eBay don’t often break out figures for each territory that they operate in, but following the Q4 Investor call they’ve released some interesting data points around their stellar performance in the UK.
John Donahoe, eBay CEO revealed that Europe performed well, but eBay UK is leading the way with growth accelerated and significantly outperforming the general ecommerce growth in the UK. Across the entire UK site, sold items grew 25% in Q4 and the value of all items sold was up 19%.
eBay’s Christmas deals sales were up a massive 170% from the previous quarter. The focus on must-have toys, consumer tech and fashion items along with price comparisons and generally the lowest prices available, has paid off. Fashion is also an important contributor, with eBay claiming faster than ecommerce growth in Q4. Sales of clothes, shoes and accessories were 10% above the UK market average.
Clare Gilmartin, VP eBay Europe , said that eBay business sellers have seen a year-on-year Q4 growth of more than 20% which is faster than general ecommerce is growing in the UK.
So that all sounds like great news – if you’re a UK business seller how were your sales in the last quarter compared to last year? Have you seen double digit growth in the region of 20-25% for either the number of items sold, or your total sales value? Is your business doing better or worse than the UK average and do you know why?
37 Responses
There must be two eBay sites and I’ve been selling on the wronge one! My sales have hit the rocks and I think I’ll be unable to pay my bills next month.
What fees are these sellers of hot and fashionable products paying?
Are eBay subsidising the fees of the sellers of “hot” products out of the fees of those who made eBay what it used to be?
Is it about turnover or fee revenue?
That type of information would make very interesting reading!
Interesting info Chris, seems some people are doing well on eBay but I am guessing it is not down to small businesses, more likely to be the big boys that have come on board who can sell 100’s and 100’s of the same item.
Also do these figures take into account non paying buyers? We had some 450+ in December alone!!!
Stu
god bless ebay,
though I wish someone would exorcise.the Devil from ebay support
this is ebays turnover they cant loose, we turned over around 40k in novemberdecember on ebay and made a net loss
Last night when I first saw this posting I wondered if it was just me. I had a very poor last quarter and it appears from the earlier postings that so did everybody else. December was abysmal but I put that down to the weather. A month or so ago there was speculation that the fortnightly Free Listing Days were there to boost numbers and turnover. At the time I wondered but now these figures might confirm that this is so. I was feeling so depressed about my figures that I was even starting to think about doing events again. They are a lot of work for relatively little return but they might clear the stock that is delaying my retirement because my sales on ebay are not shifting it fast enough. Anyway roll on 2011 and heres hoping for a really good year(although I would be surprised(pleasantly) if this was the case).
Sales mean bugger all without profit and I am not sure how all these outlets offloading there tat by the lorry load really gives a true picture of the typical eBay seller.
ebays got it made
there are millions of poor sods out there who are determined to undercut each other on a race to the bottom,
top rated seller status was a touch of genius for ebay. every silly bugger fights for the badge rather than the profit
I’ve made a decision in 2011 to go for profit and sod TRS status. No point in getting wound up about it. My prices will simply have to rise and have done.
ebay take a bigger cut of the pie but its the buyers to blame for this for dishing out the type of feedback that they do. Buyers don’t seem to realise that by giving poor feedback they are cutting their own throat!
What a load of twaddle.There must be two ebay sites because the one I’ve been using has been a disaster.
Sales down by 20% on 2009 traffic down on 2009, Fees up Don’t know how they got to such a big increase.
PS I added more product as well but that did not help!
Rethinking how I move forward.
I’ve had a few buyer sting me for postage charges. If this carries on and I lose my TRS status, my ebay shop will become a shop where I sell items that fit the large letter postage catergory and I’ll send everything 2nd class free post on eBay. My website will sell everything I sell on eBay and everything I won’t list on eBay and I’ll post these first class. I think eBay are damaging their brand with the TRS postage ratings as seller will only sell things that fit in with eBays plans and their websites then become much better than anything on eBay and offer more varity.
Ebay 20% down for me in November and December compared to 2009. January so far about 40% down on 2010.
Amazon more than taking up the slack in Christmas sales but at a much reduced profit margin. Ebay must have increased their selling base but thinner sales for most of them.
Conclusion: plenty of sales to be had but competition is such that there could be little profit at the end of it.
I am not at a stage yet to be driving down prices because I believe this will just be an early exit strategy. Customers like cheap prices but they often don’t know what cheap is. And they will always prefer to spend their money on the big brands and the big name retailers who can always put the squeeze on the smaller operators.
This year is going to be tough – no doubt about it.
Chris do you have a link to the official eBay announcement?
Does “sold items” increase by 25% mean “paid for items”?
UID are running at around 9% but can go up as high as 15% on our accounts.
There may be many thinking that with the recent mild weather that Winter 2010/11 is now effectively over. May I make a point 1947 – one of the worst winters on record was relatively mild until the 28th January 1947 when the weather turned dramatically for the worse. Snow and very low temperatures. The snow continued into March and in many areas the thaw did not turn up for over 60 days. Obviously I hope that 2010/11 will continue mild but it might be a little premature to put away the thermals and snow tyres.