Down 3K From Last Year

I am right there with you and hear you loud and clear.

I mentioned something to this effect earlier this week. We have the exact same story here. It may be just a changing climate in the online world of buying and with so many other platforms, who knows.

I wonder if there is a way for us all to get Ebay statistics to know if Ebay as a whole is also suffering a large decrease in traffic, visits and hits. Again, who knows, but maybe Ebay is off by millions of visitors and it is losing to other platforms or venues.

Sort of baffling to a lot of us.

Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta

Agreed. We’re probably down by 30%-40% in November compared to last year. Not sure the reason why, but I hope the eBay brains are analyzing and course correcting.

My actual December sales for 2018 are on par to my December sales for 2017. However, I have 25% more items in my store this December 2018 and most are on a promoted listing.

I looked at my sales in December from 2017 and this coming week was by far the best week of the month. Let’s hope for a good next week.

Mark

I think we have around 800 more items in our store now compared to last year at this time.

Our November sales were $1000 more than last year.

December so far is exactly the same as last year.

We have never done any promoted listings until this weekend. Not very scientific as it’s 3 days, but no real increase from what I would expect without promoted listings. We sell vintage clothes, vintage household items….you know, estate sale stuff. So not sure promoted really work. That’s been my thought anyway. Our target customer is someone who searches very specifically on eBay for an exact match.

eBay is without a doubt losing traffic to other platforms. Just look at how many other options people have now vs. what was around even a year or so ago; Poshmark, Etsy, etc all have name recognition and I frequently hear people bring them up when it comes to shopping online.

I don’t know what you sell, but if you’re not at the very least cross-listing to platforms that house what you’re selling on eBay right now, you’re probably losing out. These aren’t just small, niche sites anymore.

Think of it this way: What are the chances people lost interest in what you’re selling vs. the likelihood of them going elsewhere for it?

My November 2018 was up by $200 over last year, but I needed 2,000 more active items to get there, as well as 20 RA items (sourced for $2, sold for $20 apiece) that were Christmas themed.

December 2018 is currently on par with last year, but again, needed more listings to get there.

I still don’t believe in promoted listings, so I’m holding steady by just listing more items.

I am way up over last year:

Oct 2017 -> $949.81 Oct 2018 -> $1362
Nov 2017 -> $865.62 Nov 2018 -> $1704.28
Dec 2017 -> $1066.36 Dec 2018 -> $952.49 (& 21 more days to go…)

Selling mostly clothes and shoes and relying heavily on sales and promoted listings… (when I don’t use them, I don’t seem to sell anything.) The hard goods I have seem to sit all year long but start selling between November and New Years. Last year I had around 900 listings, this year 1100-ish. I have focused on amping up the quality of my goods, instead of buying “cheap stuff that is a really good bargain”… (or buying lots of stuff just because it is very inexpensive or free) I really am looking for New-With-Tag Items and better quality name brands. It has really made a difference especially this quarter. Everything “new” has been selling very quickly, I presume for gifts…

Our sales are up, but so are our listings and our ASP. We o use Promoted Listings and Promotions Manager to a greater extant than before. Still, I too feel ebay is not setting the retail world on fire this quarter.

I’m sure there are a number of factors at work here. One is competition. As some have noted, newer sites like Poshmark , Facebook Marketplace, and Mercari are growing, and they are likely growing primarily at eBay’s expense. And some are clearly targeting the audience ebay most covets: millennials. Add to this the fact that, in order to better compete against Amazon, sites like WalMart , Best Buy, and Target have ramped up their online efforts, which may be taking market share from Amazon, but also from the lower hanging fruit, eBay.

And when it comes to new merchandise, eBay IS lower hanging fruit: it has no physical infrastructure to guarantee the fast shipping millenials seem to crave, and it has yet to fully implement its Product Pages, which means it is still WAY behind on something that should have been in place years ago. I think Wenig is right, Product Pages are important and necessary, but they are only table stakes: even once (perhaps I should say IF) ebay has finally successfully implemented them, basically, they just bring ebay to a point most sites are already at.

Then there is eBay’s marketing. While ebay does seem to have ramped up its marketing for Q4 (and maybe they are doing great with it, I don’t know), the marketing is clearly not designed to bring buyers to our merchandise—it is designed to tell buyers: Look, we have lots of shiny new stuff here, and you can buy it right now, not wait for an auction to end! I understand eBay’s point: they feel too many people still think of them as the old , auction oriented, used stuff site, and they need to transform that image. To me, the problem is: what in the new image REALLY differentiates them from Amazon, WalMart, and so forth? I’ve seen some of the TV ads, and you could pretty much replace the ebay logo with any one of a number of other sites, and the ad would still be pretty much the same thing.

So far, none of the ads have really come across as Christmasy to me, and Christmas, which, for so many people, centers around nostalgia and tradition, is a perfect time for ebay to differentiate themselves by pushing our kind of stuff. Are they doing that? No. So, while they MIGHT be doing a good job of pushing their Daily Deals stuff out the door, our stuff is being pushed aside. I don’t mean that ebay WANTS to push us aside, I just mean that , inevitably, if the focus is on new, the used does not get seen as well as it would if ebay were giving it some marketing focus.

I think ultimately it comes down to ebay’s failure to reinvent itself after the novelty of auctions faded. What ebay has going for it is it still has some name recognition. But what really differentiates it from its competitors? With WalMart, I can order online and pick up an item in the store. Can’t do that with eBay. Amazon prime not only includes free shipping and so forth, but movies and more. eBay offers nothing remotely like that. I do think ebay is trying, really trying , to stay relevant, but, aside from the wealth of oddball stuff we supply, what does it have that really differentiates it? And what happens to it as more and more of our kind of stuff migrates to other sites?

eBay’s biggest advantage is what it has always been: it has no inventory, no cost of acquisition, no storage costs and so forth. That is what allows it to be profitable. But it also a disadvantage: it has much less control over what appears on the site, at what price, how quickly things ship, and so forth.

I haven’t yet posted to the 2019 thread, but when I do, “adding more platforms” will be on the list. eBay is still worth selling on, and hopefully will be for a long time to come, but , to me, its future is cloudy at best.

Looking at that rather lengthy post: I don’t want to be a Debby Downer. I think eBay is still a good place to sell used stuff, and I do think it will remain a good place into the foreseeable future.

Years ago, before ebay stores were integrated into ebay search (for you younger folks, ebay stores were originally off to the side, you might say…if buyers knew they existed, they could search within the stores section)…anyway, years ago, ebay provided an FVF discount for sales that were generated from off ebay by the seller. (In other words, if I had a blog, and mentioned one of my items URLs in it, and used the referral code with the URL, and a buyer bought from that referral, I got a discount. I would love to see ebay bring back something like this, and maybe limit to certain categories (such as collectibles). I think this would give ebay sellers a lot more incentive to use Pinterst, FB etc to send buyers to ebay. Many sellers already do this, but I think it could make a real difference, especially for our type of stuff. What do you guys think?

Jay, as to the new sites, I agree. Time will tell whether their attraction lasts very long. One thing I always said about etsy: etsy will eventually resemble ebay in many ways, because as it grows it encounters the same issues ebay already encountered, and will solve them in much the same way. And, in my6 opinion, that is what has happened. I suspect the same for sites like Poshmark: as they grow, so will their list of rules, so will their supposed “micromanagement”, etc. And for some sellers, that will reduce the appeal. And, as the sites grow, so will the competition on the site, which will likely (as it did on ebay) drive down prices and sales for some things because of supply and demand.

I’m like you: I really don’t know about sellers of new stuff, but for our kind of stuff, even if we are the victims of management’s benign neglect. we are still finding buyers for our stuff. I think it still comes down to the individual seller to make it work.

Jay, Right, no stick, just carrot.

For me this year, it has been interesting in that some categories seem to be taking off, and others are just completely dead.

Almost everything I sell is vintage – the category I see the most decline in is vintage stereo equipment from the late 70’s and up. Items from the 80’s were easy sales the last few years, but now nobody is buying.

Vintage sports equipment is doing very well for me this year – and is easy to find if you know what to look for.

Overall, I think it’s the balance or diversity that can keep your business at a steady sales level. If I depended on stereo equipment, I’d have a horrible year.

I checked my numbers out of curiosity.
I already have more in total sales this quarter than I had all 4Q last year.
Year over year, I’ve already had 50% more in total sales $ this year, which blows my mind!

@Atomicstar you might give Mercari a go for bread and butter / better brands / pop culture / younger appeal items. It’s not saturated yet with sellers and Google loves Mercari. It’s a very smart and efficient app. It’s super fast to list. It does have limitations, especially on the customer service end. But returns are discouraged and all sales are final in 3 days or sooner after receipt. I know it has some similarities to Poshmark and you might get lower prices on Mercari, but if you are looking to push more volume short term you might find that it helps. And there is no sharing required on Mercari though it’s super fast if you choose to pin or share. Good luck in 2019.

I’ve been really happy with it but the things I am listing I am willing to let go for less than top dollar. I start the price a little higher than I really want and promote.

Their new promote to likers tool is pretty cool. I’ve been getting those exclusive buying invitations in my email from sellers for a couple of days now with the app upgrade. Not enough to be annoying. This is an area where Ebay just isn’t keeping up. Still love Ebay though for collectibles and I trust Ebay more for higher dollar items.

I thought eBay already did the referral thing if you listed on the app? I got the option a couple of times to copy down a link and have FVF either waived/discounted if a purchase was made from it. Kinda like a reverse promoted listing.

Interesting to hear how off I was about these other platforms. I swear I hear Etsy/Poshmark more than eBay, but it could be regional or just this time of the year when people are looking for gifts and “boutique” stuff. For non-metropolitan areas I think LetGo/OfferUp (and most of the marketplace subsections of social media apps) are probably useless, but they are very popular here. I’m considering moving some percentage of my inventory over to them.

@Inglewood – I have a lot of luck with tape decks and CD players, but I’m seeing the same thing you are with receivers. I’m hoping they’ll rebound in the new year since I’ve got a few still sitting around.

As far as fast delivery…we ordered two things from Amazon last week that where 2 days guaranteed. Took a week to get here. They both sat in the St. Louis warehouse for days.

When I buy off of eBay, the items arrive when expected. At least that’s how it has been for me.

adding Poshmark gives me anywhere from “extra” $500-600/month. (350 listings). Google loves Poshmark, too. So, about $20 per day let’s say. The amount of time I spend on posh / day is about 30 minutes, so the ROI is so-so.
If I expand to another platform it will be etsy for hardgoods and linens.

I am making more on ebay in 2018 but I also have 4X listings as I did in 2017, so the data isn’t solid Year over Year for me. plus I was very bad at record keeping.
I was not doing Posh last Fall, so this is new.

Great thread,
I really think Ebay should try marketing the vintage that is popular. Think about the sets on Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon prime show) and Mad Men, the millenials at the time ate it up. What about a vision of someone walking on one of those sets and being able to buy the stuff they see. We all sell to prop warehouses.
The other thing is to capitalize on loss of property events like hurricanes and fires (I know this sounds wrong but hear me out). Ebay promises to donate a percent of sales on ‘replaceable goods’ for the victims, we sell the vintage tea set or old teddy bear, people start thinking of Ebay as the place to go when they want to reconnect with their old Pokemon cards their mom threw away.
Ebay sells 70% new, the problem is, we have all the sellers Amazon rejects and customers are looking to Ebay as the bargain basement. Race to the bottom.
I wish Ebay would just accept their world wide garage sale reputation and embrace it.
Colleen

I have had more than a few people in their 30s say “I didn’t know ebay was still a thing!” Meanwhile, they happily shop on etsy and amazon. But, I get it – you go to ebay main page and it looks like… I don’t even know a bunch of stock photos. Very uninspired or even pleasing to navigate.