EBAY JUST DON'T HAVE THE CUSTOMER BASE

[stationery-on-demand]

I have been looking at various blogs AND here in the ebay community, assuming that there is in fact an ebay community (lol).

We sell on 5 selling platforms and have found that our ebay sales are hugely depleted with the other 4 platforms performing very well.

Our prices are the same in all 5 platforms (including ebay), so ebay has to be the problem.

Before we totally can ebay, I thought I might first put this out there.

Cheers

[stationery-on-demand]

Thanks for you response, it has only just shown here, even though you posted it many hours ago ... maybe because I just started my computer up. Anyway, FYI I have just posted the following above to danieh_6  and everyone else ...

"Thanks to all who are participating and trying to help.

I said I would be back last night but only finished around midnight, having started very early.

Quick and brief update:

Our average send time is 2.15 days and goods sent within 100kms seem to arrive within 4 days of purchase, but more distant locations are taking up to 3 weeks with Australia Post and various couriers. Please see our feedback.

We carry everything in stock, but we do drop-ship about 4% of sales, only those that are large quantity orders.

Back tonight."

[rocket2retro]

I agree as well. As a long time seller (close to 20 years), I've seen many changes & ups and downs. What I'm seeing now is that sales are consistently down. The fees are higher and the wait time for a sale can be years (and it sell for a fraction of what it once did).

The time invested fulfilling eBay's requirements (tracking, item specifics etc)  has become greater for ever diminishing returns.

Added to this is the despondency  of other sellers I know & buyers too.

For me it is barely worth pursuing any more and what was once my full time income has now just become a bit of 'play' money.

At the rate this platform is dying, I can't see I'll be celebrating 25 years of selling on eBay.

[stationery-on-demand]

Thank you for your intuitive views.

We currently have 3,601 listing and I will spend this evening identifying items that we are selling hand over fist on the other 4 platforms so as to end them in ebay. 

We will, for the present, continue offering our slow sellers on ebay at best prices to clear our stock.

Well, I had better get started on this list-ending task ... I just hate negative tasks but sometimes it becomes inevitable.

Thanks to all and I wish you well.

[davewil1964]

Congratulations,

I'm not sure why you think you have to advise other members of your business plan, but you seem to have your reasons.

Whether those reasons involve your business plans (like subtly influencing your competitors to also quit eBay before you do) I have no idea. But your public declarations seem to have no explicable purpose other than to give you some sort of edge.

[chameleon54]

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@rocket2retro wrote:

I agree as well. As a long time seller (close to 20 years), I've seen many changes & ups and downs. What I'm seeing now is that sales are consistently down. The fees are higher and the wait time for a sale can be years (and it sell for a fraction of what it once did).

The time invested fulfilling eBay's requirements (tracking, item specifics etc)  has become greater for ever diminishing returns.

Added to this is the despondency  of other sellers I know & buyers too.

For me it is barely worth pursuing any more and what was once my full time income has now just become a bit of 'play' money.

At the rate this platform is dying, I can't see I'll be celebrating 25 years of selling on eBay.

---

Unfortunately your post sums up my views on ebay at the moment too. Its been around 15 years for me, some of it as a full time seller. I'm still selling enough to make it worth putting a bit of time into ebay, but the writing is on the wall as ebay continues to move further away from the quality collectible market and takes the company further down market to cheap, generic consumable carp . 

The way management is positioning ebay and the demographic it is chasing could not be further from my buyers and the sort of stuff they are interested in. The constant rise in peripheral fees required to keep items visible is also discouraging. Despite what a few here will try to tell you,  ebays take of our sales is growing as it tries to keep the company profitable with falling numbers of buyers and falling merchandise sales forcing it to squeeze more juice from existing customers..

I,m very close to finalising the sale of $40,000 worth of stock that would have found its way onto ebay in times past. Just selling it off in bulk to reduce my exposure to the site and move onto other things.

The thing the " CYA, no one cares if another seller leaves "  Go to the big river and see how that goes " plonkers are missing is that ebay is not just competing with other online selling platforms. It is competing for peoples attention full stop. If I leave ebay, I wont move to another selling platform. I will do something else completely unrelated to online sales. I,m currently looking at industrial / commercial development or rental as a replacement for my ebay income. Maybe set up self storage facility or small commercial business hub for tradies.

[springyzone]

, but the writing is on the wall as ebay continues to move further away from the quality collectible market and takes the company further down market to cheap, generic consumable carp . 

The way management is positioning ebay and the demographic it is chasing could not be further from my buyers and the sort of stuff they are interested in.

There are a lot of hurdles on ebay now for any 'little', casual, mum & dad type seller who might have a few things around their house (even good quality things) that they want to sell from time to time. So many hurdles in fact that the average person has turned to Facebook marketplace or the buy/swap/sell sites. It's immediate and it's cash in hand and no one to answer to. Plus (at the moment) fee free. That horse has bolted.

I imagine ebay knows that and possibly isn't sorry to see them go because with the increased buyer protections now in place, there are too many possibilities for disputes that they would then have to sort out.

What is interesting to me is that I was under the impression ebay owns gumtree and the original idea was 'little' sellers could list there, but they've missed that market too. Gumtree is a virtual ghost town. Most things I look up, I can see about 100 of them on marketplace to every one on GT. That's not a scientific analysis I know, just casual observation.😊

It seems to me ebay is going after the professional sellers or those with a steady business on ebay, preferably with new stock.

The ebay ads on TV recently seemed to be about people buying new sneakers etc with an emphasis on the idea you could get the items cheaper if you shopped ebay.

It will be interesting to see where ebay goes in the future but they do seem to be leaning towards a more Amazon type model.

[chameleon54]

It will be interesting to see where ebay goes in the future but they do seem to be leaning towards a more Amazon type model.

The introduction of fulfilment centres here in Australia is the latest in their campaign to be a " mini me "  Amazon. Thing is, as a seller if I wanted fulfilment centres and all the other stuff Amazon provide, why wouldnt I just shift my business to Amazon ?  They're the professionals who designed it and have been doing it for years with all the bugs sorted.

Why would I stick with a cheap imitation that has a major image problem and no clearly defined future plans ? 

[whoisbiggles]

FWIW - I sell through 4 channels.

1 - toy markets has been dead thanks to covid (but looks to be restarting in the next few months).

2 - eBay pretty dead at the moment (post xmas / flood / rising interest rates, who knows) - fantastic during Covid 

3 - FBM up and down

4 - specialist toy website - going gang busters.

I wouldn't abandon any channel because I find when one is down another one is up.

[zanadoo_56]

I don't know about selling on other platforms (presumably of the eBay type or similar) but as a buyer when I see something on eBay that interests me I also do a general Google search to see if I can find it cheaper (or cheaper postage - especially for overseas).  Actually most of the time the answer is to buy from an eBay seller's own website.

For overseas sellers on eBay the GSP (despite improving out of sight when Aust Post Global replaced Fedex) the cost is still a killer.

So this year I'm buying more from Oz sellers than overseas but I did a count for Feb - 19 purchases (which is less than in previous years) of which only 6 were on eBay - it used to be the other way around.  Bargains on eBay?  Not so much.

[twyngwyn]

Are eBay and Amazon Burying Search Results with Ads? (ecommercebytes.com)