Sales declining, poor weekend sales,high fees, What! is going on?

[stampconnoisseur]

All, Sales are declining, traffic is declining, and fees are increasing, especially at weekends. Has ebay stopped advertising for us? I've noticed a few adverts for eBay motoring but not for general items.

Buyer's premium has put off many customers, adding cost with little benefit. Has anybody else noticed sales decline? I promote,also have a shop subscription and sales have reduced by 30%.

Thoughts and opinions welcomed. 

[grapecr-30]

Yep..... It has been dreadful for the past few years,and getting worse with Buyer Protection Fee's for the Buyers and the new ridiculous "Complicated "No One Knows Where they Stand" Simple Delivery" system.....

It's almost like the person/people making these ridiculous changes up at the top at eBay, don't have a clue what they are doing,and have never sold an item themselves on eBay....

ebay....

Stop Buyer Protection Fee's 

Bring back reasonable Final Valuation Fees for Private Sellers and make them the same fee's for Business Sellers 

And stop this terrible Simple Delivery System, give people the choice of who they want to use for sending Items, Simple Delivery is NOT Simple....and it creates a disconnect between Seller and Buyer....and I think most Sellers and Buyer don't trust it....or have faith in claiming compensation if the Item is lost or Damaged.....

[edwardian-dreams]

It's almost like the person/people making these ridiculous changes up at the top at eBay, don't have a clue what they are doing,and have never sold an item themselves on eBay....

obviously so why are they allowed to mess with things

why not leave it to professional people 

Where does it say in the user agreement thou shalst agree to become a Guinea pig 

[morseidiot2]

What's going on is what happens when highly paid people sit around a table and convince themselves they have come up with  a brilliant plan, whilst being totally disconnected to the core requirements of the users of their business.

Or it might be a panic driven money grab before the lot of them get sussed out by the shareholders.

I'm not sure which. 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Or perhaps those at the top are doing what they are supposed to do.  Making money for the shareholders!

Changes get implemented, but they don't necessarily come from those at the top.

In most big companies, ideas are put forward by the experts and they are then decided upon by a consensus.

That of course does not necessarily mean that I think that Ebay are doing a good job at the moment, but that is the way it usually works.

[roger_roger_over_and_nowt]

My grandson calls it slivery dimple ,he's 4 😋

[the_book_seekers]

ebay's advertising is concentrated on it's Free to Sell campaign. They've forgotten about encouraging buying.

May was very bad and I was hoping June wouldn't be the same, but it is going the same way. 

[papso22]

I think one of your problems is that you have to compete with many private accounts.

Personally I doubt they are all just selling off a personal stamp collection.

[hugothecockapoo]

Brilliant..He needs to be employed by Bug Bay to sort out this mess.

[superchallenge]

---

@edwardian-dreams wrote:

Where does it say in the user agreement thou shalst agree to become a Guinea pig 

---

You're using a service that isn't controlled by you and provides no sales nor service guarantees, so being a Guinea-pig is implied.

Same way that I use Adobe products on subscription. If they decide tomorrow to stop people from making text blue, or remove the ability to edit pieces of video that are more than 2 minutes long, then there's nothing I can do about it other than vote with my wallet.

The problem is that the vast majority of eBayers don't exercise that option. They complain about eBay until the cows come home, then the first site they open the next morning is eBay.

[alpha-pods]

The cost of sales (fees) for business sellers is too high, these costs are passed to the buyer resulting in higher priced items.

The economy is on its ass and people are looking for the lowest price nowadays.

When they check different platforms or just do a google shopping search the best price is not to be found on eBay as people are able to sell cheaper and still make a profit elsewhere.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Actually, though you can buy cheaper elsewhere, it's not necessarily any cheaper.

I regularly sell here and on Vinxxed.  Prices over there are quite significantly lower.  However, what nobody ever takes into account, is that they charge postage and fees on top, rather than prior.  So overall, the prices are not that much different.   And 9 times out of 10, the same profit is achieved.

Similar things happen with other platforms.

It is expensive to sell here and very much a mish mash how they have gone about things.

They really need to change this and balance things out.  Shop fees are crazy and so old fashioned now.

[billtev]

I sell second hand items mostly soft toys dolls clothes etc and it is beyond belief that the amount of private sellers in these areas are still being allowed to sell as private sellers.  Most have anywhere between 500 - 1000s  items for sale with thousands of feedback left.  Why are ebay not moving these sellers to business as if I can see they must be able to see it is quite blatant the way they are selling.  P's me off big time as I have only had 1 sale since last week but these so called private business sellers are selling a lot of items every day.

[designedinashed]

30% your lucky, ive seen a 65% drop in the last 4-6 weeks ebay is dying and like rats I'm jumping ship, that ship being every other platform the masses are moving to.
ebay have gone into panic mode trying to compete with other platforms and have their heads in the sand as nothing is ever listened to unless it shows more ££ in their pockets.

[maarsy]

came on the forum with the same question , have noticed it for months . in general sales are down 25 to 35 percent this year . i would assume buyers have been scared off with ebay's protection fee . together with the upgrade to a business account at the start of the year i get more fee's as well so in general i'm down at least 50 - 70 % income a month compared to last year

[mariacwnn]

thank god its not just us private sellers who are going downhill

[mariacwnn]

the next blockbuster

[cobwebcottage]

Interested to know what your definition of a private seller is?