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?

[snowgeese2007]

Hi 

I have been listing for a long time but on a business level for an income I have been listing weekly for about 2 years. It's always been the unknown but have always tried to list nice quality items with nice photography and take pride in good communication with my buyers.  Have you any ideas?

[goodibags]

It's when I view as a buyer, gross of the buyer fees. And sort by price.

[valleyrc1]

Hmm I'm not sure. Obviously some kind of glitch, but I can't work out anything obvious ebay's system would be doing to put them in that order. Even if you double the buyer fee, in a lot of instances, it would be enough to make it jump ahead of a more expensive item.

Interestingly, I often get the same thing with results on Aliexpress whether it's one seller or just the site in general. You sort by price low to high and get no consistency in the results.

[goodibags]

Thanks for looking anyway. Perhaps it'll be sorted in the morning? I wish.

It's a whole lot worse for anyone trying to do some actual buying these days.

[goodibags]

I didn't mean to completely ignore your message and sidetrack you. I think what you say may generally be true but in the context of the very big changes that Ebay is in the process of undertaking we should realistically expect a certain amount of upheaval. Especially with the associated technical (app ugrade) and usage problems (confusion around fees, etc.), none of which will have helped Ebay.

Whether things will eventually pick up again we'll have to wait and see, but you get the impression that many users may not be hanging around here to watch that happen.

[thevinylrevolution]

Exactly the same here.

As some are suggesting to sign up to a business account, that wouldn’t work for me. It costs too much per month. Also, there is no guarantee that you would sell any more.

[t_purdy]

I've seen the same suggestions and it's just not viable for me either.

I have also noticed is that listings I watch have had a bit of a drop off since the change too, admittedly it could be for other reasons or people really are going elsewhere or just not bothering right now.

May I ask does anyone here sell the same item on multiple sites?

[hayes1645]

Yes my sales have taken a real nose dive too.....nightmare for sellers of smaller items especially. 

[wanni88]

Same as Me my sales have gone down.Ive sold two items on ebay this weekend and one i had to reduce the price

I have no idea whats going on but it seems smaller private sellers are no longer welcome 

[mariacwnn]

and they have , it was bad before , now its even worse

[hayes1645]

In my opinion...Buyer Protection should be optional for buyers. I have also
had a drop in sales and cannot see how this will change. I also disagree
that Ebay can keep our earnings for up to two weeks for using untracked
postal services when there was no need to change it from how it was! I will
be looking for other avenues of selling and leaving Ebay in due course.

[mollys65]

I have had no sales this weekend.  First time in ages that has happened...... I am going to start listing on Vinted now.  Ebay have shot themselves in the foot, or they don't really care and are just trying to get rid of small private sellers.......

[hayes1645]

Vented also add Buyers Premium unfortunately....should be optional!!

[thevinylrevolution]

Probably because it’s a valid point. It’s the most talked about topic on eBay at the moment.

Obviously you must be a business seller, and still selling well, lucky for some!

[hayes1645]

No I'm a private seller with nearly no sales I'm afraid.

[valleyrc1]

In all honesty, while I'm not as convinced as some that BPF is responsible for the current lull in sales some people are seeing, I still think it's a clumsy decision.

I think it would have been better to either:

A: Keep things as they were and private sellers could benefit from £1 or 80% off final fees. That system worked brilliantly for over a decade.

B: Keep fees, but lower them.

I think the problem here is that ebay is trying to do too many things at once. They want to keep private sellers keen (no fees) but also still make some money from them (BPF) but also appease business sellers (exempt from BPF)

I think things just worked better as they were before.

[mle_supplies]

In the UK it's easy to cross list if you sell clothes, not so easy if you sell anything else

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[mle_supplies]

Business sellers are feeling the loss of sales too. I know of one business seller, who didn't make enough to cover his staffs wages, let alone anything else

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[goodibags]

Add to that the fact that even Ebay's business sellers have to pay a 'Buyer Protection Fee' when buying stock from private sellers.

[valleyrc1]

I have a business account, and things are a bit slow on there, but they were slow this time last year, too.

I noticed impressions and views spiked yesterday, though, on both business and private accounts.

It's a slow time in general for many sellers, perhaps due to proximity to Christmas.

Plus on top of that, there are always a group of people experiencing slow sales at any given time. It's inevitable with a user base of millions.

I know it's hard for some people to see it, because maybe they don't or haven't in the past frequented here as often, but there are always incredibly busy topics about slow sales on a consistent basis.

No matter what, at any given time, there's always a proportion of sellers seeing slow sales while others are not.

Whether the new BPF is the cause for people currently seeing slow sales, nobody really knows, but after visiting the boards for years, the amount of people currently reporting slow sales isn't out of the norm, so I'm far from convinced.