Traffic, Impressions and sales huge dip since last year. Anyone else have this issue?

[mirums-attic]

Hi All,

We have been a business seller on eBay for years. Last year July - August 2023 something happened to our traffic and impressions suddenly and we just can't explain it. I know we might not be a huge account compared to most but we were receiving at the lowest 300,000 impressions a day, and this could rise to 600,000 plus daily depending on our listings. Now all of a sudden this dropped from September 2023 and keeps getting worse to the point that now a good day we have 200,000 impressions and a bad day just over 90,000 impressions. This has resulted from turning over high's of £8,000 per month to now a low of £94 in the last 7 days!!

We promote our listings, change and refresh our listings daily and list new items. Our feedback has no negative responses, touch wood at the moment and we offer fantastic customer care. We are at a loss to be honest. We were starting to go through price matching with low prices but we sell collectable etc so our price reflects condition and rarity. I have reached out to customer services but they say that people are just looking and not buying. So to a point it sounds fair, but when I speak to my competitors at events, fairs and buying events they are doing great at the moment!

Most are even expanding!

We went from last year being full-time and looking to expand, roll on a year and I have had to start another business completely unrelated to selling online as my main income. 

So we know the economy is not great and most are spending less money, but you wouldn't think impressions and traffic would just more than half in a year. Sales plummet to being almost non-existent. I love buying and selling and have been very loyal to eBay for a long time, is this happening to others?

I promote more than ever at the moment and we never used to refresh our listings, but now we do this daily. Any help would be appreciated, let's try and hang in there and keep the dream alive!

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

Hi,

You say:

"when I speak to my competitors at events, fairs and buying events they are doing great at the moment!

Most are even expanding!"

What platforms are they selling on ?  Can you check their sales ?

Also I think plenty of business sellers are going through similar to what you have described, personally we are moving our efforts onto our own website. Ebay has become too expensive and too time consuming for the rewards on offer. Things seem to be getting worse on here pretty much month by month, this has been ongoing for 2 - 3 years so I'd expect more of the same.

[mirums-attic]

Hi,

They use their own website, eBay and few other platforms. Some are driving all over the UK, they say they are struggling to meet demand for some of the collectables. Buying 3 or 4 times weekly and they do spend quite well. Certainly on some of the events I go to. 

I do agree, more and more business's are struggling and we are wondering if we need even bother with using eBay at the moment. All we are doing monthly is just covering our costs. Very little profit. It is expensive but we wouldn't mind if we were getting the sales or even the traffic would be nice. The huge drop in traffic is a huge worry.

[typo_lee]

Compared to our other selling platforms ebay is DEAD and definitely DYING. Our sales are a tenth of what they used to be on here and we've been selling on here for over 21 years.