eBay business sellers positive about 2009

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An eBay survey reveals that vast majority of online traders are confident that 2009 will see growing, or at least steady, sales and nearly two-thirds are planning to expand their business this year. The Online Business Index, released in association with Business Link, is compiled from sales data from eBay UK’s top 1,000 business sellers and survey responses from 410 of the top 2,000 business sellers, with a combined turnover of £785 million in 2008.

Key findings include:

– 64% of online businesses feel confident about the immediate business outlook, according to survey findings, with only 15% expressing pessimism.

– More than half of those surveyed – 54% – expect rising sales, with a further 30% expecting sales to remain stable.

– Exports by online businesses are surging, with eBay data demonstrating a 128% increase in the last year alone.

Most interestingly, the survey looks at sellers who are typically not trading exclusively on eBay. The online businesses covered by the survey obtain 56% of their revenue through eBay, 22% through other sites and 23% through bricks-and-mortar outlets. 78% plan to expand or diversify their businesses according to the survey. Good news for PayPal, bad news for the eBay marketplace.

The full press release is here. And there’s further coverage from the Telegraph and New Media Age.

27 Responses

  1. You can download a 12 page PDF on the Ebay Link

    Looks like Ebay have spent a lot of money on this to convince themselves that they are doing a great job !
    Shame they didnt include some fancy graphs and percentages about how “top sellers” feel about the way Ebay manages its business.

  2. stats are great things you can twist them anyway you like :-

    “64% of online businesses feel confident about the immediate business outlook”…. perhaps because 64% of the respondies sell on amazon???

    “Exports by online businesses are surging, with eBay data demonstrating a 128% increase in the last year alone.”

    Nothing to do with taking away international visibility then bringing back…no of course not

    Lies, damn lies and statistics!!!

  3. we were asked to do this survey
    if memory serves me, the way the questions were put it was difficult to be anything else but positive

  4. Im sure they were norf, its always amusing that they publish the results {as they interpret them} but never the questions.

  5. I’m positive – Positive that I will be selling less on ebay and more on other channels. To be honest I was a lazy seller. Whilst ebay was bringing in the bucks I could put up with their nonsense. Now that markets are getting tight ebay isn’t the source of income it once was. So yes I will be doing more business – but not with ebay

    Will they wake up and smell the coffee – (No because they haven’t realised they are still in Dreamland)

  6. to be honest the only thing that limits us from selling more on ebay
    is time and the quality of the available listing software.
    we would treble our listings if we could ,

    though all ebay seems to do is make listing an item harder not easier,
    if you cant get your stock on the shelf, or in the window no bugger will buy it

  7. #8 I feel like that sometimes Norf, I have 2000 individual taps available from stock to put on eBay, I did about 15 last week….I really couldn’t be fagged to do anymore, I may add 5 next month if I can be bothered.

  8. all our items are individual and unique
    by the time you have fought your way thru the listing process your poss eyed,

    ebay should be run by the forestry commision there are so many category trees and leaves

  9. Our online business is definitely growing this year. Saying that, our growth on eBay, which takes up vast amounts of our time (we have over 4,000 live listings) is fairly static.

    Just got back from a trade fair in Harrogate and just about every supplier we spoke with stated they would not allow their goods to be sold on eBay. They weren’t so adamant about Amazon, but some weren’t allowing this either. Anyone else come across this? We seem to be hearing it more and more.

  10. I’m just wondering out loud if the OFT ought to be interested in looking into “no eBayers” policies.

  11. We have several suppliers who won’t allow us to put stock on eBay, thats there choice imo, nowt wrong with protecting brand value if thats what you want to do, I’ll just flog something else.

    Lots of busy fools on eBay.

  12. Sue, they were very happy to have us as a customer and allow us to sell through our own website, just not ‘aucton sites’, and eBay in particular.

    We’ve even had a new supplier this year ask us to sign a contract stating that we would not sell their goods on eBay.

    I see where they are coming from. They don’t want to be seen as price-fixing, but do want their products to retain a reasonable value. Once a product appears on eBay, the price tumbles.

    I’m not sure how I feel about it. On one hand, we get a lot of business from eBay, and it’s a great selling platform. But on the other hand, retailers can’t survive with constantly having to slash prices just to compete with new seller who won’t be around in six months, but completely trash the market while they work out they can’t make a profit selling stuff at 20%.

  13. “But on the other hand, retailers can’t survive with constantly having to slash prices just to compete with new seller who won’t be around in six months, but completely trash the market while they work out they can’t make a profit selling stuff at 20%.”

    Exactly.

  14. I honestly believe ebay had a big influence on the demise of Royal Doulton,

    the perception that a Doulton Figure was exclusive and an investment,
    went out the window when folks realised there were trillions of the buggers on ebay

  15. We have suppliers who are dismayed at the low price some of their goods are currently being sold for on auction sites. It totally devalues the brand, but they have no idea what to do about it. A lot of the time they have no idea who the sellers are, or how they can be selling them so cheap.

    I don’t know what the answer is either. Maybe it’s too easy to start up and sell on these sites? There are too many idiots not realising they’re making no money once VAT and fees are taken into account. We see them come and go, but the damage they do is irreversible.

  16. Tradiinal retail margins are no longer going to be there that is just a fact of life. It’s the big boys who are really pushing prices down (everywhere).

  17. Jimbo, certainly in our market it isn’t the big boys who are pushing prices down. We’d be very happy selling at the same price as Argos or Toys R Us.

    We find the sellers who are trashing the market are wholesalers who also dabble in being online retailers. And as Sue said, sellers buying for £1 and selling for £1.10 thinking they’re making a profit.

    There’s also a massive amount of stolen and counterfeit products out there. Ebay is still an easy and profitable place to unload it.

  18. There’s also a massive amount of stolen and counterfeit products out there. Ebay is still an easy and profitable place to unload it.

    We are media sellers who source products from wholesalers. So why when we are buying products in bulk at discount prices are there sellers out there selling at below cost. It’s got to be knock off or counterfeit, there is no way they could otherwise make a profit. Are Trust and safety interested ?
    I don’t think so.

  19. #25 The only time I sell at cost or less is to mantain the pecking order.

    I agree with you, recently bought 4 T-Shirts on eBay, 1 is ok, the rest are copies, I sent 2 back to the manufacturer advising them of that, the other 1 was so cr.ap I used it to clean the rabbit hutch with,so far I have had 5 requests for feedback from that seller, he will get feedback when I can be bothered 😆

  20. I’ve an “arrangement” with two retailers to shift some of their deadstock on ebay as their suppliers won’t allow them to.

    Works for them and works for me.

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