Why are eBay sales dropping? in Fact dead..

[mociport]

I have been an eBay seller for more than 10 years and find that sales are very slow and hard to come by.  I have done all possible promotions, advertising and marketing but it simply doesn't move...

Should eBay consider reducing some of their charges if its a market situation??

[lighting_signs_and_vintage]

It sure is.

Just going back to my point about rising fraud on here, in case someone says 'scammers!? what do you think businesses have to deal with every day', well, the bigger ones will have in-house fraud departments and share info, block buyers at card level, not allow click-and-collect for the first order etc... With eBay, it isn't their money so they spend proportionally little, they don't care it isn't them getting skimmed, and the all-important buyers get the impression all is well. And hey, if a seller gets a chargeback and dares to complain they charge for the 'admin', double ching!

[jolly-chef]

Our sales are down by 37.5% on eBay this year, but we have made up for it on Amazon which is flying, and also cheaper as we don't have promoted fees on every sale. We don't even need to advertise there now our products are established.

With most products promoted by 10%+ and margins down to around 20% per order (including manufacture and retailing), there is no scope for eBay to take more from us. We already increased prices on eBay to make it feasible to sell here.  

Luckily we have no paid staff (just family) and run our business from home, so we can operate quite well at low margins. I have noticed our main competitors which have staff and premises putting up their prices a lot, which is bad for us due to customers now finding eBay an expensive place to shop.

[mociport]

I hope eBay takes note of these as I agree its not working at all for the sellers, here.

[klouk75]

35% down November on last November. So far this month 50% down on last year, don’t know what to do 🤷‍♀️

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

I had a good November but start of December is dead.

I can only guess people bought early for xmas and now are saving for the sales.

[crg_music]

The sites bloated and confusing. I understand the need for categories but it really is a mess now. Needs stripping back to basics.

There are also several other sites which I feel are attracting younger generations and unfortunately man has yet to find a way to stop the older market reducing year by year so they really do need to get popular with the younger generations.

My only guaranteed customers regardless of economy are collectors who tend to be middle age males + addicted to collecting and cool hipster types who tend to be 18-30 with money in the bank and no commitments and probably more often than not female and the later are not buying on ebay which is all that needs saying, you can always spot the collectors as they tend to have loads of feedback and 20 year accounts.

[theelench]

"The sites bloated and confusing."

Isn't that one one of the root causes of ebay's problems?

From what I've seen of "younger generations" they like simple and have little patience for complicated or confusing.

I remember when ebay was easy to use, it even had a "Simple Listing Form" and "All Selling" on one page.

Not any more.  As a seller the listing form is littered with drop downs and an array of sub-menus a click or two away.  The Selling pages seem to suffer from the same indirect routes to find-out even the most basic info.

As a buyer, the same problem, IS filters with more menus of additional filters which still don't contain some of the basic terms that I would search by and even after trying my best to find something and failing I go to one of the google searches and find what I'm looking for simply by typing a few words in their search box.  Unfortunately for ebay, google shows me what I want and that it's not only on ebay (but hidden) but on several other sites as well.

If I could be bothered to list anything on ebay and by a minor miracle managed to find a buyer, getting paid has changed from MP going straight to my bank account according to whichever schedule I choose, to going to my Wallet with manual withdrawals.  But will soon change again to a system where I have to take into account compulsory payment Holds before I can even start the process of getting it to my bank.  That's three changes in as many months.

Also coming soon ebay will allow buyers to choose which delivery company they want to use from ebays list of couriers.  More complications for me as I'm supposed to find out where and how to use them.

Ebay isn't my full-time job, or even a part-time one, it shouldn't be and need not be such a head-ache to sell a few old vases.  I don't find it at all strange that ebay sales are dropping.  When it was simple sales boomed, the less easy ebay made it , the more sales suffered.  I think it really is that simple.

[crg_music]

Nailed it on the first few bits, I just couldn't be bothered to type it. Its a maze right now buying and so long winded to sell.

As for the holds and shipping if they get it right it could simplify and streamline transactions so I'm ok with that if they get it right. All the sites the youngsters are using do similar so that might just be for us older lot to get our heads around.

[r.soles_sneakers]

Sales are completely dead

 huge difference since mid year before last

 9-20 sales per month which is good for me to virtually 1 if I’m lucky , never had 0 sale months ever but this year , 4 months out of the 12 I have doughnutted !! barely any views on my items - there’s clearly something wrong.

 Mainly started when this 2nd income tax *bleep* with the HMRC came a long.

 It was sloping gradually just before and when it became big news that’s when I noticed basically zero sales for me!

 EBay got spooked about something I reckon