Is it time for me to pull from Ebay

[vostok63]

When I first started with Ebay about 15 years ago it was a life saver for my business during the recession of 2008 and then we were able to press on and do extremely well. We would regularly do £3000-£4000 a month turnover. Everything was ok until about a year ago and we have seen our fees go up the cost of advertising through promosted listings (Im paying up to 15% on all my promoted listings) on Ebay go up which means our prices go up and eventually it appears totally unsustainable especially when other platforms we use are fantastic for us at the moment. Last month £3500 on a similar platform. Ive just got my Ebay September statement ....less than £450 and nearly 25% going on Ebay fees...Anyone else having the same experience  and finding Ebay not the best for small business anymore. To be clear we have an excellent record with customers 5 star feedback across the board.  If you have had similar experience and turned a corner with Ebay what did you do with your listings /Ebay shop? very reluctantly Im really thinking its time for me to pull away from ebay as its not worth the effort anymore and reaching out to Ebay doesnt seem to work either

[Anonymous]

Same here for me and many many more judging by the comments on other threads on here . I've been on ebay 17 years,  12 years with the business I have now. In all those years I have never had to contact ebay regarding low sales until October 2023. For me something happend around 3rd week September,  my account went dead overnight,  picked up a little then October my sales were half of a normal October.  

I have experienced quiet days over the years which is normal, but not this, this is different.  I promote,  I post same day , have 0% returns , 0% late delivery and excellent feedback.  I've changed pictures,  titles,  ended to sell similar but nothing is really working 

Sadly I think for a lot of small businesses it maybe the end of the road selling on here now 

[pg_kicks]

Firstly your items look great, but I'm very much not your target customer base. Its more likely my mam or sister in law would be and if they were to look for items you were selling I'd guess it would be etsy they would go to judging by the amount of links that are sent in the family whatsapp group around any big events. As I have said in another thread my sales on here are up over 40% on last year, mainly I believe its down to eBay focusing in on the category I sell in, whereas arts & crafts and those type os categories seem to have been forgotten about or atleast given less exposure than others. 

I believe this will be down to the sales eBay are getting in these which means they are making less so care less about them, the sales have probably moved over to Etsy and marketplace and what not. I'd bet good money the other platform you have been making sales is Etsy. I think having a presence is worthwhile on here, with the listings you have you shouldnt need a shop and I'd even lower the promoted listing amount and just see any sales on here as a bonus and focus on the markets that are working. 

Reaching out really wont help, they have a business plan and even if 100 sellers reached out its a tiny drop for eBay and I very much doubt anything ever gets passed up tbh.

Sorry I couldnt be more upbeat but lets hope your eBay sales do carry on or even better return to old levels and other markets increase too.

[Anonymous]

Also just to add , the 1 time in October I did contact ebay for advice on sudden low sales I was told it has been checked and my account is running fine , what do I do with that information if they think it's running fine 🤷‍♀️

[Anonymous]

I think you are absolutely right Etsy definitely seems the place for Arts and Crafts now 

[simplyessential_uk]

I have been on Ebay for over 20yrs so just like you have had years of healthy income from Ebay - what I have learnt also is never to put all my eggs in one basket, I have been selling on all 3 main platforms (and my website) and each have had their ups and downs over the last 5yrs.  In the past I have moved everything over to Amazon only to then have issues with Hazmat and move back to Ebay, then when Ebay dipped opened back up on  Amazon who have now "embrased" handmade products as competition with Etsy,  who are now way exceeding Ebay.  My Etsy store was storming away last Xmas but this year they pulled alot of my products down for violations (when they are not so thats their new software but talk to the wall like everyother platform these days with regards to that) so my point is whats good this year may not be next 
I think Etsy is the place now for your type of listings and if you can get good money coming in then spend your time growing that platform but you say "less than £450 and nearly 25% going on Ebay fees" Change your promos and experiment - I only pay 2% and refuse to pay more and still get decent sales, Ive also realised spending more on promos does not equal more sales

[padanpcparts]

Yes, steadily downhill this year on this platform. Will be focusing elsewhere next year. 

[bravergrace]

I think eBay is probably not the place for my sort of stock any more (vintage clothing and accessories, and old books). 

The only way to get sales seems to be to pay huge amounts in eBay fees - and this raises the price compared to other platforms, so savvy buyers will simply buy elsewhere, leaving eBay with buyers who don't really know what they're buying, and are more likely to buy something unsuitable (leading to returns).

I've been running two successful eBay shops for years now, but over the next year, I'm looking to halve the amount of stock I list on eBay, reduce it to one shop, and list on two other more specialist sites instead.  

It's very clear that eBay doesn't want my kind of business any more, and there seems no point in flogging a dead horse.

[iew-signed-books]

I can only offer advice regarding your books - and you probably know this anyway. Not sure exactly what you mean by "old books" (old doesn't remotely equate with valuable or collectible), but ABE is clearly the best platform for that kind of stuff (assuming that they are actually worth something). Definitely don't bother with Amazon (who own ABE anyway). There is Biblio but they aren't in ABE's league.

[ojewellery]

Is it this account you're posting from you're talking about?  With the one main seller - personalised napkins.

I just did a bit of quick whats the market in that category worth on terapeak.  The whole UK personalised napkin market, split between 49 sellers last year was worth a bit under £24k.  So your days of £3-4k a month are looking less likely but your £450 has room to grow by obtaining more market share.

You do seem to be one of the more prolific sellers in the category.  If you wanted to spend a little time tweaking things you could play with your titles to move the key words 'personalised napkins' to the front of title, look at other potential search phrases to fill up the total title characters like 'printed' or 'maybe foiled' also consider adding seasonal words like Christmas New Year, which could become Valentines and Easter at a later stage.

You could up your photo count to show the individual napkin colours, and/ or how they are presented/ packaged.  Your big photo with all the what you can put on your napkin ideas is quite hard to read on a mobile device you could break it down into wedding theme, birthday theme etc

Everyone in the category appears to charge postage so that doesn't appear to be an issue

[vostok63]

thats extremely helpful, yes I do the napkins and this time of year diaries as well

I accept that the £3000 -£4000  on Ebay are long gone

the other platforms I use are doing much more than that this year in the peak wedding months of May to August it was £5000 per month , Ebay since 2020 and the Covid break seem to have struggled. 

Last year I did just under £13000 turnover  on Ebay and this year will struggle to maybe £9000 its been a steady decline year on year for the last few years . Something has fundamentally changed with Ebay that I cant fathom. I think your points about the changes are absolutely right though, Ive used the same images on Ebay for a long time and maybe a tweek  in the listings and the photos would help, its very good point you make. Thanks for the input it has been very valuable.  

[theelench]

"....my sales on here are up over 40% on last year, mainly I believe it's down to ebay focusing in on the  category I sell in, whereas arts and crafts and those types of categories seem to have been forgotton about or at least given less exposure..."

To me, even as a low volume non-business seller, your conclusion shows the big draw-back of relying on ebay.  What ebay wants to "focus" on shouldn't mean that items in ebays non-focus categories are given any less exposure.  Does ebay want sales, or does it want to puff it's latest fad?  Why should pushing some categories entail suppressing sales in others, other than being 'creative' with their stats.

It makes the 'growth' in the focus category look more spectacular compared to declining sales in others, but surely overall it's just losing money on total sales?  

To me the most important factor when selling in specialised or niche categories isn't  so much finding a specialised site, it's about finding a site that guarantees visibility and where buyers can reliably find the item.

Having built a presence on ebid, which gives me reliable visibility on google shopping, I'm increasing my sales there every year and selling more there than I do on ebay for the last 4 - 5 years.

On either ebay or etsy I would be a small fish in a large pond, on ebid I'm a small fish in a smaller pond which helps me.  With buyers fed-up with the bigger sites, the games they play with visibility and how much they  charge for giving that visibility, I think buyers will increasingly use off-site search engines to find the specialist / niche items that the larger sites ignore or have lost interest in and it makes sense to find the site where visibility is greatest and cheapest.  To some extent buyers can and will seek you out if you are visible.

[thebeautician]

You're forgetting that if 100 sellers leave eBay, most likely eBay also lost 100 buyers... 

Younger people don't use eBay and older people are starting to use other platforms as eBay is slowly turning similar to "Ali..." sites, just more expensive.

[pg_kicks]

When I say they focus on one category they dont spend less than the previous year on other categories, what will most likely have happened is eBay have seen that a certain category has space to grow and invested more money into that category to attract more of the market, this doesnt mean they spend less than the previous year on another category.

The issue is if Etsy and the likes continue to gain a more arts and crafts site then buyers will go there first so sales will just naturally decline on here in those categories, unless eBay spend even more, but its certainly not as easy as in the sneakers where they have copied sites like StockX and GOAT with authentication. 

I disagree when you say its not about finding a site that fits your product best, I believe its 100% down to that, if I were to sell arts and crafts items Etsy would be the main site I use, if you ask 100 people I'd be willing to bet a large amount that most would say Etsy or amazon as the sites they'd visit. 

There are many things could could do to improve their site, but many will cost money with no guaranteed returns and sadly thats all they care about, taking risks isnt really what a multinational company will do.

[pg_kicks]

eBay have many more buyers than sellers and if a seller stops they dont automatically stop buying either, granted some will as they will blame the loss of their business on eBay, but like most humans if they want something and eBay is the cheapest they'll buy from eBay.

I'd like to see the source of younger people not using eBay, I get plenty of links from my nephews for eBay, granted thats a small sample pool but as eBay is now rated number 1 in the 'sneakerhead' community for buying shoes with most being 'young' in that community again.

[simplyessential_uk]

Something has fundamentally changed with Ebay that I cant fathom.

Alot has changed over the last year

OJ is right -  The first 4 words in the title are the main words that buyers search.

Also its all about the item specs - If you search via your mobile or App it filters more of the search results eg colour, sizes, occassion etc. I found it helpful to search for my own items as a customer on the app and see what it showed me - I learnt then how I needed to make mine appear 

So for example one of your listings to add on from what OJ suggested

100 x Personalised Cocktail Napkins - you could elaborate using keywords

Personalised cocktail paper napkinsDisposable Serviettes Tissue

(Use all 80 characters)

 

If I click on this item and "sell it yourself" I can see you have not filled alot of the item specs to filter, this is the main thing now Ebay are using - pointless in the past but now its certainly a factor now

which is a problem with variations but if thats the case ebay have some already to use "suggestions" and they are the main ones in the filter so try to fit within them rather than creating your own which will likely hide your listing as it falls outside of the filters

 

Also Ive noticed If I sell an item it bumps you up in the algorithms so start with old listings - Sort in your dashboards "time left" and work down those first so you arent losing money relisting.  Close any that havent had any views or sales in 3mths and "sell similar" (not relist) and Ebay now treat this as a new listing and bumps it to the top. Make all the changes eg the images, title, item spec and if you can make it a little cheaper to get that 1st sale you will then appear more in searches - eg Ebay see this as a good seller.  Of course once you get a couple put the price back up. 

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

Ebay would rather sell more profitable items (more profit) and forget about the low priced stuff.

Their lowest price search now concentrates on more medium to higher price items.

All very well but it means they are taking listing fee's and not showing some items.

[theelench]

Although I can see your points, I think we will have to just disagree.  Neither of us knows how much ebay currently spends on each category, or spent previously.  I would guess that there is some element of robbing Peter (lets say Collectables) to pay Paul (again say for example Sneakers) and contrast a putative amount spent on setting-up of Authentication and getting it to work well enough to flourish.  With the still unfinished project of IS in Collectables categories.  Where there are still weekly changes, a total lack of publicity to educate buyers and much reduced sales.  

In the vintage glass categories I buy and sell in I looked at Etsy back when its "Art Deco Glass" search only had 2 or 3 pages of results but a few years later, (perhaps something like 5 years ago) had already overtaken ebay in numbers of listings  I watched 2 particular sellers, both excellent and once having a large presence on ebay, move most of their items and effort to etsy.  That one of them (I think very recently) has started making themselves known on google shopping (GS) under their own banner, rather than under etsy's, leads me to think that their efforts may have been disappointing.

I do agree that a more specialist site is where most people will look first, but where do they go if what they're looking for is still not found that easily?  I'm sure many of my sales on ebid come via GS, it's not a specialist site but does get my items visible there equal with items from etsy and superior to those from ebay, at least when it comes to the important first few pages. 

Again I come back to the size of the pond.  My ads. have a one in a few hundred chance of being selected by GS on such a small site, but a one in many thousands chance of being seen when both ebay and etsy have so many ads. for GS to choose from.

If your last sentence refers to ebid, I agree totally, there is much wrong with it that could be improved.  But I say the same about ebay and would probably say the same regarding etsy, if I knew more about the details of how it works.  I take my cue from what has been said on here many times; that the only way to get a site that's 'perfect' for my items s to design it myself (🤣).   Short of that, to my mind, it's all about using the advantages of the various sites on offer, while trying to avoid the worst of the dis-advantages.

[vostok63]

Yesterday I did a sale on Ebay (my first in nearly a week) I got paid £75 plus postage for the sale

Today Ebay paid me for that sale £36.98.......Its not worth it anymore.

[exponential_developments]

How does that break down in the fee's at it sounds horrible.