter how clearly bent. I recently sold some crockery, one item of which the buyer claimed had  arrived broken. EBay required that I give him all his money back and pay for him to return it. This would mean I paid twice for the postage, which is a lot because it's heavy,  to get a broken item returned to me. I just told the buyer to keep it as it was going to cost more than the item was worth to get it back damaged. I can't leave feedback pointing this out. I had more in the same patter to sell but I just gave it away as this costs me less than selling.

The result is that small sellers just don't bother because you can actually lose money too easily selling.  This just leaves business sellers for eBay to soak, with the results that we see.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Why don't you think about that from the buyers point of view?

If you had received something broken, what would you have done?

Or do you think that the buyer should be happy to get a broken item that they have paid for?

It's not their fault that you haven't packed it sufficiently well is it?

In this particular case, I am certainly glad that Ebay don't allow you to leave feedback, as it is not the buyers fault, but yours!

[expresstuga]

Don’t understand why do you say that, In more than 20 years selling on eBay and thousands of transactions, no buyer has ever been harmed, ultimately they always get their money back

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I would suggest that you read the prior post then!

They were complaining, because the buyer got their money back for a broken item!

What on earth you are talking about, I have literally no idea.

Sellers, regardless of whether private or business have a responsibility, for getting the item to the customer in one piece!  If it isn't, then they pay for it.  That is not just Ebay rules, but law.

Why then, should you complain about having to repay a customer for a broken item?

It is the sellers, and ONLY the sellers responsibility, to get the item to the customer in as described condition.

Far too many people on here, haven't got a clue about their responsibilities and blame ebay for it!

[wearenowclosedthankyou]

I'm done. Fees are so high I now lose money while ebay get 37%!!!! 

Just cancelled shop subscription from end of month so on Friday I will end all listings and switch ebay off for good. 

I have a job to start just a few hours a week. Crazy how I will make in a few hours more than a month worth of ebay sales, I feel silly for even trying to please the algorithm with endless hours of changes and tweaks and work just for ebay to get paid while I don't.  

I will definitely NOT miss the 24 hour a day ebay pleaser tasks! For all who are continuing on the daily algorithm battles ..... Good Luck 🥰 I hope some change for the good for sellers comes soon 🫡

 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Why on earth are your selling costs so high?

Are you spending a lot on advertising, or does that figure INCLUDE postage?

If it does, then that is not a true representation of your Ebay costs.  Regardless of where you sell, you will have to pay postage.

[qualitycardsandgifts]

As mentioned on other threads, some sellers have seen a huge drop in sales for some unknown reason, but they still have a shop subscription.     My cost of sales is currently 35%, that doesn't include postage and I don't promote.     I have driven  it down from 44% and hope to reduce it further, but it's never going to be below 30% unless I have a dramatic increase in sales 

[exponential_developments]

Don't you understand variable and fixed costs....?

[therenewalworkshopltd]

And what exactly is that supposed to mean?  Do you?

The costs for selling on Ebay and quantifiable and easily calculated with a little common sense.

The fees at their highest are 12.9%.  Whilst there are other fees such as shop costs etc, they are balanced out by the additional cost that you are saving, by using a shop.

But an overall cost of almost 40% is insane, unless you are promoting heavily, or including postage costs in that figure.  Which Ebay does, if your purchasing postage via Ebay.
The only other thing that could be added, is if the seller is sub par.  Bar the operating fee, which is 0.35% and overall has very little impact on that percentage.

I use promoted listings and my total costs hover around 15 - 20%.  And that includes the cost of a featured shop.

Do pray tell, what other variable and fixed costs are you talking about?  

[qualitycardsandgifts]

In the past year my sales have dropped by 50%.    I am a Top Rated seller so not sub par.    I still have my featured shop as I I'm trying to rebuild my business.     Hence my high cost of sales 

[therma-tec]

Drop your featured shop down to basic until you're about to list your 751'st item!

At the moment you have 536 listings, with a basic shop you get 250 free listings and anything after is 10p a listing. So at the moment you would only be paying £27 for the basic shop +  £28.60 for your current listings = £55.60. You would save £21.40 a month.

A featured shop is only worth it for over 750 listings.

[qualitycardsandgifts]

Thanks for the advice, I know a basic shop would be cheaper, but I have lots of items to list so will hit the 750.    I would also lose the £10 packaging voucher which I do use, so savings of £11 a month isn't really worth it.   

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Bear in mind, that it's not just the total number of listings, but the total number of listings that you renew/create during the month.

So even if you have 500 listings, you could be adding another 250 for instance, which would mean that your using 750!  🙂

At the moment on this account, I'm hovering at around 750 or therabouts, but I'm constantly adding new items.  Plus with the featured, it gives me some space to refresh listings that are hitting 90 days old.  Which means I actually use up, most of the free listings.