Driving Traffic to eBay May Lose Its Appeal

by: Geetar

Penny wise, dollar foolish. And as sellers, we are effected by their foolish decisions. I hope this decision, is just because they have come up with a new marketing plan.

But we all know that isnt the case.

Its a loooong slow painful slide to the bottom.

by: maxmad

it just goes to show how easy it was for 2 idiot CEO's to destroy a once thriving company, in such a short time,, ebay will never recover,

Sellers will pay the price to sink with ship,

by: NoMoreEbay

Wenig is gone yet the stupidity continues. How a giant hasn't come in yet to compete with this joke is mind boggling. At the very least Alibaba could do a hostile. 3/4 of the sellers are Chinese anyway. It would be a slam dunk and a win win for China and ebay.

by: thievesBay

lol eBay says "small change" while affiliates are estimating 30% loss of revenue while the example shows 50% loss. That's not "small". eBay isn't getting traffic anyway so they're cutting affiliate payouts to save money for themselves. And now affilates have no incentive to send traffic to eBay. If you think views and sales are bad now, it's gonna drop even more. But as I've said before, eBay couldn't care less about sales. They want "sellers" and "listings" to make money off you from advertising, store fees, and the GTC relisting scam. This company is a disaster that's rolling downhill into the gutter fast.

by: Ric

So, eBay's inept management now drives affiliates incentives into the ground.

This company will implode sooner rather than later. 2019 Q4 GMV is going to be an unmitigated disaster, and 2020 will be no better.

Sellers are making nothing, affiliates are making nothing, but eBay executives continue to reap multi million dollar salaries while driving the marketplace sales lower and lower.

This cycle is unsustainable and the company is a few thousand departing sellers away from total financial collapse that even the best eCommerce CEO will be helpless to reverse.

by: notfunanymore

Sellers, Good luck this holiday season. I’m sure this move at yet another money grab will not affect your bottom line...  

by: elcheapoposters

I've been reading doom for Ebay posts for nearly 15 years. I do agree.. I used to send ebay thousands of dollars in sales each month... I stopped a while ago after noticing revenue decreases.... personally I like to work with higher percentage affiliate programs which wind up being individual sellers who've jumped ship to run they're own sites...  

by: Geetar

The best part is......if you drive your own traffic to YOUR listings from outside, it doesn't matter anyway. Because we all know ebay limits your sales.  These guys are  real winners at the exec level.

by: Silver Ice King

This is right in line with Ebays plan that was announced in April, lower marketing expenses which will result in lower sales.  Even though Wenig is gone the temporary CEO was his partner in crime so nothing is going to change until the BOD gets NEW BLOOD in the CEO seat that realizes that unless Ebay increases traffic and potential sales for their Sellers all the advertising and other fees won't matter because there will not be anybody left to pay them.

Come on Ebay, get rid of the pathetic offshore programmers and hire some new ones that know what they are doing and can fix all the things that have been broken under Wenigs Disruptive Technology BS.  Sellers need more sales and if and when that happens then Ebay might actually see an increase in Promoted Listings and other advertising revenue as Sellers have the money to pay for those extra services rather than scraping by to just put food on the table.  Ebay lost site of what made them a great company and I guess everybody that understood what helped Ebay grow is long gone, or is to afraid to open their mouth because they will suddenly be unemployed.  

Wake up BOD,, it takes spending money to make money.  Get a CEO in there who understands it quickly or you will not have a company that needs a BOD.  Replacing Wenig with Schenkel is just putting another useless CEO with no understanding of Ecommerce in charge of an Ecommerce company, but it sounds like that is your newest plan now that you his compensation plan has been announced.  Its starting to sound more and more like the BOD members also have Golden Parachutes in place with Ebay/:))

by: Whatever

Drive traffic to eBay? Why? The consumer will barely see my listings. There is so my advertising crap on my listing page and others it's just tipped over the edge of ridiculous. Have you tried to actually see a sellers description? Is there even one? I've quietly gone my separate way. I still list and do sell there but have now gone to Amazon something that I said I would never do. Here's the kicker - I'm actually enjoying it and selling a few things here and there. And my website is picking up nicely. If I'm going to drive traffic now it's not going to be eBay. I barely sustain myself there now. And I'm happy elsewhere - trying to build my own golden parachute.

by: pace306

eBay in a vain attempt to "save money and restructure" (or something), continues to make mistake after mistake.

The new interim CEO is a bigger dope then the last one (did anyone think that was possible), and the rush to make yourself "look good" isnt working.

eBay needs MORE traffic, not less; eBay needs more buyers, not more flea market sellers; eBay needs to refocus on SELLING, not advertising ...... maybe call "sleeping Griff" or that Jordan guy ....... nah - easier to run the company into the ground and collect the golden parachute(s).

It is absurd that you would pay for traffic that doesnt go directly to YOUR listing - but then again eBay is the king of crime - fraud is the least of their worries.

As mentioned above - listing pages are a mess, traffic in general is non existent, the new forced specifics are useless an unnecessary (again forcing sellers to do the job eBay should be doing aka creating a catalog), and eBays take is WAY TOO HIGH for the nothing that it does to help sellers. (Lets skip GSP, eBays forced returns policies, eBaypay and all the other disasters they created).

Q3 numbers ........ are like yelling in to the Grand Canyon ... eBay will survive Q4 and Q1 .. after that ..... run!

by: SANT1N1

"But as I've said before, eBay couldn't care less about sales. They want "sellers" and "listings" to make money off you from advertising, store fees, and the GTC relisting scam."

The hopefully they'll stop worrying about sellers taking sales off ebay!

by: industrystones

All of this doesn't even matter. Have you guys thought of that?
With the recent postal increase ALONG with the new coming one in January as well - Shipping rates are through the roof and gouging you into the abyss!

by: purpleiris

Wow! Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Affiliates are key to keeping the traffic coming. Oh well, I know which site I won't be driving traffic for.

I've never sold there and quit shopping there years ago. Looking at a listing now, I'm like, "Okay, where's the description?" I'm one who does read everything available before buying. So, if I can't readily find the information I'm looking for...

BYE!