POOR SALES = MORE BUYERS NO LONGER USING EBAY?

[candytan67]

So I managed to find some info on yesterday's eBay 2021 Q4 Results.

It came as no suprise to me - after seeing my own declining site sales last year - that again for the third consecutive quarter that the "Number of Active Ebay Buyers" has fallen down to 147million, an overal yearly decline of nearly 10% . 

2021 Q2 = 156million 

2021 Q3 = 152million

2021 Q4 = 147million

2021 Q1 = 163million.......................2021 Q4 = 147million  (-9.8%)

While I am no fan of eBay and the manner it treats it's sellers - I would not like to see the site fail.

Why do buyers appear to be deserting eBay?

We need the answer fast and eBay need to find a solution even faster to help save our businesses.

Is the current "eBay search" (The Sales Prevention Tool) to blame?...........................or is it something else?

Answers on a postcard please!

[*urjewellery*]

Pitney Bowes have lost of my 2 products in the past, one to Germany and one
to Hungary. It can be a little bit of a pain to deal with the buyer but
once your parcel reaches the eBay global shipping warehouse your legal
responsibility for it is ended. A lost parcel can be cancelled through eBay
customer services after the defined period.
You are paying ebay the fees for this service and it does work so please
don't complain too much as the previous contributor says, any courier can
lose a parcel through a myriad of reasons.

[bittyboy101]

---

@*urjewellery* wrote:
Pitney Bowes have lost of my 2 products in the past, one to Germany and one
to Hungary. It can be a little bit of a pain to deal with the buyer but
once your parcel reaches the eBay global shipping warehouse your legal
responsibility for it is ended. A lost parcel can be cancelled through eBay
customer services after the defined period.
You are paying ebay the fees for this service and it does work so please
don't complain too much as the previous contributor says, any courier can
lose a parcel through a myriad of reasons.

---

Eh ?... I never complained about a lost delivery... I think your reply above was meant for mawill_651790 ?? 

[thethomasdog]

Hear hear.

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

Joining ebay is now a pain with having to go through inputting a payment source and getting it verified.

A lot of people will just go elsewhere.

New ebayers often dont know about ebay money back guarantee so just give up at first problem and dont come back.

The search experience on ebay is poor. A lot of scammy multi listings with upfront price much lower than actual price you pay.

Waiting for items to arrive now can be frustrating with some couriers taking over a week to deliver stuff.

[theelench]

We know that all delivery companies have problems and with snow over most of the country they will only get worse.

The frustration is caused by ebay insisting that most purchases will arrive the next day.  Impossible for most to achieve even during the height of summer.

Has anyone noticed ebays "dynamic" delivery date calculation changing to take account of below freezing weather and snow-fall?

Perhaps someone would like to ask why not at the next Weekly Chat Fob-off? 

[theelench]

@bittyboy101 

Thanks for the Kudos!!

As predicted the Uranium flower Frog never sold on ebay despite several re-lists.  It's still waiting for a buyer on the other site ☹️

[bittyboy101]

You're most welcome Elench  😎

Many thanks for all yours too ! 🙂

Yeah, some things can sit online for a very long time and still not sell until the right person sees it !

I've had a lock sitting on eBay since 2021 and it finally sold last Friday ! 😆 

[kaz-sandvika]

I have never had a missing delivery because I used tracked 24 royal mail.
If items are expensive I make sure it is a signed for delivery so I get it
tracked GPS tracking and signature with a photo. It is worth paying the
extra postage for peace of mind and eBay will back you with a tracked
secure service. Good luck

[theelench]

That's true, some things can sit around for years, but I used to be able to get around that by listing something new each week, often as an auction and if it didn't sell re-listing it as BIN for a month or two which sometimes got a sale.

Just the variety of the 50 or so different items used to guarantee some sales.   Doing that in 2022 got 13 sales, the same in '23 got 13 sales.  But in 2024 doing that and (for a while) using the re-list as Sell Similar to increase the number of listings on offer resulted in 4 sales so far.

I think ebay has got better at hiding non-sponsored ads. and buyers finding it more and more difficult to find anything that hasn't been promoted have stopped looking on ebay. 

BTW, before replying I checked the other site and it did sell sometime between May and now.  A Bagley Uranium glass item of any description should sell pretty easily, NOT hang around like it did on ebay if it was being seen.

[senga50]

I  have been selling on ebay for years but this is the worst Christmas regards sales that I have experienced, won,t be selling next year that,s for sure !

[*urjewellery*]

My impressions are down 40.9% across my items in the last month. It's horrendous and all I see on the media is "sell for free". Apparently that doesn't include the 18% I'm paying on everything including postage as small business sellers have no importance in the scheme of things