SellerDome.com Statistics Show NARU And Inactive eBay Sellers On The Rise
July 16th, 2008
From 5/25/2008 to 7/16/2008 (52 days), the number of NARU and Inactive eBay Sellers (sellers with no feedback for the past month, past 6 months or past 12 months) ranked in the top 100,000 by feedback on SellerDome.com has increased nearly 15.1%. On 5/25/2008, 18.5% (18,514) of the Top 100,000 eBay Sellers were NARU or Inactive. Today, 21.3% (21,308) of the same group are NARU or Inactive.
| NARU | X 1M | X 6M | X 12M | All | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 25, 2008 | 9,563 | 3,930 | 1,691 | 3,330 | 18,514 |
| July 16, 2008 | 10,462 | 5,156 | 1,831 | 3,859 | 21,308 |
| DELTA | + 899 9.4% |
+ 1,226 31.2% |
+ 140 8.3% |
+ 529 15.9% |
+ 2,794 15.1% |
As the chart below indicates, the increased NARU and Inactivity has impacted each group (Top 10, 100, 1K, 10K and 100K) of eBay’s Top Sellers.
| May 25, 2008 |
July 16, 2008 |
DELTA | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 10 | 0 | 1 | + 1 | N/A |
| Top 100 | 9 | 12 | + 3 | 33.3% |
| Top 1K | 136 | 153 | + 17 | 12.5% |
| Top 10K | 1,544 | 1,711 | + 167 | 10.8% |
| Top 100K | 18,514 | 21,308 | + 2,794 | 15.1% |
We will continue tracking this trend at SellerDome.com and begin publishing this data on our Seller Statistics page in the coming weeks. Please contact us with any questions or feedback.
Posted in Statistics
It’s going to take a few months to understand what this means. After all, 30 days no feedback now includes sellers who are under an ‘account restriction’.
And we know all about that at vzaar:
http://blog.vzaar.com/2008/06/how-vzaar-became-a-dolphin
There are a lot of NARU and Inactive eBay Sellers, that’s true. But also look at how many have NO ITEMS listed. What is that percentage?
KenM makes a good point.
Given the changes in policy at eBay which many sellers perceive as being anti-seller the number of sellers sitting on the sidelines until the changes shake out is noteworthy.
Sellers are reluctant to list these days as DSR ratings impact search visibility and can easily have a negative impact on a sellers ability to complete transactions.
Rather than subject themselves to lost revenue many sellers have pulled back and stopped listing with a wait and see attitude.
This trend speaks volumes for the current level of seller dissatisfaction and is worthy of being tracked as well.
There seems to be an error in the item count. I think only items visible on .com are being counted.
If you look at .co.uk, for example, there are loads of “no item” sellers showing, but when you check, many have plenty listed.
My items show as a reduced count - I don’t pay for US visibility, but some categories don’t have that option so are included.
I am like 80% of long time eBay sellers, “Not At All Surprised”. We warned eBay for 2 years that if they continued changing things, catering to buyers only, making selling for a profit impossible, we would bolt and we have. Ebay failed to recognize, their single largest group of “buyers”, were their own “sellers”, despite thousands of emails, petitions and boycotts. We ARE eBay but they still haven’t figured that out. It may be toooo late for eBay or at least for professional sellers who paid huge fees for years, to build their businesses and have now gone elsewhere. They may get newbies but it will take years of heavy duty “sucking up” to get any real market share back again. I just paid $500 to copyright my store name so I can close my “unused” eBay store and close that account completely. I’ve been continuing to pay their fees since my website is the same name as my eBay store but once the name is protected, it’s ADIOS eBay. FYI.. current eBayers: When you leave to build a website, don’t use the same Store Name as you did on eBay or if you do, get the name copyrighted. Otherwise, someone will capitalize on your hard work and steal your name, 60 days after you close your store. I learned the hard way.
Is it possible for the Sellerdome gang to create a serach option that provides rankings without NARU sellers being returned in the results?
what does it mean by “in the top 100,000 by feedback on SellerDome.com”, does it mean that the statistics pool limited to the feedback sellerdom.com only?
I find there’s no way to search unused store or inactive account on ebay? maybe i’m wrong in the searching method?
[...] SellerDome’s blog noted that the number of inactive sellers in their list of top 100,000 eBay sellers had increased by more than 15%. SellerDome’s list [...]
[...] Sellerdome is a blog/website that covers a lot of information about selling on eBay, and they have recently done an excellent survey on NARU (Not a Registered User) and Inactive Users for eBay that shows there is still fall out for folks who are selling on eBay. The survey report which is here shows that: From 5/25/2008 to 7/16/2008 (52 days), the number of NARU and Inactive eBay Sellers (sellers with no feedback for the past month, past 6 months or past 12 months) ranked in the top 100,000 by feedback on SellerDome.com has increased nearly 15.1%. On 5/25/2008, 18.5% (18,514) of the Top 100,000 eBay Sellers were NARU or Inactive. Today, 21.3% (21,308) of the same group are NARU or Inactive. Sellerdome [...]
I am a ten year Powerseller who has closed the store and cancelled all auctions months ago because of the new Animal House rules. If I would have known that someone was compiling a list of sellers who have had no recent feedback activity, I would have made sure to be another on the list. Unfortunately, I have bought a few small, low cost items and will not show up on your list of sellers who have quit. I wonder how many other sellers have actually quit but do not show up on your chart. How about statistics on sellers who do not sell anymore? Compiling the statistics of sellers who stopped selling would be very interesting to me. I am sorry I messed up the count by buying a few cheap stickers instead of quitting entirely. Had I known….
d l,
You’re still counted, as you’ve only BOUGHT on eBay. They’ve compiled a list of sellers who have stopped SELLING.
I love the fact that I am a 100% 5 star kinda guy in good standing with ebay and my clients. I knew right from the start what the 5 star program ment. The stars show what kind of a store a person runs. As the stars begain to get dinged and the sellers started to look bad. Oh yes as for the hidden user ID’s lol that is so the smart buyers can see the sellers shill bid’s lol No you say! Mr. River your wrong ebay has 75,000,000 User ID’s And we sellers would never think of such a thing. Ah but I must be doing something right cuz my star looks bright. LOL
good site ltornq
It should be clear, I am a wholesaler and not a good writer or a stock expert, but I have a first hand inside look having been a powerseller almost from e bay start, for over 10 years, 1.7 million per year sales and account for $156,000 paid to e bay per year for seller fees, this is the bases in which e bay shows profit or loss in a great way for there core business, this does not account for paypal fees charged, seller manager pro, e bay stores. Buyers and sellers are leaving e bay, this can be proved by http://www.sellerdome.com/
Even knowing as a seller and buyer that e bays policy changes are deeply flawed, I figured stock prices going down to $17 per share, but never thought they would go as far as they have gone, some to do with the economy. Also the statement “We think that if eBay fails to improve the user experience, it will inhibit future growth even when the economy recovers.” is a true statement, it is one that e bay management has adopted, but prove to have been done incorrect and much too aggressively, within a 6 month period. The way for e bay to turn around now is if they restructure its management and get rid of current leadership. This is not hard to see, just search what sellers and buyers are saying, not one is happy, that is unbelievable given that this leadership has only been in place for just at 6 months. The fall is not completely economy driven, the stock started down after new management took place 6 months ago and put its aggressive unfair policy into place, track it on any stock chart.
Customer service is something everyone wants to have and should want to provide, however, there is a check and balance between perception and reality. Any company can say we will give there product away for free and will pay back shipping and shipping to the customer, provide phone support and customer service will likely be good. On the other hand, if customers buy items that are not as stated and shipping cost is too high and they can’t receive joy when they buy something, that customer is not going to be happy either. I think anyone can agree to this. The problem is that e bay has gone with the first example, it causes a failure of “user experience”. Ebay has driven an estimated 100k sellers and buyers to date and the ones who remain look vergiously for an alternative but remain because of the monopoly like position e bay holds in the online auction place. This is because the large and small sellers I have been talking to say they are there but there sales are soft compared to last year and the new policy makes profit impossible. They are still there but looking agressively at other options.
Ebay has withstood the .com storm because of a superior system and its ability to hold steady to the working core business policy. Its customers fell that is no longer the case and many companies like bonanzle.com and OLA.COM (onlineauction.com) are rushing to try to meet seller and buyer demands that ebay seems unwilling to meet. Many small auction sites have tried to compete in the past but been successful in driving traffic. Now a once complacent audience of e bay buyers and sellers are seeing the changes and the likely hood they are being driven away through aggressive, unfair, flawed policy changes and are taking note to change to someone with the old values that made ebay a community that worked. You can see from the chart below the demand that is being driven to for example.
http://www.quantcast.com/bonanzle.com
This is a small amount of buyers and sellers compared to e bay, but it does show a market who is hungry to meet the demand of current buyers and sellers, and what is maybe most important that buyers and sellers are finding the ability for change.
When e bay was a “venue”, now it is feat by many of its sellers that it acts as an employer or landlord by design of new policy, it was profitable for sellers and a great value for buyers. Sellers drove traffic to the site because buyers knew they could get many of the items for a large percentage below retail, at or below wholesale. E bay is a follower now and is trying to make itself like Amazon and other .com retailers. E bay has a niche (wholesale products) and Amazon has a niche (books, CDs etc) and both worked independently of each other. That is why before no one was leaving Ebay to do Amazon as they have been in the past few months. The e bay system worked and most were satisfied, buyers and sellers could realize other bad buyers or sellers.
Buyers and sellers are not happy with and the numbers will continue to show as long as this management stays. Economy will play a roll, that is why ebay can’t afford to gamble with management that has proven to drive customers away. The company is large enough it will be around for a long time, maybe not in the online auction sector, but it is still a mystery to many who use or used to use the site. why this management has been allowed to make this aggressive of a change. If this is where they wanted to go, it would takes years to change a company this size effectively, it can’t be done in 6 months times and certainty not given a slow in the economy.
Ebay, through the wild west style new management, took a look at itself and realized it had a drop in the number of sellers buying on its site. It decided it was because of bad “buyer experience” and immediately, it seems without full thought of backfire, decided it was the sellers fault. In some cases, this may be true, but it is most likely because of the additions to online retailers such as walmart, bestbuy, circuit city and the list goes on that were not competitors before and had not sunk the marketing dollars into the Internet sector of there business plan before. The more big sellers the less customers for ebay. It is widely known that e bay has blamed sellers rather than external forces for the slow in sales. Instead of working within the community, that once believed that people are basically good, took on a policy that made its community fell like criminals and strong feelings of dislike for the symbol that was once regarded.
Things have gone from bad to worse since new management/John Donahoe has come into power, no one is happy, sellers or buyers. It has been a 6 month meltdown since new management fumbled a working system. It has been a nightmare to many businesses as seen on so many messages as the sellers and buyers search for another company who is going to facilitate there demands.
An estimated 70,000 - 80,000 eBay sellers have been suspended due to aggressive, “at there discretion” unfair, flawed policy. These are the large sellers, most pay an excess of $10,000 per month in site fees. This is an estimated loss, on average, of $5000 per month for 70,000 sellers all its managements wisdom has pushed away $350,000,000 per month or 4,200,000,000 per year based on these educated guesses as e bay does not release information about how many or how much it may have damaged itself with these flawed changes. Maybe the current stock price will.
E bay has spoken, treated sellers and buyers with disrespect, no conformity in answers received from e bay or policy’s. put sellers of 10 years who set there business to service the e bay market in a bad financial strain because of an aggressive unfair policy, which e bay keeps it sellers in the dark how to quantitative it, sellers and buyers have listed and regrettably are just now starting to moving on to something else.
I talked to the owner of onlineauction.com 1-800-900-2828, Rowen Grisham, a previous e bay powerseller who seen improper change coming long before many sellers and buyers realized. He said he had seen a flood of sellers and buyers calling to learn about the site in the last 4 months. Rowen Grishamw says they are about to roll out a goggle search program that will make it more visible. This is just one example of where e bay buyer and seller base is going. Grisham seems to want to supply its sellers and buyers with a fair service, as when the ebay site was born. Small companies that are hungry and taking advantage of a situation where ebay is not satisfying its demand.
Anyone considering investing or putting time into future sales may want to take a look at the aggressive, flawed policy’s they have put in place, there are little to no direct policy as there has been. Seller and buyers wouldn’t be leaving if there was any good reason to stay. Still, there is not one site that has traction at this point, but it seems a matter of time before it does.
E bay has done a poor job or emplaning the new changes to its buyers, sellers only after a few months of effect, some loosing there e bay business because of improper, unmonitored data, is still learning and it seems no one knows the answers even at the top account managers level. Its buyers do not realize that the DSR DETAILED SELLER RATING, the 5 stars under the feedback rating is not based on a 100 point scale like every other system in the free world. For example, from 1 to 5, 1 is poor, 3 is average and 5 is excellent. With e bay, 4,5 is average and 5 is good, I am glad they didn’t have my math teachers in Collage. So many times buyers rate a 3 when they don’t realize they are giving the seller a unacceptable rating that could potentially suspend his/her account from e bay as so many has been suspended in the last 3 months because of improper data that has been now used as the bible of e bay to rate seller performance. It should also be noted that a flaw in the data of the 5 star DSR is that if a customer is happy, they fell that leaving positive feedback served its purpose and they have caused a positive vote to the seller, e bay has not educated the buyer, so they do not leave a star rating at all, and are not required to and a large % do not, but leave a positive feedback as it is not required. But the buyer who is mad and is leaving hasty feedback will be more than motivated to leave a 1 or 2 for all stars. For this reason, good sellers offering great service and products are being suspended from e bay by record numbers, this cuts the life cord of the seller as well as core business at e bay.
Ebay may have ruined their market flair for both buyers and sellers forever. Too many restricting rule changes, increased charges, paypal demands, seller ratings. This has ultimately destroyed their bottom line.
I was talking to another large seller, he said something that is funny but true, he said “e bay is the only company I know to date that has actually implemented the policy of THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORAL HAS IMPROVED”
Don’t think eBay and its payment system engage in unfair, at the very least unethical or even illegal business practices? Retailers are asking for congress to crack down on organized computer crimes, but eBay, said “they would be unfairly targeted in the proposed legislation” Read article from link below:
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.aspx?Feed=AP&Date=20080922&ID=9174700&Symbol=EBAY
Ebay is definitely a stock headed down down down. The Wall Street analyst’s who cover Ebay are finding out what is really going on because the sellers who actually use ebay have been seeing it for the past several years as seen by past message/bogs. This has been especially true in the past 6 months. Anytime a company treats their customers with little or no concern, it’s not a good sign for the future. There are alternatives to ebay and they are getting stronger everyday while e bay lets it strong sellers go who offer products that drive customers to the site. Many of them showing up to other sites and, yes, drawing e bay customers to competitors site. This will further deteriorate the system because these buyers and sellers realize that they have relied on a company that they fell has forsaken them rather than a once realized win/win situation for both buyer and seller. These are capable business people and competent buyers who will not soon forget how this company has treated them in this short aggressive period causing there experience to a negative one.
Many sellers and buyers have a dedicated special interest and hope they turn themselves around, but it is going to take some quick and correct policy change back to the system that worked to undo what has been done in what would be considered by many as well as a powerseller account manager that said that this is “the most aggressive change e bay has ever done” it is costing sellers there business and driving buyers away from the site. The Best Match search is fatally flawed and $0.35 listings are not going to fix that.
Sellers of the unique items that made eBay famous (and who paid listing fees) are leaving in droves, while eBay brokers deals with corporate sellers of new stuff you can get anywhere who don’t pay listing fees deteriorate the profits. And their buyers are following them. Watch the Q4 and Q1 figures. A company of this size can keep up appearances for some time, but its customers, its customers customers, that is sellers and buyers, are speaking up and cannot be ignored in the long term, the leader of these policy’s are and continue to drive away the core business of e bay.
It is speculated that the Standard & Poors rating will be updating soon, because of e bays unpresidented fast falwed, unfair and aggressive changes made in the last couple of months have not given any room for changes of amindments of ratings yet, but be looking as many sellers and buyers fell they are coming. The changes were simply done so fast and aggressive that ratings have not had time to catch up. It would be advisable to keep a close eye on this in a few months when aggressive policy changes reach the rating level, it is just now starting to be seen in the downgrades.
E bay bought Bill Me Later, I would have been surprised just 6 months ago, but I am unhappy to report that I am not at this time, the reason is this management has taken down the tread that holds e bay together as can be seen by its buyers and sellers everywhere complaining about the flawed aggressive policies that have taken place over the last few months, maybe you have heard some of them or are one of them. Every comment citing that the previous system was not broken. E bay has had community and trust, this 13 year trust has been violated and has failed both sellers and buyers in just a few months of unfair, faulty policy change that has taken a ship this size and turned it so fast that it is out of control and is facing a challenge to bring the ship back to course as it was before in the core business, although still ignored by management at this time, this is just in the core business, this shows the danger of a lateral move like credit right now. Take into account there could’t be worse timing as the world economy will not view this favorably given recent events. This policy change was over a short aggressive period, but the negative impact will make it difficult to navigate back in position, if this venture is not successful, it will be even worse for ebay, its investors, and the management that follows. The core business has taken a great hit world wide, now it is committed to a market that is new. A new market during the time when its core business is in jeopardy due to flawed policy and a slowed economy with management proven only to drive away customers. This will prove a challenge that may take years to repair relationships of its sellers and buyers when it has been realized by investors concerned on top of unpopular credit service. Migration back to the system with effective proven 12-15 record, built by previous management over 12-15 years, seems to be the only way to save the future profits and stability the company once enjoyed.
So, e bay wants its investors to trust it in a huge risk buy, when the investors are clearly concerned and most can see that e bay can not run its core business in a way that is satisfying to its customers, causing them to leave, look for other suppliers that will eventually be able to meet demands of the once complacent sellers and buyers. Sorry, it would be hard for anyone with basic knowledge of the problems with recent policy of the core business to buy this, having been a seller and buyer for 10 years, it makes it even harder to buy. I can say, I am happy to report my family, who bought stock when they seen my success on e bay, sold there stock when I explained the new managements flawed, unfair, and aggressive policy handed down. The stock has followed since this and many are betting with there dollars fell it will continue to fall. Maybe Jim Cramer, hyper as he is, has a point when he said he could not get behind the company, and that someone should buy the company “and put them out of their misery.” It is hard to argue with him, stock sold back in march, when these policies were being talked about, not yet implemented agressively, sold ebay seems to be the smart move. Stock was $30-$32 per share at that time, March 2008, it dropped every since as can be tracked from any stock quote chart. Yes, the economy took the abrupt hit, stock price had already plummeted by 1/3, $19-$22 per share, before it happened that our country was in trouble from bad credit/debt. Some say they wouldn’t want to touch this a credit market at this time. I would also not want to answer to shareholders when they learn what long time sellers and buyers have seen in the past few months. Good thing for golden parachutes I guess, maybe that will soften the fall?
I think this report on NYtimes has some good in site of the problems facing the company with the current buy:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/ebay-plays-warren-buffett-buys-online-lender/#comment-55807
I found this site after typing in my ex-ebay store name, some quite interesting info & comments. I closed shop about 1 month ago after 5 yrs of selling and also being a substantial buyer, I was fed up. I rode the bumpy road when they hiked up fees and survived the intial blow, but the new feedback system, was their biggest mistake I believe. I went from 100% feedback to 99% in a matter of a few weeks with new buyers posting ridiculous feedback without contacting me prior to posting. And non-paying buyers skyrocketed.
As a buyer - for the first time in 5yrs I was scammed (never received items) over 4 times in approx 2 mnths, by sellers with good feedback. Sellers have lowered their prices in desperation, making competition for smaller sellers almost impossible to beat, and the hope of making a decent profit near impossible. After weighing the profits I received with the stress involved, I have closed shop. I am in the process of opening my own site, but “if” Ebay rectifies it’s ridiculous mistake, I would contemplate returning. For years it was a pleasure selling, but now selling has become a real pain, and I can see the frustration that most sellers are feeling. Ebay did make a grave error with their latest policies, I agree, they should be replacing management before they are totally submerged. But I personally, don’t think they really care about their auction site anymore, as they are more than likely reaping more profits from paypal & shopping.com with less legal issues to deal with.
SOS! My car was broken on ve. Should I call to repairs or 911?
amazing think))
Good night, bloggers =)
what a nie story..
please run the numbers again! they just kicked off 200 sellers in antiques! tens of thousands of listings in one week! i’ve been on for 8 years, gone because “we decided we don’t want this sort of antiquues for sale anymore” but won’t explain what sort so they closed everything of mine, even services. I had perfect fb, not one neg ever, perfect dsr’s unheard of and im suspended???? very odd
Thats rediculous crap I sold 1200 worth of stuff in the last 30 days and now after paying an invoice amount of over $265 i cant list more items because of least 4.1 on each DSR to sell I got 25 positive feedbacks this month and no negatives I guess I am going to use http://www.multi-sale.com they are twitter enhanced and state each item I list uses the twitter api thing and is posted to my twitter page how cool.
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