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!

[vintagechinashop]

I think it's sad to see sellers who have been on eBay years to leave eBay. EBay should really be working hard to keep trusted sellers on this platform.  
but it seems we are all expendable 

I wish you luck with the future endeavours 

[andy_n_jenny]

For me the poor quality of multiple listings is a major disincentive to plough through the search results looking for the thing I want. When multiple listings gained the ability to have multiple prices, it was easy to predict that sellers would add "a paperclip" or "the empty box" to the listing, at 99p, so their listing would appear at the top of the results.
Maybe it is intentional, to discourage people from sorting results by ascending price and get them to pay higher prices, making more commission for ebay? That sort of behaviour is exactly why I don't use amazon unless I can't find something first on ebay.
I'm not sure what can be done about it now. Maybe put a price band width restriction on existing listings, and prevent new listings from being created with more than one price? One listing should still handle colour variations, but "250ml bottle, 1l bottle, 5l poly" should be separate listings with separate prices.

[leadhills_scot]

That would not be fair if all had to have one price.

I have many MVLs some with a mix of old and new stock so have slightly different prices, others are variations of a theme. I have never manipulated the price. No longer willing to give shed loads of money to ebay for little return which is why I'm mainly listing MVLs.

I don't buy on ebay that stopped when money was no longer going into paypal and I do wonder how many others stopped buying at that time.

[vintagechinashop]

It's always been a dream of mine to be able to reduce my working hours or even to stop work and make this my sole income  but sales on here are so erratic it's just not possible for me. I'll have one or two good months followed by months of bad sales and in these periods of quiet if I didn't have a steady income I wouldn't be able to pay the bills. What I sell is not really seasonal although summer months are traditionally lower than the winter months. So it has to remain a top up income for me. I'd love to return to the lockdown period ( only as far as sales go ) because that was a bumper sales time for me 

[plpmr]

Recent bugs on eBay and high postage caused me to look further afield for collectibles, with success.

Just an example from your [very nice] listings -

A used tea saucer for £3.95 but with Global charges to Eire of £21.75 [6 times the item cost].

[vintagechinashop]

Thank you for your comments. Global shipping rates are high and I'm considering not selling internationally 

unfortuantely I had my fingers burned by using Royal Mail international. Global shipping whilst pricey does provide a degree of protection for the seller

[nisi-5584]

They have just stopped me buying parts for my car and want me to pay by another method  .. no I want to use a visa card so I can keep control of the out goings .. seems I have to go elsewhere  .. such a short sited shame for everyone  .. N