Is eBay open for buyers?

[rome663893]

Hi everyone,

I’m starting to get really concerned about the lack of sales on eBay lately. No matter how much we promote our listings or how generous the discounts are, nothing seems to be moving. It’s like shouting into a void.

We also sell on other platforms and through our own website. Sales have definitely dipped across the board, but nowhere near as drastically as on eBay – it’s almost come to a standstill here.

Is anyone else experiencing the same? Have you found anything that helps? I’d really appreciate hearing what others are seeing or doing differently right now.

Thanks in advance,
Ron

[_localhost_]

eBay littering your listing with competitors items has killed any edge you might have had.

they've made it very easy now for the savvy buyer to find the cheapest version of what you are looking to buy simply by looking at the ads before scrolling down to read your description. this is infact what I do myself when buying.

[footy_flips_football_shirts]

im not a massively active seller but id sell 5 items a week. im lucky to make 1 sale a month right now and do it all through vinted

[lucy_farmer]

Along with 'cost of living' , everybody's skint etc etc... ebay may have shot themselves in the foot a little bit.

All the grim changes for private sellers (BFP, S.D.  etc) caused a lot of noise and froth on social media. And a lot of people mentioning and using ebay's competition (Vint*d etc)

Yes I know you're a business seller, but an awful lot of people just heard 'ebay is carp now' , so they stopped coming.

(Loads of buyers don't even know the difference between private and business sellers; the majority don't go looking for it. )

[moonlight-rhapsody]

One of my friends (who doesn’t sell online and knew nothing of the recent upheavals on ebay) has been a frequent buyer on ebay but commented that the number of listings for whatever he wanted has reduced substantially, presumably due to private sellers deserting the platform.  His actual word to describe ebay was "sparse".  So because there’s not as much choice now, ebay is no longer his go-to platform and now he also looks to see what’s on offer elsewhere. 

I was a regular buyer on ebay but I stopped buying in protest about the introduction of Simple Delivery, and from what I read, many other former private sellers have also stopped buying on ebay, either in protest or because their sales used to fund their purchases.

It doesn’t help that the search results are so skewed.  Even before I stopped buying on ebay, I was getting hacked off with the nonsensical search results, not to mention the sponsored listings littering the search results, and all the other bits and pieces that ebay keep tinkering with.

Personally I don’t think there’s anything you can do about ebay other than letting them know in no uncertain terms how dissatisfied you are, and wait for a new CEO to come into ebay to hopefully rectify what’s gone wrong with the platform under the current CEO.  It might be a vain hope but hey, hope springs eternal!

[megan1512]

re offering discounts
since december i have offered discounts to several hundred potential buyers 
usually a 20 % reduction
out of which i made 1 sale 
i think ebay is broken

[kath3735_wxmjn]

well i sell for the family and I only have 4 items listed on here at the moment and they will be gone next week.  I delisted everything (about 120) and some  have gone to the car boot and so far i have listed 60 to the other e site with about 20 left to put on.  No sales so far but views on most of them(unlike here where i was getting very few).  It is nowhere in e bays catergory but i am giving it a go, maybe if more of us know about it and use it, it may soar.... 

[thepillenwerfer]

I don't think e-Bay is the place for people selling decent stuff at sensible prices.

I buy less than I used to as stuff straight from China is now available at lower prices elsewhere and more British firms have there own e-commerce operations.

As others have said, the search isn't as good as it was, though still better than on a lot of sites.

As  Private Seller I've listed twelve things this year of which nine have sold; the other three I didn't really expect to as they were outright junk but were worth a try as I've been surprised before.  Even they may have sold eventually.  The other odd thing is that I've had feedback for eight of the items that have sold (and there's time for the other), which is a much higher rate than I'd become used to.

That said I have noticed that for all that things get plenty of Views they get fewer Bids and either sell on the maiden or for not much more.  The days of things taking off and surprising me seem to be gone.

[gorragerritgone]

It is sad to see what is happening on here. Sellers are deserting the site in their droves. Vinted is now the place to sell and many ex ebay sellers have signed up and not looked back. Car boot sales are seeing dealers returning to sell their collectables and antiques. People are ditching the auction format on here as they don't want to wait a week and a half for their item. BIN's have to have a low price in order to sell, buyers are frustrated and angry at the BPF and commission they have to pay (although they have to pay it on Vinted which beggars the question 'why is it working for Vinted and NOT ebay'?) and just can't be bothered any more. The unnecessary and quite frankly ridiculous changes that ebay have forced on sellers is causing anger and frustration and who can now no longer be bothered to list items as they are just sitting there doing nothing, attracting very few lookers and watchers and resulting in the "you didn't sell this item". I look at items that I collect myself and scrolling down the page of completed listings it is 0 bids and no sale by the score. A recent survey in a magazine, rated 10 internet selling platforms. Number 1 was Vinted, 2 was Etsy, Ebay was 9th and Ebid 10th. What was once the UK's premier and best selling place has gone from a one time 94% recommendation to just 8%. It has become a shadow of its former self. Sellers are depressed and fed up and disillusioned with the site and it will only get worse. I am astonished that ebay think their changes have improved the site. We all know that they haven't. Selecting categories for an item is a pain, simple delivery is a nightmare, waiting for payment is a disgrace. The whole ebay experience is now a chore, the enjoyment has gone, the rewards are few and the future is bleak. For Goodness sake ebay, LISTEN to your members concerns and act on it.

[rome663893]

Yes, I think is time to shut down our eBay store and look for new platforms. In the past 6 month we had to pay from our pocket for the store fees. It just doesn't even cover the cost.

[gjalp]

Any change isn’t about improving the site. It’s about gaining revenue for shareholders. Revenue is down so I suspect shareholders are grumbling. Ebay have gone for the money grab which is why it’s unlikely to rollback any changes.

[thepillenwerfer]

People buying on Vinted accept a protection fee because they haven't known anything different.  Sellers will also accept their Simple Deliver-like system for the same reason.

As a Buyer I still prefer e-Bay, though that isn't necessarily praise for e-Bay itself.  e-Bay does seem to have a better, or less flawed, search function and items tend to be better described.  So many Vinted listings are a single photograph and a description along the lines of "Men's Trousers.  38" waist.  Only worn once" with no mention of inside leg measurement, type of fabric or anything else I want to know.  Even sizes can't be trusted as Seller's often fail to state the system used.  Is a "Size 40" pullover one with a forty inch chest, a forty centimetre one, or one that measures forty inches or centimetres across when laid flat?

On that front I'm surprised nobody is talking about AI descriptions on e-Bay.  All they've done is transform illiterate, inadequate descriptions into correctly punctuated and spelt ones which still lack actual information but are padded out with waffle and often introduced errors.  I saw a modern clock recently which the AI said was "from the prestigious maker Tempus Fugit" and was a "Genuine antique."  "Tempus Fugit" is a phrase often printed on clock faces and isn't a maker and NO quartz clock can be a "genuine antique" as they haven't existed for long enough.

[honeymonster007]

Listings look good, prices are good when compered to others. The only thing that might steer me towards an amazon purchase rather than yours is you mention a delivery time of 5-7 days, that may be worth looking into.

[rome663893]

Hi,

I didn't see that. All products are in stock, so if the customer buys before 3PM , we ship it the same day. Thank you !

[bojangled]

@thepillenwerfer 

Oh there’s a few threads about the awful AI slop eBay generates.

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/Sellers-Stop-using-AI-nonsense-for-descriptions-you-a...

Jo

[_localhost_]

Yes. regarding the skewed search results. I have noticed two things - if you search an item you are often firstly confronted with results from the USA or even AUS. this means that UK sellers promoting their items are competing with items that are basically irrelevant - secondly they 'broaden' the search results to include 'related' items. this is great for eBays profits but terrible for sellers paying to promote their items.

this is very underhanded on eBays behalf IMVHO.

[technthread]

Auctions on here seem to have been decimated. I’m not sure if all of the blame lies with eBay, maybe buyers have shifted more to searching for buy it now items.

I am regularly amazed at how many times I auction something to get a couple of views and no watchers over 7 days. I re-list as a buy it now with multiple views and watchers within hours and the item sells, often for more than what the auction start bid was.

I have seen other members complain that auctions are littered with buy it now level start bids but sellers can hardly be blamed for that as the auctions just can’t be trusted anymore…

On the AI point, I don’t use eBay AI descriptions but I use Chat GPT to prepare some titles and descriptions now. I got through a lot of pottery yesterday, sorting into charity shop piles, eBay sellable items etc and I was very impressed how quickly it can identify things accurately. I think as sellers we need to get on board with it as it is the way things are going. It won’t be long until you can upload a photo to eBay and a listing will be drafted instantly and it will be 100% accurate.

[akemp1]

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@moonlight-rhapsody wrote:

Personally I don’t think there’s anything you can do about ebay other than letting them know in no uncertain terms how dissatisfied you are, and wait for a new CEO to come into ebay to hopefully rectify what’s gone wrong with the platform under the current CEO.  It might be a vain hope but hey, hope springs eternal!

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Yeah it's a waiting game now until ebay get new management who might have better judgement.

We've done our job on the forum of telling the current decision makers what's gone wrong, how it makes us feel and why we have signed-up elsewhere but you can only lead a horse to water it's up to them what they choose to do with this platform.

For me stuff still seems to be selling here but my listing quantities are reducing as I am mostly using other places for new listings. I am increasingly buying stuff elsewhere too.

Overall ebay are no longer price competitive or compelling as the way they have behaved recently people don't need their stupid greedy policies (like limiting postage options by category) in their life where they have better options.

[akemp1]

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@gorragerritgone wrote:

buyers are frustrated and angry at the BPF and commission they have to pay (although they have to pay it on Vinted which beggars the question 'why is it working for Vinted and NOT ebay'?)

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I'm OK to pay the buyer tax on that platform because it's often cheaper and sellers often offer generous % bundle discounts which can wipe it out when buying a few items at once. So the total cost of the order is less than the sum of the item prices and you feel you are getting a good deal. Also they charge the buyer tax per order not per item so you don't end up paying the fixed element multiple times in a combined order.

Ebay have done a bad selfish copy of buyer tax that's unattractive to buyers.

It just feels like ebay are telling buyers to pay more than an item is worth.

I reduced my prices to roughly cover the buyer tax however I would prefer a 'seller pays' option like they have on postage. I also think both platforms should rename it to 'platform fee', 'marketplace fee', 'service charge' etc to make it more neutral and less scary to buyers and less offensive to private sellers.

[millcottage]

I have left what I have listed  to basically rot on the vine and now sell elsewhere.

As a private seller I don’t buy much on eBay either these days.

Why would I want to pay a fee for the privilege of buying something?

Madness.