eBay drops Nectar – no more redeeming, no more double-dipping on earning

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• Tariq says:

  9 Jul9 July 05:27

  In this case, I feel like it is more of a reflection on eBay than Nectar. It is quite clear that eBay is pulling up the drawbridge, with their imminent refusal of Amex.

  • LittleNick says:

    9 Jul9 July 06:31

    Yep, seems like they’re cutting costs where they can

  • TGLoyalty says:

    9 Jul9 July 08:36

    Ebay is no longer relevant. Too many scammers and rogue traders.

    • Geoff says:

      9 Jul9 July 09:10

      $10bn revenue = not relevant?

      • TGLoyalty says:

        9 Jul9 July 09:22

        There’s plenty of large companies that will keep rolling but are no longer growing or their growth is now snails pace. Unless eBay do something it would be long until it’s the next AOL

        • Rob says:

          9 Jul9 July 09:27

          Correct. The fate of most big companies is to end up growing at RPI at best and desperately cutting costs annually to keep profits steady. Perhaps throw in random acquisitions to hide the lack of organic growth.

          You can’t outgrow the economy after a certain point unless you consistently sell some arms and buy fast growing ones. Hence deals like Unilever massively overpaying for the Dollar Shave Club etc.

          This is how HfP ends. MoneySupermarket etc will decide one day they need to magic up some profit growth and bolting on a low expenses operation like us is an easy win.

    • cin4 says:

      10 Jul10 July 11:19

      How are they not relevant? They are literally the only option for several types of product. I make perhaps 80% of my purchases there.

      Whay alternatives are there? High Street? Don’t make me laugh. Online stores? Poor range and expensive. Amazon? Much dearer and terrible search. Aliexpress? Bad search, slow and no returns.

• TimM says:

  9 Jul9 July 05:39

  It is not as if eBay has any serious competition. This appears to be an accountant’s way of adding 1% to the revenue rather than a holistic way of attracting new customers.

  • Reney says:

    9 Jul9 July 06:49

    I would say Vinted is serious competitor for ebay on second hand clothes (I assume that one of the reason for the change in fees for second hand clothes). Amazon must be a serious competition for all sorts of random stuff, facebook market place for bulky second hand items, Etsy for handmade stuff. If it wasn’t for complete savings website needing a monthly transaction I don’t think I would look into ebay even once month – it is rarely cheaper than others I have named nor faster shipped.

    • Vit says:

      9 Jul9 July 09:17

      I would add Temu in as well. Order a thing or two early this year and been very positive experience with a fraction of price to some independent website as the products is being shipped from “you know where” anyway.

    • Alan says:

      9 Jul9 July 10:02

      Vinted agreed, but their model has major flaws in it, I mean the purchaser paying fees!

      EBay is still competitive for smaller purchases, even more so now that Amazon has increased the minimum spend for free delivery to £35. Sure you can buy Prime, but then are you actually checking the prices elsewhere?

      For 2nd hand goods it’s still a good marketplace. Sure large items better on Facebook as targeted to local area, but EBay gets you a far larger audience.

      • Rob says:

        9 Jul9 July 10:49

        Not sure having the buyer pay the fees is a flaw.

        The site only succeeds if it attracts sellers. Get the sellers and the buyers will come. How do you get the sellers off eBay? By not charging them.

        In reality, of course, buyers factor in the fees when deciding if a price is fair or not, so the sellers are not actually better off – they just feel better off and so are tempted to list more. If the buyer didn’t have to pay fees they would be willing to spend more on the item in the first place.

    • RussellH says:

      9 Jul9 July 10:11

      I have only ever used Ebay once – it always seemed a bit dubious to me, somehow.
      But pricewise, in my case, about 25% better.
      I bought a new PS2 mouse from Amazon Marketplace, decided to get another so I had a spare, searched for the supplier and found the link to their own online offering, which I found, was on Ebay. And, 25% cheaper.

      • Rob says:

        9 Jul9 July 10:46

        Books are now usually cheaper on eBay than Amazon. There are a number of firms who only sell books via eBay with six figure feedback ratings.

        • TooPoorToBeHere says:

          9 Jul9 July 19:37

          IME eBay is almost always cheaper than Amazon for low-to-mid-price items.

          The disadvantage is the shipping speed and customer service – Prime is pretty much everything-comes-next-day and everything-returnable-on-demand (sometimes with a couple of minutes spent reminding the chat people about consumer law); eBay returns can be a pain.

        • cin4 says:

          11 Jul11 July 10:01

          Now? They have been same price or cheaper for a least a decade.

      • Travel Strong says:

        9 Jul9 July 12:45

        eBay reigns supreme in it’s ability to find what you actually want, with clear search results, no nonsense, and clear descriptions. It’s also very easy for an individual to sell on (compared to Amazon). Unfortunately being the best tool for small purchases and individual sellers probably isn’t where the money is at though! Amazon dominates the mass market despite a frustrating front end unchanged since 1999 and a search tool which pushes what they want rather than what you asked for.

        Buyer protection on eBay also works very well and with a couple of clicks I’ve never been out of pocket, whereas I have to hound Amazon via chat when items are never dispatched. If you avoid eBay for fear of scammers and rogue traders – you are only costing yourself. AutoTrader however……. you’ll *only* get scam offers to buy your vehicle there!

        • CJD says:

          9 Jul9 July 20:37

          God the Amazon search engine is dire.

          A couple of years ago we were shopping for cheap tat decorations for my mother in law’s 60th. My fiancée sent me screenshots of decorations to buy, I tried searching for them (using the exact product name shown in the screenshot) and couldn’t find the ones she wanted.

          I eventually had to get her to create a wishlist and share it with me.

    • cin4 says:

      10 Jul10 July 11:20

      Amazon and temu are nowhere close to ebay. Much worse search, much worse range and much worse quality.

      If you think ebay is rarely cheaper than amazon you’re not even trying.

• rob(staaaar) says:

  9 Jul9 July 06:16

  Made hay while the sun shined, now currently on a rapid burn phase of all my Avios, Nectar, MR and VS points; sharpening those scissors for my flexible friends. The devaluation winds of change seem fast approaching – best I dig out the ol’ tin hat!

  Or maybe I’ll just be a rider of the storm…

• Rob H not Rob says:

  9 Jul9 July 06:20

  Had a good run. How long till Avios decide Nectar is no longer interesting too?

  • Reney says:

    9 Jul9 July 06:49

    they just devalued recently

  • JDB says:

    9 Jul9 July 07:23

    It’s clear the Avios/Nectar partnership hasn’t worked out as expected for either party and doesn’t bring any real benefits but Avios probably wants a supermarket partner and it’s not clear where they would go next.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      9 Jul9 July 08:39

      Why wouldn’t it be working for Nectar? They received a high influx of Avios conversions and Sainsburys (and Argos/Habitat) got new customers. I know I had stopped going there a while back and it’s now on my radar.

      • Geoff says:

        9 Jul9 July 09:11

        How many new customers did they gain from it?

        • TGLoyalty says:

          9 Jul9 July 09:27

          Care to share the stats if you know them? but since the partnership started they’ve had a growth in sales and growth in revenues.

  • BBbetter says:

    9 Jul9 July 07:59

    Avios is very interested as they have devalued it twice so far! If anything, Nectar might have to kick Avios out.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      9 Jul9 July 08:40

      Why? Avios is paying them for the Nectar points …

      • Rob says:

        9 Jul9 July 08:58

        The contract has emergency breaks which allow for renegotiation if too much money goes in one direction. This is what led to the two devaluations. If too many people are still converting out of Avios, it will devalue again.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          9 Jul9 July 09:23

          Yes but doesn’t explain why Nectar would want to kick Avios out!

  • Andrew J says:

    9 Jul9 July 08:06

    Let’s hope so and then add M&S in store to the BA shopping portal.

    • Geoff says:

      9 Jul9 July 15:05

      “but since the partnership started they’ve had a growth in sales and growth in revenues.”

      Familiar with food inflation since 2021?

      Of course they’ve grown sales and revenue.

      Their market share has dropped since January 2021

• Jonty says:

  9 Jul9 July 06:34

  Seems a strange decision. I’d still go to ebay for the things that ebay does very well…spares for the washing machine and car for example, but when it comes to bigger discretionary stuff being able to spend nectar points was the only reason I’d choose ebay over an alternative. I’m sure they’ve done their homework though.

• Doug says:

  9 Jul9 July 07:26

  They will also taking amex, they are squeezing every penny eh

• Paul says:

  9 Jul9 July 07:33

  I concur with the view this reflects badly on eBay rather than nectar. I have used eBay for ever but in the last year have found selling anything on the platform very difficult. Their fees are so ludicrously high that prices have to go up and in the current environment selling my tat isn’t as lucrative as it once was! There is also a huge number of time wasters and chancers who buy things then claim refunds for spurious reasons leaving sellers out of pocket.

  Buying too is not what it was. It seems to have become a market place and channel for businesses and bargains have dwindled.

  • Scott says:

    9 Jul9 July 07:42

    I’m on my third 80% off fees offer in 5 weeks. Only time I’ll list anything as fees normally are 14% or so and take close to £4.50 off a £30 item.

    FB Marketplace is pretty useless to be honest for a lot of things.
    I’ve had things on there for a while and just zero interest even at £5 for a new £500 coffee machine sort of thing (well, not that, but a decent price even for new and unopened things).

    Vinted I’ve never used. Old clothes just go to a charity shop as I don’t believe their value to be worth the effort of listing, packing it up etc.

    • John says:

      9 Jul9 July 10:53

      I’ve been receiving and using 80% off fees every fortnight since 2021, there is no point listing anything without an offer

  • Londonsteve says:

    9 Jul9 July 14:07

    I used to sell a ton of stuff on ebay with great success prior to Brexit, buyers were often based overseas and looking to tap into a rich selection of well-priced s/h items offered for sale in the UK. It has become exponentially harder to sell on ebay the last few years, the overseas buyers have all but evaporated leading to an oversupply of items that UK sellers are trying to find buyers for inland. The only things that seem to sell are one-offs and even then the prices have be to low to attract any views to a listing. I’ve (reluctantly) also tried ‘promoting’ listings, which doesn’t make much difference to the number of views. I know that some people will accuse of asking too much money and this is why my items are not selling, but I’m not asking any more than before Brexit when things would sell in a matter of weeks. Now it sometimes takes literally years to shift stuff, especially if it’s generic with lots of folks selling near identical items. The cost of living crisis also hasn’t helped with people looking to liquidate their used items for some extra spending money. Vendor numbers are way up while buyers are conspicuous by their absence. Undoubtedly the growing popularity of FB Marketplace and the likes of Vinted are also making an impact on visitor numbers on ebay.

• PM says:

  9 Jul9 July 07:56

  Nectar is an unsustainable program due to the level of fraud.

  • Max says:

    9 Jul9 July 10:38

    Agree. I had my entire points balance stolen last week. When I called Nectar customer service, they were completely unsurprised.

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