Bye bye eBay, eBay bye bye
By Ed | November 25th, 2008 | Category: Biz Planning |
Such could have been the chorus lyrics of a top-ten song by 1970’s Scottish teeny-bopper band the Bay City Rollers.
It’s no secret in the online auction-selling community that large numbers of sellers are either leaving eBay, or splitting inventory off to other sites to adopt a multi-channel approach, and leave themselves less vulnerable to the vagaries and whims of a once near-monopoly gone mad.
Yet there are important statistics that even the mighty eBay do not have access to. I can only speak for this blog when I present the following data, although I expect other sites are seeing a similar trend.
As far back as late January and early February this year, I started noticing a repeated phrase turning up in the statistics that told me what people had searched for, and had brought them to BuildaSkill via the major search engines. The phrase was a two-word search, “eBay alternatives”. The early year hit count was predictable given the major announcements John Donahoe made from Washington.
There was then a steady trickle through to late spring, and when the new feedback rules kicked in, that search term surged as a source of visitors. During the summer it fell back to a steady flow, and was joined by a more specific search term, “eBay competitors”. Visitor volume arriving via both search-terms began building quickly in the autumn, picking up volume throughout October when sales volumes crashed for many people.
That growth has continued this month, and the pairing of “eBay competitors” and “eBay alternatives” is now driving around one third of all search-driven arrivals on the BuildaSkill blog and forums. When that statistic is matched to user-growth figures from established eBay-competitors, such as Amazon, eBid, and others, as well as newer venues such as Bonanzle, and niche channels like delCampe (philately) and Etsy (handmades), then the forecast for eBay after the January sales looks rather worrying.
Most of this year, many currently retained eBay sellers have made no secret of the fact they are operating a “suck it and see” strategy until the Christmas season is finished, after which they will decide their online selling future. A large number of vendors (private and business) currently selling on the platform have openly declared they will be leaving eBay after the New Year “sales” clearances period. The now steady flow of announcements from eBay, regarding further fundamental policy changes due in late January, are reinforcing the ranks of intended migrants.
The simplest truth is that, with the global economy under such pressure, and with so many people in developed countries enduring distressed disposable incomes, venues like eBay should be enjoying a massive growth phase as people offload unwanted items to relieve personal cash flow pressures. Such conditions were, after all is said and done, the engine that made yard sales and car boot sales so popular pre-internet, and built eBay from it’s Labour Day inception, as AuctionWeb, in 1996. Yet the evidence is, that the listings quantity of used and nearly new on eBay is stagnant, maybe even declining.
Stagnation in this strategically-critical site area comes from two main pressures. eBay have priced themselves off the considerations of casual sellers and cupboard clearers, and more-regular, personal-junk/recycling sellers have seen themselves squeezed off the platform by the mega-sellers of commodity-priced new items, each dumping hundreds of thousands of listings into the categories. (Randy Smythe runs a regular watch list of the mega-sellers if anyone is interested to follow them).
That there appears to have not have been the annual surge in nearly new items and unwanted presents looking to be recycled for cash on eBay throughout the Christmas run-up, is a clear indicator that the site is no-longer considered true to its roots. It can also be viewed as an indicator that many more types of seller than eBay anticipated have already either gone multi-channel, or have abandoned eBay favouring elsewhere, before Black Friday and Cyber-Monday arrive. Shareholders appear extremely worried about this and its effect on the future sustainability of eBay, with share prices tanking in the last quarter, yet still, eBay executives do not appear to be hearing what their paying customers are telling them.
All of the above leads me to ask two simple questions -
- How much longer can the mega-sellers’ mass-listings mask the exodus of eBay’s heart-and-soul vendors?
- Are you planning to move off eBay in the New Year, or have you already?
I’d like to hear your plans and intentions in the comments below, please include whether or not you have changed your normal listing-venue strategy this autumn and Christmas season, and whether or not you’ll be buying on eBay during the peak Thanksgiving weekend.
Ed
Ed, I’ve already left. Stopped selling on eBayAU a month ago to concentrate on my own site which I set up a year and a half ago. No more idiotic eBay policies, no more feeling like buyers expect top quality service at bargain basement prices and no more Feedback to have to worry about. It’s all good, and to any seller reading this who doesn’t have alternative selling channels to eBay, set them up. Quick.
Bonanzle is where I hang now. Fun and supportive venue. Variety galore. Various payment options. Owner supported, seller operated, buyer happy. Nothing better!!!!
eBay couldn’t PAY me to even shop there. Closed up my buying and selling account and Paypal earlier this year. I saw the handwriting on the wall.
I have been selling CDs at an eBay shop in Germany for a couple of years. all went fine until in 2007 sales declined rapidly. it was not because there might have been too many competitors, my cds having been unique items mostly. it was the hits that declined. nearly nobody visited my shop sites. a year ago i moved all my items to amazon.de, and my sales are doing very well now. i will not go back to eBay.
I will start selling stamps in 2009. My choice is Delcampe.
My plan… I already left … i have hopes that one of the alternative auction sites will advertise their rumps off to get customers there, because sellers will be ready and waiting for the customers to begin bidding. In the meantime, I am selling fixed price on bonanzle, a really friendly and fun site. i am intrigued by a few other sites too, like etsy, and excited about auctiva opening storefronts for sellers in January. Sadly I didn’t make nearly what I would have on ebay. The skies the limit for some sight, they just gotta reach up there and advertise to attract buyers.
You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
If you want to pay eBay scale fees and put up with the garbage, then you can have the site advertise for you. If you do not want the site taking 23%+ of your gross price then it is time to get off your duff and either build and promote your own site, or go someplace like Bonanzle where they make it easy for you to do your own promotional and marketing feed.
Personally, I am doing both.
My books show my gross sales were lower in 2008 than 2007, however the bottom line is up. Put simply I am not working as hard and making more money.
I am one of the steadfast eBay boycotters. I am fortunate that I do not earn my living from online sales. I have always enjoyed buying and used to spend my pin money on eBay, not a ‘powerbuyer’ but easily $200 - $300 a month. My selling was to sell duplicates and no longer wanted items from my collections and to support my buying habit. Fairly typical I dare say. My close to 2000 feedback is about evenly split as buyer and seller.
If I see something I want on eBay I will write the seller and tell them list it elsewhere and send me a link if you want the sale. No skin off my nose if they decline. I will NOT spend my money in a place that thinks I am noise and provides little or no customer service.