ARE OUR CONCERNS AS SELLERS BEING HEARD BY EBAY?

[magicpixiedust]

I have been reading a lot of the concerns other sellers have addressed with the fee structure, the increases, and I agree, by the time you add up the listing fee, final fee, paypal fee, and shipping and handling - it takes a big bit out of our profit. I read that a lot of power sellers are closing their stores cause it's just not worth it. My big concern is EBAY listening??? Its great for all of us to rant and rave but is it getting us anywhere? Did you notice that they show a 7 day listing is "free" when will this cost??? Its probably coming....any thoughts....I also think that if you have a store - your listings should be in the regular search engine. How many people actually click on the ebay "store" button to search for items??Not many, most just go log onto ebay and type in what they are searching for. I think ebay should change this and this would increase the traffic flow of ebay stores. This is why I have not opened a store not to mention the fees.

[sunward-hobbies]

No.

Angelo

[javax.swing]

We've been through this and the general concensus is eBay doesn't care.

[zarzuella]

Charming naivete - must be the magic pixie dust 🙂

Seriously, the bottom line is the only thing that eBay management focus on. Their attitude to sellers seems to be 'lots more where they came from' ...

Ann

[shoplineca]

They listen. They dont respond. These forums are a wealth of information about Sellers' attitudes to what they are planning to do and feedback about what they have done.

Buyer forums also provide eBay with a wealth of free information from which to know what the general consensus of Buyers are about various issues.

The risk of a mass exodus is almost nill, so threats by a few Sellers (even 20,000+) are not a threat that eBay will be concerned about, after all actions speak louder than words.

What hits a large company like eBay however, is having such a cavalier attitude they get caught off guard when there is a gradual erosion by the Sellers. Those that make up the very foundation of the flow of profit that they have come to rely upon.

When Sellers close stores, or reduce listings by 10%, change their listing format to use less expansive selling methods, or sell less expensive items, the erosion begins however it is not something that can be easily seen what is happening until some serious and perhaps, irreversible damage has been done.

Certainly with new markets, eBay is increasing their Seller base however it is doubtful that these new Sellers will replace the potentail loss of business from those people who have been selling on eBay for the last 3-5 years.

At the same time, eBay is banking on additional reveues from the large, established merchants such as Best Buy or other department stores that are coming online with eBay. These conglomereates will likely present more of a challenge than a benefit to eBay as eBay will come to depend on each individual corporate entity to maintain and increase their sales volumes, a reduction in fees being a cost they can negotiate, we couldnt.

Further should one of these large corporations pull out of eBay, which is a guaranteed event for at least one or more at some point, the hole that will be left will be too large to be immediately filled such that it will have a dramatic effect on eBay's profitability and their share value for that year.

I dont wish eBay any bad luck or misfortunes. I would like to know and be assured that they are financially profitable, a good healthy investment for investors and will be here for 100 years however they cant continue to create profit entirely off the backs of their sellers.

Use eBay as they are using you. If you can make some money through them, then continue to list and sell on the site. If things are starting to get a little tough, then examine alternatives.

As a matter of fact, you should be examining alternatives anyway as eBay will continue to evolve and likely continue to place the greatest burdens onto its sellers in order for it to meet its earnings projctions and to receive favourable remarks from Wall Street.

Malcolm

[auctiondropnship]

The big boy's ( Large Companies ) never stay around .

At the last Ebay live there was a discussion that Ebay was refocusing to smaller accounts on ebay . They made an example of a large company that came on board to list large volume with Ebay .

They closed shop on Ebay.com in 9 months
They were making more profit on there web site then on Ebay . The Big Company would offer 12 of the same item but different brands made on there web site, They then tried same method on ebay .

What they found is they would only sell 3 of the 12 items on Ebay about 20% because there was too much selection consumer on Ebay of there items in there Ebay account

This has happend over and over and over . With large Golf companies, computer companies

That company was Home Depot


AuctionDropNship
Drop It. Sell It. Ship It
Canada's First & Largest Ebay Drop off store

[shoplineca]

Todd
True, however they continue to market themselves to the big conglomerates and if they were interested in maintaining their good seller base, they wouldnt be increasing fees and decreasing services.

Putting aside those large conglomerates, there are some very sizeable Sellers that support the fee increases to weed out alot of sellers and increase their own market share on eBay. These same major sellers have, as I understand, eBay's ear and support, something few os the rest of us get.

I have personally evolved over the last 2 years. I recall having a need to get in touch with eBay on a variety of issues that were important to me and I thought eBay as well from time to time.

Needless to say, I could never get through or would only receive computer-generated responses that didnt come close to answering my questions.

My evolution has taken away that need completely such that I NEVER consider having any need to communicate with eBay on any issue.

Malcolm

[rd1000]

I agree with the biggest threat being the slow erosion of fees. Sellers that stay will just keep cutting back and looking for ways to lower their bill, including I suspect circumventing fvf's. It is the same thing with high taxes. When the government taxes say, cigarettes, too high, then smugging increases. It is the way humans respond.

The thing that has made ebay so successful has been the constant increase in sellers and buyers each year. More sellers bring more buyers and vice versa. But the same thing can work in reverse. If buyers start finding it difficult to find what they are looking for, they start to disapear. As buyers disappear, then sellers disappear. And so the spiral continues.

I agree with you Malcolm...there will not be a mass exodus, but there could be a slow erosion over time. How many posts do we see asking if sales are down? I also agree that you should always be exploring new sales channels. Having all your eggs in one basket is risky.

As far as ebay targeting big sellers...all the power too them. Ask any supplier that sells to Walmart how much fun it is selling to a large volume purchaser.

Rob

[shoplineca]

My business background taught me along time ago to walk away from having one major client that resulted in 30% or more of your sales.

Working in the paper and pulp industry, I recall Proctor and Gamble wanting to give us enough business that they could occupy 2 of our paper machines 24 hours per day, 7-days per week.

However along with that eventually comes demands. Lower your prices, give us better service ... or we will go elsewhere. Try replacing the loss of volume of business within 24 hours when you loose an account that represents so much of your sales.

Rather than 24 hours it takes months. If you finance your business, many banks will not finance those receivables and generally will discount your business should you have accounts representing more than 25% of your sales.

Walmart controls many of its suppliers in the same manner where they depend on the Walmart business and to loose it would mean their collapse and yet at the same time, to keep selling to Walmart will likely mean their eventual collapse as well as Walmart continues to renegotiate their prices for what they pay.

Just as with eBay, we can only cut back so much when they continue to implement these fee increases, none of which will result in better service, more traffic or anything positive to the Sellers.

Rob, good point about the Buyers as well. I know that I have seen a dramatic change in products and prices on eBay over the last year and while I was once a very active buyer, I now seldom purchase anything with my last purchase being easily over 8 months ago.

Malcolm

[rd1000]

Now that I think about it, the last few things I have purchased I could not find acceptable on eBay. I have purchased about a half dozen items lately on-line and I always check ebay. I have made every purchase from an on-line store.

I know one big feature I use is CNET comparison searches. You can find very low prices.

I am not sure where eBay is headed, but I don't think it is for me.

Rob