@hlmacdon wrote:
From the article it sounds like they are trying to refocus on the market that Etsy took off with and that Amazon has launched into.
Yes, I think that's exactly why, after 5 or 6 years, we're suddenly hearing eBay's CEO talking about the "little guy" again.
The fact is, eBay gave away -- stupidly in my view -- that entire market by their total lack of creativity and inability to apply forward thinking. By focusing their sights so hard on big retailers, they effectively handed a huge chunk of the OOAK/vintage/unique market to others, who gladly ran with it.
EBay could easily have divided its site into two distinct streams in 2012 (when it started wooing and inviting in the big retailers and large scale overseas sellers). They could have had eBay "classic" -- for the OOAK/vintage people -- and eBay "new" for manufactured, mass-produced and tech-oriented items. They had the platform, they had the buyers, they had the worldwide exposure, and they dropped the ball. Now they're crying because they say they want all those OOAK sellers after all. I'll believe it when I see some specific changes designed to get out of the way of smaller sellers' ability to prosper here.
Incidentally, when I use the term "smaller seller" I am thinking of what eBay itself has more or less defined as a small seller -- anybody who doesn't have enough transactions to be able to turn over their bad FB/DSR (and now on-time) history every 30 days. There is no exact definition possible, but I think that this dividing line established by eBay itself, or the concept of a "boutique seller" are both fairly good ways to draw the distinction.
Those who have been around here for a few years may remember me saying back in 2012 that I thought eBay would rue the day it began to lose its smaller sellers to other venues, because those are the sellers who will stay for years if conditions are comfortable for them. Well, it seems that day has arrived. Whether eBay can apply this lesson effectively remains to be seen.
