The eBay that you are talking about is an e-commerce platform that I am convinced is a loss leader. They could drop us in a heartbeat.
eBay did a worldwide combined economic volume of $203 BILLION (with a B) in 2013.
eBay did a worldwide combined economic volume of $203 BILLION (with a B) in 2013.
Enabled Commerce Volume, that was the phrase I was looking for. From the eBay Inc. Reports First Quarter Results, http://blog.ebay.com/ebay-inc-reports-first-quarter-results/, ".....with total company enabled commerce volume (ECV) increasing 24% in the first quarter to $58 billion".
First quarter of 2014 vs first quarter of 2013, business is up 24%.
- PayPal net total payment volume (TPV) grew 27%
- Merchant Services volume up 32%
- Global on-eBay penetration increased to 78.9%.
- eBay Marketplaces gross merchandise volume (GMV) grew 12%
- Marketplaces gained 4.7 million new buyers to end the quarter with 145 million active buyers, up 14%
- eBay Enterprise gross merchandise sales (GMS) grew 16%
- Enterprise enabled its clients to grow same-store sales 11%
What does all this mean? Double digit increases in a time when inflation is averaging around 1.5%. Customers are there, discretionary spending is there.
http://investor.ebayinc.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=843743
Read the quarterly report. Projections for teh year are:
Business Outlook
Second quarter 2014 — The company expects net revenues in the range of $4,325 - $4,425 million with GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $0.51 - $0.53 and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $0.67 - $0.69.
Full year 2014 — The company now expects net revenues in the range of $18,000 - $18,500 million with GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $0.04 - $0.09 and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $2.95 - $3.00.
My sales are fine.
Read the quarterly report. Projections for teh year are:
Business Outlook
Second quarter 2014 — The company expects net revenues in the range of $4,325 - $4,425 million with GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $0.51 - $0.53 and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $0.67 - $0.69.
Full year 2014 — The company now expects net revenues in the range of $18,000 - $18,500 million with GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $0.04 - $0.09 and non-GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $2.95 - $3.00.
My sales are fine.
There is a huge gap between
"eBay a sinking ship...." and "traffic has substantially declined in the last two months"
There can be no question that many sellers experienced lower traffic resulting in lower sales level in the last six weeks. The changes at Google and the security breach at eBay are to blame.
Substantial? Impossible to define or even quantify at this stage.
I would guess a 5% to 10% drop in traffic from the level that was expected.
The next quarterly report for eBay Inc is scheduled for July 16th 4:30pm.
Many questions may be answered at that time.
"Omniture traffic reports seem to indicate much worse."
When I check my own traffic numbers, the drop is more than 5% to 10%. However, some sellers have not experienced a drop at all. Much depends on the type of products you sell and the type of customers you have.
There is no point in speculating. We will have more factual information a week from now.
One sellers' experience is not anothers'. My sales are doing just fine and are ahead of budget. To me, traffic has little to do with sales. I do not want 100 people looking, I want one person buying. I am focused on the one.
Lookers do not buy. Watchers do not buy. Traffic does not buy. Only a buyer, buys. My aim is to get that one person.
As Janelle Elms said to me at eBay Radio Party 2010: "It does not what what they look for, it matters what they buy".
OK, Mr. E., you're right about one seller's experience not being another's, but please try not to be so smug! You're making me feel miserable in my current state! 
You sell stuff that people need -- practical, necessary stuff. Cars always break down eventually and need new bits and pieces.
Some of us, on the other hand, sell interesting and even beautiful, but admittedly useless and impractical stuff in any sense of the everyday necessities of life. These things involve discretionary spending and probably some impulse buying. Those seem to be the dollars (or buyers) who have vanished in the past 2 months. As hard as I have tried in the past month (and believe me, I've really worked at it) I can't seem to scare up more than a trickle of small sales in the past week. The last sale prior to that was weeks ago - unprecedented for me. I'm beginning to look at the time input involved for me in listing on eBay and wondering if my store is going to remain viable after all these years. Meanwhile, eBay keeps on taking my money every month...
The thing is, this slowdown (die-down?) does seem different from previous seasonal fluctuations or what I used to call occasional "black holes" that lasted a week or two. This feels big, bizarre and ominous. Maybe that's what the OP meant by a "sinking" feeling.
Rose? I did not know you were in a state, I thought you were in the province of Nova Scotia? LOL!!!
Smug is not my point. My point is the same as always. People come in, post absolute statements, which cannot be substantiated: "eBay is a sinking ship".
I provide all the financial detail proving the exact opposite. I invite them to post their supporting data. That is usually met with "I just know".
Had the OP come in with: "My sales are in the dumpster, can anyone help?" then we start lining up with our various ideas. Not what happened. OP came in blaming a soul less venue for their problems. You know I do not like external blaming, aka, one finger forward and three back.
For example, there is you. I have never once, not even close to you suggesting, that your health and welfare is the direct result of anything eBay does. You are the proto-typical "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade". Tell me, Rose, why don't you blame eBay for anything or everything?
I am up to my eyeballs in "Now what do I do". More than you could imagine. A whole bunch of my decisions have put me in a place where I sure wish I could resort to finger pointing. I cannot. Why? I made the decisions that led me to where I am. Don't like where you are, make different decisions.
I had a philosophy, when I was working and managing liquor stores. When things went right, I applauded my staff. I told them they were the best. I told the world they were the best. Any and all accolades I pushed on to them. Should something go wrong, well, that was my fault, not theirs as I was the one who directed them. My staff were never going to take any heat for mistakes caused by my decisions.
I never blame externally.
@chiboukiqc wrote:Hi!
You make a lot of good points and i like your philosophy overall.
I generally like eBay, otherwise i wouldn't be here. Selling on eBay is basically just hobby. If i really get fed up, i'll just do something else 🙂
But i do blame eBay for :
A) The way it handled the hacking incident;
B) The search results problems with Google which is hurting traffic and could have been avoided.
Not all problems are eBay's fault, but some are. And I don't think there's anything wrong with pointing that out.
Like i said above "sinking" might have been a little strong; then again, sinking generally start slowly....
Even though nothing actually happened, yes, I agree, A could have been handled better. Particularly in the wake of the Target fiasco. The media made a non-event into an event. Still, eBay should have been ahead of the curve.
B has been a point of discussion for several years. For several years there have been arguments pro and con regarding Google or another search engine. I am on the fence as to the effectiveness of Google. People I talk to, either swear by eBay, or have no use for it at all. No in between.
Does Google generate buying traffic? Is Google merely an advertising billboard that most searchers ignore? I would like to think that the Mother Ship is aware of the best avenues for directing searching into buyers. I don't know and they are not going to tell me.
I follow what eBay says is best practices. Now, to me, "best practices" means those things that they have found do the best at generating sales. In return they have promised me buying traffic.
eBay's responsibility is to its' shareholders, only. Shareholders want two things, an increasing share price, and dividends. You could probably make it one thing, return on investment (ROI). They have no other obligation. How that is accomplished, the shareholders do not care.
Any seller, or buyer, who thinks they have any importance to eBay is wrong. We can all be dismissed today if the ROI can be achieved elsewhere.
The global company of eBay is making piles of cash and growing at double digit speed. If that is the company not doing well, I do not know what is. If you do not own shares in eBay, they have no accountability to you.
