Is eBay finished for clothing sellers?!

[trpltrendsltd]

So I've been selling on eBay for several years now and the last 8 weeks have been dreadful. Utterly dreadful. 
I am used to doing 4-5K a month in sales and for December I took less than £2000... this month so far I've done £71..... 

In many years I've never had weekly payouts under £500.

i haven't had a weekly payout of more than £500 in 7 weeks. This weeks is looking to struggle to get to £100.

i don't think that with 500+ items and thousands in stock I can afford to pay to use eBay anymore. After the addtional fees and shop cost I'm better off closing and selling on a private account ......

I sell purely clothing and it seems like nobody is buying clothes from eBay anymore, I recently set up a Vinted page and I'm selling more on there than eBay with only 10-15% of my stuff listed on there.....

would like to hear from any other clothing sellers as to how they are doing; whether good or bad. 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Oh I don't know, we are almost two weeks in now and I've seen sales increase, not decrease.

[brindsey]

Vinted is flooded with charity shop 'bargains'.  If you're expecting an item as described  you have a 15% chance of getting what you expect.  You have a 40% chance of a usable item and the remaining 45% will mean you have to bin it or pay return postage (if the seller accepts the return).

If the listing shows a rather plump lady wearing occasion apparel, then it's probably a genuine seller.  Albeit the garment has stretched seams because MOB or MOG has squeezed her size 18 frame into a size 14 dress because she got it cheap.  Same thing goes for the shoes and matching bag - lovely, as new, uppers, but no image of the heels because they've got more craters than a volcano.

Want to buy designer, then just head on over to Trustpilot and read the reviews.  Bypass the five stars as they've got people sitting up all night making up the one-liners.  Currently sitting at 3.4 the all nighters are having to work overtime to get it back up to 3.5

How on earth Vinted has gotten where it is is beyond me.   There is no 'buyer protection', just a fee that goes straight into the Directors' pockets.

There is no guarantee that what you buy is what you get.  And if it's not, then you can, hopefully, pay return postage and get your money back.

Never thought in the current climate I would end up defending eBay, but I have to concede that it's 30 day money back guarantee should tip the scales in their favour.

[thebeautician]

I have the opposite experience. I bought several items on Vinted and so far I got only one item that was not as good as I expected, but not bad either. That's probably just one of the reasons it got where it is. I got far worse on eBay and often overpriced. Vinted is also fairer for sellers, hence why people are moving there. The end of fees for private sellers is a desperate move to avoid losing even more sellers and buyers (not that they have any other alternative anyway), but I don't think it will have a great impact. EBay's private sellers often sell on Vinted as well, however, Vinted sellers have no benefit to listing on eBay: time-consuming, low visibility and unfair.

I truly hope your views of the world (and business, in general), are larger than this: If the listing shows a rather plump lady wearing occasion apparel, then it's probably a genuine seller.  Albeit the garment has stretched seams because MOB or MOG has squeezed her size 18 frame into a size 14 dress because she got it cheap. 

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

Competition on ebay is very stiff.

I found you need to sell rarer items where there is less competition and you can mark up prices.

[twizzle44]

I realise this is an old thread, but I have items I listed several months ago and according to eBay I have had zero views which I think is odd.

Also I had a Next jacket listed with around 18 views, but the next day this view count was zero.  Do not understand this unless eBay just wants people to pay to promote each item and the views are all incorrect. 

[maxandtilly2013]

Same for me been selling for 10 years and could always source lovely things that sold ,clothing ,scarfs,leather bags.

And greart dresses for xmas.last year it slowed down ,sold barely anything,and nothing at xmas,so i had stock ,i gave away.the weird thing is ,no looks ,no bids 0000 ,all my stuff is good labels and in small to plus size.

This year sold 3 dresses ,thats it.again no looks,nothing ,its so strange,just lots of no looks,ive never had this.

So again i have way to much stock.

For example had a Gorgeous plus size gothic corset ,by rigby and peller ,for a size 24 lady ,gorgeous 

It would have been snapped up ,but after weeks of listing ,it had to go for a tenner  and e bay took a thick slice of that.i wrap in tissue and ribbon,and i ended up with  with 2.80.

Since then put new stuff on,monsoon,joe brown,boden,and new leather bags .not a thing.

something strange is going on ,how can i pick the right stuff that sold,now i have 3 sales in 7 months.

Then e bay offer free fees on clothing.and i am business seller.in so many years ,ive never had one deal from e bay ,not one ,like free listing for a day,nothing. Customers get away with not paying,cancelling after winning ,i have had a lot claiming it didnt arrive ,when i have proof it did

And having to refund. You cant say anything about the buyer ,but they can say what they want about you

So i will have to shut shop.all that time and work,gone.

Something is behind this ,i think e bay want to stop pre loved totally ,and be shein or temu.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Something is behind this ,i think e bay want to stop pre loved totally ,and be shein or temu.

You do realise, that they have been heavily promoting "preloved" (not my favourite terminology)?

So it would make absolutely no sense for them to be doing that, if they intended to be the next Shein etc.

But I'm really not that surprised that your not selling that much, you literally only have 29 listings up.  For clothing, unless you are hyper promoting single lines, you are never going to sell many.  To have regular sales, you need a lot more listings.

You mention a corset that is "gorgeous", but that's only your opinion.  Others may think it's absolutely horrible.    But to sell something for a £10 and only come out with £2.80, then I would imagine that the majority of that has gone on postage rather than fees.  Even at 15% +30p, that's only £1.80 plus vat. which still leaves £7.84.  So just how much did you postage?  Or are you promoting at a high percentage?

Returns can be a bane, with many customers claiming not as described, but keep reporting them.  And if you have high enough standards, with a bit of luck, you should get these costs refunded.

But when they are claiming not received, then surely you have tracked postage, (or even RM24/48) that proves delivery?  In which case, you should never lose one of these.

[btr.style]

The thing I can see from what you are selling is you aren't selling brands people are after. 

Some of the listings may look nice but brands like monsoon, walis and Jasper conran aren't what most people are after. The brands you are selling are either relatively unknown or heavily discounted at new anyway. 

Look at that Boden dress for example. Elastane and polyester. That's low quality materials (it's not modal, cotton, linen). So it's never going to go for much. It does have 1 bid though. 

Generally this last year or 2 dresses have been very difficult to shift anyway, even from the brands people want. I've sold 2 this year and other businesses I've spoken to, many that have more dresses in stock than me are struggling to sell them too. 

Preloved items do go on eBay. If anything they are pushing for more Preloved items being listed with free to sell clothing for private sellers, partnerships with love island (eurgh) and making some sellers Preloved partners. 

The success of Preloved with my business has made me change the business plans to slowly become a mostly second hand clothing business (total stock is 70% used clothes). The stuff went really well on eBay. eBay's decision to make it free to sell clothes for private sellers has stopped me listing used clothing on eBay though. 

I don't mind paying fees to sell the new stuff but the used clothing I've sourced was incredibly difficult to do so. It's extremely rare stuff imported from overseas that only I can get hold of. Nobody else in the UK can get the stuff I get in. To get that exclusive supply line came at a big price though, I had to spend a huge amount of money and regularly. Putting myself in massive debts of over 30k (I'm still paying over £400 in interest a month as I slowly reduce to debt), taking out more loans and CC's which has damaged my credit score and for some of the time, having to live with live with 1000's of jumpers stacked from floor to ceiling in my front room as I went through cleaning them all and moving them to the business warehouse unit. 

So I refuse to have to pay eBay fees to sell them while private business sellers pay nothing, which means selling them elsewhere. 

[josh3908]

I'd agree, I would usually post around 50+ items every beginning of November on ebay and sell them all in 4 months, and make sveral hundred pounds or even over a thousand to supliment my meagre income. Now I have stuff still on ebay I listed 5 years ago.Everything I sell is either new or in as new condition, but even knocking the price way down, like selling a new £60 nike hoodie for £20, I can't make a sale, if I knock it to £10 I eventually sell it. Use to get tons of views, now most stuff gets no views. Ebays keeps advertizing to the private seller but prioritizes big companies. I'll have to try another platform.