eBay

vesivus · ‎10-19-2019

Hi all. I've been selling on eBay since 2003 -- I have plenty of experience and lots of metrics to track the health of my business.

The majority of my sales have been to the US for most of my business' lifespan. In the last few months, however, I've had almost no US sales -- only 1 !!! Normally I have 10-50 in a month.

I am still getting some other International sales... but not US.

Is anybody else experiencing this issue? Did eBay change something I'm not aware of? I'm literally losing money for the first time in many many years.

Thanks for any help!

John

kawartha-ephemera · ‎10-21-2019

Succinctly put ...

femmefan1946 · ‎10-21-2019

@frontline66

I'm not sure when the taxes are in effect for USA buyers but thought it wasn't till Nov 1

They have been rolling out since May , perhaps earlier, and state by state.

Most buyers are unaware of them, and tend to blame the first site they see them on. Which, if other sites are "hiding" the tax, for example in the selling price of their own goods, could well be eBay. And even then, the US educational system may make it difficult for the buyer to add up the numbers and notice the difference.

I think there are only five or six states without sales taxes and all the others will probably be enrolled by the end of December.

Here's a thought.

The more rural/isolated a state's population, the more likely they are to shop online.

And the more likely the state is to desperately want those sales taxes to keep the state infrastructure running.

I'm not seeing any complaints from the Northeastern states and that solid band from Boston to Baltimore.

triber · ‎10-21-2019

Does anyone think that Google is a problem? When I purchase a craft book or pattern for sale, I like to check on what they are selling for online. (Many sellers put high prices, but that doesn't mean that's what they sell for)

When I Google the item, I find that Amazon Etsy etc. come up with several, may one on eBay, but when I actually go to eBay, there might be 8 of them for sale, but they are not on Google.

If buyers are going to Google to check, other sites will be coming up first, not eBay.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎10-22-2019

@triber

When Google does bring something up in eBay, the majority of the time clicking on the link brings up an item that is no longer in the database and will not view. I've even had situations where that was the first link displayed. The Amazon/Etsy ones don't seem to have a best before date.

-Lotz

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎10-22-2019

Reminds me of the days of past when you went to the library for a book and the page you needed was missing.

-Lotz

unique-attic-treasures · ‎10-22-2019

So we aren't the only ones then...have noticed a dramatic decrease in US sales the past couple months...I've been editing some items this month to play with the titles to see if that effects things and I think it has a bit but I found this this morning

I opened up a window and turned on my VPN(virtual private network) to use a USA IP address and looked up one of our listings using the same search words..

The one window with us logged into .ca showed the item

The other window using the USA IP and on .com DID NOT...I mean nothing...Our add is not on the page at all on ebay.com...and we have it promoted as you can see from the screen shots I will attach....I dunno but I'm almost about to hit the panic button here lol

What good does it do to have a store and promote listings if Ebay won't even show your item in the exact same search

unique-attic-treasures · ‎10-22-2019

Here is the 2nd screen shot...sorry don't know how to add them in the post

hlmacdon · ‎10-22-2019

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:
@triber

When Google does bring something up in eBay, the majority of the time clicking on the link brings up an item that is no longer in the database and will not view. I've even had situations where that was the first link displayed. The Amazon/Etsy ones don't seem to have a best before date.

-Lotz

Hence the push to try to heard every listing of the same item into a single persistent sku, which leads to a situation where it is a race to the bottom for the pricing of that sku or you artificially match OOAK products in ways that result in unrelated products getting grouped together or getting excluded from searches. After losing hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from manual google search penalties for trying to game google searches via really spammy methods ebay either had to move towards a more persistent sku model or spend more on external advertising. They want organic google results directed at a product catalog listing that has been around for years rather than whatever clone of that item sold or is active under a given ebay listing as those drop off search or quickly become irrelevant. That helps ebay but doesn't help sellers in aggregate.

Advertising-wise you have the issue of how much PPC dollars are being thrown at google shopping feeds by ebay and what products are being added to that mix. Ebay has chosen to drastically cut marketing spend with Google and rely on existing traffic. Rather than having a marketing expense that drives traffic they choose to have higher income through increased fees to the seller base via advertising and other methods. Google updates to it's search algorithm are always going to favor whatever brings in advertising dollars for Google, so I expect we'll continue to see ebay struggle to increase external traffic and struggle to grow as promotional dollars are being thrown at the existing customer base. They are mainly trying to reactivate dormant buyers or increase the buying frequency of existing buyers rather than acquire new customers. From a customer acquisition point of view ebay seems to have no strategy beyond generic branding ads and is leaving it up to sellers.

If ebay isn't growing meaningfully and they aren't increasing external traffic you need to figure out a way to drive external traffic to your listings, whether paying for your own google traffic or building communities around what you sell. I'm finding a mix of directing some of my own traffic to my ebay listings and paying minimal amounts in PL to increase visibility to be an effective combination. From an expense point of view it costs me about $50 USD a month between the two for about a 30% increase in sales based on the last quarter.

femmefan1946 · ‎10-22-2019

For those of us selling OOAK items having them appear on Google is a mixed blessing.

Yes, if someone happens to use the terms and keywords I did for my Thing in a Google search, I may be one of the few that appears.

But if the Google search is more generic.....

I'm actually a bit happier about eBay advertising their brand and the site, although I do wish they would include the quirky and unusual in the mix. I get that they do better from the mega-stores with repeat sales of the same item, but that is not, in my opinion, a useful branding. I can buy a phone at Best Buy, at Telus, at WalMart, or on Craigslist.
I can only buy a 1920's porcelain half doll here (or Ruby Lane and there will be more here and lower priced).

hlmacdon · ‎10-22-2019

It can be a mixed blessing as you get people trying to purchase things without any context. Particular with google shopping feeds it shortcuts the process which can lead to mistaken purchases or people not reading listings. In general for any ecommerce site you tend to get relevant external search traffic if you do basic optimizations but like you say it can depend on people known enough relevant search terms to find you.

I agree that ebay fails from a marketing point of view in capturing it's historical essence and more importantly it's only significant comeptitive advantage. There have been some really cringey ads of late targeting a younger demographic. Trying to encourage first time sellers in categories that have a high fraud rate on ebay is probably not the approach I'd take as negative first time experiences rarely result in a lifetime customer...just saying.

It is symptomatic of an ideological bias with executive members who are hell bent on changing public perception of what ebay sells. It gets tiring seeing certain people at the top broadcast quite clearly that what they think is trashy garage sale product is holding them back from a rebrand as a pretentious department store full of luxury products. Quite ironic when they are simultaneously praying for another fidget spinner windfall. Instead of trying to make themselves the destination for Michael Kors or Luis Vuitton they could focus on the quirky and unique items that would actually drive user engagement with buyers rather than engagement with affiliate marketers. Ebay is one of the few companies that lends itself to viral coverage quite naturally but then turns up it's nose at the thought of the notion because that just isn't who they are or who they want to be.

goldnideas · ‎10-23-2019

It is definitely visibility issue. In last two years sales went down by 90%. I tried to list on .com and .ca. Did sales and promotions, added items specifics, now having 1-2 sales weekly, if I'm lucky, compared to couple of items daily.

femmefan1946 · ‎10-23-2019

@hlmacdon

And yet, to my mind, LV and Kors also fit into the quirky and unique, especially these days when there is no shame in buying and wearing "vintage", which is just somebody's cast offs, if you get down to it.

Which puts me on the cutting edge for the last 60 years or so. Longer if you count my big sisters's handmedowns.

EBay may need to hire some of those "influencers" who really do have their pulse on the zeitgeist. On very short contracts to keep current!

A 40 year old is out of it. A 30 year old is aging fast.

I'm just sitting here at my keyboard, collecting the OAP, wearing the tee shirt, and laughing at it all.

The execs are taking the easy way out, going for the mass market. It's simple to understand and to figure how to market.

We OOAK sellers need imagination and flexibility.

And publicity that reminds consumers that we are still the place to find "it".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuefKsXb2UU