eBay sales dropped off a cliff

[ts-trade-uk]

Have any other eBay seller sales dropped recently mine was not bad but now I'm lucky to get 1 sale a day and it's not the economy i sell more on Facebook than on here and without running prom ads on fb eBay dev needs to stop playing with the search algorithms it clearly playing with people sales

[smarts-gaming]

The point I was originally making is that even though yes the fees are presented to the buyer who then pays it, sellers have to deduct this fee from their asking price, meaning that the seller EFFECTIVELY pays it. 

I know that on paper, the buyer pays it. But the seller has to take the fee into account when pricing. If an item has a known value of £50, you have to sell it at £47 so that with the fee it equals £50. Therefore the seller effectively pays the fee. It is deducted from the money they would otherwise be paid. If you priced your item at £50, the items total would now be £53.50, which wouldnt sell because its higher than the items value. So you must deduct the fee yourself first, which is more or less the same as paying it. Its money that the seller would have gained otherwise. 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Or to put that a better way, when pricing, you account for all of your costs.

It's not semantics at all at the end of the day, as though you may hand over the money directly to Ebay for the fees, you are getting those fees from the customer.

In just the same way, your customer is paying you to purchase the product, or to pay your wages or any of the hundred costs for selling an item.

If your not, then you are costing yourself money.

Or to look at it another way.

You list an item for £5.  You charge the customer another £3 for postage.

So when you post that item, who is paying the postage cost, as you are having to go and buy that label at the post office?

If the seller effectively pays the fees, then they are an additional cost that is not being charged to the customer.

[the-nutwood-collection]

Same here.  Also lots of emails from entities that will port my listings onto various other sites.

[raitistiprai-0]

 When I was a private seller my weekly turnover was around £700-£1000 per week. I've had a business account for almost two months now and my turnover is under £300 per week and it's dropping every week.

[the_book_seekers]

I've those too. Competitors obviously see ebay as ripe for picking off.

[typo_lee]

If you were 1k per week as a private seller presumably you were declaring all that income to hmrc?

[susapric-68]

If you sold then what you sell now and also had a CRN number then you should never have been a private seller in the first place. You're finding out now why businesses hate businesses on private accounts, they can undercut and take money away from you

[vintagechinashop]

I’m finding vinted better at the moment  the benefit  of listing an item for £10 and getting £10 in your pocket just simples. No fees no postage to pay you decide what profit you want for the item and that’s just what you get  Also I love in post lockers. On a bank holiday I’ve just taken my parcels to the locker and that’s my job done. My eBay sales are waiting for the post office to open tomorrow 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Ah, but are you not finding that you actually get less on there?

I find that even accounting for fees etc, it still ends up being a fair bit cheaper, as it very much seems that the default for users on there when making offers, is to take 40% off the price and expect to buy at that price!

When I first started using it, I got a lot of sales quite quickly, but as time has gone on, though I'm still getting sales on there, it has reduced.  Then I get days where there is nothing, then several things all at once.  Just like Ebay!  🙂

The same can be said of D*p*p as well.  Which really does bring me back full circle, to thinking that depressed sales on Ebay, is far more to do with the general state of the nation currently, than any changes that they have made.

BTW, watch out for getting labels that you have excluded.  I have no idea why, but I keep getting the odd RM and Yodel, even though they are crossed off the list.  Contact support about it and they are about as useful as a chocolate teapot!  Enable/disable and it stops for a while.  

[greencrest-intl]

Interesting, sellers spend so much time spotting private sellers, as if this will solve ebays search engine algorithm inconsistencies. 

Surely it's either the economy or ebay policies or their incompetence, choosing who sells or in this instance who not.

From my experience sales have dropped over 60%+ y.o.y. for items that have no competition at all.

Let's help each other rather than bicker, which is one thing that definitely doesn't help sales.

Good luck all.

Enjoy your days off.

P.s. Jan was dead until the around the 25th at which point it picked up for around 30 days of better sales, since around 25th Feb back dead besides a couple days here and there. Its the unpredictability that has made us decide to call it quits.

[parsley2003]

I am still wondering why you sent me the £23,000 offer when i'm a pensioner living on pennies

[niloc0-1]

Same here and a business seller, sales down 50/60% like a switch since February’s change. I thought it would have had the opposite effect

[raitistiprai-0]

I am a top rated seller and have had 100% positive feedback for a year. I always respond to buyer questions within one hour if the question is asked between 9am and 11pm. Today was the first purchase in the last eight days for £9......funny.....I have about £400,000 worth of goods in my store

[maendytycoch]

Hi All,

Sales are at rock bottom here., Before anyone asks - yes HMRC are fully informed of my sales income/expenditure(s) - but it does seem odd that business has totally dried up. I even dropped off items and relisted.

Not sure if I just leave this until Christmas and then cut and sell everything in bulk box loads.

Have looked at car boot sales but everyone wants things for cheap as chips so that is a no go - am not going to give the stock away (HMRC would not be impressed).

[vintagechinashop]

I seem to get a run of two or three days when sales are good then it drops off and followed by 5 days of nothing  I’m trying to end any listings running for more than 90 days to see if sell similar renews the interest  I’m refusing to promote so I guess that makes me stand in the eBay naughty corner to see if I say sorry and start promoting   There is absolutely no chance of that happening my profit is already far to low to consider that 

[katjapedro2008]

Yes. Sold 1 item in 6 weeks. Before 1 per day. I’m a private seller and the protection fee makes my items more expensive - need obviously to sell at same price … awful 

[maendytycoch]

We were similar until about Feb. Simply put, the moment I have a whinge on here I get a sale, not sure if related but perhaps I should be more trouble to eBay. Sales are simply non existant now and hikes in prices means margins are yight, like they were not before. Postage costs are also shooting up too.

[typo_lee]

I believe your right in saying it is more to do with the depressed state of the economy and the UK which is affecting sales more than anything. Everyone I speak too (even shall we say the more wealthier person) is feeling down with the state of the UK at present and not surprisingly. Theres not much to cheer about is there? Everything is so expensive, the government is basically corrupt and full of liars, christmas is around the corner after families have been fleeced going away on their summer holiday, a budget around the corner which is going to be dire. Everyone is saving there pennies hoping they can afford christmas. No wonder people arent spending on here. I've been in business 25 years and never known it so depressing as it is now.

[wgwillia]

You can thank Ebay for dropping sales it called simple delivery and buyers protection.

[the_book_seekers]

 I've been in business 25 years and never known it so depressing as it is now.

It certainly is the toughest I've known in nearly 22 years. Over recent months I've worked hard to get all the indicators moving in the right direction and then the lights go out. This month started with a good sale but since then it's been dire. At the moment nothing works.

I've noticed there's been so many glitches, particularly my listings effectively disappearing from view for several days, and I've started to get the Ooops server down messages which I haven't seen for some time.  Time to take a break for a few days.