eBay

krf654 · ‎06-06-2015

Is it just me or has anyone noticed that EBay is not what it used to be. Nothing seems to sell anymore, except the poor quality cheap merchandise from China! Too bad those large quantity sellers are allowed. Facebook auctions are the new trend. Selling is fantastic.
That's the way I am going now.

jt-libra · ‎06-07-2015

@cumos55 wrote:
The difficult posters are fewer on eBay.ca... and it is more easy to relate to them when they do post here

I agree. We've come to know which ones will be curt or judgmental and those who will be courteous and helpful .... and we can relate to them accordingly.

reallynicestamps · ‎06-07-2015

I was just noticing that the negative posts are from sellers with 0/5/0/69 and 209 listings.

The positive posts are from sellers with 825/247/540/3551/362/271/2666 listings and one posting ID.

So I'm going to reiterate-- if you don't offer product, you can't sell product.

mr.elmwood · ‎06-07-2015

@reallynicestamps wrote:
I was just noticing that the negative posts are from sellers with 0/5/0/69 and 209 listings.
The positive posts are from sellers with 825/247/540/3551/362/271/2666 listings and one posting ID.

So I'm going to reiterate-- if you don't offer product, you can't sell product.

Are you saying there is a correlation between, transparency, effort, and results? Blasphemer!

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pierrelebel · ‎06-08-2015

"It never ceases to amaze me how many sellers do not do their research, or even think about what they are doing...their way and only their way... and then ...why they end up in trouble...."

I agree with you. Many sellers do not spend the time to research their products, their competitors (on and off eBay), their categories, their methods of shipping, their pricing policies, the timing of their listings, the format of listings as these things relate currently on eBay.

It is easy and comfortable for many to repeat the same thing, week after week, month after month, year after year. And it does work for some sellers. Others, unfortunately, need to take some time off and reflect on their ways of doing things. They may need to adapt to new realities. The online world is changing around us.

We all have seen sellers who swear that the best time to list at auction and end a listing is on Tuesday at 8:00pm Eastern time (for example). Why? Because they heard that ten years ago, have been doing it for ten years and have been relatively satisfied with the results. From their perspective this is when buyers come in to place their bids in the last hour before the scheduled end of the listing. Maybe they are right. Maybe it still works for them.

If not, instead of blaming eBay for the lack of sales, it may be appropriate to spend some time (that is what I call "research") verifying those assumptions. It only takes a few hours to check the last two hundred listings (less than 200 is not statistically significant). Using a spreadsheet, out of 200, how many received at least one bid? How many received multiple bids? When was the first bid placed (in relation to ending time)? When was the last bid placed (in relation to ending time)? Is there enough information here to draw conclusions? Many sellers may be surprised to learn that their "timing" assumptions no longer work.

Some may think that because there are more viewers at 8:00pm they have a better chance of selling their items. Maybe, maybe not. More viewers but more listings? It is really relevant? ('but common sense'... forget "common sense" and assumptions, stick to the facts)

The same analysis should be done with shipping costs. How much does it actually cost to ship an item (net of all discounts out of pocket in Cdn$). How does that compare with other sellers on eBay, other online venues? Is there a way to lower shipping costs? Would it be appropriate or relevant to do so?

Then we move to the "return policy" or guarantee. How does it compare with competitors?

It may also be appropriate to find a trusted friend or family member, one who will not be shy of giving an honest opinion - no sugar coating, familiar with selling online, review your descriptions. Are they "buyer friendly"? Too many conditions? Too much wording? Not enough product information? Will the description lead a potential buyer to hit the "back button" before reading to the end?

In my book, that is what "research" is all about. Even the most successful sellers constantly review their policies.

tobyshitzu · ‎06-08-2015

channel advisor clients (very large sellers) having slow y/y growth on ebay in april, 5~% ebay vs 22~% on amzn

http://www.channeladvisor.com/blog/?pn=scot/april-2015-sss-channeladvisor-same-store-sales-sss-for-e...

pierrelebel · ‎06-08-2015

You mean sellers on eBay experienced 5% growth year over year?

Many sellers would be happy with that!

Yes the grass maybe greener next door... or is it for Canadians?

cumos55 · ‎06-08-2015

In the days when it was auctions only... Ending auctions on Monday worked well because many.. many.. many sellers ended their auctions on Saturday and Sunday.

Things have changed.... and the auction protocol has most definitely changed.... Auctions are not the big thing on eBay... except perhaps some unique categories... or unique items.....like Superman Number 1

Will be looking carefully at 10-day auctions... ending on Monday evening... visibility over two weekends.....perhaps.

Or 7-day auctions.... or even some other way of doing it. ..

When it was 7-day auctions only.... potential buyers visited on a weekly basis.... Today fixed price listings do not mandate that a weekly visit is required in order to buy on eBay

Looking to do some auctions in October.... planning ahead!

and I have regularly checked those potential auction categories... art glass and pottery... Pricing auction versus fixed price...

rose-dee · ‎06-08-2015

mr.elmwood wrote:

My message is that we are in control of our own destiny. My sales are a direct result of the effort I put in. When I changed my prices, changed my shipping, changed my description, changed my pictures, my sales went up.

Far too many sellers point a finger at eBay, say "Your fault", cross their arms and pout.
eBay is not for everyone. Not every widget is suitable for eBay.

There's a great deal of truth in all these statements, but I'm going to swing a bit of a wet noodle (not a baseball bat) at everyone here who has expressed an opinion that sellers are mainly in charge of their own destiny on eBay.

I certainly don't disagree that sellers should make positive changes in order to adapt and do well. In fact I've always said that that ability is the one key survival tool on eBay that sellers can't afford to ignore.

However -- and it's a big however in my mind -- eBay is in charge of this place, and the decisions or blunders they make at the top of the pyramid have a trickle-down impact on all of us below.

In this respect, eBay has allowed at least four major alterations to occur over the past year or two that have put more and more pressure on particularly smaller, "boutique" sellers. Two of these were avoidable, but whether they occurred as a result of poor management and/or incompetence on the part of eBay or as a result of deliberate policy, who will ever know? The third and fourth aspects were presumably deliberate. In my view, these four big shifts were:

1) The hacker attack, which had an almost immediately effect on traffic, and which even eBay staffers later admitted had impacted overall visits to the site for months. It's not hard to imagine that many of the regular eBay buyers who might have been scared away by that incident have gone elsewhere in the meantime, or will take a long time to come back;

2) EBay's tiff with Google. Whatever the actual details of the issue, the media reports I read on this issue all had one conclusion in common: eBay will suffer as a result. Google has become the Great Arbiter, and eBay cannot afford to tweak Google's nose. I've seen the consequences of this event in my own Omniture statistics over the past few months.

3) Constant, never-ending changes to the site and to policies. This not only makes sellers' work more difficult, but I'm convinced will scare off many buyers. In my estimation, eBay would do well to call a moratorium for a few months on changes, and first ensure that the site itself functions reliably and properly.

4) The defect system, combined with its sister policy, the MBG. Both these policies work in favour of sellers with big turnovers who can handle a fair number of returns and complaints of various kinds without blinking, and want them done automatically. Every 3 months the old problems drop off, and those sellers can start over.

However, both policies (defects and MBG) have put pressure on smaller sellers to act like big retailers, and many of us simply can't afford to do so. A few inadvertent mistakes or not-at-fault mishaps and a smaller seller will be bumped down the ladder so far that it's difficult to climb up again. This is called attrition, and there is little doubt in my mind that eBay wants it this way. The fact that eBay has to regularly inform us as to how they've "protected" us from their own flawed system of seller evaluation tells me there is a concept gap -- deliberate or otherwise -- at the seller end that they're well aware of.

What does all this mean for individual sellers? It means we have to work harder than ever for every buyer, and for every dollar of profit. It means having to be even more innovative and more willing to give up some of what we've built in terms of profit expectations in order to survive. It means, in a nutshell, constantly struggling against the current that runs against us in many aspects of selling on eBay, and managing to make a living in spite of eBay's policies.

I see less and less on eBay that is intended to facilitate selling by the smaller seller and encourage buyer-seller development, and more and more that is intended to squeeze such sellers into a very narrow corridor in which their activities are strictly controlled or micro-managed.

This isn't a complaint on my part; it's simply a recognition of the reality of selling here these days. This is the way eBay wants it, and if I want to continue here (although I'm feeling less and less like the kind of seller eBay is trying to attract and keep), I have to keep my wits about me and my head above water. All I have to do to know what direction eBay is going is to look at the ads they run on the landing page. They might as well be Sears.

So, while I agree there is a great deal an individual seller can do to improve the chances of being profitable and successful here, I think eBay shares at least a portion of the blame in making selling more difficult and onerous for a lot of us.

Bear in mind when I make these comments that I am comparing my current experience in selling on eBay with both my experience of years ago here, and with another selling site I use that is miles beyond eBay in supporting its small seller, enhancing the seller-buyer relationship, and running a user-friendly but stable and functional site.

73rhc · ‎06-08-2015

No offence, but that's a long winded answer that is still again putting the blame on eBay. And a little off track of the original gist of this thread. Nothing that you listed, as far as I can see, has reduced the amount of traffic by potential buyers.

As listed earlier, when you are in a niche market. It will eventually dry up. I used to sell sports cards in the early 90's. I was making a killing. Well, that market got super saturated. I saw the opening of several sports b&m stores open up in the Montreal and Ottawa areas. And now they are virtually all gone. The supply over ran the demand. And that is what has happened and will continue to happen on the dreaded Evilbay!

The changes that eBay makes are for the overall picture. We sellers only see how it affects our little part of the eBay world. But these changes have not decreased traffic. eBay's continued profits are proving that.

tobyshitzu · ‎06-08-2015

ebay lowered growth forecast to 0-5%

http://www.wsj.com/articles/ebay-projects-post-paypal-revenue-shares-fall-1433787696

73rhc · ‎06-08-2015

Are they still making money? Uh, yeah!

pierrelebel · ‎06-08-2015

For those of you interested in the whole presentation, please take a look at:

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1065088/000119312515215424/d939081dex991.htm

pierrelebel · ‎06-08-2015

I urge you to take a few minutes to absorb the chart: eBay today

59% of the Gross Merchandise Volume is "international"

75% is "business to consumer"

76% is "new items"

80% is at fixed price (BIN)

pocomocomputing · ‎06-08-2015

@73rhc wrote:
No offense, but that's a long winded answer that is still again putting the blame on eBay. And a little off track of the original gist of this thread. Nothing that you listed, as far as I can see, has reduced the amount of traffic by potential buyers.

As listed earlier, when you are in a niche market. It will eventually dry up. I used to sell sports cards in the early 90's. I was making a killing. Well, that market got super saturated. I saw the opening of several sports b&m stores open up in the Montreal and Ottawa areas. And now they are virtually all gone. The supply over ran the demand. And that is what has happened and will continue to happen on the dreaded Evilbay!

The changes that eBay makes are for the overall picture. We sellers only see how it affects our little part of the eBay world. But these changes have not decreased traffic. eBay's continued profits are proving that.

I don't think rose-dee was offtrack and some of her points are valid to this topic. If you look at the presentation link Pierre posted (page 29), you will see that two of the points (password and Google SEO) rose-dee brought up did affect ebay significantly in 2014 and even today. eBay had to address these issues and make plans to overcome them.

eBay is to blame for the password fiasco. No excuse for any large company like eBay to get caught in this type of situation. I know they are a huge target and many skilled hackers will try to break them and other high profile companies.

As for eBay and Google SEO (Search Engine Optimization), from what I read on this issue, eBay was manipulating Google search unfairly and Google penalized them dropping hundreds of eBay pages from search. Do an Internet Search on keywords "eBay Google SEO 2014" to get some perspective on the eBay-Google issue.

Here is the page form the eBay presentation about the two issues.

drucecat · ‎06-08-2015

Thank you for your insightful post, proving that posts of Rose-Dee and treasure-hunter are not the rants of misguided sellers, blaming eBay for their problems.

But, they are insightful queries, of knowledgeable sellers, examining the state of affairs on eBay at the moment.

The google search issue is massive and most definitely affects site traffic.

To not acknowledge this is ludicrous!

I don't care how good your sales are at the moment, they would probably be better if a google search directed traffic to your listings.

Fool yourself all you want, but even the might eBay, does not operate in a vacuum.

jt-libra · ‎06-08-2015

@drucecat wrote:

Thank you for your insightful post, proving that posts of Rose-Dee and treasure-hunter are not the rants of misguided sellers, blaming eBay for their problems.

But, they are insightful queries, of knowledgeable sellers, examining the state of affairs on eBay at the moment.

I was in the midst of preparing a post very similar to yours, but you have stated it more articulately than I could have. Hear, hear!!

73rhc · ‎06-09-2015

I still disagree. I just did a Google search like "Treasure hunter" said. Vintage Art Glass Vase. The top three returned searches were eBay. Maybe not specific items but still eBay first. So eBay-Google is the problem for do called lower traffic. The numbers don't lie. I don't see any downward trends in the wBay presentation.

drucecat · ‎06-09-2015

The difference is obvious, from what was returned before.

Specifically, before the issues between Google and eBay, the search would always return individual sellers listings.

Now, what is being returned are Cassini (eBay) search results. So, what we now get in the results are "Best Match" as defined by the criteria that eBay has programed into the search.

If, you can't directly manipulate Google Search, give them "Best Match".

This is now so bizarre that a search I did for one of my own items returned 3 pages of results, my item included, but only based on two criteria. They were: "Manufacturer" and "Rare"

Model, type and all other distinctions were ignored. Just, Primary search item and Rare. Why?

These searches appear to be limited to 3 (eBay) pages, and Best Match would tend to want to maximize the profit to eBay. Thus the inclusion of Rare.

The search had at least 10 types of items listed, even though my original search was for 1 specific type of the manufacturers items.

What did they all have in common? Manufacturer and Rare.

This is a really good hint for you sellers who want to show up in the "new" Google - Cassini Search.

Lest you think badly of my abilities, I will tell you that another one of my items was returned in a different search, as the fourth item on the list. I sold two of them that weekend. What a coincidence!

Lastly, if even eBay is acknowledging less traffic because of the Google Search problem, aren't you just leaning at Windmills, so to speak.

73rhc · ‎06-09-2015

Just did a search on eBay for the same item "Vintage art glass vase". The result 8509. Do expect the first 850 pages to be individual eBay items, alone?

cumos55 · ‎06-09-2015

How much of that "Vintage art glass vase" is modern Chinese?

To me there is too much being given the wrong identifiers..... and ending up giving potential buyers that do not know better the wrong description

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I never search with the word vintage..

I have sold a lot of Chalet glass and Altaglass.

I start a search with the word "Chalet" and work down on eBay through... Pottery & Glass through Glass and and then to Art Glass

The trouble with sellers is that everyone wants it to be Chalet glass and you get combinations such as Chalet Lorraine Murano Glass in the title.

The only true Chalet glass is marked Chalet, Chatilli or with a capital "" within a diamond for Eatons. and then there are some very unique characteristics to Chalet glass...... Unfortunately many sellers do not know how to identify unmarked Chalet glass.... and there is some unmarked items out there...

But then how many people know Chalet glass was "Made in Canada'... not Italy and not anywhere else... or that it was Rossi that purchased Chalet glass

Even as a buyer one has to weed through misnamed... incorrectly identified pieces of "Chalet"...

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A search for Chalet Glass on Google does give an eBay link very close to what I find for Chalet on eBay.

Google may not show specific sellers... but Google does take us to Chalet Glass on eBay.

Maybe it is more how eBay links to Google as opposed to how Google searches on eBay that works.

Google identifies sites that sell Chalet glass as opposed to specific sellers of Chalet glass.... Seller identification occurred when eBay was the major, if not only selling site on the internet.

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Altaglass is a totally different reality on eBay ... There used to be a very good site specifically for Altaglass as a site for identification of Altglass... but that is gone for several years already.... My old Altaglass inventory should sell well because of what is not being sold on eBay.

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How many people know how to search on Google to get what they want .....whether it take them to eBay or elsewhere...