I'm not sure whether you were honestly curious about my reasons, 'pj', or indulging in finding more specific ways to be sure what I've said can't stand, but I'm going to assume the former.
I do have good reasons for decisions I make with regard to my business. They are usually rational conclusions drawn from observation, experience and experimenting. If they're wrong and clearly need adjusting, I do so.
It's taken a few years to get to the point of having made adjustments that worked well for my particular type of eBay selling and my particular buyers, and I've been happy with the results, pretty much up until this year (with the exception of losses from the "cart disconnect").
I must say that more effort on my part has gone into getting those results (for some of the reasons I listed) than was the case previously. It's perplexing to see a fairly sudden downturn that I really can't explain by my own actions or inaction.
Be that as it may, I still maintain that the points I posted earlier, i.e. certain decisions or changes by eBay, have contributed to making it more difficult to attract buyers and to maintain sales levels. Not the whole picture, doubtless, but a fair share. As I've said earlier, although eBay represents only about 1/3rd of my income now, I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to interpret and understand policy, identify and work around flaws, and sort out the best strategies. It is a challenge, far more so than the other sites on which I sell.
Why do I stay? Because I started here, because there are still many advantages to listing here, because of the high profile visibility, and because I believe eBay might be a better place for sellers like me if the right changes were made. However, I've been in a wait-and-see mode since 2013 as more and more complexities are added to the mix by eBay.
So, to respond to the specific points you raised:
1. The "Me" page:
"Are you saying that someone would buy something from you because they had visited your 'me' pages? If so, how do you know that?"
Yes, actually. Ominiture told me that was the case, and my buyers often remarked on how knowing my processes helped them to decide on a purchase, or that they simply appreciated the information there. In my fairly unique area, fostering direct customer relationships is everything -- I invite them to ask any questions once they purchase one of my patterns, they send me photos and share their results, and I point them to my Photo Gallery, my website and other public pages.
I used to be able to do this all in one great place. It was a point of personal contact and helped to make me a "real person" in buyer's eyes, not just a store name, a very important factor in my line of work. It helped to bring customers back (at least until it was removed). I've had few returning customers since. So yes, it's quite reasonable to conclude that it has had a significant impact.
2. The "Cart Disconnect":
"You could have easily solved that problem months ago but you chose not to. [...] You've given your reasons for not wanting to change and although I'm sure you believe they are very valid...[...]"
In fact, I've chosen not to switch up to this point, not because I was simply being obstinate or blind, but because I've been running tests, asking questions, discussing other options and weighing the monetary and other impacts of each choice (none of them wholly satisfactory as an alternative to what I now have) in order to make a reasonable decision. I also delayed, frankly, in the hope that eBay might make some changes with time, despite the warnings we got to the contrary from Raphael et al.
Making any one decision will entail loss of a number of features or options I like and/or a significant monetary loss. They may not seem entirely valid considerations to you, but they are to me. It's a question of what benefits I want to give up in order to obtain a potential, not a guaranteed, increase in sales to make those losses worthwhile. It could conceivably make things worse. That's not an easy decision to make, and as I've said, I've spent a lot of effort organizing my business on .ca to my best advantage. If I give that up, I want to be fairly sure I've chosen the least disadvantageous of the three options for my particular situation.
After recently hearing 'mjwl's' very clear explanation of the relationship between listing in $Cdn and the .com buying experience, I thought listing exclusively in $Cdn would be the best route. However, I'm still considering listing on .com, although you might not believe that. If I do, it will be an experimental period. If it gets results, I'll stay.
I'm setting out these explanations at some length in the hope it might help others in considering their options. There are real disadvantages to leaving .ca for many sellers.
3. The "Contact Seller" link:
My view on this is similar to #1 above.
4. Returns:
Thankfully, bad return experiences or losses haven't touched me yet, but certainly could have if a few occurrences I recall had happened today.
I'll give you an example of what I mean by returns being handled as sellers see fit. In one instance, long before the MBG was introduced and before the "Contact Seller" button removed, I sold a finished skirt (a design sample of mine) to a U.S. buyer. She either mis-read the detailed size description, or wanted the item so much that she overlooked the sizing, but in any event she contacted me directly and explained that the skirt didn't fit at all (her fault), and could she return it.
I said I'd be happy to have her return it via regular USPS and would refund in full on receipt, or I'd make her another one, to her specific measurements, if she'd be willing to cover the second shipping (by Small Packet). I did make her another, and she happily paid me for the shipping. She was delighted, and returned later to buy some patterns. That's what I mean by personal choices and personal service.
I doubt I could have worked out such a pleasant arrangement today without interference by the automated eBay returns system. Obviously few sellers are in my position of being able to make a replacement, but I imagine many are in the position of being able to replace an unwanted item with the same, or similar item. I don't know that the MBG can handle that concept. In any case, it was the personal contact and flexibility that made the difference. EBay had no involvement other than showing the refund on the sales record (this was before a full refund would create an automatic deficit, yet another reason sellers now avoid simply giving their buyers' money back).
I'm not unrealistic though. I recognize that eBay had to deal with bad sellers in this regard. My idea would be for eBay to allow sellers with a certain level of proven service and perhaps a given number of transactions/years as a seller, deal directly, on their own chosen terms, with returns. I don't think that's such a bad compromise, but I doubt we'll ever see it.
5. Cyber Attack(s):
"That probably did affect all of us for at least a while." Actually, you may remember the S.E.C. eBay report to which I posted a link and some comments a while ago. Re-read those comments with respect to the cyber attack. There is an entire section devoted to it in the S.E.C. document, and you'll see that eBay took it as having had a very significant impact. Exactly what that means, who knows. They talk about having to "gain back buyer trust" as a result, so it must have been a considerable issue.
"But I am beginning to wonder if t is possible for ANY site to totally protect the information on it."
That is a real concern these days, of course, but I think some sites do a much better job of it than others. For example, I don't recall the Royal Bank having had a direct intrusion on its site (someone may correct me here if I'm wrong). They have a "double security" sign-in, actually triple-security: debit card number, password, and answer to 1 of 3 randomly rotating security questions.
I don't know why eBay never instituted a security-question sign-in, and I fault them for that. Although in signing in to eBay.ca, a week or two ago, I was asked to set some security questions. This was the only time I'd encountered this in nearly 15 years on eBay. I believe Raphael's explanation was that it was intended as a means of retrieving forgotten passwords, but why now suddenly? And why not previously, to provide another, quite simple, level of protection for its users?
6. Altering Seller Photos:
"They changed some of your photo's and it adversely affected your business?"
No, of course not. However, this -- as well as the recently-discovered "paraphrasing" of sellers' descriptive text on mobile devices -- is market interference, and if they are implemented on a regular basis, they most definitely will have an impact on sellers' businesses. The potential actually is quite concerning, particularly if eBay (well, the robotic programmes that do the work) makes wrong decisions. I don't think eBay should be involved in altering or revising seller content, period.
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"... not necessarily concrete things that have affected your sales". I think you misunderstand. I'm pointing out areas where I believe eBay has made bad decisions, or can improve. They don't need to be concrete, just reasonably connected. Can anyone on eBay show with certainty that any one factor has affected sales? I doubt it. But we can make rational deductions (there's that word again).
It is possible to recognize factors that have a potential or possibility of a detrimental effect on sales. Some I have been able to quantify in my case. As a whole, they most certainly will have some effect on the sales of quite a number of sellers.
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I've responded at length here because I hope others will accept that I do have reasonable cause to make certain choices, and that my views -- even if they diverge from the usual posters' opinions -- could help others, especially "boutique" sellers, make the choices that are best for their own businesses.
I'm taking a rare "holiday" of sorts from my usual work this week due to the hot weather, which some people here seem to find objectionable or cause for criticism for some unfathomable reason, but explains why I'm here on the boards. At least until the next electrical storm threatens to fry my laptop.
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