DROP IN SALES SINCE NEW BUYER PROTECTION 4TH FEB 2025

[lo.maggi]

Has anyone else noticed lack of sales since the buyer protection update 4th february 2025. I used to sell quite a lot and virtually sold nothing since 4th Feb. Can anyone else relate to this and what can we do?

[exponential_developments]

O'stop harping on about business v private accounts......that's ebays job......every thread is full of the same nonsense.

[joe_fonebone]

I sympathise. One or two of the replies to Private Sellers are genuinely helpful and informative, making a valid point whilst managing not to be patronising or threatening in tone (see Anonymous's earlier reply for instance). Others aren't.

The latter need to have a word with themselves but that it is not likely to happen as long as they continue to view eBay as Private Vs Business. Their efforts and ire ought to be aimed at eBay but Private Sellers posting on here make for a much easier target and consequently they spend a good deal of their time in numerous threads doing eBay's dirty work for them by advising / haranguing Private Sellers to become Business Sellers.

Que sera, sera and so on and so forth.

[lens-sage]

It looks like you're still selling multiple things a day to me. Including 5 on the 10th?

Also, the buyer protection fee is not yet being applied to the toy category, so there's no chance it would have directly affected your sales because your prices to the end customer have not yet increased.

[lens-sage]

The biggest gap in sales on your account is 3 days....

[lens-sage]

I'm not saying there's no correlation, but there's many reasons for inconsistent sales on ebay.

For one, don't forget if you're selling a massive lot of unwanted toys or records etc, you WILL hit a point where the more desirable stuff begins to run out and you'll be left with slower to move items.

Also, ever since the "Cassini" algorithm came in several years ago, people have always been noticing strange sales patterns such as:

Consistent sales for a while and then dry patches.

Certain make and model of item selling in bursts then going quiet and another make/model taking over ie: Sell no Corgi Jaguar E types for 4 months then sell 10 in a week then suddenly those stop selling and you have a burst of sales on Matchbox Citroen 2cv then that dries up and it's Corgi police car that flies out for a week etc etc

Randomly selling to 5 people in the same city in the same country inside an hour etc etc etc.

No sales OR enquiries for days then a dozen of both in a single day...

All the days sales come within 10 minutes of each other...

It goes on and on...

Even business sellers with 0000s of items in stock get the occasional drop in sales or no sales days now and then.

There are so many variables at play, it's difficult to pin it down to one cause.

[effing_wif_figs]

Good spot. I sold 5 things after I posted here. Then it dropped back to one or no sales a day. All still a far cry from what I was selling before the changes.

I also made no correlation between fees being added to my listings and my lack of sales, just that my sales have dropped recently. You've strengthened my point in saying that fees haven't been added yet meaning that when they are added, I'm likely to lose further sales.

I'm not sure why you've tried to find holes in a comment I made 5 days ago with examples of sales that have been made since I made it, with arguments to points I never made. These forums are toxic at times. 

[lens-sage]

"I also made no correlation between fees being added to my listings and my lack of sales, just that my sales have dropped recently."

"All still a far cry from what I was selling before the changes."

Which one is it? Make your mind up....

It's implied by the fact you posted in a topic titled "DROP IN SALES SINCE NEW BUYER PROTECTION 4TH FEB 2025" that you believe your drop in sales was caused by the recent changes...

Presumably you just went to the message boards with your eyes closed and accidentally posted in this topic?

"'I'm not sure why you've tried to find holes in a comment I made 5 days ago with examples of sales that have been made since I made it"

You say you're not sure but then proceed to explain why perfectly.

"You've strengthened my point"

By pointing out that the "changes" you attribute to losing sales haven't yet applied to your items?

Nice mental gymnastics.

"These forums are toxic at times. "

Such as people claiming recent "changes" affected their sales and then trying to gaslight people that you didn't imply that at all, but only when proven to be mistaken.

[wyattharrisx]

Traffic on eBay must be slow as my sales have tumbled but my Amazon sales continue to grow. Ebay have just given me £100 free to use on ads for external adverting, which is great for free but the total clicks so far are just 3 within a few days with a £10 daily budget so that would say that people are shopping elsewhere

[crg_music]

I was sort of responding to op + generally. I do buy off here also so nobody wants to see prices going up but this is arguably all caused by businesses operating as private selling accounts. Fee circumvention + unfair on business accounts at the very least, breaking the law at the more serious end.

Nobody ever had an issue with private individuals selling some old trainers or a game etc but every day there is atleast 1 thread on here moaning about the change from a blatant business seller selling on a personal account. I dont have time to care about all.

Massive sympathy for those legit private sellers though but the businesses on private accounts get zero sympathy.

As for the system, I guess its just teething problems which will be ironed out in time and explains why they are phasing it in rather than all at once.

[c-foreman-2008]

I have seen the sales dry up myself over the last 3 or 4 years to only a few sales a month, but since the private seller update, Oh dear. eBay knows full well who the business sellers are who have been using private seller accounts, they must have 100s or 1000s of items listed, cutting themselves fees. eBay had caused this to happen in the first place, letting private sellers list 300 items a month is crazy, small sellers like myself should only be allowed to list 20 to 30 items a month free and left alone to pay eBay fees after sales. Business sellers have been listing 300 items a month each and every month for years, so why would I as a small-time seller want to list 300 items a month? Making buyers pay these fees is a no no, as a private seller myself, I will never buy from private sellers with the buyer fees to pay, I refuse. Please eBay sort this out and leave us small-time sellers alone, just  20 items each month is enough for me as I only have 23 items on eBay at the moment, some have been on eBay now for 2 or 3 years. I have noticed a massive drop in sales in some categories, ultimately eBay are the one who are going to suffer big time as sales plummet. 

[rabwendy]

Hi the same has happened to me I haven’t sold 1 item since the 4th February. The same on offers they have dried up also.

 I think eBay should rethink and put the fee on the sellers and not the buyer 

[the_laser_architect]

Not everything has the BPF added yet. Ebay stated that they are starting off with electrical goods and will progress onto other items as time goes on

[crg_music]

I do think the long term intent was to get private sellers listing more then get them moving to a business account but they just never enforced it. A lot of it is down to language ie business account, this scares people as there is a difference between an Ebay business account and being an actual business. What they need to do is reword it as premium or extended account etc. Have a free account with max 30 sales a month after which you have to upgrade to premium then. if you are a legal business seller you have to do the legal stuff.

[alexis*27]

Not really surprising considering it costs people at least 75p for the privilege of buying something.

Costa would lose customers pretty quickly if they charged punters £1 each a "we'll replace your coffee if it's cold" charge.

Vinted can get away with it because they've had it from day 1, and it's a different customer base. EBay's is a massive change and is spooking customers who were not prepared.

[rabwendy]

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[14thebox]

Agree, same here, no quantity discounts and  seller protection fees is a killer.

To be honest if I saw  seller protection fees  added to my purchase I would look elsewhere .Bad move Ebay

[deejohn1957]

I certainly have noticed. Used to be selling about 10 items a week- last week it was 5 and this week just 3!!.  This led me to look at community site after I felt I had to reduce the price of some of my high selling items to compensate for the buyer protection - all just really stupid and will loose alot of us private sellers and then  e-bay business. There really has been so many changes on the site since I started selling 10 months ago it now is becoming a nightmare to navigate. 

[rabwendy]

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[honeybselection]

I am experiencing exactly the same. 
I’ve been selling on eBay for 20 years. Sales have never been this bad. My business is no longer sustainable 😢 

[ghostbay-killah-420]

Yes the same plus hardly no views also. I am going 2 set up Facebook account very soon and try and sell my items on there and take a break from ebay unlist all my items soon as it is a ghost town now. 👍