Not the Regular eBay Sales Slump?

by: Paul W

@eBay Shill Buster

IPR does not apply to any item placed in the shopping cart.  If buyers use the shopping cart and if sellers have properly set up combined shipping rules, the cart works just fine.  Buyers and sellers failing to understand how it works is not a fault of the platform.  

by: pace306

MING (as usual) hit it EXACTLY on the head!

"Devin and Brian may be trying to teach those of us who are refusing Promoted Listings and 60 day free returns a lesson by sinking us all so low in search that we won't be found."

vindictive SOBs like teaching "the noise" lessons ...... some ecommerce company.

Let me also save ALL of us the time and effort (since we know its comming)

TOOLGUY

"but my sales have been GREAT"

I dont know what you guys are talking about!

You guys sell the WRONG things, if you woldnt sell clothing, electronics, toys, or antiques - your sales would be great too!

I only sell MADE IN THE USA PROFESSIONAL AIRCRAFT TOOLS - and Im DOING GREAT!

Stop being eBay haters"

there ... all done

by: eBay Shill Buster

@ Paul W

So you think all those threads I linked to and the related problems with the eBay shopping cart and combined shipping are all due to sellers setting up the wrong configurations?

I don't think so because since forced IPR came out sellers have been bitterly complaining about this costing them big sales.

The eBay seller forums were filled with threads six months ago on this very problem.

by: ebayout

IMHO, what was not mentioned in this "low sales" lament report were the original accompanying ebay comments that even with seasonal fluctuations taken into account, sales were still lower than normal.
Then again, maybe it was sellers from just a few categories that were complaining.
And of those, they might have been affected by Chinese sellers.
ebay has the data...it would be a fascinating read.

by: TMoore

I sell on eBay, eCrater, and other outside sites, but I also sell on my own site. I used to sell on Etsy but I closed my account. I agree that sales all year have been miserable thanks to many arbitrary and draconian changes on all the sites across the board, as well as a sea change in buyers' tastes. For example the situation with buyers abandoning their carts when the page hangs up may be due to the buyer not clearing their browser caches, and they may not know they have to do that when the cache fills up. The other is the constant changes in policies in the parties involved. So far I have had many views but no sales on the other platforms. I keep tweaking the listings to make them more attractive, but it appears that eBay is not interested in keeping me as a seller. I sell one of a kind and limited editions of jewelry and other items. I do not use Promoted Listings because that's just a drain of money. If large selling platforms are not intent on keeping their base because "there's one born every minute", then I may be better off not even selling on their platforms and stick to my home site. But let's face it ladies and germs, 2017 is the worst year ever.

by: Ladmo

Yes! Very slow on eBay...someone turned off the eBay search? Amazon only.  

by: gutspiller

Can so relate to what everrybody's saying. Had the same on/off switch as so many sellers have complained about. A downward spiral of sales with no way to escape from it.

Couple of years ago I was sick of this so called "Ebay partner" that interfered with every part of my business and made things only worse (including my mental and physical health). So closed my Ebayshop, closed my account and launched my own website.

When I quite Ebay I was lucky to reach a 3000 monthly turnover. I'm now getting to 10.000 on the website alone. Am  I doing somehting different? Not really. Still selling the same stuff. But I'm my own boss. No Ebay interfering with everything. And can focus for 100% on my own business without constantly having to update my listings because Ebay introduced yet another new "improvement".

Ebay can stick all their policies where the light doesn't shine.

It's the most toxic company I've ever dealt with and can't believe they're still in business. As others have written: in 10 years or so Ebay will be a case study on how one of the most succesful ecommerce website went down due to complete mismanagement and absolute corporate greed.

The day they do go down I have no clue what to do: have a glass of champagne because it finally happened of shed a tear because I know how great Ebay once was but will never be again.

by: RKTOYS

Something else to note here.  Just in time for the holiday shopping season, eBay's getting ready to shut out anybody using the app on a 3 year old smartphone or tablet.  No real reason, just the typical incompetence of hipster/H1B app duhvelopers everywhere.

by: Vernfern

Us long time sellers know the glory days are long gone, and I remember those days well. I am a TRS and follow the carrot dangling from a stick to keep sales up - but it is not working. Sales dropped off during the summer (normal for what I sell) but never recovered. Yes I am using the promoted listings. Yes I place items on sale. Yes I follow the trend of identical sold listings. Not fixing sales, which currently are down 57% from last year and 61% from just last month. Someone flat out turned off the sales switch. Facebook groups are flooded with threads of horrible sales as well.

I started selling on eBay as a hobby 20 years ago, dialing it up a bit when I was between jobs and last time I had a job end (I often work through temporary staffing services) I switched to eBay full time. Those days are coming to an end, I am liquidating my items via Craigslist and Facebook as I move back to a traditional job again. I downgraded my store to "basic" last time and when time comes to renew, I won't. I am noise to eBay and they are a pain in my wallet.

The day will come when eBay is gone. It HAS to implode at the rate it is going and there will be no going back, no restart, no nothing. eBay's name is tainted and people avoid shopping there. I hear and read it all the time. Too many China sellers flooding the pages, often the same junk from the same seller under several user names and with slight variations to avoid being a duplicate listing. Too many clueless flippers ruining it for those who know what they are doing.

Oh, and lastly - am I the only person who completely skips over the garbage that TOOLGUY posts? Does he honestly not realize what he sees and what the rest of the world sees is not the same? If I rolled my eyes any harder, I'd see my brains!

by: LasVagueness

I keep these threads open for the humor mileage between @pace306 and @toolguy.  

by: Rexford

RK Toys says "eBay's getting ready to shut out anybody using the app on a 3 year old smartphone or tablet."

LOL      And these are the guys that think that they can use AI effectively.

by: pace306

Shhhhh I promoted LasVagueness  to be president of my fan club :)

by: kilogirl78

Sales are down 20% over 2016 on ebay. Not sure if the buyers moved platforms or if Ebay is throttling me.  But I am going to see if I can drum up sales on my website and amazon and walmart to make up for Ebay.  

by: dander

My sales are down but I can't blame ebay for the total slump.

by: DZT

by: maxmad This user has validated their user name.

Mon Oct 30 01:46:56 2017

''Unreliable, Unpredictable, Unstable, No future, No control, are all reasons why you cannot under any circumstances build a real business based on ebay ''.










That is the Bottom Line here friends.

by: Ebsy

It has been really bad starting around June.  Unusually bad where I get no sales for a day or two.  I usually get at least 1 sale a day.  I had over 5000 items on anchor store.  I have since downgraded to premium store with only 1200 items.  I've been selling for 7 years.  This year is definitely the worse but I saw it coming already when I noticed sales dropping year after year.

eBay game is to put all the traffic to certain sellers they like.  Many sellers will be left out.  They also alienated many sellers a few years ago with their banning and Donohoe with his ruthless policy.  I'm surprised eBay has lasted so long still and is still thriving for some sellers.  I think my time is almost over.  Unless you can find free items to sell for low price.  Its going to be hard selling on ebay.

by: ctblizzard

A few things.. first Promoted listings Impressions counting went down in early October. It has now been broken for 2 months. Impression counting is one of the earliest things ever done on the Internet, and Ebay is a top e-commerce company. I call BS on this one.  Second, take a close look at the algorithm they are using for showing your "listing improvements" section in the seller hub. While sometimes it works if there are many competing items , in many cases for those of us who list one of a kind or rare items it is just cratering views based on comparing them with other popular items in the category. I have tested this out carefully and it is like an endless loop of burying items further. If that improvement algorithm is also guiding what is shown to buyers (which it seems to be based on hits to items), almost everything except popular multiple item listings are getting demoted too strongly. This is where the problem is. I even found a few items that regularly sold for 40-50 dollars with active bidding not long ago where no one is selling them at all since they only come up occasionally so the system does not see them as popular. The seller hub was down last week for a day, promoted listings keeps having a new message on "not being able to show impression data" and search functionality is in flux, sometimes throwing you into a category you never chose in a search. I have never seen so many "glitches" at the same time. My guess is they are not glitches at all.

by: Chicago48

Sales are running better than expected.   Getting a lot of BO/FP sales vs. auctions.  I don't know if we can put all sales slump on Ebay but the economy is still sluggish.  People are finding ways to buy cheap.  For example in Chicago, there's a store "bargain in a box" and they sell all types of items really really cheap.  It's like a dollar store.  Speaking of dollar stores, they now sell food, so that's more competition.
I go to thrift stores to arbitrage on the 1/2 off days and it's packed.  People fill their carts up to the top (I don't know who the buyers are or who they're buying for).  I notice more men are in the thrift stores, trying on leather jackets, suits, etc.  If you can get a Leather jacket for $10-20....all I'm saying is that competition in retail is fierce.
Ebay does have glitches, but I've said this before.  EB needs a "gotcha" like Amz has -- Prime, streaming movies & music, Echo.  EB needs something that draws people to their site all the time.
I'm doing my part by wrapping my orders in EB tape and envelopes.