What are Ebay playing at?

[drifter9867]

20+ year Ebay veteran here, 

I have never seen it this quiet.

Views are up, listing views are up, all overall traffic is up, but people aren't buying! 

Is this due to the mobile phone app not working on older phones? More fees? Disgruntlement? Poor economic outlook or the perfect storm of all these factors? 

I'm doing three times the sales on Etsy with half of the same listings! What is going on? 

[555njp]

What’s up? - everything you mention above, except for me traffic, views and sales are well down vs last year, probably because I will not promote any listings but hey ho.

Ebay doesn’t seem to be the place to shop these days. On both accounts sales have been gradually easing until last September when they completely died. I did relist in December and grabbed a few sales but since all the changes kicked in on Feb 4th it’s been completely DEAD.

[drifter9867]

I do find it a bit odd, my bestselling item on Etsy is flying out the door, on Ebay its stagnant and has been for a week or so. 

Either something has changed in the algorithm or the buyers have lost confidence. 

[555njp]

And yet I made a statement about sales being poor on here via the weekly chat and was told eBay were not aware of any sales volume issues. If there were any they would investigate immediately as this was their main source of revenue….!

So either eBay isn’t seeing the same problem or perhaps all the revenue from PLs is masking the sales drop off?

[krafty-kreations]

Same, nearly 40% down on the last 7 days and the 7 days before that weren't the best.

I am also doing better on Etsy and I only have 96 listings on there compared to 289 on here.

[drifter9867]

Surely someone higher up the tree must be noticing this, I noticed immediately, and its not all platforms as Etsy is going at full pelt. 

Going from over 80 sales in January on the 3D prints to 6 for the whole of Feb, when Etsy is 50 so far this month. 

[the-nutwood-collection]

Etsy had gone very quiet for me, but it's suddenly sprung into life in the last couple of months. 

No idea why - with regard to marketing $, they've been majoring on the gift market, but I'm not gifts.  Maybe it's a fallout from this - the buyer went in for a gift and came away with some wool.  Bit like the Aldi middle aisle - go in for a bag of sugar, leave with a canoe and a chain saw.

[vintagechinashop]

Very quiet for me  I’ve only just started selling on Etsy but had 1 sale from 6 listings so that’s a much higher percentage than here   Let’s hope things get better soon 

[wyntersemporium]

I’m on iPhone 13 PM and sales slow also the app is useless mainly a blank page even after updating. I’m not ready to upgrade to a new phone as this phone works on other places 

[wyntersemporium]

Refuse to promote as well. EBay are already bleeding me dry telling me to put down my prices. Won’t be doing that as some of them already low. 

[wyntersemporium]

I can onky but on Etsy as used to be on there 10 years ago. Some old duffers decided to report me for using AE Photos but they were in fact mine. That Chinese company swiped mine and said they were theirs. And was told I could not have another store on there and suggested i go to the likes of eBay as your items aren’t good enough to be on there she said 

[typo_lee]

Same here. Traffic and stats consistent but no one buying. Seems like there is an issue with payment or checkout if the traffic is the same?

[the-nutwood-collection]

Have you read eBay's latest email 'Strategies for Selling Success'?

Sellers must 'price it right' by using the product research tools to price listings competitively - another way of saying 'make sure your items are the cheapest'.

Then send buyers 'enticing, automatic, offers that stand out' - in other words, offer it even cheaper.  'Enticing' = a big chunk of money off; 'automatic' = don't upset the buyer by adding conditions such as minimum order value. 

Finally, 'Boost your visibility', which translates as 'Give eBay an even bigger slice of the pie, or your listings will be invisible'.

Does it not occur to eBay that if you cut your margin to the bone and then pay a huge selling fee (if I promoted at eBay's recommended rate they would get 30% of the selling price) it's a strategy for going bankrupt, not for success?

Why don't eBay follow these rules?  Make sure they're the cheapest platform available, then make selling even cheaper by sending out unconditional offers.

Wait a minute ... isn't that what they did when they gave private sellers free listings and free fees?  The Q4 financial results will show whether this is a strategy for selling success.  Will they show a massive hike in profits?  We'll find out soon.

[555njp]

And like everything else on eBay the product research tools don’t seem to work anyway.

I was listing some small mixed hardware job lots, 3 or 4 boxes of screws totalling 500-800 screws depending on the combination.

I was pricing at £13.99 (cheapest on eBay at the time) but eBay was recommending £8.95!
Further investigation showed AI was looking at sellers selling single or double boxes with far fewer screws!! Probably because my combos were unique so it defaults to its version of best fit!

[messier44000]

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@the-nutwood-collection wrote:

"Does it not occur to eBay that if you cut your margin to the bone and then pay a huge selling fee (if I promoted at eBay's recommended rate they would get 30% of the selling price) it's a strategy for going bankrupt, not for success?"

Going by their pricing and PL recommendations , this would mean selling at a loss.

Recently had a buyer cancel an order because they saw it cheaper elsewhere 

No worries, I cancelled the order with nothing else said.

Next thing I know there is an order on my website. Yes , the same buyer.

No wonder I have had my best 1/4 sales since lock-down on the website. eBay is pushing 

buyers there with many sellers increasing prices to cover costs. So I guess its all 

working as designed 

[bzmotman]

Seeing much the same but this morning I have found that when I view the category my listings are in they are showing postage of £5.50 (USA rate) instead of £1.28 (UK rate) - that should encourage UK sales! [not just me either]. This follows my enforced switch to Business Policies.

I also see that Simple Delivery has appeared in my Postage Preferences though not my listings as far as I can see. Since when was SD coming to Businesses?

I guess therefore that Ebay have screwed up yet again - sorry I mean the system is working as intended. Perhaps dave@ebay or another CS team member could give us some clarity as to what is happening.

[fjgjhgjkhkljkl_39]

Not to make your day any worse but Guinness is a registered trademark, the image of their harp is also a trademark.

You may wish to check the trademark register for some of the well known words being used and examine the classes closer to ensure you aren't infringing upon any trademarks. Trademarks are broken down in to classes, class 20 appears to cover ornaments made of plastic.

https://www.gov.uk/search-for-trademark

https://easy-trademarks.com/guide/Class-20-of-Nice-classification

[fatbobfan]

''And yet I made a statement about sales being poor on here via the weekly chat and was told eBay were not aware of any sales volume issues.'''

Would they be allowed to say? Even if they knew which seems doubtful

Half term is a killer for us, always slows down,

Had a customer email me this morning confirming their order and please ship quickly , no order received, After 20 minutes, still no order received. Called CS there might be a glitch, 2 hours to get to the bottom of this, 2 painful CS calls my end and one for the customer who was disgruntled in the end.

A payment issue? but they still sent the customer the order confirmation and order number, on an immeditae payment required order.

[the-layer-laboratory]

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@fjgjhgjkhkljkl_39 wrote:

Not to make your day any worse but Guinness is a registered trademark, the image of their harp is also a trademark.

You may wish to check the trademark register for some of the well known words being used and examine the classes closer to ensure you aren't infringing upon any trademarks. Trademarks are broken down in to classes, class 20 appears to cover ornaments made of plastic.

https://www.gov.uk/search-for-trademark

https://easy-trademarks.com/guide/Class-20-of-Nice-classification

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Yikes!!! OP, you've got a bit of a ticking IP timebomb there!

From one FDM manufacturer to another - spend some time developing your own intellectual property. It'll give you a more secure and stable business, without threat of legal challenge and will act as a 'moat', giving some space between you and potential competition.

[drifter9867]

Hello fellow printer! 

Yes, I'm working on several non-IP products, this one was from when I was just starting out, most of the hot IP ones are flagged by Vero, I learned and now have official licencing with some including Hibernian FC.  

Currently working on Alien themed things and bespoke tool attachments for power tools. 

In regards to IP, the top sales result for Guinness is a bar mat, which the (non business) seller is obviously getting from Aliexpress or Alibaba and shifting literally hundreds of them, is that legal on Ebay? Or if someone bought one of my items then resold it?