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!

[plpmr]

“Why do buyers appear to be deserting eBay?”

It's not all eBay's fault.

Speaking for myself as buying from Eire -

As soon as USA started using Global I virtually stopped buying from there.

Leaving aside Global for buying from UK.

Cut back buying because of VAT and exceedingly high postage charges.

For example, from you, a single postage stamp @ £7.38 with postage of £9.36.

Meaning not only such a high postage charge but I will be charged 23% VAT on £16.74.

[elitegiftsltd]

I've cut back my internet buying by 90% or so. 

Still an ebay buyer, just be perhaps 5 or 6 items a year instead of several dozen. Numbers of buyers tells you almost nothing. Total sales tells you a bit more - but not a lot. 

Talking to friends at work a number of them have stopped buying online entirely - and these are people on good income. 

Mortgage increase, fuel bill increase, council tax increase, NI increase - perhaps initial warning not to expect massive pay rise this coming financial year....  all can have an impact on disposable income.

A problem I'm seeing across the board, not just ebay.

Indeed, Amazon seller forums has a thread about low sales, 'How are your sales' with sellers reporting poor results. Think ebay are perhaps not involved in that problem????

[candytan67]

I suppose in your example then it's Royal Mail and their prices who are to blame if you want your item sent to you by tracked postage.

With me if the item is under £25 my buyers in Eire can have un-tracked postage for £2.80 if they want?

[candytan67]

Understood, but with eBay the figures show that this started at least 12 months ago?

I only desided to start cutting back a little last month.

[ruby*tuesday]

I have picked up on the fact on these Community Boards how the Chinese Sellers, which I avoid, have upset a lot of Buyers. They lead Buyers up the garden path, full of promises, which never materialize.

Ebay used to be fun. It isn't anymore. You need to very experienced not to get stung Buying on here. 

I like to get out around the Shops these days. I really only Buy bits and bobs, items I cannot find in Town.

[magpiecorner1]

I see the shares have dropped following the forecast for 2022, which is basically standing still - and this in spite of the new promotions.

A 10% drop in buyers is  pretty shocking, just read that advertising revenue is helping a little - if the number of buyers fall then advertisers will run for the hills. 

[gothicrosegallery]

It's all too often that sellers get stung by buyers. The mic-takers are everywhere. Which suggests ebay need to deal with the Chinese sellers, business sellers masquading as private sellers, and their policies which allow buyers to get away with taking the total p**s. If they don't ebay are running the real risk that the site will be abandoned by users.

[purveyor_of_tat]

This was posted on SC a while back - https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2021/ebay-downplays-continued-decline-of-active-buyers/ 

"Chief Financial Officer Steve Priest attributed the loss of active buyers to a natural shedding of “low-value” buyers as eBay focuses more on “high-value” buyers, or those making at least six purchases per year at over $800. The latter represents 20% of eBay buyers, but delivers 75% of the company’s gross merchandise value (GMV)"

"Compared to the third quarter of 2019, CEO Jamie Iannone said that high-value buyers are up 6%, while low-value buyers are down 7%."

"In an effort to weed out the low-value buyers and attract more high-value shoppers, Iannone noted that eBay is focusing on certain key categories in order to build trust with consumers and create a better experience that will retain them."

[elitegiftsltd]

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@purveyor_of_tat wrote:

This was posted on SC a while back - https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2021/ebay-downplays-continued-decline-of-active-buyers/ 

"Chief Financial Officer Steve Priest attributed the loss of active buyers to a natural shedding of “low-value” buyers as eBay focuses more on “high-value” buyers, or those making at least six purchases per year at over $800. The latter represents 20% of eBay buyers, but delivers 75% of the company’s gross merchandise value (GMV)"

"Compared to the third quarter of 2019, CEO Jamie Iannone said that high-value buyers are up 6%, while low-value buyers are down 7%."

"In an effort to weed out the low-value buyers and attract more high-value shoppers, Iannone noted that eBay is focusing on certain key categories in order to build trust with consumers and create a better experience that will retain them."

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So basically acting as a mature company would and focusing on the ones making them more money. Just like many other mature companies. 

Thanks for that. 

[elitegiftsltd]

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@gothicrosegallery wrote:

It's all too often that sellers get stung by buyers. The mic-takers are everywhere. Which suggests ebay need to deal with the Chinese sellers, business sellers masquading as private sellers, and their policies which allow buyers to get away with taking the total p**s. If they don't ebay are running the real risk that the site will be abandoned by users.

---

The site hasn't been abandoned yet and we were complaining of those some 15 years back or more.

[elitegiftsltd]

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@magpiecorner1 wrote:

I see the shares have dropped following the forecast for 2022, which is basically standing still - and this in spite of the new promotions.

A 10% drop in buyers is  pretty shocking, just read that advertising revenue is helping a little - if the number of buyers fall then advertisers will run for the hills. 

---

Advertisers will run for the hills if the number of users drops below a certain point plus the advertiser has somewhere else to advertise that will give a better return.

Otherwise the advertiser is stuck. 

[mayor-of-simpleton*]

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

Can't answer on something else but figures and stats can be spun to mean anything, eBay downplaying and doing as many are, aiming for better value sales according to post 9. Which I think we all try in our own way.

But you also have the natural growth of those 2nd hand sites claiming no fees or whatever, but possibly simpler to post a listing looking at the complete lack of item info on the few I have viewed.

Meanwhile have you tried that awful search on amazon, even simple searches are swamped by irrelevant results, it makes eBay look perfect in many cases.

Possibly it could improved be if they found a way to search within a listing and only show a price for the item searched not a piece of paper.

[elitegiftsltd]

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@ruby*tuesday wrote:

I have picked up on the fact on these Community Boards how the Chinese Sellers, which I avoid, have upset a lot of Buyers. They lead Buyers up the garden path, full of promises, which never materialize.

Ebay used to be fun. It isn't anymore. You need to very experienced not to get stung Buying on here. 

I like to get out around the Shops these days. I really only Buy bits and bobs, items I cannot find in Town.

---

Not just chinese sellers doing that.

Plenty of native sellers quite capable of messing buyers about. We occasionally come across them on the forums when a buyer complains. 

My missus has purchased from Chinese sellers without issue many times. Like any other group really. 

She does read feedback before buying. 

[theelench]

To me as a buyer it is ALL about the search.   If I don't see what I want (whether it's a low value item or a higher value item) I'm not going to buy.  I might be guarding my pennies tighter these days, in which case it's even more important that I see exactly what I want and not something "similar".

Whether it's because of ebay's profile of my buying habits, the way that modern / new items seem ever more difficult to filter out of results for Vintage Items, or if ebay is effectively hiding some listings because it just doesn't search all the categories where they may be listed, I know I'm not seeing all that's for sale and have taken to looking elsewhere.

[theelench]

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@purveyor_of_tat wrote:

This was posted on SC a while back - https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2021/ebay-downplays-continued-decline-of-active-buyers/ 

"Chief Financial Officer Steve Priest attributed the loss of active buyers to a natural shedding of “low-value” buyers as eBay focuses more on “high-value” buyers, or those making at least six purchases per year at over $800. The latter represents 20% of eBay buyers, but delivers 75% of the company’s gross merchandise value (GMV)"

"Compared to the third quarter of 2019, CEO Jamie Iannone said that high-value buyers are up 6%, while low-value buyers are down 7%."

"In an effort to weed out the low-value buyers and attract more high-value shoppers, Iannone noted that eBay is focusing on certain key categories in order to build trust with consumers and create a better experience that will retain them."

---

I'm sorry but do I smell smoke?

Isn't this a classic excuse when things go wrong?  So in answer to the question "Why are buyer numbers declining"  the chief execs. reply "It's a plan, we don't want a certain type of buyer so we're actively working to rid ourselves of them."  Having decided to focus on another group of buyers they will try to "build trust" over an unspecified period and hope to retain them as regular buyers.  Neatly kicking the can down the road for a few more years until the results can be quantified or fudged. 

To me me it sounds a bit like Tesco saying they don't want cheapskates coming to their stores buying a bottle of milk, they want buyers who buy caviar and have set-up an enhanced shopping experience for them,  completely "forgetting" that the "cheapskates" who buy a bottle of milk also come back to do their weekly shop week after week.

Isn't that what sellers are seeing ATM?  Cheap stuff on ebay is often more expensive than the local shops or supermarkets, so that's where price conscious buyers are going.  It's the cheap stuff, the weird and wonderful that draws the buyers, those that "while I'm here" go on to buy a basket load of other stuff as well.

From my experience of self-employment, my fathers experience in retail and even my local pub and corner shop, one way to thrive is to look after the "bread and butter" customers and develop something to provide some "icing on the cake" and seen how many fail because they forget to do that.

By the time they discover that without putting up with the inconvenient bread and butter buyers they cant survive very long on icing alone, but by then the damage is done.

[ojewellery]

I started a concious buy on eBay when buying online experiment middle of last year.  I find it quite challenging to find items and sort them.  Particularly business supplies - as has been mentioned by many in other threads.  I need to know the cost to the business - the excl. VAT price, particularly for higher ticket items.  Its really challenging to do this on eBay without looking into each listing on a desktop.  Amazon make this so easy that sometimes I value my time and just do the easy thing and buy there.  eBay have this info now for EU sales so I can't understand why they can't show it for domestic ones.

I've had a few dire experiences buying from Chinese sellers on eBay - lack of eBay support honouring their own policies seriously put me off as a buyer.  An item I purchased off one seller (UK stock Chinese business), they cancelled a week later then refunded - no explanation.  Ordered same from another seller (also UK stock Chinese), it delivered badly damaged and unusable.  Sent photos, over 10 messages between me and seller offering tiny discounts for an unusable item then offering more than it cost but not refunding  -  I returned tracked delivery asking for refund.  Took two online chats and a phone call and over a month after the tracked return to get under £10 back.  I got the refund on principle but the hassle was way more than the refund and i still didn't have the goods off eBay so I purchased off Amazon. 

I agree with the look after core of regular customers and think things like the new buyer groups for sellers, additional shop functionality increasing brand promotion (if we move past the pain of the poor role out), increasing the functionality of the mobile ap all contribute to enabling this.  Too much focus on chasing new and not looking after existing loyal, I've always thought as an odd business tactic.  It doesn't promote loyalty and repeat business.  On the other handeven as micro business' we know its not good to have all eggs in one basket so resource needs to be split in a focused way.

[i_failed_my_dna_test]

In the past ebay has based their GMV on the value of the sale , regardless of it being paid for .

Needless to say this inflated ebays sales value .

But now they have changed it .

The new method is that the value of the sale , plus any shipping costs PLUS ANY TAXES will count providing there has been a payment .

So will ebay's GMV be any more accurate ?

[bits_n_bobs_heaven]

Actually, I have to agree with you Ruby! From my own experience, that would be the case in relation to Chinese Sellers using UK addresses, shipping from China, then waiting over 2 weeks for a supposed UK to UK delivery,  and the fact that these sellers have, and still are, getting away with it!

eBay used to be great fun! It always had it's problems, but in general it was a predominantly positive experience.  Unfortunately, in the last 2 months, I have personally had great issues with 3 expensive purchases made with eBay Business Sellers, who promised to deliver items I needed, not wanted,  and 2 of them didn't because they were out of stock, and they just left me waiting 2 weeks with no item or communication, so I opened 2 cases.

However, it was the third experience that pushed my button too far! The third purchase was a SNAD - there was a missing piece. I was promised the missing piece would be sent, but nothing after 2 weeks, so I opened a case for a return and refund. Return agreed, Posting Label provided, I printed it and returned the item by 48 hour tracked Royal Mail.  6 days later, still no refund, so I esculated the case. eBay's decision after esculating, was in favour of the Seller!!?

Needless to say, I was on eBay Chat faster than you can imagine! It transpired that the assessor / bot was unable to see the tracking number for the agreed returned item or any of the pictures as proof on the case, and so wrongly 'assumed' I had not returned the item and was trying to get a refund!!  The agent soon sorted it when I gave them the tracking number which showed I had returned the item. Case decision overturned, instant refund & I received an appology by email  from eBay as to the way the case had been handled..............

From that point on, I lost the enjoyment of buying from eBay, which is such a shame:-( I don't even bother searching / browsing very much, not that I can find what I actually want when I do decide to search! So now, like eBay has become itself, I 'clinically' purchase the very odd bits and bobs from my regular trusted sellers, but only when I can't get out, and I really desperately need them. Those items are always in my basket just in case.

[simply-divine-things]

I also lost the enjoyment of buying on eBay, for several reasons. A lot of the best sellers have gone, and you can't really bag a bargain from private sellers anymore due to the fees. I stopped enjoying selling on eBay. I closed my shop last month after the final straw of a buyer being refunded out of my pocket for items they didn't return after opening a false SNAD. I pulled all my private listings last week after seeing that eBay had automatically added "returns accepted" for all reasons and I couldn't remove it. I noticed after I sold a very expensive duvet cover and someone had a return authorised because it was the wrong size, they needed a smaller one. It was a normal change of mind return they opened. I'm done with eBay. I'm pulling the rest of my business listings this weekend as I haven't made a single sale for two weeks on them anyway, and I only left my best sellers up after closing my shop.