Sales collapsing on eBay but nowhere else!

[red_apple_av]

Good day to everyone

I know we are in a recession of sorts, however I've never known in my 20 years of trading on eBay a lack of customers/sales.

2 years ago I was averaging £26K over 30 days, then it started to slide and now less than £8k

Compare this to Amazon where over two years my sales have increased and are hitting £38k a month atm

Even my website is still getting decent orders

**bleep** So what has eBay done, they are destroying a once great platform and losing many sellers.

They really need to think long and hard at what is happening

I must add that the items that were selling well 3 months ago that are sponsored are not even shifting now.

eBay is broken big time

Enjoy the rest of your day

[carinya.designs]

Same here, hardly selling anything these days.. used to be a full time job now 2 sales a day if lucky

[billtev]

Same for me sales are dire to say the least.   Offering discounts and  promotions and hardly any sales going 3-4 days at a time without even 1 sale.  

[bojangled]

@red_apple_av 

I honestly can’t be bothered anymore. Sold a job lot of new old stock on here last week, sent offers out on last few listings. I think I’m done here for the time being. Other platforms performing much better.

It’s not financially viable, productive or actually enjoyable at the moment.
Goal posts keep moving. I’ll see how things look approaching Q4.

Jo

[spence0175]

I’m ticking along. Some weeks quite good, some not. I think also depends on what you are selling. Most of my items are aimed at an older age group market and some items maybe the only one or only a few listed on the site.

Some categories are flooded with stuff.

And we could also be at the start of a recession. I really hope not… Food prices are shockingly high as well. 
We are also in car boot, antique fair season..no shortage of people there. The weather has also been good..
Just a few examples of maybe why

[bojangled]

@spence0175 

Yes I do agree with your reasoning, and my target audience is Gen-X and older.

But I listed 50 items elsewhere early this morning, 9 sold already, I think my buyers have moved on too.

Jo

[spence0175]

The reality is, when eBay first started there was no competition. Now there are many. It will never be the same as it was.

[spence0175]

I just thought I would Google some eBay statistics although not all are totally current and probably not totally accurate

So 2025 first quarter there are 134 million users/buyers.

2024 there are 18.3 million worldwide  sellers…so you are basically up against 18.3 million other presume registered. The uk alone allegedly has 300,000  sellers but not sure if that figure includes private  

On top of that there are 2.1 billion listings..

[wyntersemporium]

Apparently eBay are restructuring the company they’ve sacked over 200 plus staff members in Israel 

[typo_lee]

We are in recession it’s just the government fiddling the numbers to say we aren’t. Another economic contraction and we will officially be in recession. My accountant says the UK is going bankrupt. Is he right? I don’t know but I’d be inclined to believe him. I do understand your theory that other platforms are doing far better but I think eBay is flooded with competition now as people try and make a small packet to back up their other job for example. people that perhaps find it hard to sell on the river. Plus competitors are abusing eBay’s policies for example duplicate listings etc etc. and eBay do nothing about it.

[vintagechinashop]

I had holiday settings on for a week and my sales usually dip during the summer months but it’s the 20th and I’ve still not sold enough to make my shop fee. Over on vinted however sales are booming  so clearly something wrong here for business sellers and they seem to be U-turning on disadvantages of being a private seller. Quite honestly I’m sick of trying on here. So I’ll be concentrating more on other sites in future 

[notchrissblood]

My sales have been on the slide since last September, which coincidently is when ebay started messing up the site.

[vintagechinashop]

I’m also tired of the daily emails telling us how we can increase sales. Why don’t they just stop trying to hide the fact that the only way to increase sales is to pay them more money and jump through more never ending hoops. It’s all about greed. You may make sales but the profit is seriously reduced if you play the promotions game. When I get a sale on the other platform I use 100% of the profit is mine no fees to sell no promotion fee no fee on postage and I don’t have to play any of these silly games just to be seen with the small hope of making a sale and losing 30% of it. My prices on her have to be higher to cover fees and then I have to compete with someone who pays no fees 

every time I turn my tv on there’s an advert telling me eBay is free to sell and quite honestly it infuriates me. The promised punishment for being a private seller when in fact they are running a business is non existence because they keep u turning on the disadvantage of being a private seller

Do I sound downhearted. Yes too right I am.  20 years of loyalty on eBay on one account or another counts for absolutely nothing. The customer service and seller protection has decreased over the years. As soon as my stock is sold I’m off.  It’s a dying business as far as I’m concerned 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Be very careful with Vintxx.  They can be very quick to kick people off, with no chance of parole....

So I would advise that you don't just rely on that site, but keep Ebay as well.
And don't forget that it is considerably easier for buyers to play the system over there.
Support is absolutely useless and if they can't answer you, they just say they have followed procedure.  If you don't like it, then tough!  
And whilst your right, if you sell something on there, then 100% is yours.  But what your not saying, is that your prices are depressed to do that.   I can sell something here for £10, but over there it will go for £5.  Yet the return is about the same.  And there are an awful lot of idiots there that seem to think it's acceptable to offer 40% less than the going price and get offended if you try to increase it.

It really is the wild west.

You really don't need to advertise on here.  It does work without it.  People just seem to be brainwashed into thinking that they have to.

Diversify to other sites if you can, as the more places you sell, the better you will do overall.

[bojangled]

@therenewalworkshopltd 

Ebay seem to happy to switch people off, hold payments and shut you down in a second too. 
I do agree that you have to set your stall out on all suitable platforms. 
Jo

[typo_lee]

Funny I've had all payouts put on 30 days hold indefinitely yet more sales have come in. Very odd. Therefore many ££££s are piling up in ebays coffers which I am sure they are making tidy amounts of interest on.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Only speaking from my experiences.

Ebay do that as well, I wouldn't say otherwise.  But not even close to the same degree.

All I'm trying to put across there, is that it is very much the wild west and you just need to look the wrong way, to find yourself with a ban.  They have farsical rules and it is simply not setup properly for business sellers.
If you think that you need to jump through hoops here, then you have no idea what it's like there....
Virtually zero control over a sale.  The slightest thing has to be escalated as you cannot do anything without support getting involved.

[typo_lee]

My daughter bought and sold a few items on Vinted and what a nightmare. The seller sent the item to her and what a nightmare to send it back and then get a refund. It was terrible. So yes your right ebay is better in that sense (from our experience anyway). 

[designedinashed]

Last 7 days 4 days of no sales, gone from 3-4k month to 1k if I'm lucky I now get more emails from ebay asking me to promote listings again than i do from buyers lol.

I have noticed for buyers they have reduced fee's slightly, like sticking a plaster on a gashed wound.

shops getting turned off this week for holiday and seriously considering not bothering turning it back on and putting my efforts into other platforms.