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?

[digital*ghost]

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@x3n0m wrote:

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 ..

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Since when does China "force" Australia Post to adhere to the UPU agreement? 

Near as I can tell, if they are truly suffering from the cost of imports from China, then AP have taken on something of a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" attitude, either that or they're not as open and honest about the true cost of things, but my local PO has posters on the wall advertising their partnership with Taobao, Tmall etc, and offering the Alipay card, which encourages purchase from China. Not saying there isn't an issue with the high volumes of mail coming from OS and it causing inflated prices for their service, but AP have never substantiated any of their claims about how much it costs etc with actual facts and figures, and I personally would rather look at the entire situation with a critical eye than believe their public statements as gospel and start blaming everyone else 'cos AP say so. 

Here's a shocking fact - some people on eBay are experiencing success, in whatever form that should take, with a variety of items from a variety of places, and IMO they don't deserve derision if they happen to mention it.

Yes, eBay has problems, a lot of them, and I know they affect sellers in many different - negative - ways, but I can't see this line of discussion as constructive in context of the thread. 

[x3n0m]

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

Hence it is barely worth the time and effort to actually list items unless they are actually valuable and with the risks and expenses involved selling expensive stuff it doesn't leave much room for enthusiasm thus often many are back to selling bric and brac and counting pennys .. so when the rewards are no longer there it is prudent to move on .. and on the other sites you could list your stuff for free and no one would actually buy .. lol .. ebay has it all stitched up every which way .. but things are pretty rough really eg I had a day old $300 pair of Work Boots listed for $75 with free post for months and the best I got was bookmarked a few times, it took me an hour just photograph describe and list the damn things!!! .. I am afraid it really is just a waste of time unless you are selling genuine antiques or chinese junk/ slave made goods .. and when you do finally manage to sell the fees and costs are extraordinarily off putting (unless you are based in China) ..and then off course there are the chargebacks, buyer remorse, breakage, shrinkage/scammers etc etc etc ..

[x3n0m]

Near as I can tell, if they are truly suffering from the cost of imports from China, then AP have taken on something of a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" attitude, either that or they're not as open and honest about the true cost of things, but my local PO has posters on the wall advertising their partnership with Taobao, Tmall etc, and offering the Alipay card, which encourages purchase from China

Everyone seems to assume that he Auspost CEO is trying to make auspost a success .. perhaps that is not the case and what we are witnissing is Industrial Espionage (a deliberate self-inflicted wound) so that the multi-nationals can dance in and rip us a new one .. I wouldn't be suprised to find out that the Auspost CEO has lobbied the government to sell Auspost .. as I mentioned before; for the rich fat cats it is all about that fast fly by night MOOOLAAHH ..

[x3n0m]

Since when does China "force" Australia Post to adhere to the UPU agreement? 

Quite right the psychopathic United Nations and inaction by our politicians has foisted that injustice upon us .. I believe the original agreement was stuck by the League of Nations .. it is an old cherry that serves no purpose in this modern day aside to rip us a new one ..

[digital*ghost]

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@x3n0m wrote:

Everyone seems to assume that he Auspost CEO is trying to make auspost a success .. perhaps that is not the case and what we are witnissing is Industrial Espionage (a deliberate self-inflicted wound) so that the multi-nationals can dance in and rip us a new one .. I wouldn't be suprised to find out that the Auspost CEO has lobbied the government to sell Auspost .. as I mentioned before; for the rich fat cats it is all about that fast fly by night MOOOLAAHH ..

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Well, if so he's certainly taking the slow way about it - could've just left stamps at 70c (or 60c, even), kept the 250gm parcel bracket, or just not increased service prices so much while decreasing service standards at the same time. 

[thecatspjs]

Gosh I don't think that those who are successful Oz sellers that have decent volume of sales or growth should be as you put it "derided"

To the contrary any advice that "successful" sellers seek to provide to others in a non-patronising manner with good will is certainly always given consideration by myself, and from time to time I have integrated those tips into my own practices.

[x3n0m]

Well, if so he's certainly taking the slow way about it - could've just left stamps at 70c (or 60c, even), kept the 250gm parcel bracket, or just not increased service prices so much while decreasing service standards at the same time. 

but back then Auspost was making $200 Million a year and now after all the diluting and cost increases auspost is only making $100 million and the aupost CEOs wages are now at 5% of the profit of the entire operation .. his wages go up as the profits go down .. what planet  does these type of things happen on?? .. he gets paid 5 times more than the Prime Minister for driving a Public Utility into the ground and making many Australian businesses globally and locally uncompetitive!!

[x3n0m]

.. and to add insult to injury the consensus on the street by the average Joe/Jone CItizen (yes I have spoken with some of them face to face about this yesterday and today) is that they don't mind paying a little bit extra if it helps auspost to make a profit .. just so frustrating that people believe the official party line that gets regurgitated in the media .. PEOPLE OF PLANET EARTH Auspost are currently making $100 MILLION DOLLARS PROFIT and have never ever run at a loss even before they were corporatised .. they are a public utility and if this insanity continues much longer will damage our economy and lead to more unemployment .. eg If the Auspost CEO gets his way stamps go up and the postie will get their hours of employment reduced, so Auspost save money in wages (I can smell another auspost CEO pay-raise for that!!) .. thus the postie will then be looking for work to supplement their wages, our mail slows to a crawl and businesses are forced to use express postage to keep customers happy etc etc .. and so it goes an endless cycle of decreasing productivity and higher costs that will be felt at every level of Australian society .. this incrementalism will eventually leave us desperate/on the government teat and beholding to the multi-national rorters who I am sure are behind the scenes cheering all this on ..

[dazzledayz]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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@x3n0m wrote:

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 ..

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Since when does China "force" Australia Post to adhere to the UPU agreement? 

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I hear pretty much everyone complain about the UPU agreement and yes, it's getting pretty outmoded and badly skewed.

And yes, high volume imports do damage AP's bottom line and do force parcel prices up.

But (and it's a big BUT) if pollies had the will they DO have the tools to do something about it.

Here's the appropriate section from the UPU parcel post agreement:

Prot Article II

Charges

      1 Notwithstanding article 6, Australia, Canada and New Zealand shall be authorized to collect postal charges other than those provided for in the Regulations, when such charges are consistent with the legislation of their countries.

The above appears on page 52 (D.2) of the agreement below:

UPU Parcel Agreement

The full acts (in 4 parts) are here:

UPU Acts in four parts

So you will see that in fact it is only a matter of local (Australian) legislation (or lack of political will).

Australia NZ and Canada all saw the freight train coming quite a few years ago and reserved the right to balance the ledger.

The fact that they have not done so is a matter for your federal MP.

Scitch'em.

You are the ones paying for this hedging every time you post something.

Anyone concerned with the UPU should take the opprtunity to read the agreements above.

All the information is freely available and, although it's not exactly easy reading, it's in plain English with no heretofores or very many whereases lol.

The cost calculation spreadsheets are a bit hard to follow but once you work out how to convert the currency variable you can see exactly what Aus Post claim for delivering an imported parcel or any other item of mail.

You'll find these calculators when you have a look around the UPU website.

[cherry*135]

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 ?

Competition from many other online sellers/retailers in Australia and overseas (with better prices, postage & return costs).. not many of those around when eBay first started up.