Where does the root cause lie??

[bettyboopsadaisy]

I know many people will think on reading this post, "Not that old acorn", but I don't think we are finished talking about this issue central to our selling or  . . . non-selling !!!

What is the root cause/s of what a large number of sellers are now experiencing as a significant downturn in their volume of sales ?

Certainly there are many economic factors that are beyond the control or ebay or sellers, that contribute to this happening.

But I also honestly believe that the general trend in the policies that ebay has adopted in the last couple of years (and before !) have contributed to a downturn in potential buyer interest.

Although ebay purport to have put in place policies that are great for buyers, there has been such a resulting outcry, not just in the ebay community but also to some extent the wider community about ebay's and PayPal's policies and practices that it may well have scared a proportion of buyers off.

Ebay and PayPal are increasingly being labelled 'dodgy' in some quarters and that can't be good for them . . .or US!

What do others think?

[davewil1964]

I think I will continue to sell here while I make money, then I will try to sell using other venues.

[i-love-my-sheep]

Maybe it depends on what buyers are wanting at any time? Maybe it depends on whether a seller is selling something a buyer wants as opposed to needs. People are happy to part with money for things they want, but not so happy to spend money on things.

I can't say I'm having the same issues as others, my sales are increasing every month. 

[x3n0m]

What do others think?

A slow motion train wreck .. some will survive, some will walk away and some will get buried (ie their business and aspirations finished) .. the underlying root cause being rampant greed by the already filthy rich and the corporate lust for more and more and more at any cost with no remorse for any who get burned, eventually the shareholders will get ripped by the corporate inner circle as that would be the only way forward ie damm the little guy, this is about fast clean fly by night MOOOLAAAHHHH.. what we have here is a disruptive innovation .. and if ebay gets destroyed in the rush for more money so be it, they really won't care as the insiders just want fast and dirty bucks for their Swiss bank account and sugar babies and will never be satisfied just sitting still and building a constructive business when it is so lucrative rattling cages and kicking people in the teeth ..

I personally only have a few more 1000 bucks worth to offload and am finished with internet auctions for good, have luckily found a tender centre about 150 clicks from here where I can offload in bulk too .. the sellthrough online is now excruciatingly slow and week by week my competitors mark down their stock to the point it is valueless to actually list (I won't go into the full dynamics of the problem but suffice to say I understand where it all went wrong and why ebay is loosing its mojo)..  will still buy online and if I see a little value here and there may sell something about the house but will use ebay and big corporate like amazon as a last resort as it is now personal .. will also find a few vendors who supply the products I am interested in and deal direct with no middle man .. it's the only way to be sure .. it is a real shame as this place actually helped many put food on the table but the corporate ones feel no responsibility to actually helping anyone except themselves ..

Have resolved that the final step will be to give the op shops at least a grand worth of stock which they will offload for about $200 but hey its about clearing out them cupboards now .. no longer about making a dollar that thing has been and gone for many of us ..

But the final analysis is that sellers are/were buyers too so ebay has busied itself bumping off the small timers so that their high street back room stock market listed mates can float to the surface (and in all honesty I already have a flatscreen and if I want another one will go to a B&M store so ebay has backed the wrong horse there) .. what is now missing since the rise of the corporate insider with ebay account manager pushing all the right buttons for them is now the churn of buy/sell/buy is gone and that dynamic will crush more oxygen from the remaining sellers and thus the same dynamic will creep through the categories and finish many more .. auspost hasn't helped at all and many aussies don't even bother with international sales now etc etc  ,, the 10% fee grab on postage is just evil and punished good sellers while ebay let the scammers who caused the problem to remain .. and best match default a la cassinni is looking for more victims as we speak .. I could go on but nobody is really listening so is a useless exercise ..  good luck with it ..

[indigorosey]

Maybe not applicable to most sellers but I can pinpoint exactly when my sales ground to a screeching halt on this selling ID. When a buyer launched an unfair NAD on this account my sales stopped immediately and views dwindled to single digits. The only sales I have made were repeat customers and items that had watchers on it. 

Because of my low feedback count I firmly believe that this is the cause and eBay do throttle accounts, and this is backed up by media statements from eBay officials. Ebay promised to remove defects last week but have not followed through yet, so I am forced to recoup through other means (Facebook, markets, etc).

From a buyer's point of view, I think that as eBay continue to cultivate Chinese commerce which swamp many categories, it's appeal to niche buyers will dwindle as they migrate to Etsy, Amazon and other online marketplaces.

[clarry100]

Our sales are steadily declining on here as well. It may just be the time of year tho.

So we are soon to give ETSY a try.

We will keep ebay going as well, but if it gets just too hard to deal with we will pull the plug on it.

And having done so would be lilkely to not buy on here any more either.

[thecatspjs]

I think if you want to offload a few dozen rocks every month or cheap chinese junk then this is the place to be

[x3n0m]

I think if you want to offload a few dozen rocks every month or cheap chinese junk then this is the place to be

.. but surely to make a profit on ebay those rocks and chinese junk would need to be procured and/or manicured via child/slave labour and then would need to be imported from a 3rd world country who forces Australia to adhere to the draconian UN postage agreement thus punishing all Aussies into paying more to post a parcel ..

[bsal6160]

Or just maybe its the high prices some sellers are asking for their items?

[thecatspjs]

Equally it could be that buyers are not prepared to pay asking prices and want goods for next to nothing which is a need met by cheap chinese junk that seems to do quite well on here.

Edit to add ~ with FREE POST of course