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Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.
Ebay doesn’t sell anything.
I suspect a big part of what appears to be a lopsided sales-to-revenue number is due to the fact that eBay continues to lay off “non-essential” employees. As customer services has gotten slower (those “One Minute” callbacks have resulted in “75 minute waits”, for example), and fewer U.S.-based CS reps available for for Top-Rated Sellers as was promised, eBay’s expenditures have decreased. This has maximize eBay’s profit while frustrating those who must deal with their “management” or nearly-nonexistent support.
Ebay has been skilled at making the company look good to Wall Street over the years, even while sellers are leaving the venue and sales have been down, as they are now.
In another story, Ira mentions that eBay is raising fees for the “holiday season”, which of course isnt really announced to sellers, as seller might then raise their prices – something eBay abhors, especially during the holidays.
We decided to branch out to other venues (as well as having our own website) years ago, shortly after Donahoe’s debacle, and we’re still so glad we did!
U.S. Data released today…..
The U.S. economy grew at a 2% rate in the third quarter, its slowest gain of the pandemic-era recovery, as supply chain issues and a marked deceleration in consumer spending stunted the expansion, the Commerce Department reported today (Thursday).
Etsy reports earnings next week and I suspect it will be more of the same. I follow many Etsy jewelers and it’s been very slow for many, while it’s been difficult to find quality minerals/stones as mining explorations came to a screeching halt, due to Covid. It was the Delta variant that caused the economy to take another hit. However, it’s expected that consumers will spend heavy for the holiday season. Time will tell…