Is eBay a place TO SELL OR NOT any LONGER? Is it dead / dying?

[fixfix]

Does anyone else feel the same? Is eBay no longer a platform for sellers? During my years of selling on eBay, I've noticed declining traffic. The traffic and sales were so much better previously Is it the algorithm that is messing up people's businesses? Always been an "eBay Top-rated Seller." Used promoted listings, shop, keywords, specs, and delivery options including express, "free" postage, and "not-free", promotions. Nothing seems to work. Still getting sales if you can call it this way (0-3 a day), but nothing like it used to be. 

Never actually stopped promoting (not at the full suggested rate but reasonable)

The traffic went dramatically down in the last 2-3 years. Just not picking up. Any recommendations, feelings, experiences, etc.

Thinking of leaving eBay for good... It's draining my energy trying to figure it out, but nothing works.

[theelench]

I had a look at 3 sellers (not sure if I'm allowed to name them so will only say that they are all selling new goods and all appear regularly on the "Recently Sold" stripe).  They sell respectively;  OTC medications (eye drops etc.), large bags of dry pet food, give-up smoking products.

Both their For Sale ads. and their Sold items look the same as mine.  As I've never been anything other than a Private seller on ebay and have never taken up the Platinum level selling option, most beneficial to larger volume sellers on ebid, I certainly would not have given the other site business contact details.  Like on ebay, as a private seller, I was given the option to accept returns or not.  I accept returns on both sites.   They all have "Returns accepted" as their Returns policy.

As a buyer, I've always been given the seller's full contact details as part of the After Sale Log for completing the transaction.

As you say, apart from the nature of their products, there is no indication that they are a business that I can see, or for that matter that I am not a business.

BTW.  I would guess that the exec. that can't be named possibly had something to do with the incident that led to an e-commerce blog also becoming un-nameable on here.

[theelench]

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@theelench wrote:

The other side of the pseudo-private seller coin that no-one likes to mention never mind discuss but which ebay facilitates at least as much as they do incorrectly registered business sellers.

They've always been here but become more obvious as genuine private sellers/buyers have thinned out.  They give ebay a bad name just as much as un-registered business sellers do and probably helped start the exodus of private sellers even before ebay thought about pushing them away.

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As always..........Silence..........

[technthread]

I signed up to eBid last week. I have ticked business in my settings, it doesn’t appear to change anything on my viewable profile. 

I don’t want to hammer it yet as I listed 241 items and it is stuff I don’t care about just to get the hang of the site but I haven’t had any interaction. It looks like a very slow burner where I could put items out to pasture, if they sell it is a bonus and won’t eat away at my eBay shop subscription limit.

[jonatjonatjonat]

I kind of know what you are talking about, because I've seen your previous comments on the matter. But to the uninitiated, I would not have a clue what you are getting at in that post.

[4_bathrooms]

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@theelench wrote:

I had a look at 3 sellers (not sure if I'm allowed to name them so will only say that they are all selling new goods and all appear regularly on the "Recently Sold" stripe).  They sell respectively;  OTC medications (eye drops etc.), large bags of dry pet food, give-up smoking products.

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Interesting; all of those things require the seller to be registered with some organisation. When OTC/GSL medicines are sold online to consumers in the EU and Northern Ireland the seller is required to be registered with the MHRA and to display a logo on their online listings/adverts. This used to be the case for Great Britain as well; replacement requirements are being worked on. Businesses selling animal food are required to be registered with the FSA and their local Trading Standards office. Of course, if you can't see the business's details you can't check if they're registered or not prior to purchasing.

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@theelench wrote:

As a buyer, I've always been given the seller's full contact details as part of the After Sale Log for completing the transaction.

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That still isn't enough for a business to comply with consumer law. The business's name, address and contact details must be made available prior to a transaction taking place.

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@theelench wrote:

As you say, apart from the nature of their products, there is no indication that they are a business that I can see, or for that matter that I am not a business.

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Here is where there is a clear difference between a trader listing on eBid and a trader listing on eBay using a private account. All eBay accounts used for selling show "Registered as a private/business seller" so a trader listing on a private account is guilty of masquerading as a private seller. However, that isn't the case on eBid (unless the seller claims to be something they're not) but requirements under consumer law are still not being met albeit through no fault of the seller.

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@theelench wrote:

BTW.  I would guess that the exec. that can't be named possibly had something to do with the incident that led to an e-commerce blog also becoming un-nameable on here.

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👍
 

 

[4_bathrooms]

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@theelench wrote:

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@theelench wrote:

The other side of the pseudo-private seller coin that no-one likes to mention never mind discuss but which ebay facilitates at least as much as they do incorrectly registered business sellers.

They've always been here but become more obvious as genuine private sellers/buyers have thinned out.  They give ebay a bad name just as much as un-registered business sellers do and probably helped start the exodus of private sellers even before ebay thought about pushing them away.

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As always..........Silence..........

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I have always pointed out it works both ways just as I have in this thread.

[4_bathrooms]

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@technthread wrote:

I signed up to eBid last week. I have ticked business in my settings, it doesn’t appear to change anything on my viewable profile. 

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Can you kindly check whether ticking that option forces you to accept remorse returns or not?

[technthread]

You’re in luck I was just doing a listing.

I could have turned returns off on the listing so it appears I’m not forced to do anything different to if I changed my account type back to individual. It does seem that I could change that back and forth with no problem if I wanted to, but I should stress I am new to the site and still getting used to things. 

[theelench]

To some extent it depends on what you're selling.  If you're selling in a niche and establish a good reputation you'll sell slowly and regularly, often to repeat buyers, but don't expect miracles on a tiny site with about 7M listings world-wide?

On the other hand that attitude is why so many ebay business sellers do "hammer" it.  They dump some of their non-sellers, wait for sales that never come and return here to re-enforce the message that "nothing ever sells".  Would you expect those same items to fly out of ebay if you did the same here, even with ebay's alleged world-wide audience?

Personally I'm quite OK that so many businesses fail there.  I don't want another site overrun by businesses pushing collectables into the back-ground, ebay has done that quite successfully.  So well in fact that over the years my sales here have seen the reverse of on the other site.  Continuous decline from 20+ p.a, a couple of years at 13 and last year a mere 5.

Those sellers I mentioned pop-up on the recently Sold stripe because they do the work to get there.  They appear regularly and as that stripe seems to only show some sort of snap-shots, not live feed sales, who knows how many more they make?

I paid some attention to google shopping and with some help from Covid and its lock-downs went from single figure annual sales into the 20s.  In a niche and as an individual part-time seller that number suits me and I'm quite happy with it

[theelench]

Do the un-initiated need to understand if they are not part of the problem.  The silence speaks volumes, those involved and ebay do understand that mis-representation is potentially criminal and so is facilitating it.  

If ebay is being pushed into doing something about sellers mis-representing themselves, perhaps it should consider how widespread buyers doing the same is and how that also reflects on ebay. 

[theelench]

"Interesting; all those things require the seller to be registered with some organisation."....................

I thought as much, which is why I looked at them rather than others selling collectables of differing types and also appearing regularly.

From what @technthread  wrote it seems I would have had to tick a box to indicate that I was an individual seller.  But that a business won't be obvious as such, as they are on ebay.  It does seem strange that although they mention the US legalities there is no mention of UK law, especially as they are a UK company.

[theelench]

I know, so you will also have noticed that no-one else is interested in pointing out that it isn't just sellers mis-representing themselves that constitutes illegal trading.  But that mis-representation by buyers is equally illegal and although the law is often repeated chapter and verse when a "private" seller is involved, buyers doing the same are consistently ignored.

[sheba-knows-best]

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@graja94 wrote:

I have been buying from eBay for many years, I have a stall On a local collectors/flea market, unfortunately the price expectations of some sellers seems to be ruining it for others, I deal in art nouveau, WMF, French , Victorian glass, arts & crafts era and silver etc, I see a lot on eBay that I currently have for sale, eBay prices are triple to what I charge, when I sell my items, I cannot use eBay,Etsy, etc to restock, I don’t mind paying any amount for something if it is sold at a price in relation to its worth, I recently sold a double ended silver topped perfume bottle for £92, to replace that from eBay I would have to pay £200 or more, the same scenario with everything else I have sold in the last few weeks, it is now cheaper for me to buy at auction and pay the buyers commission!, eBay sellers are the ones who are killing it, I have money to spend but totally over inflated prices are stopping me.

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I am lost as to why you expect to restock your items from online marketplaces? You have a footfall of a few hundred. They (be they private or business) have a global reach  of possibly millions.

[technthread]

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@theelench wrote:

To some extent it depends on what you're selling.  If you're selling in a niche and establish a good reputation you'll sell slowly and regularly, often to repeat buyers, but don't expect miracles on a tiny site with about 7M listings world-wide?

On the other hand that attitude is why so many ebay business sellers do "hammer" it.  They dump some of their non-sellers, wait for sales that never come and return here to re-enforce the message that "nothing ever sells".  Would you expect those same items to fly out of ebay if you did the same here, even with ebay's alleged world-wide audience?

Personally I'm quite OK that so many businesses fail there.  I don't want another site overrun by businesses pushing collectables into the back-ground, ebay has done that quite successfully.  So well in fact that over the years my sales here have seen the reverse of on the other site.  Continuous decline from 20+ p.a, a couple of years at 13 and last year a mere 5.

Those sellers I mentioned pop-up on the recently Sold stripe because they do the work to get there.  They appear regularly and as that stripe seems to only show some sort of snap-shots, not live feed sales, who knows how many more they make?

I paid some attention to google shopping and with some help from Covid and its lock-downs went from single figure annual sales into the 20s.  In a niche and as an individual part-time seller that number suits me and I'm quite happy with it

I went on there with my eyes open to those things, I paid the one off platinum fee on the understanding I may not recoup it. 

The last thing I want to do is flood it with too many new items that don’t belong there but stick to items that fit with niches there. I had a decision to make, upgrade to a featured shop on eBay (now over £90pm) and list thousands of stamps here or just put them on there instead as and when I have a bit of time to list in batches. I have moved some non sellers over but it will also be a lot of stuff that I have had in storage.

Essentially I wouldn’t go over there if I wasn’t a net positive on the site, I have read the forums there and got the message on that. BTW I am the most recent topic in the kitchen table forum there as I reached out with a few questions when I was setting up. 

[pinklangthorne]

I totaly agree we started with ebay 10 years ago   as a small seller trying to build on the platform and grow organicaly  we had sales of £400 per month   selling various items but 70% were vintage tools  but come the recent rule on bladed items  our sales  have tanked  to 12 pounds per month , i know the market has changed and ebay need to be competative , but i feel that ebay have the algorythme  fixed for large volume buyers and  have discarded small sellers in favour of multi national sellers , weve tried reducing prices as advised by ebay and paid promotion fees to no avail , its time for Ebay to adjust the algorythme and spin the  wheel to give small to medium sellers a chance and get back to the ethos of   having an abundance of small to medium  sellers  as it was when Ebay first started  or we are all going to   think  it is no longer  viabl to sell on  Ebay 

[roberpalme_236]

It's a bit ironic ebay telling people how things can be improved.

It smacks of desperation.

[theelench]

Let's hope they get even more desperate then. 

Instead of telling people to lower their prices / accept lower offers / pay ebay more in bribes to get seen, they need to fix the search so it shows buyers what they want to buy.

Not irrelevant items that paid a bribe, but relevant items that they want to buy, even though they're not Sponsored.

[4_bathrooms]

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@theelench wrote:

I know, so you will also have noticed that no-one else is interested in pointing out that it isn't just sellers mis-representing themselves that constitutes illegal trading.  

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I suspect that is because there are very few threads where it ever gets mentioned; in most cases a private seller has absolutely no way of knowing whether their buyer is purchasing as a business or not. A business using a private account to buy stock will not be apparent as such unless they mention that is what they are doing. A "private" seller with a history of listing dozens of BNWT items of clothing at a time - all in different sizes and pictured modelled on mannequins - is highly likely to be a trader masquerading as a private seller whether the seller realises it or not. However, it is far less clear when someone is buying as a business as you only have their feedback received as a buyer to go on and many private buyers (myself included) regularly buy things for other people.

That said, I actually believe the practice is more common than traders using private accounts for selling. The concept of traders using one account for buying and a different account for selling in order to hide what they originally paid for an item goes way back to before eBay even had distinct business and private account structures. A trader engaging in this type of arbitrage is almost certainly not going to want their details shown on their buying account in order to prevent their buyers from being able to link it to their selling account.    

[yooh_9839]

I sell old model kits and toy soldiers, semi luxury items. And it's a sign of the times I guess, if people are pinched for money they're going to be spending less on luxuries.

My sales have fallen substantially over the past two years and once my current inventory is sold that'll be it.

[fassiphone]

Nah, the party's over... and the DJ is refusing to do any more encores.

A few months from now, I plan to sell exclusively on Vinted (not that I have much to shift nowadays).