Finally Leaving eBay

[mtools]

Have had a guts full of people on eBay so I've decided to pack it in and concentrate mainly on my website. To put it in context my eBay sales have stayed around the same, maybe shrunk slightly, but all the while my website sales have improved. Now my site to ebay split is probably 85:15. I sell my own brand of products, so I wonder if eBay is really a good thing anyway? I've finally decided to sack off eBay, only things I've got on there are a few items that are old lines that I'm looking to get rid of. I'm fed up of the obnoxious attitude of people on there. If an item doesn't turn up to a customer within a day or two they get really arsey and I can't be bothered dealing with them. website customers are a million times more understanding! Every time I get a message on ebay I dread opening it, seems I've got all the berks shopping at the moment! Anyway, will be interesting to see if my website picks up the sales that eBay loses and if not selling on eBay actually helps my brand. Anyone else done anything similar?

 

[Tech4Homes]

I've just started selling on eBay, mixed bag so far, if you sell a fair bit then I don't blame you for leaving.

So far I've had some silly questions, some "empty boxes" delivered and some other people trying to pull a fast one.

But alas, I need the sales and at the minute a sale is a sale!

 

[Chris34]

The money that you gave to Ebay, well it might be worth spending the same money on advertising for your website and see if you can make up the difference in lost sales.


Chris.

 

[adamo]

The money that you gave to Ebay, well it might be worth spending the same money on advertising for your website and see if you can make up the difference in lost sales.

This is a great point. ~10% of sales (this is what their fee is, right?) adds up over time, especially if you're selling a lot of stock!

 

[brc]

ebay used to be a cleaner site than it is now, early on in its hey day it was full of early adopters and people who where genuine, it was a community, it was a two way street and it kept vermin buyers in check because you could neg them and it wasnt so skewed in favour of vermin buyers...now its a crap shoot at its best, you have to keep in mind that 64% of people that shop on ebay are from socio economic grades C1 - E ... dont want to sound to harsh but if you sell goods on a council estate you are going to have issues with the chavs.

 

[brc]

Its great that you are focusing more on your website, id still use ebay to pull in the crowds and get them buying of your own site, again you run the risk of targeting vermin but when they are in your playground you will see the behaviour change as now they know they cant neg you and they cant do what ever they like and know ebay will be right there behind them. Give a thief an inch and he will take a mile.

 

[Jason L]

I think eBay/Amazon Marketplace etc are good places to get your brand out there (if you have your own product) or good places to get some more volume of sales (even if margins are tight due to competition). However, ultimately you want to be building and investing in your own site. Sometimes eBay etc can be more of a distraction - keeping up with the new rules, worrying about your feedback etc, etc.

Sounds to me like you are in a good place if the majority of sales are coming through your own site.

 

[silvermusic]

ebay used to be a cleaner site than it is now, early on in its hey day it was full of early adopters and people who where genuine, it was a community, it was a two way street and it kept vermin buyers in check because you could neg them and it wasnt so skewed in favour of vermin buyers...now its a crap shoot at its best, you have to keep in mind that 64% of people that shop on ebay are from socio economic grades C1 - E ... dont want to sound to harsh but if you sell goods on a council estate you are going to have issues with the chavs.

And these facts come from where exactly?

I'm speechless at your attitude to certain groups of people, I thought attitudes like that had died out with the dinosaurs, sadly it appears not.

 

[mtools]

Thanks for the ideas, Chris, spending extra 10% that I'd be spending on ebay on advertising is a great idea. Plus there's the paypal fees which are a nightmare. Currently each week my sales breakdown is split 50-60% paypal transactions 40-50% UPG card fees (i accept paypal on my website). decreasing reliance on ebay will naturally decrease the paypal fees.

Interestingly, one of the people who triggered me to leave eBay just emailed asking where his item is. I checked the tracking and it was signed for by him on Saturday. He's not replied since I told him that.

 

[GraemeL]

Have to say that Amazon has not presented me with the sort of problems you have on ebay. I charge more on Amazon that I do on my own website to cover some of the fees. All happy!

 

[e-vulture]

I'd have to agree with the above. Amazon doesn't give me any problem buyers - I've not had an item not received on there in years. On ebay I get several a week. If I could, I'd ditch ebay.

 

[Pish_Pash]

I doubt you've got a snowflake in hell's chance of building your website up sufficiently to compensate for the loss of ebay's sales. I'd say if the main hassle is folks saying stuff hasn't arrived, address that aspect...better shipping company, higher prices to offset the odd bad trade etc.

What percentage of your sales are you having problems with (mine is probably less than 1%)

 

[brc]

@silvermusic

The facts come from ebay.
Its a break down of their demographics.

Also I speak from experience of having sold to ebay and amazon customers, amazon are a cut above, ebay is a horrible place at this moment in time, full of riff raff...its my opinion be it prehistoric or not.

 

[Ian J]

I didn't realise that Ebay was still popular as I stopped using it years ago when people started selling products at a higher price than I could buy it in the local stores.

The only time that I use Ebay nowadays is to buy oddities that I can't find anywhere else

 

[EcommerceTools]

Your website probably won't pick up the sales you would be losing from packing in eBay. The type of customer that regularly buys from eBay is totally different to those that buy mostly from online stores.

You'll generally find a less fickle, less annoying customer via your website so it would be a good idea to invest a little bit of your budget in attracting more customers to your website in order to make up for the dip in sales from leaving eBay - rather than trying to attract your eBay customers over to your website.

 

[ecoleman]

I doubt you've got a snowflake in hell's chance of building your website up sufficiently to compensate for the loss of ebay's sales. I'd say if the main hassle is folks saying stuff hasn't arrived, address that aspect...better shipping company, higher prices to offset the odd bad trade etc.

What percentage of your sales are you having problems with (mine is probably less than 1%)

Don't see how you can say that. We stopped using eBay a few years ago now and our website sales far surpass what we used to get on eBay and with far less hassles and stupid questions.

eBay is no longer what it used to be and like Ian J said above, I very rarely go to eBay these days when shopping.

 

[Pish_Pash]

Don't see how you can say that. We stopped using eBay a few years ago now and our website sales far surpass what we used to get on eBay and with far less hassles and stupid questions.

eBay is no longer what it used to be and like Ian J said above, I very rarely go to eBay these days when shopping.

How can you say it has surpassed Ebay? If you'd not pulled the plug, then it's likely your sales would have grown - for example our sales are over double what they were two years ago (you stopped it several years ago...where would it be now?!) I make the bold claim based on traffic....unless you are hurling vast amounts of dosh at advertising, than for the money you;d be hard pressed to beat ebay's E-footfall.

I don't buy into the 'Ebay is no longer what it used to be' lament ...we continue to grow sales there. Sure Amazon is better (& the ultimate must be to increase sales on your own website) but I'd not want to walk away from Ebay ...as I said earlier, if you are getting a lot of chancers you need to look at solutions for that particular scenario...not blame the whole of Ebay!

 

[14Steve14]

Personally what spoils eBay is the Money back Guarantee. Some people have abused this and continue to abuse it. They basically try to steal from the seller by claiming INR or something else, and when that does not work eBay refund them anyway. There is no way that a seller can let other sellers know that a buyer tried it on. You cant leave negative feedback for a buyer. The whole eBay system is against the buyer, they even try to override the CCR and push their own returns system on to sellers. Its about time eBay went back to being just a platform to sell on, and stop interfereing in peoples businesses.

 

[Pish_Pash]

Its about time eBay went back to being just a platform to sell on, and stop interfereing in peoples businesses.

Whilst the balance of power is clearly in the buyers favour, you can see why Ebay have gone this way. Without buyer confidence, they don't have a valid marketplace...they are simply trying to increase buyer confidence.....

More buyer confidence = more people willing to buy on Ebay = more sales (every seller wins...not just Ebay!)

Sure, there'll always be chancers, but frankly that's a cost of doing business online...if you are going to leave the biggest marketplaces in the world because the odd person abused the situation, then IMHO that's not a good business decision. As someone once quipped, the dogs may bark but the caravan rolls on.

 

[Paul Norman]

If you can achieve enough traffic and sales on your own website, I would certainly not use Ebay. We have never sold our products on Ebay, and are unlikely to start. I suspect most of the brands would frown on it, too, and I would want to respect that.

 

[Pish_Pash]

We have never sold our products on Ebay, and are unlikely to start. .

Well you're missing a huge market (& as an online retailer, why would you want to avoid that?!)

I suspect most of the brands would frown on it, too, and I would want to respect that.

..perhaps if you're selling luxury goods, but my particular supplier wants volume/churn ...& that (normally) only comes with exposure....something that Ebay gives you in spades.

I'm amazed that so many have equated Ebay = awful ....it accounts for 40% of my turnover.

 

[ecoleman]

How can you say it has surpassed Ebay? If you'd not pulled the plug, then it's likely your sales would have grown - for example our sales are over double what they were two years ago (you stopped it several years ago...where would it be now?!) I make the bold claim based on traffic....unless you are hurling vast amounts of dosh at advertising, than for the money you;d be hard pressed to beat ebay's E-footfall.

I don't buy into the 'Ebay is no longer what it used to be' lament ...we continue to grow sales there. Sure Amazon is better (& the ultimate must be to increase sales on your own website) but I'd not want to walk away from Ebay ...as I said earlier, if you are getting a lot of chancers you need to look at solutions for that particular scenario...not blame the whole of Ebay!

I can say so because it is my business and it is my job to know.
We sell premium quality products at a premium price. eBay customers are generally looking for a bargain, want free delivery and want is yesterday or they will neg you.

The problem with eBay is that not every seller wins as you point out. You have to jump through many hoops, do business on eBay terms and bow down to "customers" every whim (even when you know they are scamming you) in order to prevent a mark against your name. Only then might you win.

Yes we do spend a lot of money on marketing, but it pays for itself many times over.
Tell me, what would it cost to list 72,000 products on eBay?

As for missing out on a large market place. That's fine, it's a market place I would rather avoid.
We don't sell on Amazon either.

 

[Pish_Pash]

I can say so because it is my business and it is my job to know.

That's a contradiction ...you say it's it's your job to know, but you've not been trading on there for several years, so there's no way you can know what business you are missing there now.

 

[ecoleman]

Pish_Pash, Who cares. Only You.
We do very, very well without the need to sell our goods on eBay.
I don't have to deal with the crap that goes with selling on ebay.
I don't have to do business in accordance with another companies terms.
I don't have another company issuing refunds without my consent.
I don't have scammers claiming non receipt every five minutes (and 90% of our orders are delivered no signature required).

Is that okay with you?

 

[Paul Norman]

Well you're missing a huge market (& as an online retailer, why would you want to avoid that?!)



..perhaps if you're selling luxury goods, but my particular supplier wants volume/churn ...& that (normally) only comes with exposure....something that Ebay gives you in spades.

I'm amazed that so many have equated Ebay = awful ....it accounts for 40% of my turnover.

The thing is, and obviously you would need to understand my busines, is this. I am not missing a huge market. I could list my products on Ebay and I would like to bet that I would struggle to achieve 50% of retail price.

You will notice that I do, in fact, sell mostly premium brands. These products come on restricted availability, and I can sell all that I can buy and more, through my website and my physical store. In the event that I do get some stock left over - there are always a few bits - I can run a sale in store, or on my own website, and they clear.

All I would do, if I started using Ebay, would be to massively reduce my margin, irritate my suppliers and destroy a business that we spent 6 years building up to its current levels.

So the answer to your question as to why, as an online retailer, I would want to miss a huge market, is this. I do not believe that I am. I am simply choosing to sell the products to the audience that will appreciate the value in what I am selling.

I can see that if you are in the stack it high sell it cheap market, Ebay may work. That is a completely different game to branded retailing, which is where I have spent my entire life. My comments very much come from that perspective.

 

[Pish_Pash]

Pish_Pash, Who cares. Only You.
We do very, very well without the need to sell our goods on eBay.
I don't have to deal with the crap that goes with selling on ebay.
I don't have to do business in accordance with another companies terms.
I don't have another company issuing refunds without my consent.
I don't have scammers claiming non receipt every five minutes (and 90% of our orders are delivered no signature required).

Is that okay with you?

Personally, I don't care whether you do list on Ebay or not...I'm just taking the emotion out of it & saying (by & large) it makes no business sense to avoid the largest marketplace in the world. However, looking at your (lame) reasons, it seems you are not a businessman (generating business incurs grief), but someone who wants an easier/quiet life retailing online, so I now completely get it. The 4-Hour Work Week (by Timothy Ferris) mentality has seemingly permeated into the pysche of many. Let's all travel the world & have a great time, while the money rolls in - answering to pesky customers...pah, every one of them is fraudulent...I can't be done with all that.

FWIW, my 'disputes/cases/claims' on Ebay are less than 1% ....so the notion that Ebay as a marketplace is terrible is very wide of the mark.

 

[Paul Norman]

I would not, of course, claim that Ebay as a market place is 'terrible', although their terms and conditions do create some questions for me. But, of course, the reality will be that the majority of people on their are just looking for a deal, and will be as good and genuine as the customers that rock up on my website. I can, of course, totally see the point of it. It would simply add no value to my particular business in its current format.

Whilst we are on the topic, of course, I believe Ebay to be superior to Amazon from a sellers perspective.

 

[Chris34]

I sell on Ebay only and my loss rate is less than 1 in 400. My return rate is less than 5%. My customers are really friendly and I deal with decent nice people. I very rarely get any abusive messages and when I do it's often built up anger from previous bad experiences from previous purchases from other sellers, about 90% of the time they calm down on my first response to their message.

I think they often think they have to be abusive to get what they want but when they get to speak to a pro like me they realise they are dealing with someone who is very fair so they respond to me in a very 'fair' way.

I think there is a lot of over generalisation going on when discussing the Ebay customer. A customer buying 'gardening seeds' will be a much different customer than somebody buying a 'downhill racing mountain bike'. They will be of a different age group, different background, different work environment, different social influences, different income,..etc. As such it's wrong to tarnish all Ebay customers with the same brush. It's better to identify the customers by category and then make judgement. The only statement that bucks this rule is the statement that the typical Ebay customer is looking for a bargain, I would believe this to be true for over 90% of Ebay sales.

In my sector my customers are mainly women, over the age of 25 up to 60, I would say in the main they are 30 to 50 range. The products I sell are not niche, they are not unique, they are readily available on the high street and are all below £20 inc postage.

To make Ebay work for you, you need to understand the market of the category you are trying to sell in. It's best to try and sell boring items that dip under the radar of the E-shoplifters or sell items that don't appeal to men. From my experience women are far more trusting people to deal with but not the younger ones.


Chris.

 

[ecoleman]

Personally, I don't care whether you do list on Ebay or not...I'm just taking the emotion out of it & saying (by & large) it makes no business sense to avoid the largest marketplace in the world. However, looking at your (lame) reasons, it seems you are not a businessman (generating business incurs grief), but someone who wants an easier/quiet life retailing online, so I now completely get it. The 4-Hour Work Week (by Timothy Ferris) mentality has seemingly permeated into the pysche of many. Let's all travel the world & have a great time, while the money rolls in - answering to pesky customers...pah, every one of them is fraudulent...I can't be done with all that.

FWIW, my 'disputes/cases/claims' on Ebay are less than 1% ....so the notion that Ebay as a marketplace is terrible is very wide of the mark.

You really shouldn't make assumptions of people you've never met.
I work SMART not HARD. It works for me. I'm sorry if you don't like that........Nah, Im not really.

 

[brc]

pish_pash ... chris34 ... you guys are very confident and passionate about ebay, not sure if you have your own sites or not but unlike the others you dont seem to mention them, what is it that you sell, from the confidence I would assume you are both quite established and you have solid enough businesses to disclose what you do.... and instead of beating around the bushes it would help others understand these high end customers you guys are getting when everyone else seems to get riff raff.

 

[brc]

Also Paul have to disagree about ebay being better for sellers than ebay, this is totally wrong.
Amazon rate a product ...product reviews, you get a product selling well and highly reviewed its going to move like you could not imagine, ebay rate a seller, after a certain amount of stars etc it becomes pointless, the product is never the one that gets the exposure it deserves.

Also having sold on both sites and having built up a good database of sellers who we supply goods to who sell on both, Amazon wins hands down when compared to ebay from a seller point of view every single time, its a cleaner place to sell, you get higher prices, if you use FBA you will see volumes rocket like mad, and the customer it attracts is a higher calibre than ebay.

On Amazon last year we sold a product for £64.95 when similar products on ebay where being sold for around £18-£20 ... we sold almost 6,000 units in the run up to xmas, never in a million years would we be able to sell at that price on ebay... ebay wants to be like Amazon hence they are doing all they can to get there, ebay may be the biggest marketplace in terms of 'accounts' but they certainly are not bigger than Amazon in terms of sales.

ebay has lost money year on year and the only thing that has kept it going is paypal, if you remove paypal out of the equation ebay has been dead in the water for years, now that they are going to spin paypal off its only recently they have started to get there act together.

 

[Pish_Pash]

You really shouldn't make assumptions of people you've never met.

I didn't assume, you told us why you don't list on Ebay! None of them are reasons not to list up on Ebay, but simply show you want an easy online retail life (no assumptions) ...each to their own, but it's a bit much to diss' the overall Ebay marketplace just because of your personal 'I can't be bothered with Ebay cos it's all scammers' stance (and an opinion formed several years ago at that)

brc... Chris's earlier post shows that my experience of Ebay isn't isolated (no need to go into what I do). Like Chris I'm professional, I don't mess customers about or duck/dive ...if an order hasn't turned up, I address the problem (& then make a claim with my shipping provider - so 'no shows' needn't be costly) ...but thankfully such occurrences are rare & most folks are honest.

I agree with brc that Amazon is where the retail action is at, but my posts are simply to give a bit of balance (it's all too fashionable to beat up Ebay, when things may not have gone as you'd imagined)...IMHO most online sellers would be barking to turn their back on one of the world's largest marketplaces.

 

[brc]

Come on lads...what do you sell, whats the worry?

 

[Chris34]

BRC - Why would I tell the world how to make money off Ebay? What's in it for me? I keep my business very private and I'd like to keep it that way, it's something I've learnt to do from past bad experiences in the early days of being self employed.

This riff raff you speak of, I don't get it because I operate in a sector that doesn't appeal to those type of people. It's not rocket science, if you were selling telescopes do you think you will get loads of pot heads buying them? If you were selling knitting kits do you think you will get a load of gaming geeks buying them? It really is that simple, you evaluate the type of customer you expect to get and then decide if it's a market that is going to cause you problems with people trying it on.

That's the thing with Ebay, you don't set up a business and then decide to sell on Ebay. To make Ebay work you should decide to sell on Ebay and then set up a business. Essentially you are identifying an opportunity on Ebay to make money before you set up the business to capitalise on the opportunity. That's the best way to make Ebay work for you.




Chris.

 

[14Steve14]

I wouldn't say everyone on eBay is looking for a bargain, many are looking because it is convenient. Many go there because they can find many sellers selling what they want. Many eBay buyers never look beyond eBay. Try converting an eBay buyer to buy from your website, it hardly ever happens. I sell items on eBay dearer than on my website and still sell them on both sites.

What really lets eBay down is the small percentage of buyers who see the sellers as fair game in getting both the product and their money back. If eBay could stop these fraudulent buyers, then it would be a better place to sell. EBay should also stop trying to tell sellers, many of whom have been running businesses for years, how to run their business. EBays way is not always the best way. The trouble is that eBay now only seem to want the big sellers who sell using BIN. There are fewer and fewer auction listing on what was originally an auction website. Times have changed and eBay have not changed with them. They have been over taken by other selling platforms and whether they will ever catch up is not known. The split from PayPal may be the test for whether eBay will survive.

 

[paulears]

I want to cancel, don't send it, just give me a refund.
I sent it this morning, so feel free to send it back when it arrives.
You can't have sent it already?
Yes posted at 07:30 here is the tracking number.
Well that was too quick, now I have to waste postage getting it back to you.
Yep, just like I have to you - lets call it a draw!

 

[BartJr]

eBay- get started on it then ruuuuuuuuun as far as you can from it. It's a disease!

 

[BartJr]

Sold an used printer on EBay
Buyer: hi I've received the item but it's used I want to return it
Me: description says it is used, no returns if nothing is wrong with it
Buyer: well it is used (Opens a dispute)
Me: respond to the dispute
Buyer: Escalate the dispute
eBay: We got no brain so we side up with buyer and we will also charge seller for returning fees
<Item arrives broken with smashed scanner and ink leaking>
Buyer: I'm leaving you a negative feedback for poor service
Seller: eBay please help me
eBay: sorry buyer is always right

 

[Clodbuster]

I'm in the anti Ebay group (and for that matter Amazon ).
Sold through them for the first 4 years and on the advice of my accountant stopped. I did get attempts trying to say goods not delivered, not my signature blah blah to the extent it was decided to be not worth it.

 

[paretowasright]

Totally agree about the majority of the ebay demographic being a bigger problem although like most things in life its the 1% of lying scumbags that give everyone else a bad name. The upside of e-bay is being able to advertise your own website and hence switch customers more easily. The downside is idiots selling stuff who cannot use a margin button, lower selling prices and e-bay's 'seller protection' being woefully inadequate compared to the power given to buyers.