What has happened to the buying traffic on eBay?

[ggsgems57]

Hi, I would like to know what happened to the buying traffic on eBay?  There has been no views, no watches or anything of a kind for the last four weeks. I do know that there is a pandemic right now but that should not stop the amount of buyers coming to eBay to purchase. There are over 3 billion people on this earth and you would at least think that there would be traffic.  There are a huge number of people that are at home staying at home through this pandemic and I would’ve thought it would be a lot busier.  I have done everything from giving free shipping, reducing the purchase price, taking new pictures and the list goes on. I would really like to get some answers please.  Thank you!

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

I had great sales from April to June as most people were in lockdown at home & not able to go out to shop.  People were bored, not going to work & children were at home.  So they were shopping online a lot.  Now that things are starting to open up again & slowly getting back to normal, sales have dramatically dropped again. This seems to be the trend around the world on eBay right now. 

[silverpinups]

Well, traffic is down because it's the middle of summer. July for me is traditionally the worst month of the year for sales. A lot of people are on vacations (obviously not travelling much), stimulus packages are ending, so a lot of people are experiencing financial issues.    

[ggsgems57]

Yes I guess you are right there. Thanks

[ggsgems57]

Thanks for your answers that makes sense.

[triber]

I don't think that the really slow shipping times help either.

[ggsgems57]

Very true!

[richardcm]

You wrote:

“There are over 3 billion people on this earth and you would at least think that there would be traffic.”

The population on earth is currently almost 7.8 billion.

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

[mrdutch1001]

Totally agree and it is not about to get any better with any shipments to the USA:

https://www.businessinsider.com/postmaster-general-carriers-leave-mail-delays-routes-usps-postal-ser...

[triber]

Just what we need!! Just adds to the stress and complications.

[mrdutch1001]

I am always thankful for my buyers no matter where they are located> bless all them!, but it just brings out all the warm fuzzies when those buyers are within Canada!!

[hlmacdon]

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@triber wrote:

I don't think that the really slow shipping times help either.

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Anecdotally from my own experience, even with quick delivery to the US (I'm still forwarding cross border to the US and the majority of shipments are within USPS normal delivery times)) July has been quite slow.  Shipments within Canada have been more challenging on the other hand. Even with my own shopping the delivery times through some of the carriers have put me off.

July and August over the last few years have been slower in recent years as they aren't the quarter end months and I've noticed ebay seems less aggressive in handing out coupons and pushing external advertising during these months. I've found for these periods that promoted listings at the minimum ad spends and increasing the frequency of relisting (limiting multiquantity listings to 1 and then restocking/relisting) helps offset the lower traffic. A good portion of my sales this month have come from relisted items. I wouldn't recommend it however for any products that have more regular turnover. 

[ggsgems57]

Thank you very much for correcting me, you made my point.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@mrdutch1001 wrote:

... brings out all the warm fuzzies when those buyers are within Canada!!

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I agree. My shipments within Canada (tracked and untracked) have all been arriving (sometimes with really long delays, but still showing up).

I have less worry when shipping to Europe (just slightly slower than the old normal) than I do when shipping to the USA (with very long USPS delivery times both as a seller and as a buyer).

I have been thinking of removing the USA as a destination for some of my listings until the American pandemic is controlled (https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/trump-insists-he-s-right-on-the-virus-as-more-americans-get-sick-and-di...)

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[ilikehockeyjerseys]

I've had no issues with shipping to the USA since I changed from small packet air to tracked packet. It sometimes still takes 2-3 weeks though. Maybe I've just been lucky, and it has been a small sample size.

The main issue is that because I cannot deliver a sale to the US for less than 13-16 CAD shipped, my sales have plummeted. I still get the occasional US sale for higher priced items with more elasticity to their price, but my volume has taken a huge hit. Prior to changing over to tracked packet, I was doing more US Sales than I have ever done, but I can't in good faith send an item via Small Packet Air that might take 7-8 weeks when the expected delivery date is about 25-30 days.

[reallynicestamps]

The slowness of delivery in the USA may be part of the reason why online sales there are down.

Not just for us non-US sellers, the same complaint is all over the US dotCOM Boards.

Even given that every US seller seems to panic if they go a single day without a sale, the complaints seem more justified than usual.

It's hard to compare US unemployment rates with Canadian, because we use such different bases for counting, but while our citizens could obtain a monthly $2000 CERB payment to carry them over, Americans might with luck get a single $1600US/$2000Cdn and delivery of the emergency funds was spotty. (I think 45 had to sign each cheque by hand between golf games and tweets.)

Amazon made headlines early on when they announced they would be taking up to 30 days for delivery on new orders, but they may have been wise to deflate expectations, allowing a two week delivery to look miraculous.

Extending our Handling time to five, seven, or 30 days may have some of the same effect, moving eBay's delivery window further into the future than actually necessary.

[nostalgicaftertaste]

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@hlmacdon wrote:

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I've noticed ebay seems less aggressive in handing out coupons and pushing external advertising during these months.

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I've been waiting to see if those 10% off days would return, but they haven't. They are certainly missed.

[reallynicestamps]

I was not alone in reported heavy sales (up 300-400%) from March to June.

I guess if eBay was seeing that across the board, they didn't see any reason to give buying promotions.
Like prices tend to be higher before Christmas when everyone is buying anyway.

[acollectorschoice]

Hey I have experienced the same issue during 2020 and begining 2021, sales were way down due to low traffic might be related to the pandemic people do not have much cash to spend so they cut off on non essential stuff example shopping online or theres more competition since there are more sellers. The platform itself has tons of daily traffic don't know why it got harder to get traffic to specific listing.

I found a solution to increase the traffic by 500% I found these guys mahnetwork.com on fiverr and I am now getting daily traffic plus I got my listings optimized which now thanks to them some of my listings are on first page and I am betting my competition.

So I recommend testing, optimizing and driving external traffic to your listings like I said mahnetwork.com helped my store. Cheers!

[ypdc_dennis]

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@nostalgicaftertaste wrote:

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@hlmacdon wrote:

I've noticed ebay seems less aggressive in handing out coupons and pushing external advertising during these months.

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I've been waiting to see if those 10% off days would return, but they haven't. They are certainly missed.

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ebay is still having 5% eBuck promo days. Last one I saw was July 21-22, 2021.

*sigh*  Another ZOMBIE thread that got revived...