What's happened to EBay?

ailey

Is it just me or has anyone else seen a massive downturn in their sales? I used to sell a few items every week but I had no sales at all for the whole of July and find, since EBay changed Buy it Now to 30 days, that I'm lucky if I sell 4 items in a whole month now. I have around 160 items listed between clothing, vintage ceramics, vintage glass etc so quite a variety. I think it's just taking so long now for items to 'come to the fore'. If the same thing is happening to many other sellers then EBay are also losing out on all the fees. It just seems such a crazy change to me. I just wondered how others have been finding selling since the changeover.

RFW

I'm hardly a prolific Ebay seller but there has been a dip here. I tend to do.
My sales for Amazon run at 100-150 times that on Ebay (for 12 months on Ebay I've sold just over 500 items, on Amazon it's well over 50,000!).
I've been back trying to sell on Ebay for about 18 months now and it really is a waste of my time. I'll give one more push for Christmas and then we'll be parting the ways again.

Amazon offers me the chance of successfully launching new products that Ebay can't match no matter what I try.
I wouldn't consider myself a typical Ebay seller and haven't checked the forums in a very long time. It may well be that the bigger sellers do ok. From what I hear from a fulfillment centre I use that doesn't appear to be the case. A recent call from them would suggest that most Ebay sellers are saying the same.

ballisticbrian

All eBay have done there is spread the sales more evenly. For eBay to be loosing out, the buyers would have to not be able to find what they are looking for which isn't what you are describing. In some categories you are expected to promote your items which is raking in a whole lot more money for eBay for very little effort on their part except send occasional emails to business sellers pitching one seller against another.

ballisticbrian

for 12 months on Ebay I've sold just over 500 items, on Amazon it's well over 50,000!)

Wow that's amazing RFW. Have you got a team of staff to churn out 50,000 items? I've been trying to "push the envelope" of what a one-man-band can achieve on eBay for some years now and it's hard staying small because you don't have the scaling of volumes so staying niche is the only option, and even that can be highly competitive.

RFW

ballisticbrian wrote: »

Wow that's amazing RFW. Have you got a team of staff to churn out 50,000 items? I've been trying to "push the envelope" of what a one-man-band can achieve on eBay for some years now and it's hard staying small because you don't have the scaling of volumes so staying niche is the only option, and even that can be highly competitive.

I use FBA for over 95% of items (I usually have 20,000 plus units stored with them). Before that I outsource the packing. So whilst I have stock manufactured I rarely touch it anywhere in the process. I am largely a one man band these days with minimal storage.


I learnt a few years ago that there was little room for growth on Ebay. The problem, as I mentioned, is it's difficult to impossible to launch new products on there. If you are selling other products then someone will come along and slash your profits. Amazon is by no means easy but they're set up to promote new brands and I find it easy to work well within their system.


I've been using a fulfillment centre with Ebay sales. They are great and I've had no problems with delivery, I just don't get the sales on Ebay whether I reduce items, promote them or whatever.

ballisticbrian

Most of my business model is centred around manufacturing myself, and the items have a use by date which makes trialling things harder. But by manufacturing myself, I have a mark up of 500-600%. The problem is, when you get into this mindset, thinking about having the work done elsewhere can be thought of as gradually shaving off that large markup into different bits until you are left with a small amount at the end and then are stuck with the problem of having to ramp up volumes which can be difficult, as you admit, on eBay. So all in all, I am in a different game to you!

RFW

ballisticbrian wrote: »

Most of my business model is centred around manufacturing myself, and the items have a use by date which makes trialling things harder. But by manufacturing myself, I have a mark up of 500-600%.

On raw product my mark up is probably more but once you take into account the sorting and repacking then it starts to dwindle down. Manufacturing really opens your eyes to how little the items you buy actually costs. Something like cereal must cost well below a tenth of the finished retail price of the product.


I don't know or need to know what you sell but sounds like Amazon would be worth trying, if possible. There are a few schemes on there, such as Amazon Handmade or Launchpad, that nay or may not be useful.

lindens

I noticed a dip after the GTC change came in. I find now I have to manually end my items then relist/sell similar. That seems to "refresh" my shop and kick started my sales agaimn
Maybe try that for a month?

mimi1234

I've noticed a drop too. I have no idea why.

I have noticed sometimes when I search for my own items, they never show. That's very random especially when I search for the same title as mine.

I thought there was something going on when they were offering £1 final value fees every other week.

lindens

mimi1234 wrote: »

I've noticed a drop too. I have no idea why.

I have noticed sometimes when I search for my own items, they never show. That's very random especially when I search for the same title as mine.

I thought there was something going on when they were offering £1 final value fees every other week.

if your items are popular Ebay actually admit now in the search that they are not showing all items that come up in a search.

sham63

I have 2 ebay accounts. I have an item saved in my watch list that I wanted to buy using the other account just now. When I logged into the other account and did the exact same search, the item didn’t appear in my search results. I found it again by visiting the shop’s own page.