October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

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AuctionBytes Blog
News and insight focusing on
ecommerce and the online auction industry
by Ina Steiner, Editor of AuctionBytes.com

November 19, 2008

October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

By: Ina Steiner

Wed Nov 19 2008 019:49:52

A survey of AuctionBytes readers revealed sales were down in October 2008 compared to last year's October sales, both on eBay and off eBay. Seventy-five percent of respondents selling on eBay said their sales had decreased in October 2008 compared to the previous October. You can read the AuctionBytes survey results in today's Newsflash newsletter.

This is consistent with other surveys about online retail in general. ComScore released its monthly retail ecommerce sales estimates this week, which showed that online spending in October 2008 grew by only 1 percent over October 2007, the lowest monthly growth rate since it began tracking ecommerce in 2001. (Data excludes travel and auctions.)

Here's an interesting chart from ComScore showing growth rates for ecommerce.

Comments (40) | Permalink

Readers Comments

October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

by: i'd rather remain anonymous

Wed Nov 19 10:31:46 2008

aw cmon it's not ebay's fault. it's my fault for not getting my 4000+ items back on the site after ebay amputated my business without so much as a phone call. what can a 9 year veteran with a lifetime 99.7% fb rating on over 6000 tranactions expect? i'm back up to 900 listings but with no customers i am in no rush. actually i have been building stores on bonanzle and ioffer and ebid. not to mention all the qualified book sites like abebooks, bibliophile, choosebooks etc.

rot in hell ebay.

October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

by: RatherRuss

Wed Nov 19 10:34:16 2008

Hello, interesting plunge....granted that the economy has gone totally South as well, check the trajectory from end of May til now. May 20th was the intro of all of Ebays' DSR, Neutrals as Negs, best match machinations. This complete drop roughly coincides....do you think the lunkheads in the ebay hierarchy will figure this one out....not likely as now there is a new rollback on multiple listings. Got to wonder, when the ''grand experiment'' of Donahue, and/or the wall street and financial institutions will figure out, that being wrong and continuing the same patterns is the definition of insanity...Just a thought? Can Donahue's parents get their money back on his biz school education?

October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

by: i'd rather remain anonymous

Wed Nov 19 10:35:47 2008

and by the way folks - ebayers, ex- or otherwise that it - bonanzle is going to win.

great site. easy peasy listing. growing like crazy and FREE.

and no i don't own their stock - that was ebay stock i used to own.

rot in hell ebay.

October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

by: Jonathan

Wed Nov 19 10:36:35 2008

My eBay sales are down 95% for OCT 2008 to OCT 2007. My Amazon sales are doing far better then ever before. This I think is just what eBay wants to happen as they have done almost everything they can to force me to concentrate solely on building my Amazon business and letting my eBay business die. I think eBay probably has a few more ideas waiting in the wings to finally kill me off. Many years on eBay with over 2,500 all 100% positive feedback and eBay seems to think I am an enemy, not a customer.

October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

by: terry

Wed Nov 19 11:14:58 2008

I truly believe that sales are down because of BEST MATCH as the default.

more people have written to me than ever before that they missed an auction because best match sorts the items in a way that is not condusive to the majority of bidders. people like to see what is ending first and how much time they have left to bid on it.

best match may be good for stores. but it is the absolute wrong thing for auctions.

i welcome any comments to my theory.

October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

by: Mind Boggling

Wed Nov 19 11:35:47 2008

There has probably never been a case like ebay where they start by shooting themselves in the foot, then the knee, then the stomach, then...

This is what happens when you leave marketing and customer service decisions to computer nerds and greedy CEOs (Whitman/Donahoe) who beefed up their bonus checks and just ignored ongoing serious pleas from customers.

Ebay is an inigma, but it is what it is... really, really, stupid. I think Whitman ought to be charged with theft.

The sagging economy arrived just in time as the latest excuse to tell the stockholders.

If the economy improves, maybe ebay staff can tell the stockholders that invaders from outer space have screwed up their operations.

October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

by: Kristoffer

Wed Nov 19 12:15:31 2008

I am sure the economy has something to do with it but you can't tell me that all the changes ebay has made hasn't been the main problem. Of course ebay is never willing to admit they have done anything wrong.

October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

by: Renee

Wed Nov 19 13:04:14 2008

Things started off looking good for me in October but then I started modifying listings to reflect no checks and money orders. My sales took a serious dive as soon as I finished revising all listings but then just tanked on 10/20. Now, I'm believing some economy but more important is the no checks / money order policy.

I shouldn't have believed Ebay and taken their advise to revise listings or they will be pulled. I believe since I followed their recommendations about no checks I'm losing buyers all over the place to those smart competitors that say they still will accept checks and money orders.

Smart sellers left everything in place until Ebay actual starts enforcement unless they decide to reverse their policy regarding checks.

October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

by: Barbara

Wed Nov 19 13:10:37 2008

Ebay has been dead in the water lately for me despite my many new items listed. Both of my ID's have been dead with sales way down. I personally believe this is from Best Match, specifically, along with the whole fiasco of changes introduced last May. Interestingly, I am making more money on ETSY than ever... with Ecrater coming in second. There seems to be a shift in my sales, so the dollar amounts aren't too far off the mark from last year when you look at them collectively. That is what is most interesting to me... It seems the internet shopper isn't interested in Ebay any more. Also I find that if I list just a few items daily on both of the non ebay sites, I always make page 1 or 2 in a google search... my ebay items are NEVER on page 1 of google...

October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

by: Et tu, Brute!

Wed Nov 19 13:23:50 2008

Isn't it interesting that ebay changed their front page colors to the same as Bonanzle's front page!

October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

by: lucylou

Wed Nov 19 13:38:40 2008

I've been selling since 2002 and ahve racked up 5500+ feedbacks and right now sit precariously on a 100% feedback. But one dissatified seller recently tanked my DSR store from 4.9 across the board to a 4.6. My sales for October of 2008 were half of what they were in 2007-- despite the fact that I have consistently been seeing av average of a 20% gain over year to year. That's the bad news, The good news-- all this ridiculousness at eBay finally made me renovate my website-- and in the month of October my sales there went through the roof. So I'm investing there-- not at eBay. In many ways I am very sad--eBay was a great venue for many years. I didn't always agree with some of the decisions but I could live with them. The climate there now is growing untenable. Venues like eBay should be growing in an economy like we have now--instead sellers are fleeing and the buyers are following them in droves.

October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

by: tula

Wed Nov 19 15:10:51 2008

@Mind Boggling:
Don't blame the computer geeks. Management never listens to the techies. They're too busy with their Powerpoint charts and Excel spreadsheets to care when the geeks tell them something is broken/impossible/won't work the way they want, etc. I know this from 19 years working as a techie. Management always thinks they know better, even when they don't know what they're talking about. They hear what they want to hear. I suspect the eBay management is a lot like Dilbert's pointy-haired boss.

October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

by: Consignment Pal Resale Directory

Wed Nov 19 16:20:09 2008

This is being discussed on the eBay Trading Assistant* discussion board at http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=510041432&tstart=0&mod
=1227127421566

The consensus is that:

1. Sales are down compared to last year.

2. Good merchandise is readily available to sell on consignment

3. Paul of Hidden Treasures in Phoenix is pushing the 25% cash back reward through Microsoft Live that works on BIN items paid through PayPal.

For a link to the terms and conditions on eBay's behalf, check:

http://pages.ebay.com/cashbackoffer/terms.html?_trksid=m
38

* ''Ebay Trading Assistants'' is the formal name given to eBay consignment sellers.

October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

by: Ming the Merciless

Wed Nov 19 19:22:16 2008

Best Match: "is in the best interests of our shareholders."

The ebay DeathWatch for Nov. 19:

--today already tanking ebay stock lost 4.96% more of its value
--price per share: $11.69 down from Friday's close of $12.30

Ebay stock is approaching junk status :-))

The Donna Ho fiddles while Rome burns.

Death to ebay corp.

October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

by: otto

Wed Nov 19 19:35:49 2008

Burp!

October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

by: BOWHUNTER

Wed Nov 19 19:44:43 2008

I have been a member of ebay for 8+ years.I have 100% fb with perfect DSR's.From last Oct until now I sell far less.All the changes at ebay have a lot to do with this for sure.I also have far less hits on my listings than before.I think this has a lot to do with my sales.The last sale for me ended with a non paying bidder but I can't leave him the feedback that he deserves thanks to ebays policy change.I talked with a personal friend today that had been cheated by a buyer.The buyer paid with pay-pal and upon receiving the item filed a chargeback.Ebay honored his request with a refund withdrawn from my friends pay-pal account.Six weeks have passed with no return of the sold item.My friend is out his item with all the fees.He plans to never use ebay again.Also I have stopped using ebay since they stopped paper payments and will never sell on ebay again until they reinstate the paper payment method.I simply don't trust ebay-paypal or most of their new policys and I don't think that I am the only one with this opinion.Ebay once was a good thing and now a nightmare--I don't like bad dreams **GOODBYE EBAY**

October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

by: eBuyer Feedback

Wed Nov 19 20:52:57 2008

@ Renee

It may not be the actual policy that killed your sales but the fact that you modified your listing. If you change the title or price you lose best match ranking. It is still unclear if changing the description also kills your ranking.

October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

by: pst1ca

Wed Nov 19 21:23:31 2008

EBay can also thank PayPal for their woes or drop in sales. I have been buying since 2005 and using PayPal to protect my credit card info. I have now apparently hit my ''sending money limit'' and the only way I can use their services is to give them my banking info to become ''verified''. I have not had one issue using their service, they have not had one charge back. If they think they are getting my private info they have another thing coming. So I guess it is so long PayPal and so long EBAY....piss off your loyal customers and your Sellers....that is a great business model to follow for increased sales and continuing profits.

October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

by: West Coast

Thu Nov 20 00:13:11 2008

Ebay continues to raise its fees to sellers, while ''encouraging'' top sellers to lower their sell prices.

Ebay continues to raise its rate card, year over year, (unlike Amazon) for its services, but sellers are expected to do the inverse, charging less for their goods, even as their major overheard expense, ebay fees, just keeps going up.

True, the economy is very bad now, but a longtime, fee-gouging, multi-national corporation like ebay is as much to blame for that as any major service provider to the masses.

Gas prices have fallen to their necessary market value but I doubt ebay will do the same with the fees....

October Sales Down for eBay Sellers

by: Michael

Thu Nov 20 05:39:57 2008

I don't know what the heck happened, but our sales went WAY up in mid-September/early October, then fell drastically. Now, mid-November, and sales are lower than ever...we've made no changes to our listings, but sales are actually below a normal month and positively nonexistent for the holiday season. This is a disaster!

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