eBay

imaschnore · ‎08-09-2015

Sales have been down for 6 months. The number of Buyers and Dollar average has been decreasing. Defect count has gone UP due to fewer Buyers over the months. Hmmm. Better pictures, accurate description, currency, percentage discount, combined ship discount. Can not Control Sales must Manage Expenses. Suggestions Welcome....

rose-dee · ‎08-09-2015

@pinetreecottage wrote:
Judging from many other posts here, most of us are in the same boat. It would seem, something happened about 6 months ago. That's when, in my case, buyers stopped looking at my listings. Most auction listings ended with 5-8 people having looked, and no sales. These were items, that in the past, would have bids right away. I too tried every combination of listings and shipping. Maybe this is the new face of ebay. I'm still listing, but I'm not having high expectations. If ebay notices a drop in revenue, when we sellers aren't selling, or simply giving up, maybe then something will change. Just hang in there. Cheers.

You can add me to the list of passengers in that boat.

Things were fine until early January, I agree. Some sort of radical shift happened in the number of views and watchers on items that previously would have had much higher numbers, which in turn translated into fewer sales. In fact, I would say the correlation between drop in views/watchers pretty much proportionately matches the percentage drop in sales.

Something is going on in the background, but exactly what I can't say. However, I do know it isn't anything I've done or failed to do, or anything that I myself have altered that might have a negative effect. In fact, even increasing listings and lowering prices and shipping (including offering free shipping) has made no difference in this long dry spell.

As you say, I'm finding that items which used to get a lot of attention very quickly and sell within a few short weeks (if not days) are simply not moving. It's as if my buyers aren't seeing them anymore.

It did make me wonder when eBay removed Omniture (store statistics) long before they had anything ready to replace it. No reason was ever given for the gap. I know there is talk in some circles about blackouts -- perhaps this is a really large one, for some unknown purpose. Maybe it's a good thing I can't see via Omniture how bad the traffic really is.

View solution in original post

pinetreecottage · ‎08-09-2015

Judging from many other posts here, most of us are in the same boat. It would seem, something happened about 6 months ago. That's when, in my case, buyers stopped looking at my listings. Most auction listings ended with 5-8 people having looked, and no sales. These were items, that in the past, would have bids right away. I too tried every combination of listings and shipping. Maybe this is the new face of ebay. I'm still listing, but I'm not having high expectations. If ebay notices a drop in revenue, when we sellers aren't selling, or simply giving up, maybe then something will change. Just hang in there. Cheers.

femmefan1946 · ‎08-09-2015

Your items are mostly pretty inexpensive.

Try using Free Shipping .

Don't panic.

That just means adding your shipping costs to the asking price. If you usually get multiple orders, you can afford to add less shipping to asking than if your sales are one-off.

Which is cheapest

A $2 sale with $1 shipping?

A $3 sale with Free Shippng?

And you get automatic 5 stars for Shipping Cost which makes attaining or keeping TRS discounts easier.

Have you looked at your listings on a mobile device? That can be a shock.

Apparently about half of buyers look at listings on their phones. Something to consider.

Given the value of your offerings, I doubt the Harper recession has much to do with a sales dropoff. It's my understanding that coin collectors put more into their 'investment' if times are tough.

aubreyclay56 · ‎08-09-2015

sales will keep going down ,no free listings canadian dollar canada post

aubreyclay56 · ‎08-09-2015

sell without tracking makes cheap shipping will get item not recieved,thats how i lost my top rated seller diploma lol ship cheap you will get screwed every once in awhile there are dishonest buyers just waiting fer that one

rose-dee · ‎08-09-2015

@pinetreecottage wrote:
Judging from many other posts here, most of us are in the same boat. It would seem, something happened about 6 months ago. That's when, in my case, buyers stopped looking at my listings. Most auction listings ended with 5-8 people having looked, and no sales. These were items, that in the past, would have bids right away. I too tried every combination of listings and shipping. Maybe this is the new face of ebay. I'm still listing, but I'm not having high expectations. If ebay notices a drop in revenue, when we sellers aren't selling, or simply giving up, maybe then something will change. Just hang in there. Cheers.

You can add me to the list of passengers in that boat.

Things were fine until early January, I agree. Some sort of radical shift happened in the number of views and watchers on items that previously would have had much higher numbers, which in turn translated into fewer sales. In fact, I would say the correlation between drop in views/watchers pretty much proportionately matches the percentage drop in sales.

Something is going on in the background, but exactly what I can't say. However, I do know it isn't anything I've done or failed to do, or anything that I myself have altered that might have a negative effect. In fact, even increasing listings and lowering prices and shipping (including offering free shipping) has made no difference in this long dry spell.

As you say, I'm finding that items which used to get a lot of attention very quickly and sell within a few short weeks (if not days) are simply not moving. It's as if my buyers aren't seeing them anymore.

It did make me wonder when eBay removed Omniture (store statistics) long before they had anything ready to replace it. No reason was ever given for the gap. I know there is talk in some circles about blackouts -- perhaps this is a really large one, for some unknown purpose. Maybe it's a good thing I can't see via Omniture how bad the traffic really is.

bargainbookscanada · ‎08-10-2015

I wouldn't blame a recession on the drop in sales.

From the time I first started selling on Ebay back in the early 2000's, there was some new, dire economic crisis. The tech bubble collapsed, the financial services market collapsed, Obamacare, oil and gas prices. You name it. Sales were always robust for pretty much all Ebay sellers.

Here are the main problems right now, IMO.

1) Competition. There is just too much competition for..everything. Not only more sellers on Ebay, but more sellers on the River, more people using up classified ads, 3rd party website that have branched off of Ebay and now run their own independent sites. Not to mention thrift stores that use Ebay to comparison shop and sell items in their physical stores or online on their own thrift websites.

2) Though I think there are still more sellers on Ebay than ever. Many sellers have left because of Ebay policies and many sellers used to be Ebay buyers.

3) Time. Most products just have a limited demand. For example, out of print media. There are only so many people willing to pay, say 25 dollars for an Out of print DVD. Most categories are not immune.

4) Buyer expectations. A lot of the smart buyers know what a jam Ebay sellers are in and they are holding out, looking to buy mint condition collectibles on the cheap. I think the overall economy has changed. I mean you can buy a Chinese made 32gb flash drive for 10.00 online and mailed to your door. A lot of people think that everything should be ultra cheap and shipped right to their door.

5) Ebay Policies - A lot of buyers refuse to pay with Paypal. They want to send physical payment only and that's a big no-no now.

All these things have really taken a toll.

tellephoto · ‎08-10-2015

Another reason is Google search........ eBay was hit with a search penalty by Google. The loss of traffic resulting from that, still has on going problems that will not be fixed. Ebay has other ideas on creating their own catalog instead.

pierrelebel · ‎08-10-2015

"SALES are Down. Cause: Recession?"

No. There is no recession in the world at this time but in Canada. Somehow, other than Greece, we seem to be the only industrialized country in the world currently experiencing a recession.

I do not have access to your sales information but, looking at the feedback you have received as a seller, the last six months are very similar to the earlier six months (down a bit but nothing drastic)

pinetreecottage · ‎08-10-2015

Just had an epiphany. Is it possible ebay is "cleaning house" by simply making it impossible for small private sellers, like myself and others, who've been here since the early days? Since we can't be gotten rid of, if we follow all the rules and regs., they just wait for us to quit. Maybe the focus is on regular mega retailers, from far way places. Maybe someone in the corner office have aspirations for ebay to become another "Amazon"? Some changes in life are drastic, and are seen immediately, others happen slowly, which I suspect is the case here. Well, just spitballing here.

pierrelebel · ‎08-10-2015

" they just wait for us to quit."

Why would anyone want to quit?

The very large sellers getting those 100,000 "free listings" promotions did not quit when those promotions stopped. Why would the "small seller" listing 20, 50 or 100 items a month quit?

Either it pays to list and sell on eBay or it does not. Either buyers want your "stuff" or they do not want it. Size has little to do with it.

Let's look at the fee schedule once more; http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/fees.html

Is this a valid reason to quit selling on eBay?

Sellers wishing to only list for free have many other options such as Kijiji (owned by eBay), etc... Listing on eBay may cost a bit more but this is where the traffic is.

pinetreecottage · ‎08-10-2015

I think pierrelebel misunderstood my point. I have no problem paying for listings, however, I find it hard to sell anything, when nobody is looking. The trick is to get viewers to the listing. I have a choice of product, price, category, title and shipping. When I think I've done everything right, and still nobody views, that's the question. For me, this is a relatively new experience. I have been very successful, selling the same type of product in the past. I'm sure the stamp enthusiasts out there, visit his site regularly, as bookworms, go to the sites that sell books. We are comparing apples to oranges here. I am an eclectic seller of collectibles and pre-owned items, as are many others. We are the ones who seem to have "invisibility" issues. So, please lets us agree to disagree, we are obviously not on the same page. Cheers.

rose-dee · ‎08-10-2015

@pierrelebel wrote:

Let's look at the fee schedule once more; http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/fees.html
Is this a valid reason to quit selling on eBay?

There are many reasons why selling on eBay has become progressively more difficult in the past 2 or 3 years, but frankly, from my own point of view, listing and selling fees are at the very bottom of that list.

I've strategized my listing activities to the point where I actually rarely pay anything to list (aside from my store fee, which is covered by the first sale or two every month). And I've reduced FVFs probably to the smallest minimum a seller can get on eBay (except for sellers in certain categories with a lower FVF percentage), partly due to the help of the falling $Cdn, partly through the TRS discount, and partly through use of a lot of free domestic shipping.

No, the pressure is coming from elsewhere, at least for me (and I suspect for many others like me). As other smaller sellers here have pointed out, lower transaction volume mean a higher risk of even one defect having a serious effect on one's seller status, visibility/placement (and TRS). There is also the potential loss of TRS if transaction numbers fall. I'm getting pretty close to this line myself.

Another issue for me (as you know), is the "US cart disconnect" and the havoc that has caused to my previously flourishing multi-item sales. This has stunted my growth potential on eBay, and now I'm having to choose whether to abandon listing on eBay.ca as a result, giving up certain privileges and accommodations available here (such as Canada Post option details in shipping and free subtitles on .cafr).

Traffic to my store, and the source of that traffic, is another big concern. Without Omniture to help me see what is happening, I now feel like I'm flying blind. Try this, try that, hope that something might work. It doesn't make for very secure planning.

The overall dollar value of sales has dropped significantly for me in 2015, even though I have been listing more items than ever, and more variety than ever, at lower prices than ever. I can't even count on my "sure sellers" anymore to attract customers.

Perhaps the poster above is right in speculating that those buyers who do come to eBay know that sellers are squeezed and are waiting it out until prices drop even further. The trouble with that is that many sellers will decide to give up, downgrade to a lower store level, and/or reduce their available listings in order to save money on fees. That reduces the selection on this site, which I don't think is good for anybody, including eBay.

As I said, I found it very odd that eBay pulled Omniture off the site completely for months before they were ready with something to replace it. There seemed no apparent reason to do that -- why not let us carry on using the old system until a few days or weeks before the new one could be introduced? What is it they didn't want us to see?

pierrelebel · ‎08-10-2015

" I'm sure the stamp enthusiasts out there, visit his site regularly,"

I wish. It is not that simple, never has been.

Today I had four sets if Irish stamps put at auction ten days ago and closing this morning. I had great expectations (as always!). One set sold to a buyer in Sweden bidding at the starting bid ($12). The other three sets did not attract a single bid. Worse, one of these listings attracted 0 viewer. ZERO viewer in ten days. And that zero viewer is despite offering "free shipping" worldwide, liberal return policy, 100% feedback rating and DSRs of 5.0 across the board. What am i doing wrong? Nothing. It is simply what the eBay marketplace has become : overloaded with listings with the same number of buyers shopping here with the same amount of money to spend. The larger pie is divided into much smaller pieces.

Once upon a time there were 14,000,000 listings on eBay. Today there are 800,000,000. That is a reality very difficult to understand and comprehend and largely explains the much lower "sell through rate" rate than what sellers experienced years ago.

And life does go on. We all adjust to lower "sell through rate" and much longer duration for sales at fixed prices. Five years ago, eBay claimed the average fixed price listings (store listings) took 14 weeks to sell. Today it does take much longer.

rose-dee · ‎08-10-2015

@pinetreecottage wrote:
Just had an epiphany. Is it possible ebay is "cleaning house" by simply making it impossible for small private sellers, like myself and others, who've been here since the early days? Since we can't be gotten rid of, if we follow all the rules and regs., they just wait for us to quit.

That's certainly what it feels like, isn't it?

We do everything -- and I mean everything -- eBay tells us to do in order to sell successfully. Yet eBay does nothing about the things (such as I mentioned above) that are making it more and more difficult to do just that. One thing that has never been altered, which I feel strongly disadvantages smaller sellers, is the different level of defect calculation for higher and lower volume sellers.

This is a cynical view, I know, but it seems to me that only my persistence and stubbornness are keeping me moving forward. Certainly not a sense of optimism about the opportunities here.

The irony I see is that the smaller sellers who are still left standing are the ones eBay should want to keep if the CEO's really mean what they reportedly said recently about "supporting their traditional core of smaller sellers". Holy cow, I wish they'd hurry up and show it!

rose-dee · ‎08-10-2015

pierrelebel wrote:

Once upon a time there were 14,000,000 listings on eBay. Today there are 800,000,000. That is a reality very difficult to understand and comprehend and largely explains the much lower "sell through rate" rate than what sellers experienced years ago.

______________________________________________________________________________________

While this may be true, I don't think it's difficult in any way to comprehend. EBay has grown.

What I do find difficult to understand is what would cause a very sudden and noticeable drop in what is apparently the amount of traffic coming to the site. Your description of your recent auction experience is an example. That sort of thing, seriously depressed traffic -- which I've been experiencing particularly since about late May of this year -- doesn't happen overnight.

Now that Omniture is gone, I have no way of verifying the number of visits to my store. All I have left are the individual item counters, which don't tell a very optimistic story.

dutchman48 · ‎08-10-2015

There are supposed to be some announcements made at the shindig in September which are suppose to benefit sellers. Probably part of the fall updates which I suspect will be out shortly after that.

I have no idea what the announcements will be but was told they will definitely benefit sellers. I am biding my time till that happens to make my decisions as to what to do. Websites are nice but take a long tome to get established, are not cheap, and not sure if it is worth it or not. The other sites out there all have their own issues and sales are down at them as well from reading their boards. Some will also be upgrading and changing their sites which of course open the door to all kinds of issues. None have the traffic Ebay does.

It is not easy anywhere today and be prepared for another postal increase in January as well which is definitely hurting Canadians that can't ship through the US.

Anonymous · ‎08-10-2015

Recession? Yes I call it "eBay Recession"!

What happened to eBay telling us that there will be a better search capabilities? It seems to me it is totally opposite!

pierrelebel · ‎08-10-2015

"I don't think it's difficult in any way to comprehend. EBay has grown. "

It is not just a matter of growth. That would be easy to explain. What has happened is a distortion between listings and sales by sellers. And that may be why it is difficult to comprehend until one goes back and check historical facts at eBay.

Back fifteen years ago, eBay had 14,000,000 listings at any given time. In a typical quarter in 2000 Gross Merchandise Volume (sales by sellers was $1,400,000,000 ($1.4 billion)

Fast forward to this year and you find 800,000,000 listings (57 times more) while sales by sellers have increased to $20,000,000,000 ($20.0 billion) (14 times more)

And that is the real problem faced by eBay sellers today. when compared to the "good old days".

57 times more listings but only 14 times more sales.

It should be noted that those 14,000,000 listings fifteen years ago were generally for seven days. Today the vast majority are for 30 days (or GTC which is the same 30 days)

I know... too many numbers for most readers. What can I do? It is what it is! Selling online is a number game.

rose-dee · ‎08-10-2015

@pierrelebel wrote:

57 times more listings but only 14 times more sales.

That may be only part of the equation. I think the other critical factor is how many potential customers are actually visiting the site today, as opposed to say, 2012 to early 2013 (before the hacker attack). Or -- even more pertinent -- today, in contrast to late 2014.

Simply having more listings should not necessarily reduce sales per se. Greater variety should help to attract more buyers. However, if buyers are not coming through the door in increased numbers in the first place then there is a big problem if you have listings ballooning out of all proportion to the number of potential buyers. I see this as the critical issue eBay should have been addressing long ago.

I think that eBay had a loyal following of users (buyers), but the perfect storm of site problems, constant changes and agenda focused on mass-produced product has likely put off a lot of those people. Maybe the new cohort of potential buyers that eBay hoped to attract by going "big commercial" may not have been realized in the way eBay expected.

So now we have David Wenig singing the praises of the little guy again. Are they hoping that if they keep the millions of independent, smaller sellers here that they will entice those sellers' customers back? I don't know. Sometimes I think that eBay should have split its home page in two streams when it decided to court the big retailers -- Brand new, manufactured, tech goods, etc., and on the other side "Vintage or Traditional". They might have been able to keep everybody happy.

I suspect the realization has occurred to them that the horse has now fled and eBay is trying, belatedly, to close the barn door. It may be a futile exercise at this point, partly because I imagine not only have many buyers gone elsewhere, but so have many "traditional" eBay sellers who would have attracted those buyers. EBay did this to themselves -- they saw smaller sellers as the problem, and courting mass retailers as the answer. Another short-sighted attitude driven by the quest for quick money rather than longer term, stable growth and flexibility.

Back in 2000, eBay must have had the lion's share of the online visitors out there. Now though, if they want to entice customers back, they have the additional problem of sharing those potential customers with a multitude of other sites who have seen the opportunities eBay let slip through its fingers and have grabbed them. EBay's erstwhile customers are no longer just eBay's customers.