Nothing seems to sell anymore

[krf654]

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.

[pierrelebel]

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y15/m06/i09/s02

[73rhc]

With 157M active buyers, there is low traffic on eBay? A little more than five times the amount of active sellers!

[pierrelebel]

"there is low traffic on eBay?"

Of course not!  While the overall traffic may have dropped a year ago with well known reasons, the reality is that there is still a lot of traffic and a lot of buying taking place on eBay. Overall sales by sellers worldwide (GMV) have increased.  Some have benefited, some have not.

Unfortunately, not all Canadian sellers have the same experience.  As indicated by many posters, some have seen their traffic go down and their sales level well below what it used to be.  There may be many reasons for the decline of their online business.  To always blame eBay is just too darn easy.

[73rhc]

This is the point I've been trying to make from the beginning. To blame eBay and/or Google, is one lying to oneself.

[pocomocomputing]

---

@73rhc wrote:
This is the point I've been trying to make from the beginning. To blame eBay and/or Google, is one lying to oneself.

---

How can one be lying to oneself when eBay openly admits in their "Investor Presentation" to stockholders earlier in this topic that the password issue and the Google issue are significant enough to be part of their plans in the next couple of years to get back the traffic/buyers/sales/confidence lost because of those issues.

It is not the only factor that affects sellers. But for some sellers it has affected them much more than others. It is easy to say that a seller has to adjust to these issues but these particular issues are outside a sellers control. To ignore them is "lying to oneself".

[73rhc]

"How can one be lying to oneself when eBay openly admits in their "Investor Presentation" to stockholders earlier in this topic that the password issue and the Google issue are significant enough to be part of their plans in the next couple of years to get back the traffic/buyers/sales/confidence lost because of those issues."

I don't see where you are reading lost traffic/buyers/sales/confidence. I read slower traffic and loss of confidence. But I also see increases in active buyers, revenues and cash flows. This tells me that they are saying that there is slower traffic through the SEO and not necessarily through the site itself.

[tobyshitzu]

perhaps not long until ebay sells itself to someone else
https://www.internetretailer.com/2015/06/02/can-devin-wenig-make-ebay-cool-again

[rose-dee]

There are some very telling remarks on the part of eBay quoted in the article linked by Pierre above.  It's useful to try to analyze these, i.e. to read between the lines of eBay's public bumpf, as usual: 

1) " ...where the executives told attendees that Google's search penalty impacted new customer growth, and other marketing channels had not yet come online enough to offset that impact."  

I think this pretty much says that eBay hasn't yet overcome the consequences of the search penalty issue and are still waiting for "other marketing channels" to make up the difference.  This is an unusually open admission on the part of eBay and I really don't know how much more clearly it needs to be said for people to believe there is a problem.  

Although eBay's overall traffic may have increased slightly, I suspect that the steady, healthy upward climb they had been used to prior to this fiasco has plateaued.  The fact that they were relying on "other marketing channels" to make up the shortfall tells me how serious indeed the Google tiff must have been. 

2) "Management is interested in expanding and diversifying its marketing channels beyond search, and highlighted social and messaging platforms as priorities..." 

So, because eBay has alienated Google and can't un-ring that bell, they're now hoping Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, et al will fill the gap.  That word "priorities" is the most interesting word in the statement.  It says to me eBay is worried -- very worried -- about where its visitors will be driven from, if not Google.  Nobody (even eBay) can afford to thumb their noses at Google these days. 

3)  "The eBay executives said the company would be able to refocus on its core once separated from PayPal and eBay Enterprise, the core being small and medium sized businesses and consumer sellers; and value-seeking buyers - "and less on larger retail sellers looking to sell full-priced in-season products."

Wow, something significant is going on here.  Is this a recognition that eBay has driven away so many of its smaller sellers that it's finally starting to feel the pinch?  When was the last time we heard eBay talk about supporting its "core" of small/medium sellers?  I'd say about 5 years ago.  

I've been theorizing for the last couple of years that eBay might one day regret having made its smaller sellers less welcome and less able to be profitable.  I see the above "agenda statement" as both an admission of failure on eBay's part in its rush to court big retailers over the past 2 or 3 years, as well as an acknowledgement that there is trouble in the eBay camp.  I doubt Paypal has anything to do with it -- that's just a convenient rationale for the timing. 

We all get those eBay "seller surveys" from time to time, asking how likely we would be to recommend selling on eBay to others.  Four or five years ago my response was usually 8 or 9 out of 10; that dropped to 5 or 6 a couple of years ago.  On the last survey, I think I rated this question at 3 (for a number of reasons that I won't reiterate here).  

Maybe eBay has come to realize that big retailers will abandon them in a flash once they're finished with their eBay experiment, whereas the millions of smaller, independent sellers will stay for years if eBay would only provide the right support and a reliable venue in which to sell.  

[pocomocomputing]

---

@73rhc wrote:
"How can one be lying to oneself when eBay openly admits in their "Investor Presentation" to stockholders earlier in this topic that the password issue and the Google issue are significant enough to be part of their plans in the next couple of years to get back the traffic/buyers/sales/confidence lost because of those issues."

I don't see where you are reading lost traffic/buyers/sales/confidence. I read slower traffic and loss of confidence. But I also see increases in active buyers, revenues and cash flows. This tells me that they are saying that there is slower traffic through the SEO and not necessarily through the site itself.

---

Change my word "lost" to eBay's words "slower" and "down" (from the eBay slide I pasted above) increases in traffic than what ebay projected for the year 2014.

As for sales, the "Investor Presentation" does not say specifically that sales were less than expected as far as I can tell. I read or at least understood this from other eBay web articles I read over the past year.

[73rhc]

Really no offence to anyone here. But now I'm seeing "projected", "understood" and "reading between the lines ".

In eBay's financial report, they admit that they cannot calculate or quantify any potential loss due to hacking of the site. But in the end, virtually all $ amounts were up. Yes, it could have been better, but every year could've been better.

Traffic is cyclical and has not dropped off in any significant way.

[sylviebee]

I've been following this thread to some degree ........... enough to know that none of the points made by posters apply to me and my situation.

The way my items sell has changed dramatically, but it has nothing to do with issues with Google etc.,.

Also, various statistics posted never touch my reality.  Those numbers have nothing to do with me.

I think that this is true case of how the medium itself has changed the way people buy and thus what sells.

I'm not sure how well this generalizes to other categories, but for collectibles..........

Prior to eBay specifically and the Internet in general, many many items were rare and hard to get for collectors.  Now, not so much.

When you see it all plastered up there day after day and realize it's all available for a price at the touch of a button, that changes everything.

In my case, low end items still sell.  High end items and the truly scarce do better than ever.  The middle pieces which are sometimes over-the-top beautiful and special just sit and sit and sit.

We've just seen too much of it.

This is truly a case where the Medium is the Message (Marshall McLuhan).

[femmefan1946]

I keep saying this because I believe it.

EBay doesn't have 'investors'. EBay has gamblers who buy the stock low and sell it as soon as it goes higher.

EBay pays no dividends to stockholders so there are no investors.

Every screed eBay produces for those gamblers is only meant to churn the stock and keep them happy and quiet while the staff does whatever they want.

And remember that part of the compensation of the higher executives will be in stock . So they want the stock to rise when they plan to sell and turn useless paper into cashy money.

None of this has anything to do with the day to day operations of the actual business of eBay; bringing buyers and sellers together.

Fixing the Game- Roger Martin, Rotman School of Managemen, Uof Toronto is an excellent discussion of how pandering to stockholders can destroy a business and why managers continue to do it.

[stonehook_molds]

After selling on eBay for over 15 years, we closed up shop at the end of April. Last year, with the introduction of the defect system, I felt that the control I had over my own business practices was slowly being eroded - the only defects we received were ones that were awarded prior to the actual implementation of the system and all of them were for refunding buyers while they were waiting for late deliveries - all of which were successfully delivered and every buyer repaid. I understand the need for a cohesive policy for all sellers, in the area of refunds and returns, but I am not comfortable with the punitive and in some cases destructive way it has been implemented

But what really proved to be the tipping point was when our sales on another online marketplace suddenly took off (doubled what we were selling here), and the only change that we made was that we began to accept payments other than just PayPal. Now, on that site, 90% of the payments we receive are direct payments from credit cards, debit cards and any other method of payment available. It made me realize that eBay's limiting payment policy was impeding my ability to sell our products.

Nick and I have been in business for 29 years and that is probably due to the fact that neither of us was ever very happy being an employee -  never very good at being told what to do and how to do it. But adapt or die has always been our business philosophy - so we decided that letting our eBay business die was more important to us than continuing to try to adapt to eBay's increasingly restrictive policies.  

But, as a regular follower of the discussion boards, I do want to thank the eBay members on this forum who have, for years, provided advice, encouragement and a healthy dose of reality to new and struggling sellers - without you ebay.ca would simply be another venue and not the community that I still admire.

Lisa

[helmetheads1958]

your right , its hard to sell anything anymore , and e-bay does not seem to care , the seller has  a tough enough time staying active with the detail seller rating system . 

[helmetheads1958]

so whats the new online marketplace ? many of us are just waiting for someone who can compete with e-bay.

[sylviebee]

---

@rockcliffmachine wrote:

 I felt that the control I had over my own business practices was slowly being eroded - ................. but I am not comfortable with the punitive and in some cases destructive way it has been implemented

But what really proved to be the tipping point was when our sales on another online marketplace suddenly took off (doubled what we were selling here), and the only change that we made was that we began to accept payments other than just PayPal. Now, on that site, 90% of the payments we receive are direct payments from credit cards, debit cards and any other method of payment available. It made me realize that eBay's limiting payment policy was impeding my ability to sell our products.

Lisa

---

I read your post with interest because it's clear that you know your stuff, and that's precisely why I was left with a number of questions.

It sounds like you were upset at the concept of the defect system and not because your sales were threatened.  I agree that it's a little like being employed by someone else and/or being treated like a school child at a time when they gave the strap for "bad" behaviour, but at the same time there is no need to give it all that power.

I've found that the only time I think about the defect system is when I come to this discussion board.

Otherwise I simply ignore it.  I'm vaguely aware of it but I don't know exactly how it works and I don't want to know.  I have no control over it.

I sell on several sites.  It's very rare for someone to ask about payment by a method other than paypal.  It sounds like you're saying that we might be losing a lot of business we're unaware of because eBay pushes paypal.  I've never considered that some buyers may want to buy but can't because I only take paypal as a method of payment.

I'm also very curious to know which other online marketplace you moved to.

I think that one problem for many eBay sellers is that there really is only eBay because of the types of items they sell.

I can't think of a site with any kind of traffic where you would go and this would fit in.  Would it be Amazon?  (A site where I, in turn, would never fit in and thus know very little about.)

[73rhc]

I am sorry to say, but this sounds like a bad business decision. Looking at your feedback, you needn't worry about the defect system. Whether you are on another site or have your own website, you have to make your customer happy. And like it or not, this is what this system is meant to do.

What security do you have if a buyer claims that he/she didn't receive their item when paying with a credit card? Try fighting with a credit card company when the buyer claims a charge back.

Another thing that I don't get, is why not continue selling here while selling elsewhere? Are more sales not better?

[femmefan1946]

Now, on that site, 90% of the payments we receive are direct payments from credit cards, debit cards and any other method of payment available. It made me realize that eBay's limiting payment policy was impeding my ability to sell our products.

EBay does allow other methods of payment.In addition to credit cards, when the seller has a merchant account, there are a few online services like ProPay that are also acceptable.

And of course, the buyer can suggest other payment methods, which the seller can decide to accept or not.

We accepted credit cards on the ID where we were selling for our B&M business, which in turn had merchant accounts through Moneris.

That being said, not only did most of our eBay customers prefer to use PP, they continued to do so even after establishing a trusting relationship with our company.

And our other online businesses (direct sales and online auction) found about the same. The online purchasers from our website strongly preferred PP payment, and our auction buyers had a substantial minority of PP payments.

To my mind, PP has become the trusted go-to for online shopping by customers. Just as Square is moving to be the trusted go-to for flea market and show sales.

[pjcdn2005]

It sounds like you were upset at the concept of the defect system and not because your sales were threatened.  I agree that it's a little like being employed by someone else and/or being treated like a school child at a time when they gave the strap for "bad" behaviour, but at the same time there is no need to give it all that power.

That's an interesting statement as I have noticed that some of the posters who loudly complain about the system haven't actually been affected by.  Although I don't think one should spend a lot of time thinking about it, it is a good idea to understand how it works so that there aren't any surprises. It seems that some sellers have no idea how it works until they are told that they are below standard.

It's my understanding that buyers do not need to have a paypal account as they can pay with a credit card through paypal as a guest so I don't know if Paypal would be the reason someone wouldn't shop here.

Also, I thought that sellers could accept credit cards here if they had their own merchant account. Is that not true now?

[pjcdn2005]

About the original topic of not getting sales....I do think that the reasons others have mentioned are possible reasons in some cases and that the lack of sales cannot be blamed on any one thing at all times.

I do agree that there does seem to be many less hits for ebay items on google than there used to be and I also think that the way search is set up can also be a problem at times. When I've put in specific search terms, the items that I think that should come up are either totally invisible or come up as 'items related to the search' even though they should be in the main search imo.

Of course there are also times when a seller is not using enough search words in their title or their shipping is outrageous or ....?