Dismal sales

[Automasters]

Has anyone else noticed a complete drop in sales since the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US? It's like instantly all buyers are dead. Dropping price by $10 each day has no effect. Either the economy is permanently screwed or people are not interested. The last three years have been crap, but it keeps getting worse.

[rsot]

What category are you seeing this in for your sales?

[agent006140]

This is the worst Xmas I have ever seen since I join Ebay.
In the past,after finishing their thanksgiving dinner,they come online and start buying for XMAS.
But this year many shoppers are going to brick and mortar stores or their online websites to buy,they are being offered some good deals ,using their credit cards and BYPL.
You know in about 1 week,it will be over except for the last minute purchases.

For the few who bought in my Etsy shop,they are low priced items,buyers have become very good in bottom fishing,I have clothing which are new but been kept in closet for years I am trying to get rid of,they dont make such good quality clothes anymore,either in the material they use or the workmanship.
Where are the big spenders?

Good to know you are still doing well,
On Etsy seller forum,many are crying NO SALE.

also like to point out-buying online ,they have to pay sales tax and shipping,unless you are willing to absorb shipping which is not that cheap anymore.
first class stamp will go from 66 cents to 68 cents next year

Consumers are cutting back,food,rent,auto expenses have all gone up,there is just less money for DISCRETIONARY items.
I think it will get worse in first qtr of 2024 .

No,ETSY is worse.
Asking price is higher on Etsy,you know where they get their antiques and vintage items,FROM EBAY.

There used to be an Ebay seller who sells BBY returns,but the last time I looked,even BBY is selling on Ebay.

You can tell how well Ebay is doing by looking at its stock price,compared it with AMZN or Shopify or even Etsy .
Is it not ironic Bozo never go to Harvard MBA school but Meg and the guy after her both attended Harvard ? and they do not seem to care Ebay is the largest dumpster in the world?

Ebay rotates the seller,thats why you see sales perk up and then drop off,
It is also known a sales venue will give new seller a honeymoon period .

someone once called EBAY and asks why no sales,Ebay rep said Be patient,your turn will come???
that was before promoted selling.

too many sellers and not enough buyers.
Buyers do not want to buy used,slightly used,rejects,returns as Xmas gifts and Ebay has tons of them.
Besides legit retail stores ,they all have websites and heavily promoting Xmas selling.

Originally Posted by solefoodbk

Shopify had 22% yoy growth.

Yes,it is amazing

may be it is just Ebay,as most prefer to buy MIB mint in box gifts.

sorry .it is BNPL,buy now pay later.

[Automasters]

Glad to hear your feedback and to know it isn't just me. Sales are in different categories, but mostly home electronics and automotive. It seems everything is almost dead across the board. Agent006140's experience matches mine exactly. I have never seen it this slow in all my time on egay.

[dsims2051]

Hm. I am cranking out sales on etsy right now. Peoples buying habits shift and threres so many platforms now. People in certain income brackets are still spending money. That's who you gotta target . People in upper brackets are still shopping like nothing is happening. My sales are down compared to the last few years but that is expected because everything was hyper inflated. What I am seeing now is similar to 2019.

[OldTom]

Ebay are now pushing their promoted sales 'services'.

So we've got promoted listings and promoted listing Advanced.

And now in the UK (is it the same for the US?) they're introducing 'Offsite Ads'. It seems to imply that even google searches will be controlled and pushed toward those who shell out even more on promotions.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sellercentre/...rs/offsite-ads

...and then there's there new Social Ads for facebook etc. It never ends.

If you don't play along you can be absolutely be sure your listings will slide down the rankings/visibility.

Like you I've seen a drop in sales, watch the "boost your sales through an advertising promotion" land in our in-boxes pretty soon. I wouldn't put it past them to deliberately suppress listings prior to offering this solution to panicking seller.

It's a massive moneyspinner for them, the suggested ad rate in my categories just for the basic promoted listings is more than the FVF.

[vesania]

Honestly go to the eBay forums and the selling section.

Literally 10 or more threads on what you are asking.

This started happening to be back in June which I believe eBay started testing out stuff. Others confirmed it started in August or sooner.

But I am glad it confirmed what I was experiencing especially with the tons of removals of items I was selling for years without issue.

Constant suspensions and over 50% drop in sales since then.

[OldTom]

Originally Posted by vesania

But I am glad it confirmed what I was experiencing especially with the tons of removals of items I was selling for years without issue.

Constant suspensions and over 50% drop in sales since then.

OP and I are saying that visibility has gone down on clean accounts, no policy breaches or account issues.

I think your removals and suspensions might explain your lack of visibility, it's always been like that. Surprised you even have an account if you've been constantly suspended.

[vesania]

Originally Posted by OldTom

OP and I are saying that visibility has gone down on clean accounts, no policy breaches or account issues.

I think your removals and suspensions might explain your lack of visibility, it's always been like that. Surprised you even have an account if you've been constantly suspended.

They are expected during holiday time, but when it comes to getting either one policy violation or two and then getting suspended. Then you know something has changed.

I am even getting multi account policy hits across accounts despite using Inkfrog to run those accounts. One inkfrog to one eBay. No way they could be linked when they sell in totally different categories.

Originally Posted by agent006140

Consumers are cutting back,food,rent,auto expenses have all gone up,there is just less money for DISCRETIONARY items.
I think it will get worse in first qtr of 2024 .

I expect economy to get worse once more layoffs and businesses start to shut.

But reading the threads on eBay forums for example this one:
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Sellin...4013730/page/7

It does contribute to it, but when your sales and views drop over 50% within weeks or even days, then you know something went wrong with eBay's changes.

Other platforms and venues for them still sell while eBay's takes a dump.

[OldTom]

Originally Posted by vesania

I am even getting multi account policy hits across accounts despite using Inkfrog to run those accounts. One inkfrog to one eBay. No way they could be linked when they sell in totally different categories.


Other platforms and venues for them still sell while eBay's takes a dump.

Clearly there's a link you've overlooked. It's not happening by mere chance.


On the second point, I'm not defending ebay policies but they must be doing something right. If their total sales took a nosedive similar to OPs and mine then they'd be calling an emergency board meeting to find out why and how to correct it.

I've said it already, but sales are going to Top Rated businesses with a very healthy promotions and advertising budget, the latter probably earning them more than FVFs too. Win-win for ebay, the Amazon model they wanted so badly is slowly falling into place.

Indeed you can almost guarantee they have discussed using an Amazon style catalogue for certain items and I reckon we will see it as some point in the not too distant future.

[vesania]

Originally Posted by OldTom

Clearly there's a link you've overlooked. It's not happening by mere chance.


On the second point, I'm not defending ebay policies but they must be doing something right. If their total sales took a nosedive similar to OPs and mine then they'd be calling an emergency board meeting to find out why and how to correct it.

I've said it already, but sales are going to Top Rated businesses with a very healthy promotions and advertising budget, the latter probably earning them more than FVFs too. Win-win for ebay, the Amazon model they wanted so badly is slowly falling into place.

Indeed you can almost guarantee they have discussed using an Amazon style catalogue for certain items and I reckon we will see it as some point in the not too distant future.

Go through those forums and read through them. Top rated businesses having higher promotion budgets still are not getting the views like they were before.

Most top rated sellers and businesses have fled eBay in the past year.

eBay can continue to go "Amazon" style, but they are going the opposite.

Forgetting to add like people mentioned in those eBay forums. Once Temu started hitting the marketplace, buyers can go there to buy cheap stuff.

Originally Posted by agent006140

There used to be an Ebay seller who sells BBY returns,but the last time I looked,even BBY is selling on Ebay.

Ya, I remember seeing big brands are selling on there as well. Don't know how much eBay contributes to their revenue.

[OldTom]

Originally Posted by vesania

Go through those forums and read through them. Top rated businesses having higher promotion budgets still are not getting the views like they were before.

Somebody is, ebay aren't allowing their business to collapse in front of their eyes. In reality, the 'proper' big sellers don't waste their time on forums nor share their spend with ebay.

Originally Posted by vesania

Most top rated sellers and businesses have fled eBay in the past year.

Nah, most truly big sellers, the ones ebay favour, have not abandoned ebay and definitely not 'most' top rated sellers by any stretch of the imagination. There are websites out their like sellerpulse which confirm this.

In any event, I'm not sure how anyone other than ebay would be able to quantify the true net loss number if it was indeed falling.


Here's the bottom line. It is what it is and we either adapt and play along or we become one of the statistics to refer to.

[vesania]

Some replies from the eBay forums:

Yeah, most people give eBay a bad rep nowadays. I only know 1 person who sold things on eBay, and he's excited because he did some risky sales of more expensive items and didn't have issues. I was trying to give him some info on how to protect himself in those cases, but he seemed to believe eBay would protect him wholeheartedly if he ran in to any problem with scammers. I hope he never has to find out the truth.



Often times eBay had issues for few weeks, even a month or two. But it was clear when they did some major algorithm changes. You might not have been able to tell what changed, but something obviously did. It's just so odd that nowadays the bar doesn't move. And it often times seems counter-intuitive. Sellers who have traditionally been on top of the industry are no longer featured highly in search results, even though they are still running the industry in the background and smaller sellers who purchase from them (and have higher prices/etc) are now getting better visibility.



Then the more you invest in to PL doesn't make a difference anymore. Nothing is moving that bar. I'm quite certain that (once again) they have mixed a variable up somewhere and certain statistics/metrics that should be helping a store are either doing nothing, or hurting rather than helping. Except this time, it doesn't seem they have someone actively working on the issue...



We know how far down on sales we have dropped, anywhere from 30% to 50% depending on what sales metrics you're looking at. And as has become the trend, eBay still says we're #1 GMV in the category, #1 impressions, #2 on views. All the other "top sellers" are suffering with us. Scary to think about how much has been lost for the "most successful" sellers on eBay.

Mr L, I understand the busy, just not selling & all the prices rising. Due to the death in my family & being checked out for some months, I have not taken anything to the dry cleaner since April. What a shock I got, when I finally took some inventory in last week. Not only had all the prices risen, but some of them had risen dramatically. A jacket is $8.50 to dry clean now! Combine that with my 2 month experiment of allowing offers, where I got so many offers of $8-12, it's laughable. Clothing buyers want to pay $8, but it costs me more than that to dry clean a jacket LOL & that doesn't take any other costs into account.


I will say though & Zamo I thought you'd be interested in this. My sales suddenly this week picked back up to normal, after almost 2 months of virtually no sales. No idea why though! Probably something eBay did, I didn't change anything other than allowing offers, but I did that 2 months ago now. Suddenly, it just seems like nothing happened & sales are normal. I would say it's holiday sales, but my inventory doesn't really lend itself to holiday sales. Who knows? Just wanted to report the sudden uptick after 2 months of virtually nothing.



P.S. Just remembered 1 other change. I increased my handling time to 3 days due to a new injury. That's supposed to make things worse, but it did coincide with this sudden uptick in sales. Weird.

I do hope this is something eBay will only be testing for a year or less to determine how this will work. But if this is permanent, it is not going to be good.

[OldTom]

Originally Posted by agent006140

Ebay rotates the seller,.

No they don't. Maybe on page 10 but not where it counts.

[vesania]

Originally Posted by agent006140

someone once called EBAY and asks why no sales,Ebay rep said Be patient,your turn will come???
that was before promoted selling.

Trying to figure out what they are trying to do is confusing, but that is how they have always been.

It is just now, it is magnified with all the AI crap they are implementing.

[solefoodbk]

Originally Posted by agent006140

This is the worst Xmas I have ever seen since I join Ebay.
In the past,after finishing their thanksgiving dinner,they come online and start buying for XMAS.
But this year many shoppers are going to brick and mortar stores or their online websites to buy,they are being offered some good deals ,using their credit cards and BYPL.
You know in about 1 week,it will be over except for the last minute purchases.

Shopify had 22% yoy growth.

[henryfalmore]

Originally Posted by agent006140

This is the worst Xmas I have ever seen since I join Ebay.
In the past,after finishing their thanksgiving dinner,they come online and start buying for XMAS.
But this year many shoppers are going to brick and mortar stores or their online websites to buy,they are being offered some good deals ,using their credit cards and BYPL.
You know in about 1 week,it will be over except for the last minute purchases.

what is BYPL meaning?

[Automasters]

I think you are correct, it is a combination of the crappy economy, flood of cheap items and customers watching spending this season

[rsot]

Originally Posted by vesania

Some replies from the eBay forums:

I do hope this is something eBay will only be testing for a year or less to determine how this will work. But if this is permanent, it is not going to be good.

Spending time on that eb forum is a messy affair

[OldTom]

Originally Posted by rsot

Spending time on that eb forum is a messy affair

Same as the Amazon forums. Manned primarily by a handful of disgruntled seller with an axe to grind with ebay/Amazon. Half the time they dive into your account and look for faults with you rather than answering the query.

Best to have a non-seller posting account or simply brows for any info you can make use of.

[DENDEN76]

I believe Buy now pay later causes a lot of buyers remorse. The item has to be really worth committing to otherwise they return the item and cancel the loan

[rsot]

Originally Posted by OldTom

Same as the Amazon forums. Manned primarily by a handful of disgruntled seller with an axe to grind with ebay/Amazon. Half the time they dive into your account and look for faults with you rather than answering the query.

Best to have a non-seller posting account or simply brows for any info you can make use of.

Exactly - those trolls diving into ppl's accounts is annoying and potentially problematic