Ebay Sales Levels Are The Worst I Have Seen In 12 Years

[arb_games]

Are any other sellers experiencing a severe downturn in sales?

In 12 years on Ebay, I have never seen it this bad.

I realise that the retail economy is dead at the moment, but I also suspect that the downturn in sales are due to Ebay allowing 5 sponsored ads at the bottom of every listing, in direct competition with the item that is listed.

Furthermore, I do the odd random search for items that I am selling and I always find them at the bottom of searches - absolutely ridiculous.

Ebay has dropped the ball when it comes to looking after Australian sellers, Australian items should be at the top of search lists on the Ebay Australia site, not be below the foreign sellers.

I normally only have a maximum of 2,000 listings but currently have just over 3,800 listings and increasing, yet I am struggling to attract more than 15 sales per day.

When you consider that up to about 12 months ago, I was averaaging around 40 sales per day with 2,000 listings so you can see the percentage in downturn.

[koalablue12]

I agree pj, perhaps if op spent less time replying to bad feedback they would have more time to devote to bringing the business back on an even keel - 7 days before you even have to begin to pack to send??? Wow..and how rude to reply in such a manner to the feedback left, it really just gives the impression that 'one doth protest too much' and very unprofessional behaviour.....another one for my list.X-(

[arb_games]

You comments are not only abrasive but completly false.  Where does it say that I take 7 days to post items.  It states that all orders are despatched within 5 business days, most are actually despatched within 1-2 days, but I advise 5 days just in case of inadvertent delays.

And spending too much time responding to my feedback - please!  So buyers are allowed to make false or incorrect comments and I am not supposed to defend myself?

[Anonymous]

These sponsored ad links actually go against ebay's continuing attempts to 'improve' a buyer's experience.

How many sites selling fake items have achieved prominent positions in sponsored ad placement ?

How many sites offer services which will be paid for in hard currency and offer no PayPal protection ?

My own conspiracy theory.

US sites are being given prominence in search results because Ebay is US owned and the US desperately needs all the export income it can get.

It's fair enough for buyers to source items that are simply not available in Australia but purchasing purely on price is why Australia has a manufacturing sector you can fit on the head of a pin. All we have is our mineral resources which are causing an even greater haemorrhage of our financial lifeblood.

It's as simple as say selling iron ore to China and then sending 10-20 times that amount back in payment for goods manufactured using that iron ore.

Small win crushed by a huge loss.

It's way too late ( by 20 years ) to change this situation and

'the government will do something' is cargo cultist at best.

[*kazumi*]

"best match" is a joke and should be called "mad mans carp".

cannot agree more; that is why the moment I hit the search page, I switch to "ending soonest", as do most other people I am sure, which really makes the complaint that it is affecting sellers quite unrealistic.

[sunartgallery]

I can't comment on eBay sales as I haven't even made any yet but... I used to play a lot of console and computer games and now I rarely play them, it's all online.

[arb_games]

Thanks for all your comments / responses.

I have taken most of it onboard and have commenced the process of changing all my listings - making the conditions of sale shorter in length, changing handling times for different products according to their individual packing & despatch times and I will be more constructive in my response to negative feedbacks.

And I am going to change most of the postage costs for items other than software to calculated cost, as this appears the only way that I can distinguish different postage costs to different areas of Australia for the larger items that I sell.

[corgidogz06]

First couple of weeks this month were very good. However, the last 2 days are woeful, never been this bad since my real early days on ebay. Probably the general economy, worry about rising electricity costs and the end of the financial year. Even when I owned a take away food shop, trade would die off in June. This always made me laugh, people would bring their own lunch to work but come 1st July, back to buying their lunch.

[collins-clothing-co]

And ours over the past 3 days have been the best in the last couple of months so I think its a bit of a roll of the dice. Everything we do doesn't seem to matter it seems to be just luck and chance.

[judyztreasurez]

I have been selling on-line for many years. eBay, before that Stuff & Sold. As is the case with most retail, this is the worst it has been in my experience. Hard times

[dealighted_online]

I haven't been on ebay for 12 years, only a couple. In this couple of years my sales have grown reasonably over the time, enough not to complain about. What I have noticed both on ebay and off are the following:

Ebay

- Sellers want the lowest price

- Sellers want BIN

- Sellers want 24hr turn around on despatching product

- Sellers want warranties where possible

Off Ebay

- Drop in USD leading more people to buy internationally

- Increase in online companies trying to get a piece of the retail dollar, scoupon etc

- Increased competition from local retailers - heavy discounting

- Economic woes causing people to tighten their spend

In regards to ARB_Games  - I think some of your competition may be coming form direct downloads. Given the increase to internet speeds over the past few years I'm not sure if the market for physical games has descreased and just moved to DD.