Tomorrow I will be shutting down the eBay store I've run for nearly 12 years. It's a sad day for me, but certainly not an unexpected one. I saw this coming quite some time ago, it's just that the last few months have made a final decision unavoidable.
I doubt I need to reiterate the litany of issues that have led to this point -- experienced sellers know them all too well. Essentially, eBay has worn me out and ground me down with incremental policy changes that neither enhance nor facilitate my ability to sell well as a small business person. As I said on another post, it boils down to the fact that the time and effort required by a small seller to "feed the eBay monster" constantly (not to mention keeping up with ever-changing eBay policy), in order to maintain any sort of steady level of sales has become completely disproportionate to the return.
I understand that eBay must satisfy its shareholders. They are really no longer interested in facilitating small-scale selling, particularly in their "traditional" unique, vintage or OOAK categories. They want to look like any other big, online retailer with a plethora of mass-produced consumer products at remarkable discounts (even though we all know that's not what's behind the curtain).
Economies of scale are integral to that concept. It's no doubt far less expensive for eBay to deal with several thousand big retail sellers listing products that can be precisely compared and deeply discounted (with free shipping of course, by sellers who can afford to make good deals with Canada Post et al), than to have to deal with millions of individual, non-professional small sellers. EBay has determined this is how they want their future to look, and it seems clear the likes of me do not fit into that picture. If they wanted to get rid of a whole swath of small sellers by attrition, I think they'll soon have succeeded.
There was a time (probably prior to about 2013) when I felt that I could actually build and grow my small business here on eBay. Unfortunately, to my dismay, over the years I've felt that rather than being supported and facilitated by eBay policy, I've managed to survive in spite of it, fighting upstream all the way, mostly by sheer determination, creativity, and an enormous amount of time spent studying and parsing eBay policy. They've worn me down, and I suspect I'm not alone. The bottom line is that the bottom line isn't worth it anymore. If all the effort I've invested in my eBay business is barely resulting in a viable level of sales, I see no point in continuing.
Higher fees haven't helped. The one-two punch of eBay raising its store subscription fees by 25% a couple of years ago, followed by the addition of HST/GST onto fees (I'm in a 15% province), combined with the wholesale removal of TRS qualification, meant that my fees have effectively increased by over 50% -- each and every month. (By the way, there was little point in my applying for a GST business number in order to claim credits -- with sales slumping despite all my work, it hardly seemed worth pursuing, especially since I realized that if things didn't change, I'd be leaving).
The corollary to removal of small sellers by attrition is that much of the buyer base they brought to eBay has also fled. EBay itself neither advertises to, nor encourages such buyers. Many of my long-term competitors and seller colleagues in the "traditional" categories have set up shop elsewhere (I know because I recognize them there).
What I have never been able to understand however is why eBay essentially gave up on the OOAK, vintage and unique stream. They could have captured that market almost exclusively (and prevented others, such as you-know-who, from capitalizing on it) by simply creating a parallel eBay selling platform years ago. But that's a shoulder-shrugging "whatever" subject to me now.
Almost needless to say has been the pressure of Canada Post's rising rates (and its disruptive disputes). Small, interesting items are practically not worth selling anymore because shipping can often be more than the item price. My days of being able to "subsidize" my buyers' shipping costs have also been coming to an end. And with increased competition from U.S. sellers in my categories (who have cheaper, tracked shipping available), offering free shipping from here on such small items is almost impossible.
I'm not bitter or angry. I am a realist about these things, and try to look at the landscape from eBay's viewpoint, as much as I have vehemently disagreed with many of their policies. But I am sad, since I started on eBay many years ago with much anticipation, and I have had a lot of good years. I thought I was the kind of seller eBay wanted (at least what they once told us they wanted) -- not a single defect or negative FB in nearly 12 years, consistently excellent customer service, etc. etc. Apparently that's basically a meaningless metric (to use eBay's word) now. Big scale, big turnover, big ticket, high volume sales with an indifferent level of customer service is the order of the day.
It's hard to give up, because I'm also an optimist. Yet I'm done fighting an uphill battle with little return. Views and watchers on my store listings have dropped dramatically over the past year (even on items that used to garner immediate and marked attention), and I can only conclude that my typical buyers aren't coming to eBay anymore to look for the types of items I sell. Paying more and more to eBay in order to sell less and less just doesn't seem like a rationale business strategy to me.
So tomorrow, after the current (ineffective) sale has ended, I'll be ending all my listings and closing my store. I'll still be lurking around occasionally, and will likely open a "starter" store on eBay.com to sell the occasional higher-priced items. But it won't be my focus anymore.
I want to give a very big thank you to my longtime seller colleagues here, many of whom over the years have discussed issues with me, commiserated, debated with me and empathized with me through some difficult times. Since many of us work alone, in far-flung places, often the views and voices of other experienced sellers were the only connection I had to keep me moving forward and looking upward. Your camaraderie has been worth more than I can say.
Cheers!
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