Ebay sales dropped dramatically 60% in the last month

[jthompson845]

Hi everyone,

been a seller now on eBay for 10years. Never had this happened before my selling has dropped 60% in the last month. Has anyone else experiencing this.

[janeababe]

I haven’t sold on eBay for well over 15yrs, so I can’t make comment on that, but I still occasionally but items from here.

What I’ve noticed is that eBay used to be the biggest online trash and treasure market, and it was Fabulous! The ‘little guy’ could sell off a few of his unwanted items  and make a bit of money.  It was a treasure trove of items and it was FUN.

Now, it’s absolutely flooded with Chinese sellers, and the site is full of cheap useless stock. It’s equivalent to strolling through the Reject Shop.

Unless I’m after something specific, that I can’t buy locally in a B&M store, then I’ll buy here. But I’ll have to be desperate, and even with my Australia Only settings in place, I still have to wade through multiples of Chinese based drop shippers. It’s bloody ridiculous.  

[springyzone]

Chameleon-Ebay have stated publicly that they are actively working to discourage low value, infrequent buyers from using the site. I suspect they have also recently tweaked the search algorythms to encourage lower value sellers from the site.

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I can understand that they would probably prefer experienced sellers who know all the ins and outs of ebay and who will pretty well always act in a predictable way. That would help to cut out a lot of problems.

And new buyers can sometimes present problems too.

But I am a bit surprised they are actively working to discourage people like myself. I guess I fit the category of infrequent, low value buyer. And the sellers I buy from are often smaller Australian ebay businesses.

Not that I think ebay would value my custom as such. 

A few years ago, someone I know who is a more professional ebay seller was invited to a discussion panel/breakfast session and one of the things thrown out for discussion was the idea of ebay warehouses in every state where sellers would have to lodge their stock and it would be packed and posted under CCTV type footage by ebay itself.

All this was before Amazon touched down here but everyone knew it was coming.

In that sort of scenario, any seller without a lot of stock of the same item would pretty well be out of business on ebay.

I presume they would have to have different arrangements for antique/vintage type items.

Sometimes I wonder if ebay execs know exactly what they want. Profit, of course, but how best to get to it is another thing.

[eol-products]

I have noticed lately my page views per day are down quite a bit. But on the upside my sales conversion rate is higher than ever. As I sell items that are mostly specific for one purpose I don't think the reduced traffic effects my sales. Plus according to ebay most of my customers come from external sites like google.

[chameleon54]

Ebays public statements around buyers may have been a way to justify falling transaction numbers to the money markets. ( we didnt want those buyers anyway, we are concentrating on our core, high value customers ) stuff.  But I suspect they give a strong indication of where ebay execs are looking.

They note buyers of luxury brands of sneakers, watches and phones spend much more in other catagories as well, hence the sneaker authentification programme. With collectibles, they are currently concentrating on sports trading cards. It starts to build a picture of the buyers they wish to attract to the site and it probably isnt you or me.

While the only evidence I have is the way my own selling id's are behaving, I suspect that after many years of talking, ebay is finally taking practical steps to slim down by cleaning out its dead inventory listings and non performing sellers.

Sellers will need to conform to ebay's programmes of homogenisation including item specifics and postal tracking of orders and achieve reasonable sell through rates or find something else to do.

[chameleon54]

Just another thought. You get a bit more of a picture of where eBay is heading by looking at the way it is catagorising inventory. The catagory for vintage and classic car parts has completely gone. It used to be a fairly active catagory, but obviously vintage car parts dont fit in with the homoginised " new in a box with barcode " feel that eBay is striving for.

[ninth_avenue_store]

Hi, I just wonder if I could know the name of the external device you use to see where your listings are ranking in searches? Thanks for your time.

Frances

[imastawka]

I think Offroad meant they use someone else's computer that isn't at their location and doesn't sign in to view listings.

[wpg_intl]

Yes same drop in my sales too . Since eBay changed to payoneer things falling apart .

[davewil1964]

COVID wouldn't have anything to do with it?

Hardly relevant to last year.

Hardly relevant to the UAE.

This is the AUSTRALIAN board. We don't have payoneer.

[smithereen3]

June 2022.............Selling nothing. it goes back to the format change. hardly sold anything. not for a little Cd Seller anymore.