24-02-2022 2:34 PM - edited 24-02-2022 2:39 PM
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!
26-10-2022 1:01 PM
There are a lot more places to buy nowadays, It is easier than ever to buy from auction houses online, I buy a lot of antiques and collectables mainly clocks, I have lost count of the number of times I've bid on clocks at auctions, lost out then seen it listed on ebay the next day.
Too many so called dealers buy from auction and list straight on E-bay, on things like clocks It would take me a few days to service and repair a clock and another week to test run and regulate it.
Most dealers are just lazy middlemen buying and throwing straight onto E-bay with large mark ups, no wonder collectors like me buy very little on E-bay anymore and those I do buy tend to be from private sellers not "Dealers"
26-10-2022 2:09 PM
@sam_in_barbate wrote:I wish you good luck if ever buying from a crooked French seller, my charmer just had his eBay close a case the day he accepted a return, I have lost a small fortune, & I am spitting mad, this would never have happened if I had paid via Paypal
I've opened dozens of cases over the years. No idea if any were french or crooked. Just knew I had a problem.
Getting ebay to close a return as a seller is unusual. Multiple times people have reported its resulted in a full refund for the buyer. What do ebay say when you speak to them?
As for losing a fortune, you can open a claim with your card company you used as you chose not to use paypal. Why you didn't use paypal I've no idea.
23-12-2022 2:10 PM
Yet again conned!
There are no savings with eBay.
it's done.
04-01-2023 2:22 PM
I am a private seller who just wanted to sell some toys before Christmas. But eBay now insists on having all of your bank account details and being authorized to access their fees at any time. There only needs to be a security breach of some kind and the Bank will say, 'You shouldn't have given your details'. Paypal gives you some protection and was not directly linked to your bank account if you don't want it to be. In regard to my bank account, I need to act very quickly if I see a problem and eBay is simply uncontactable without considerable effort and time scale. I am just a casual seller, why would I bother?
In my book, eBay is just for businesses that want to charge local taxes but don't want to declare them to the authorities. Usually, people resell and redirect from a room in their house. Try to get a VAT receipt for example? I can honestly say, it has also put me off buying from eBay. I have to consider 'can I afford to lose this money' before I buy. Above all, it's a question of trust feels a bit like the Wild West so no trust from here. My social circle think the same, we are not the only ones, so magnify this even at 2% of the buying public.
04-01-2023 2:47 PM
" I can honestly say, it has also put me off buying from eBay. I have to consider 'can I afford to lose this money' before I buy. "
Please explain how a buyer can lose their money when buying from a seller on eBay?
Excepting categories that are excluded from all buyer protection.
05-01-2023 2:16 PM
I know why ,
As a buyer and seller here and there.
people sell junk !
and at worst send nothing.
i worked out that ove4 half of things I buy have things
wrong with them, noticeable things that was
not shown in photos, or size is wrong etc.
ive had empty bottles of perfume sent , yrs
ye5 in pic it had half ! I’ve had my child almost in tears
go8ng door every day near her birthday as I paid £120
for a PlayStation which seller had not sent out .
took weeks to prove as strike on uk post eBay did
refund me but removed my bad feedback !
i complained that this awful company will just do this
again as people use it as a quick way to get cash then
no payment back to buyer fir up to a month and only
at the exact amount. Better than bank fees.
theres a lot of bad sellers not everyone is decent.
also every return cost me money because I don’t have
a printer, £3 to rent the printer at my shop.
it gets annoying.
my feedback good because I care , most don’t .
in this day and age people want fast cash and ebay
is perfect as u only pay back weeks later.
this leaves buyer without their money or item a
month on average or up to that.
its not worth it for a coat that should have been listed
as an 6 not a 10/12 for hardly fitted my daughter.
Then u got the people who want a freebie.
plenty of them about.
i had q quarter of a genuine Chanel perfume used b4
a customer returned it even though she left good feedback.
buyers remorse, skint need quick cash returns are a nightmare.
ti be honest I like eBay and so far they have been helpful
as they can see who’s genuine and who not,
but I feel most s5uff on ebayis a let down and Im not buying
nearly as much as b4.
hey are in a difficult position sorting out claims but removing
bad feedbCk which I only wrote because seller clearly never sent
any item and my daughter was so upset , well it showed me eBay is not
fair.
i was not able to stop other people going through it either with
just getting a refund near a month later and that feedback gone because business
selkers seem looked after more , they mostly lost me that day.
ebay should not rememove bad feedback left by me or anyone that’s
whole point of feedback.
my feedback is always glowing we’re warranted.
I used to love eBay but scammers and rip offs put people off.
ebay needs to tighten up over this.
As too many good seekers get stitched up by bad buyers And too may good
buyers get nothing like what’s described
It’s getting a bit bad now sadly.
plus I’ve under charged on post so many times on
ebd that’s my fault but it puts u off when you are 3
and £4 out before u start even.
lots off hassle for little reward lately.
eBay are usually fair too but it’s getting too much hassle.
too many wronguns looking for free goods these days.
hope it gets better as I like eBay.
05-01-2023 11:46 PM
Ebay only has itself to blame for buyers/sellers abandoning ebay.
The buying experience is poor. Multi listings with lead in prices of 99p and item you want is £9.99.
Multi listings all starting at 99p so you cant find cheapest item easily.
Chinese listings fillling up search results when I dont want to buy from China.
Buyers falling foul of ebay rules when buyer doesnt know the rules.
They get upset and leave ebay.
For sellers having to compete with people virtually giving stuff away.
06-01-2023 10:45 AM
06-01-2023 12:06 PM
It the brain-dead changes that have been made to the platform back from the end of 2021. Categories destroyed anyone selling collectables, Defaults that cut out over 60% of potential items. Some of the poor sellers had to increase prising to try to keep afloat. So, I now use other platforms and hardly use eBay for purchasing now as the platform is rubbish. Yes, there is a downturn in spending so there would be a drop in sales, but far worse on eBay than other platforms.
Mainly down to eBay why the purchasers are not bothering with this platform. I do hope they will get someone that has a little common sense as there is none at the moment.
06-01-2023 4:04 PM
> The buying experience is poor.
It certainly is, far too much space taken up by adverts too.
> Multi listings with lead in prices of 99p and item you want is £9.99. Multi listings all starting at 99p so you cant find cheapest item easily.
This is a serious problem eBay should immediately address IMO. You can no longer find the cheapest item string price low to high. Multi listings are a problem from a sellers point of view too. If you split your listings from multi listings into multiple listings you sell far more, but clutter the search results.
> Chinese listings fillling up search results when I dont want to buy from China.
Also USA listings too. It would be better for customers to leave international off by default.
06-01-2023 4:29 PM
Cheap Chinese tat on here as much as Amazon not a lot of difference, if you look at using all the filters and easily see for yourself.
One big difference amazon hasn’t messed up the platform and eBay has on categories and brain dead defaults that cut out majority of listed items applicable for the search you entered.
06-01-2023 5:52 PM
Both Amazon and OnBuy appear to use a different format for creating multibuy - they're like bundled listings so each item has its own title, description, images, price.
I wish eBay would look at doing this. It means if I seach gaming chair, I'd get the price shown in search for the gaming chair £80is option, rather than the folding ocassional chair thats £9.99. My search would bring up the key words for the gaming chair and it wouldn't be an advantage to the seller to list a random other type of chair.
Likewise ream of paper I know its not 99p - thats the sample sheet. Its all multibuy, but near impossible to compare, plus finding if the price is incl. VAT is very time consuming. The result is I don't buy as many business supplies like this off eBay
07-01-2023 7:54 PM
I don't look much for cheap chinese tat but so apart from being swamped by it on amazon I can't compare both sites.
On the other hand amazon are much better at filling the search results with completely unrelated items and far superior than eBay at hiding results they don't want you to see. There are a number of times I find something on an outside search engine and amazon simply refuse to show it in their results, even on see similar meaning I can only access to buy from amazion uk via an outside link. So plusses and minuses for both sites on search.
I tend to buy my stationary from amazon though because there are so many opportunities to collect free amazon vouchers around it makes it free most of the time. One thing eBay miss out on and one reason for amazons success.
08-01-2023 11:38 AM
I hate to say it but as a buyer I now use Amazon more than eBay.
A problem with eBay where Amazon scores so highly is that if you want a quick delivery you can filter Amazon Prime products.
Many sellers on eBay offer an express delivery service and I for one do not have an issue paying for an express delivery but eBay does not have a filter to select for items offered with an express delivery option.
Preberbly the biggest issue I have buying on eBay is the search results and missleading prices displayed.
FOR EXAMPLE...
One of Todays Daily Deal offers as below has the price showing as £2.99
"A4 WHITE PAPER PRINTER COPIER 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, REAMS OF 500 SHEETS PHOTOCOPY STATIONARY"
When you click on the listing to buy a single ream of paper for £2.99 this is not availiable at £2.99 , the price is £9.99 ! .... £2.99 buys you just 1 single sheet of paper.... this is blatantly done to misslead the potential buyer to view the listing.
I reciently saw another listing for some lights with a very low headline price but that turned out to be for a variation for a single screw.
Like many buyers I do like to filter for the best price (including when I am listing items) but this pratice of trying to hook a buyer with a missleading headline price is now rife all over eBay and as a buyer I find it frustrating and is one of the reasons why I buy more items on Amazon than eBay
08-01-2023 2:27 PM
I agree with everything you say in this post @eyewear247 On the same theme, when I google search, I g frustrated by clicking on the eBay items in google shopping because the price shown isn't the listed price for the item searched, its for the lowest priced item in the listing.
I do go through phases of reporting but the listing practices report doesn't appear to result in any visible sanctions - as an optimist I hope that it is making a difference behind the scenes and eventually that note will be taken.
I think the multibuy rule of thumb is quite simple, what ever is in the title should be an acurate description for the product sold. Every product variant should be described by the title
So in your paper example a sheet of paper would be SNAD.
08-01-2023 2:49 PM
To get on the Daily Deal page someone behind the scenes at eBay would of checked that listing and allowing a £2.99 price displayed which turns out to be for a piece of paper is quite sad
08-01-2023 2:52 PM
I think ebay have lost it. Someone at ebay clearly thinks that if you look at a multibuy listing then you will buy the overpriced item, regardless of the misdescribed 99p item that gets the listing near the top of those sorting by cheapest price.
They fail to realise that if you don't buy then you may be put off further searches as you never find what you are looking for at the price you see. It must be a contributory factor to the drop in number of buyers.
There are two ways for ebay to increase their profits, get more new buyers, or squeeze a bit more out of the current sellers. They are clearly going for the second option.
09-02-2023 9:42 PM
Hah! If only it were that easy.
Purchased a £29 product for car...
Needed to return product... Turns out their product comes from Lithuania, return fees £700, Royal mail unavailable, so couldn't return product....
It goes on!
It's easy peasy innit!
idiots!
09-02-2023 9:44 PM
If on a card or bank acc you can claim it back.
09-02-2023 9:46 PM
Okay... my new way of purchasing is search ebay etc... then find homepage of seller then purchase of seller direct.