Ebay Loosing Traffic and Worse Than Ever

[arwoodco]

Hi Everyone,

Generally, these threads are for questions on how to do something stealth, but I just wanted to point out what I have been seeing online lately:

Ebay Ratings Worst of the Top 100 Internet Sites Online:
http://www.alexa.com/reviews;1/ebay.com

Just read a few. Quite Amazing.

If I recall correctly, Ebay was about 10 or 12 in world rankings before. Now they are 26 or so on Alexa.com.


Ebay Loosing Traffic Like Gangbusters:
2012 - eBay Sellers Stores Reports Show Traffic Drop

2011 - What's up with eBay? | VentureBeat

2010 - http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=8570

2009 - EBay's Traffic Drops Amid Identity Crisis - NYTimes.com


Loosing Sellers:
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/topic/Eba...63759?start=24

Looks like Ebay is finally reaping what it has sowed over the last four years.

All I do is BUY on ebay now and SELL on my own website!

Wondering what some of you think about this growing trend and what will take its place?

God, I hope not Amazon, as we need someone to challenge them as well.

[NGALO1983]

Although sales and traffic have decreased well for me at least but im still doing pretty good on Ebay. As I said before, it depends what you sale. For example, the iphone-5, ipad-3, ipod-5 is pretty expensive but even in a bad economy it will continue to have a huge sale and the same goes for many other items.

[arwoodco]

Originally Posted by NGALO1983

Although sales and traffic have decreased well for me at least but im still doing pretty good on Ebay. As I said before, it depends what you sale. For example, the iphone-5, ipad-3, ipod-5 is pretty expensive but even in a bad economy it will continue to have a huge sale and the same goes for many other items.

On that first link above, it does not goto the correct page when clicking.

It was for the user's reviews of Ebay, shown on Alexa.com. They have a 2 out of 5 stars overall. Amazon has 4+ out of 5 stars per users.

Yes, I figure that with some items, you are going to get good sales no matter what.

I used to sell Ipods on there back in like 2008 and 2009. They were selling like hotcakes.

My brother is really into buying parts for cars and told me there is about 25% as many sellers and no variety now on Ebay, as compared to before..

[Artisan]

Its fairly apparent from the heavy uk tv ad campaign this year that they are concerned about traffic to a degree and its not just a festive booster .. they are all over the tv in some regions.

The way they behave is obviously corrosive and powerfully negative and really cannot be sustainable without causing some form of self destruction, and disgust factor is probably rife enough now as to seriously affect them in some way.

More people are going independent, and getting success on the web by themselves, then the alternatives are slowly but surely gaining,.. be they still too weak in most cases.

They know things could go tits up .. they did turn to a almost biblical form of ecommerce prostitution after all .

[stanislav]

I haven't seen eBay commercial for many many many years now. They used to advertise everywhere before and that had a huge impact on eBay's popularity. This idiots are too money hungry and could care less about sellers, especially mid size to small. Well people get pissed off and leave eBay and open their own eCommerce websites. Can't blame them. I still hope eBay is going to bring some traffic. It's good to have your items to be sold on as many venues as possible.

[Artisan]

The last time i remember sustained commercials by them was around 2006 or 7 i think .. might be wrong.

If you've not seen this wave its a real big one, so probably it will work well again regards most peoples listings.

Not mine though .. slight existential problem there

[stanislav]

eBay ****ed themselves in the ass. If they had any respect for sellers who made what is eBay today then none of this would have happened.

[jeffweico]

This is the natural result of eBay deciding they want to be more like Amazon.

The trouble is, Amazon is already doing a pretty good job of being Amazon.

You used to be able to find all kinds of neat stuff on eBay. Now it resembles Kmart.

Tons of new stuff. All very cheap with the quality to match. Knockoffs galore! Most of the cool stuff is gone, most likely because it was banned.

Small sellers who actually CARED about their customers have been hounded off of the site. Replacing them are crappy offerings from large companies whose idea of customer service is a bunch of $2 per hour reps working from a call center in India who cannot help you anyway because they cannot deviate from their scripts.

It took a LONG TIME for this to start happening, which is a testament to how great a business eBay WAS back in the day. But they have finally started to burn through all of the goodwill they built up over the years.

eBay, the way it existed for the first 5 years, was wonderful. Tne right idea at the right time. Lots of freedom. Very NON-CORPORATE! All kinds of neat stuff. And now it is gone, never to return.

Just like Studio 54... No matter what they try to do to bring it back, it's time has passed. You simply cannot re-create these things. Because it is not a building, or a website, or a company that makes these things work. It is the PEOPLE and the timing. And those are things that cannot be planned or bought.

[slim jim]

remember that ebay themselves do not care about the ebay portion of their company as much as the paypal portion. it is the majority of their profit and they might even be 'ignoring' the ebay part right now. they are concentrated on getting themselves in home depots, etc... so they can get their %. i think the concentration will come back to ebay unless in the meantime someone like google or microsoft come up with their own ebay. just my two cents...

[norma]

I find it interesting that after about a year of not being on ebates, ebay is back on ebates, offering the rebates to buy on ebay. All the major retailers are on ebates, forcing ebay to use ebates again.

[dallasreed]

With any luck eventually eBay will pull its head out of its ass. I would think they are going to have to if they want to keep making money like they have historically doing auctions. I imagine if it weren't for eBay stiffing the small guys websites like etsy wouldn't have gained the popularity they have now. Otherwise it is just going to be a matter of time until another auction site gets the market that flourished on eBay 10+ years ago.

[Artisan]

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eBay ****ed themselves in the ass. If they had any respect for sellers who made what is eBay today then none of this would have happened.

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With any luck eventually eBay will pull its head out of its ass

Gotta laugh at eb's brass neck all these years yep

[rsot]

eB may lose traffic but will never truly disappear - their name...while crappy now...is still a brandmark. Anyhow, a toast to the golden days /memories

[YuvalNYC]

eBay's stock is trading at an all time high right now...

[stanislav]

Originally Posted by YuvalNYC

eBay's stock is trading at an all time high right now...

Ok lets see .....

eBay price per share ~50$

Amazon price per share ~240$

Yup! eBay is doing well!

[stanislav]

eBay

Alexa Traffic Rank: 23 Traffic Rank in US: 7

Amazon

Alexa Traffic Rank: 10 Traffic Rank in US: 5

[vogeltron]

I can speak for the world. But if you don't want to haggle with Craigslist b.s. It is either eBay or Amazon to find deals.

[arwoodco]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

This is the natural result of eBay deciding they want to be more like Amazon.

The trouble is, Amazon is already doing a pretty good job of being Amazon.

Exactly! It just shows that Donahue is a light weight. If you have to idolize your competition, there is something wrong, generally speaking.

Besides the fact that Ebay can not be Amazon. Its like dressing a pig and trying to pass it as human.

Main problem is that ebay doesn't own anything and just slave-drives their sellers.

Ebay should just return back to what they were back in about 2004 - 2006. That was their best time.

[TurtleCove]

Don't forget that the world is a big place, and EB is now opening China. I think this thing allowing us to sell worldwide, but ship domestically, could be a huge boon for them.

[slim jim]

Originally Posted by TurtleCove

Don't forget that the world is a big place, and EB is now opening China. I think this thing allowing us to sell worldwide, but ship domestically, could be a huge boon for them.

i don't see it like that. i see that as china being able to sell easier in the US which helps kill US sellers. people in china do not buy US products, it's the other way around

[arwoodco]

Originally Posted by slim jim

i don't see it like that. i see that as china being able to sell easier in the US which helps kill US sellers. people in china do not buy US products, it's the other way around

Should point out that I used to have a dropship business, where I had sellers in the USA, Australia and Europe selling product.

And much of the product was Chinese in nature. Some of it was from the USA.

Of course, that did not work for long, as Ebay now doesn't let you sell much of anything that is popular, brand name or an electronic type item (in high volumes).

Now, I have been focusing on just directing traffic to Amazon and Ebay.

Seems a LOT less messy.

Was listening to Robert Kiyosaki, and realized that webspace is basically "digital real estate".

And the idea is, you have more leverage if it is your property.

Instead of renting space on Ebay or Amazon, have them rent from you (via affiliate sales and advertising).

They treat you better that way.

[user3657]

Originally Posted by slim jim

remember that ebay themselves do not care about the ebay portion of their company as much as the paypal portion. it is the majority of their profit and they might even be 'ignoring' the ebay part right now. they are concentrated on getting themselves in home depots, etc... so they can get their %. i think the concentration will come back to ebay unless in the meantime someone like google or microsoft come up with their own ebay. just my two cents...

Cant stand paypal so I hope this part fails!!!

But as others said ebay isnt the same. Some items you cant really sell anymore. They have huge resellers, newegg, pcrush, jr,buy, etc.....if ebay was smart they wouldnt allow big corps on!