eBay UK sales 5x higher than eBay.com

eBay are expecting the next two Sundays to be the busiest online days for Christmas present buying. They’re expecting 5 million visitors on 29th Nov and 6th Dec, with sales expected to peak at 14 gifts sold per second – that’s a million Christmas presents sold each day on the site.

In the mean time, across the pond in America, eBay have been tracking Black Friday sales and mapped where each buyer is located. Black Friday follows Thanksgiving Day in the United States and marks the start of their Christmas shopping season. It’s one of the busiest online shopping days of the year in the US with eBay attracting just over a million sales.

What struck me was that UK sales predictions are also for about a million sales on each of the peak shopping days – The US population is 5 times size of the UK so why are they not getting 5 times as many sales as the UK?

eBay UK are streets ahead of the US in maximising sales per head of population and 86% of the UK are due to do some or all of their Christmas shopping online this year. According to a YouGov survey commissioned by VeriSign most people will spend about a third of their total holiday spend on the Internet.

What’s less encouraging is regardless of the best price often being online, Verisign found 1 in 4 still hold back their Internet spend with worries about online ID theft and fraud. Unsurprisingly following the recent postal strikes, 27% are also concerned that goods bought online will not arrive in time for Christmas.

What’s certain is that, despite the effects of the recession and some buyers concerns about security, the Christmas selling season should remain strong in the UK, with more people buying online than ever before.

4 Responses on "eBay UK sales 5x higher than eBay.com"

1. 1
   E bay Customer says:

   December 1, 2009 at 11:58 pm

   Bet you a dollar Ebay do not have a strong Xmas selling season. Predictions are not the same as sales. From a buyer and a sellers point of view Ebay have wrecked two of the biggest Xmas media categories books and cds. Time will tell January will be very interesting.
2. 2
   Desperate Seller says:

   December 2, 2009 at 8:00 am

   Cyber Monday turned out to a damp squid.

   Because of fierce competition within the media categories I need to remain anonymous (no point in giving the competition any advantage).

   Now I have been selling on ebay for several years I have PS status and TRS status for all the good they are doing me.

   This year I have been more prepared for the Christmas market than every before, only to find that this is my worst trading at Christmas every.

   My daily sales (at this supposed busy period) are less than they were on a regular trading day, before ebay started to mess around with Free postage/ DSRs / TSRs / and other pointless messing and interfering.

   OK perhaps it’s unfair to put all the blame on ebay, after all we are still in a recession. But on the other hand – I’m sick to my back teeth with their constant interfering and fluffing.

   I am rapidly reaching the point where the time put into ebay isn’t worth the return. Thank goodness I opened my own shop.

   Now I’m not special – If I’m struggling then I bet there are lots of sellers in a similar position.

   Free postage has badly hurt my business – I offered a substantial discount on multiple orders and it works a treat.

   Took me weeks to change several thousand listings (tools didn’t work).
   Yet I now review CD and Dvd listing to see all sorts of scams, going unchecked, indeed even permitted.
   Collect in person for a single CD is not a realistic offer, but when you read the text you see comments like “If you can not collect – postage will be “
   Since when do single CDs qualify as Freight?
   Or why not list in Eire, even though you and your customers live in England, Scotland or Wales in order to be able to charge postage?

   These sellers don’t get a lot of business, but they clutter up listing with crap.

   I’m on the edge of leaving ebay – the return on my investment (time and money) just isn’t worth it. Other channels are much easier.

   Any other media sellers finding it harder and harder everyday to make a decent living?
3. 3
   E bay Customer says:

   December 3, 2009 at 2:56 pm

   A quick look at Ebay forums will show you that everyone is in the same boat. I don’t really think that sellers that seek ways round the new rules sell that much, they are more an annoyance but having said they are merely arbitary rules set by Ebay. I try and keep to their rules but because of the way Ebay treats its customers now I now would not blame anyone for breaking the rules they are after all rules not laws. I think its understandable if there is no workable way of making money that people will look at ways that may include breaking the rules. The impression I get is that whichever way you do it no one is making enough money in the media categories to make a living.
   Ebay have big decisions to make regarding the future of their site in the New Year.
4. 4
   Richard says:

   December 3, 2009 at 4:31 pm

   Desperate Seller, As a fellow media seller I feel much the same way. Hence I’m getting out of it, the whole thing is a sorry mess to what it was, I’ve got stuff that should be flying out now but isn’t.

   It’s almost impossible to make any decent margin on media on ebay now, buyers and eBay’s expectation of prices are unrealistic, don’t even get me started on the Free P&P mess, it’s done nothing for sales apart from put them in reverse. No doubt with the freebie listing weekend it’ll stuff an even bigger amounts of junk in media, the numbers of listings is silly.

   I’m really looking forward to expanding my web site and running down eBay listings to a bare minimum, I’ll be shutting my eBay shop after Xmas too.