eBay: How eBay Lost The E-Commerce War

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[bmcginnis]

Problem is ebay pushed out all their average home users, power sellers, in favor of larger companies selling more junk and giving them better discounts. They stopped caring about the little guy.

[ArchNME]

It's more like ebay has plateaued than fallen. It's the place to go for used equipment and collectibles. These will always be big business.

[TheModernInvestor]

eBay is dying because they offer no real support to sellers....you know...the people putting on items that then make the company money. Buyers are allowed essentially to buy an item, receive it, say it's defective in some way and ask for a refund or simply not return the item. It happens too often. Not to mention ebays fees are out of control. They got greedy and this is the result

[mightyvoovoo]

What eBay needs to fix is their treatment of the sellers. eBay is a business that needs both sellers and customers equally. If people aren't using eBay to sell their things, then eBay is out of luck, it isn't like eBay can go into people's house, and sell the stuff themselves. But eBay has been treating the sellers like crap lately. My wife and sister-in-law use to sell a ton of stuff on eBay for extra income, but recent terms and conditions have made it so difficult to be a seller on there. No surprise that eBay isn't making money since people don't want to sell on there anymore.

[PrincessZoey]

to me Amazon isnt the place to buy stuff from other people.. I still use eBay because I can find more stuff on it.

[sulibreaks]

Funny story: A friend of mine, a VERY successful entrepreneur/investor, told me he was once in a meeting with other investors when an entrepreneur came pitch an e-commerce company. At the time, none of them chose to invest in it. He said, he regrets now not even investing for a 5 percent share in the company. Guess, what company that was!??

[jaredj]

eBay is fine. Nobody is going to sell/buy things like 1970 motorcycles old vintage tool boxes on Amazon.

[takitobutface]

i stop selling on ebay 6 years ago, seller fees so high

[matevoz]

Should eBay really be compared to Amazon though? It's an auction site, Amazon is pretty much an order fullfilment company. Aren't they two separate business models?

[JohnNNJ]

#1. A seller can be banned at the drop of a hat, and with no appeals process, it is for life.

#2. Their fees for a basic listing are too high. If they switched to simply charging a low percent upon sale flat fee, I cannot believe they would not still profit hugely considering the number of transactions.

#3. The issues at USPS haven't helped either, trying to force everyone into the flat rate box system has made it more difficult to sell thrift.

Trouble is, there has yet to be an adequate alternative.

[proffesor_diggi]

ebay in australia is everywhere. nobody uses amazon simply because it is not available, well it was introduced but it has much less products and it FAR slower than Ebay

[BigBob]

The fee's are what's killing Ebay. I understand that fee's are needed to run the site and all but when I'm being nickeled and dimed its Bull. I mean come on.. A fee on my shipping when shipping has absolutely nothing to do with them??? That type of stuff is what sellers are sick of. Without sellers you will never have buyers

[curiouslypanda]

Informative video.

Any Powerseller on Ebay will tell you that eBay has destroyed itself. They have the worst policies. No seller protection being the biggest one. There are so many ways buyers can rip off sellers on eBay without recourse. They have punished sellers time and time again with ridiculous policies and fees. They pushed sellers to move from auctions to Buy It Now to then only implement higher fees. Same for shipping. They force sellers into offering free shipping, so that they can tax the total sale of the item including the shipping cost. I've been selling on ebay for well over a decade, and it is so clear why we are seeing a decline. Ebay is a dying dinosaur.

[briank]

Ebay has gone down hill, especially for sellers. There is no protection for sellers. Between 2005 and 2015 sold more than 300 items and didn’t have a single issue. Since then I got screwed selling a used laptop and have had no less than 5 other negative experiences as a seller. Good bye Ebay!

[Adeel_Habib]

Ebay used to be good but after seeing massive commission take away, i stopped using. It just wasn't worth it for me. I was losing money instead of making it.

[johnchristophertonks]

When selling on ebay. I look up items similar to what I am selling, for research. Then you get pounded with email trying to sell me what I am selling.

[colinpovey]

Having been screwed by ebay several ways, I am not surprised at it's fall.

[absoluteclownworld]

Ebay could be fixed easy, lower those ridiculous seller fee's and treat their sellers better. But that ain't going to happen so hopefully bye bye feebay.

[Kadabra]

I like buying things on eBay, but would never sell things on eBay. I recently snagged a camera body for about $200 less than it was trending for on auction, and it even included a lot of extra accessories (I was the only bidder). I felt pretty bad knowing that the seller probably made chump change from the sale. Sadly, these types of deals are what keeps me going back to eBay over Amazon for the more expensive consumer goods in my life. If eBay wants to remain relevant, they need to revise their relationship with their sellers. Continuing to nickel-and-dime their source of profit with fees will only lead to sellers jumping ship to Amazon or selling their items on local yard sale type apps or Craigslist.

[brandonfuller]

As a more resent Ebay seller I found that the people who go to ebay are like the people who go to craigslist. They want a item for nothing, and it is not worth the effort to ship it at that cost, as well as the additional 10% commission on the shipping cost??? Why would I list something on ebay that I can sell on craigslist and not have to pay a fee or have a hassle to ship.. and the no seller protection kept me from selling high dollar items because I would have to pay for return shipping on top of paying the money back.so if they dont ship the item, and I use paypal, both companies never give me my money back, and someone gets a free item! SO much wrong with the ebay platform!