eBay Reports Changes Are Having Positive Effects??????

[tea_past_times]

eBay Reports Changes Are Having Positive Effects
By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
June 20, 2008

eBay is starting to see the benefits of the changes announced in January, according to Stephanie Tilenius, Senior Vice President and General Manager of eBay North America. The percentage of PowerSellers who qualify for fee discounts based on high performing DSRs (ratings received by buyers) have increased since the announcements.

She also revealed that eBay will make an announcement around fee changes before the holidays. "We want to be the most price competitive marketplace on the web," she said, adding that the price changes rolling out are for small sellers.

After it was made public earlier this year that eBay had made a special deal with Buy.com, eBay heard from sellers who asked how they could get access to the same Buy.com deal, Tilenius said. That's how the Diamond level PowerSeller tier came into being, which was announced Thursday morning. Sellers with DSRs of 4.8 or higher and who have $500,000 in monthly sales (or 50,000 items sold/month) are eligible to negotiate with eBay over pricing and eBay's expectations about terms (such as shipping and handling fees and return policies offered to buyers).

eBay also made other announcements on Thursday, adding another tier to discounts tied to DSRs, expanded buyer and seller protection, and the phasing out of third-party checkout. eBay also announced a move that will benefit some lower-volume sellers. Currently, sellers must have a minimum of 10 DSRs to be eligible to be advantaged in Best Match. eBay is lowering it to 3 DSRs (http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2008/6/1213896146.html).

When asked what she meant when she said earlier this year that eBay would not be the same site in a year, and it was moving toward a retail experience, Tilenius said she meant making it easier to shop on eBay. She used two examples, saying in the media category, they will use a catalog system. And in the clothing category, when a shopper searches for a particular purple blazer, "We'll show the blazer, not the listings." She said eBay wants to show a higher relevancy and precision in what they are showing shoppers.

She said eBay definitely wants the small seller, saying they make eBay what it is. As for why some sellers may be unsettled by all the changes announced this year by eBay, Tilenius said change is hard. Asked about sellers who seemed happy with some changes but feeling unhappy about factors that are out of their control - such as the risk of encountering a bad buyer, or the shipping DSRs - Tilenius said worrying about things that are out of their control is a significant part of it, but she said the facts are startling: 70 percent of DSRs are 5, she said.

eBay is seeing some sellers go from a 4.2 DSR to a 4.8 DSR in a few months, she said. "It is possible. The first month of data suggests that with combined negatives and neutrals, we're not seeing an increase.

"We are seeing an increase in leaving feedback," she said. "Seventy-six percent of the time that buyers leave feedback, they leave DSRs. We're seeing a higher quality of feedback."

Asked if Unpaid Item claims had increased since the no-negative feedback policy went into a month ago, she said "UPI rates have not gone up." One way to avoid UPIs is to use Instant Pay with PayPal, she said. (PayPal is a subsidiary of eBay.)

Tilenius said eBay Live attendees should come to the Friday morning session on Feedback - as far as Mutual Feedback Withdrawal, it appears it's back on the table, and eBay wants to hear feedback from attendees.

[cajunfox]

I'm not happy, and eBay stands to lose the $13,000 a year or so in fees I pay them if I go. eBay is a corporation and corporations are out to do well for stockholders - making ebay a "better online buying experience" at the cost of large amounts of revenue is not in shareholders' best interests.

I'm immune to best match standings being lowered, or search standing being lowered, because my products are very specific in nature and searches won't produce more than 10-20 results for one at any given time, and I'm always the cheapest. But most people don't have that luxury. Not one eBay seller I know is happy with the new changes in any way.

My unpaids haven't gone up, primarily because most people who buy my items get really good deals so they generally want to pay. But if it weren't for the fact that I get my inventory for free, I wouldn't be using eBay as a marketplace anymore because it's too much hassle.

[cajunfox]

Also, I do believe that a lot of powersellers do qualify for those fee discounts - but many of those powersellers are ones who don't move high dollar volumes and don't sell more than a hundred items per month. Most powersellers I see who have high DSRs and feedback percentages sell things like DVDs, trinkets, beads, baby clothing, beanie babies and such. which are easy to ship and don't hurt too much to issue a refund on to avoid a negative. Sellers who deal in used computer hardware, entertainment systems, video games or industrial equipment tend to have lower DSRs/feedback percentages, and this is because those items have a much higher chance of being damaged in transit or received defective.

I can't refund some clown $300 on a laptop because it had a scratch on the bottom or a dead pixel in the screen.

eBay may be proud that a lot of powersellers get the fee discounts, but they don't care about giving 5 or 15% off your FVFs when your monthly sales volume is $1500 or so. Mine is around $25K and I had no trouble qualifying as a PS until now, and I think a lot of sellers with high dollar volumes will be knocked off of PS status soon.

[faerywishes]

I don't understand how they can say Unpaid Items hasn't gone up. I have 3-5 a week all from newbies. I used to have 1-2 a month. I have seen several people say the same on these boards.

[cartoonsinabox]

Its normal that Ebay won't say negative comments on the "moves" they just made. Read in between the lines.

Frederic

[whoscloset]

eBay Reports Changes Are Having Positive Effects??????

[lina-mallows]

....and tomorrow the sun will rise.....and newspapers will still continue to NOT report airplanes that land safely!

At least some thing have a ring of truth to them!

[g-manthebossman]

i wonder what would happen if a regular feed of this discussion board was sent to the major stock exchanges and media outlets may help people know the real deal about whats going on because we know that was a load of bs

[mobilekingking]

This is not true
"Tilenius said eBay Live attendees should come to the Friday morning session on Feedback - as far as Mutual Feedback Withdrawal, it appears it's back on the table, and eBay wants to hear feedback from attendees. "


I stilll cant find a mutuall feedback link anywher?? what are they talking about???

[duujogl]

mobilekingking, I think he meant it's back on the discussion table - not that it's back in use. But if we can't leave negative for buyers, what's in it for them to agree to a mutual feedback? Seems like a dead issue to me.

Also, TPT's post above quoting Ina Steiner's newsletter - I didn't see anything in the eBay announcement about phasing out 3rd party checkout? Anyone else catch that? That's gonna make a LOT of us who use a 3rd party management system REALLY HAPPY ... NOT!!!

[lina-mallows]

Positive Effects??????

Now, let me see....
Where did I put my ORWELLIAN Dictionary ??????????

[westernstargifts]

Unpaid items are definitely on the increase. I have one buyer right now who purchased from the store and won auctions for a total of 13 items who has not paid. I just closed another UID for a buyer with 2 purchases. That user was NARU and eBay still made me wait until the 8th day to close the dispute and get my FVF credits.

Off the topic, when I checked the status of the disputes, one was written in French rather than English which it should be. Not the first time this has happened.