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Interesting article here about eBay having negative growth for the first time: https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/ebay-growth-turns-negative
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Makes sense to me too. I don’t understand why they are trying to turn themselves into Amazon. Amazon will always be better at being Amazon. Hopefully they will correct course and lean back into being the place to go for everything that ISN’T in the “Everything Store”.
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I agree with ebay that sales tax is probably a factor in the US (although not the only factor). But there are a number of things at work here, including the fact that ebay’s US market makes up about 40% and foreign makes up about 60%….so I’d guess the uncertainty surrounding Brexit and so forth, all of that may play a role as well.
But the main problem is probably the same as it has been for some years now….ebay hasn’t defined itself in a way that gives buyers reason to shop on ebay rather than elsewhere. And increasingly its not giving sellers enough reason to sell on ebay either, given the rise of sites like Mercari, Posh, etc….
The amazing thing to me, is that ebay has lasted this long….ebay’s early success was built in large part on its entertainment value….auctions were fun at a time when there wasn’t a whole lot of really fun stuff online. But the rise of video, online gaming, social media etc….all of that killed ebay as the fun thing to do while sitting at the computer. Without the fun factor, it has become just another place to shop online, and there’s nothing exciting about that. I think inertia has kept ebay alive , buyers and sellers who are used to it keep using it, but drawing new people into it? That’s hard, because…well, what’s the draw?
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Amazon earnings are also down, most likely due to the race for 1 day shipping. Unnecessarily fast shipping for most of the items people buy online.
Overall, it’s an interesting time in online selling – if you look at the Amazon seller boards, there’s as many slow sales threads as you see on Ebay boards/forums/etc,. Is it due to the number of sellers? Sales tax? Recession fears?
Also, October is always the slowdown before Christmas. People are focused on Halloween, on saving money for Christmas. It happens every year like clockwork. Unless you have Halloween related items in your store, your sales will slow down in October. Christmas items also sell more frequently in October, as do New Year. If you are just selling normal items, expect a slight slowdown. It’s normal.
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I saw that blog post yesterday too. I’m subscribed to that blog and sometimes follow the email link to read an article, but in my opinion, it isn’t always reliable even though it looks nice and professional. Big on interpreting various statistics and presenting a suggested reason.
For the eBay sales downturn, I just don’t see internet sales tax as a likely cause, people who buy on the Internet aren’t likely to suddenly decided to stop buying or buy locally because of a 6 to 8 cent increase per dollar.
The eBay sales volume drop might be behind the recent top management change, with Wenig stepping down as CEO.
My 30 day sales are up a few percent at both eBay and Amazon but those short term changes aren’t a significant factor to base an opinion on.
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