dropping sales

[mj.aquatics]

Has any one else seen the dramatic month on month drop in sales that we are experiencing. We have not increased our pricing in nearly 4 years and still sales are dropping.

We employed a company recently to try and look into where the cause is and maybe redress it as ebay just say we dont know.

His results were as follows.

Big company sellers on ebay such as Tesco and Argos to name just a few are the measure by which ebay set their standards. So.

Large comapny buys a 1000 of the item you buy 20 of.

They get it for £1 you get it for £3.

So from the outset they are winning.

This leads to them being able to charge massively lower prices than the small seller. Their shipping rate will be less than the smaller seller so they pay £2 the smaller seller pays £3.

Because the smaller seller has to charge around £9 total on eBay with shipping and the larger compay only £4 to turn the same profit margin they actually charge £7 and say freepost.

They are still breaking the little seller. Then because they have this massive profit they can offer 30 day no quibble returns, they can also tell the couriers and other delivery firms when they will call to collect each day and how often including sundays unlike smaller sellers whao are told what day and time they will be collected from. Then with their huge magical accounting firms they can right off damaged or used items or pass them on at discounted prices which small sellers cannot afford to do.

So because these companies are looking so nice eBay sit in their offices and decide we should all be like that. So they implement a system which says.

You all pay us (eBay) the same percentage for your sales and we work out everything on percentages such as feedback. So we will now give a percentage of those fees back if you meet a certain criteria which just happens to be what the big sellers can offer. Oops sorry small seller you now dont get the same exposure and you dont get the same discounts and your business is going down the pan rapidly.

Can ebay not see that the playing field is not level anymore. and becoming more uneven every day. Tesco and Argos only sell on eBay because it so much cheaper than using adverts on TV. We spent months sending out flyers to repeat buyers that have disappeared asking why they seem to have moved to buying from us but on other platforms and the most common asnswer was smaller sellers are not there on ebay anymore they are more prominent on other platforms.

The company we employed took all this information and cross referenced it with a few other small sellers and the findings seem to be eBay have no idea how to keep the small sellers as they are pandering to the big boys. 

However they said like many companies that pandered to offer things for Amazon once they get what they want they disappear leaving them high and dry just ask the likes of Royal Mail etc whos shares dropped massively when they pulled their delivery deal from them as they now have their own. Which means they are begging around to try and get business back and this will be the final scenario for eBay but will small sellers come back after being treated in this way.

Surely their whole concept was a marketplace that offers great service and high security and safety of buyers and sellers alike. This seems to be forgotten and buyers will only be happy if there are sellers still on the platform to buy from and not just their local tesco or argos.

They advised us to start joining as many alternative platformas as possible as ebays answer is drop prices offer longer returns and offer faster returns all the things that cost them nothing and cost small firms massively. Which means what will beat you first into bankruptcy following their advice or following their rules.

Any other sellers findings would be gratly appreciated.

Mark