Anyone else finding their sales are down late 2014/early 2015?

[misslizzysgems]

I'm a hobby seller, not high end by any means... I just sell odds and sods... but I've always done well and managed to make nice money along the way.  I charge reasonable prices, am open to offers, and don't overcharge on postage. Never had any problems. But that's all changed over the last few months.  In 12 years of selling on eBay I have never, ever seen such a downturn... Almost no activity, no bids, no queries... Occasional sales but nothing more. It's scary how much it's changed in such a short time. What's going on?  Are search engines not directing people to eBay anymore?  Are people running out of money? what is it????????????  What are your thoughts?

[dylan11235813]

ebay sh*at in their own nest. I think ebay blame the downturn on lower rankings through google SEO and the hack last year. I blame it on all the BS policy changes they have made. Ebay do not want small sellers whcih are buyers as well, It is easier to go to the mall or purchase directly from suppliers websites. Ebay don't seem to realise that they need to be a bit more proactive in removing scammers rather than creating a BS automated system. It is quite easy to spot scam listings, I report them and ebay do nothing, in the meantime they will ban a seller for running out of stock.

[funkyflamingo*]

I was a hobby seller, but have turned it into a business in July.  Sales were great, but November and early December was a shocker.

Sales have picked up for me, but I would love them to be even better.  I have noticed Ebay has changed a lot over the last 7 years, and they don't look after their sellers, which has made them what they are today.

Whenever a person picks up an item, I ask if they use other websites for buying.  All of them have said that they don't or have never heard of them. They only use ebay.

I have tried other platforms in selling, and it just doesn't work for me.  The buyers are terrible, and rude, and other sellers on some of these sites are just as bad.

My buyers on ebay are absolutely fantastic and wonderful people.  My feedback is excellent, not just because I bend over backwards for my buyers, but the buyers are just so damn nice.  All my bad experiences and expense that is caused by ebay gets forgiven due to my ebay cliental.

The reason why I am writing this, as I have thought many times over the past couple of months to leave ebay, and go somewhere else, but  it just doesn’t work.  Others on the forum have left or selling other places and are having great success. 

I hope all small and medium Australian sellers on ebay do well.  Otherwise, ebay will become a cheap, no variety two dollar shop, like the local shopping malls.

[dylan11235813]

I generally have really good buyers as well and the traffic here is much better than on my website. I just think ebay have lost the trust of a lot buyers and they are not getting many new buyers. Especially when ebay cant seem to remove listings incorrectly placed in the car/bike section for the purpose of scamming buyers. There are at least 2 sellers there right now that have sold 1000's of dollars worth to hunreds of Australian buyers yet ebay do nothing....

[transport-posters]

It's down for me too.  Had a surge a couple of weeks before Xmas and then it died off hugely.  Have been selling more to international buyers than from Australia too.  It could be due to the school summer holidays here which will be ending soon.  Would be a drain on the wallet for a lot of people.

[clarry100]

We found that our pre-Xmas sales were slightly up on last year.

But January so far is slightly down on last year.

[chameleon54]

Mid December to mid January where generally very slow, but this last week has been huge. I think people get caught up in Christmas, new year and annual holidays and just dont look at ebay as much at this time of the year. It seems like people have gone back to work and are spending up on ebay this week.

[davewil1964]

Pretty much the same

[i-love-my-sheep]

I had a good December and a REALLY good January. Every time I turn around, my phone is going ka-ching!