eBay

wsomu0 · ‎07-12-2018

In my couple of months back on ebay all it seems like they are trying to do right now is play catch up with amazon . How many 10 - 15 % off sales have they had in the past couple of months ..

How can eBay absorb these discounts (expenses) and grow in revenue .. Their earnings will be soon in the next week or 2 so we will see . Remember how many amazon to ebay drop shippers alone there are on ebay ... How is ebay gaining anything out of this as a company. If anything amazon (their competition) is still getting paid the full price they want from the vast majority of people buying drop shipped items at a 15 % discount ..

Ebay has a big presence in the USA . Much bigger than Canada

I'm sure the recent tax ruling is scaring side sellers away ( not people who sell for a living but just a bit of extra money ) .

Trade war is heating up I know the items shipped from China to USA & Canada are cheap but I don't think this isn't something ebay is ignoring .

I love ebay but I don't see how anything that is happening or what they are doing is getting them ahead of the competition . How is a buy box of the cheapest amazon drop shipper willing to make the least amount of money helping at all .

marnotom! · ‎07-12-2018

I think the desirability of a particular site is really dependent on the item being sold or its category and how much value buyers put on things such as express shipping. Some items seem to work better sold on one site over the other.

Smart buyers shop around and base their purchases not just on the overall price, but the experience they expect to get.

Unfortunately, not all buyers are smart.

By the way, as far as your comment about drop-shipping goes, assuming a drop-shipped item is listed the same way with the same overall cost to the buyer as a non-drop-shipped item, eBay would receive the same in fees from the seller in both instances.

hlmacdon · ‎07-12-2018

@wsomu0 wrote:
In my couple of months back on ebay all it seems like they are trying to do right now is play catch up with amazon . How many 10 - 15 % off sales have they had in the past couple of months ..

How can eBay absorb these discounts (expenses) and grow in revenue

Promotional funding will be covered by charging sellers increased fees, taking a bigger cut of payment/shipment fees, and converting external ads that weren't generating much revenue into seller funded ads that theoretically give increased visibility. The focus moving forward is figuring out more ways of monetizing sellers. The current growth strategy revolves around pitching a story to new consumers that ebay has the same merchandise as amazon, only cheaper. To prop up that view there is a two prong strategy, one being the promotions you mention. The other part of that strategy was to implement the product based shopping search to artificially drive prices lower. They are hoping that this drives increased use growth and revenue that will offset decreased margins due to the lower FVF and promotional spending.

There is a lot of creative accounting that goes into booking marketing expenses as well, especially with respect to future dating those. The other thing to understand is that almost every large retailer fudges their growth by pushing top line over margin. Execs are typically compensated on top line growth over profitability. Analysts don't seem to care either if your cost of customer acquisition is ridiculous if you can fudge your user growth numbers.

As a brand they are in trouble in the sense that user growth is anemic relative to competition and the shift in the direction of the marketplace has seriously damaged the traditional ebay ecosystem. One former executive actually understood that ebay functions as a self contained economy in that sellers and buyers both sell product and buy product on the platform which recycles funds through the platform. That understanding has gone out the window. The attrition rate of traditional smaller ebay sellers is a real problem for the brand, as they depart ebay loses on both sides of the equation, sales and purchases. The new breed of sellers that will be attracted to the platform are not the sort that will be as inclined to make purchases.

Potential trade wars are the least of eBay's problems given their absolute technical ineptitude that is crippling efforts to transform the platform and looming sales tax issues which are potentially a major problem.

tobyshitzu · ‎07-12-2018

ebay, and everyone else in retail without a strong service component ,who's name isnt amazon is in trouble.

femmefan1946 · ‎07-12-2018

One former executive actually understood that ebay functions as a self contained economy in that sellers and buyers both sell product and buy product on the platform which recycles funds through the platform.

This is an often repeated claim and in my opinion not actually true.

It's true enough that sellers here do buy occasionally, but the majority of buyers are only buyers and more importantly, not particularly loyal to the site.

Look at your own buyers.

How many have selling FB or indicate in FB Left that they are selling?

How many have very low FB-- less than 100 FB over many years or have been members for less than a year?

Then there are the Guest Buyers* who may make one or two purchases and never return.

Are sellers buyers? Yes, to some extent.

But frankly, for me, in a fair sized city, it's easier to shop locally than online, where I can't see the item I've purchased for more than a week after I lay my money down.

Which is a problem with all online shopping venues.

For rural or handicapped shoppers, online is a godsend.

*I worry about these. Not that they are not welcome as customers, but I fear they are not given an appropriate level of buyer protection.

hlmacdon · ‎07-12-2018

@femmefan1946 wrote:
One former executive actually understood that ebay functions as a self contained economy in that sellers and buyers both sell product and buy product on the platform which recycles funds through the platform.

This is an often repeated claim and in my opinion not actually true.
It's true enough that sellers here do buy occasionally, but the majority of buyers are only buyers and more importantly, not particularly loyal to the site.
Look at your own buyers.
How many have selling FB or indicate in FB Left that they are selling?
How many have very low FB-- less than 100 FB over many years or have been members for less than a year?
Then there are the Guest Buyers* who may make one or two purchases and never return.

I imagine this will vary by category/niche quite a bit (for example a number of niches ebay is a primary marketplace whereas as a seller of drop ship goods probably doesn't purchase much of anything) , but within my niche the majority of my customers are long term users who both buy and sell. Low feedback or guest accounts are quite rare in comparison. Looking at my own purchases over the last few years not inclusive of 2018 they total $29,233.41,

femmefan1946 · ‎07-12-2018

Where eBay is failing I think is in bringing in those 'guests' and then converting them to members.

The paranoia among some sellers might lessen if there were more new buyers.

As things stand, particularly on the US Boards, there are constant terrified posts about whether the seller should ship to a buyer who joined that day! Duh! EBay actually found a new interested buyer and they are afraid to take the sale.

This may be another reason to drop feedback entirely. It feeds the paranoid.

hlmacdon · ‎07-12-2018

@femmefan1946 wrote:
Where eBay is failing I think is in bringing in those 'guests' and then converting them to members.
The paranoia among some sellers might lessen if there were more new buyers.
As things stand, particularly on the US Boards, there are constant terrified posts about whether the seller should ship to a buyer who joined that day! Duh! EBay actually found a new interested buyer and they are afraid to take the sale.
This may be another reason to drop feedback entirely. It feeds the paranoid.

Ebay does a very poor job of converting guest accounts to users. It's an opt in process for the buyer which is frankly ridiculous since all the information they need is already there and makes it any further interaction with ebay from the guest a pain as most things require account level access.

The seller paranoia is partially fueled by paypal announcing they won't be covering guest checkout purchases where the buyer doesn't have a paypal account and hence doesn't log in to paypal. I would differentiate between a guest checkout customer and a newly registered account as I rarely have any difficulties with new accounts, more the guest checkout since communication is difficult given they don't receive ebay messages.

hlmacdon · ‎07-12-2018

Related to the discussion. Need to find the motrin now as I think I just pulled something from all that cringing.

momcqueen · ‎07-13-2018

The last thing that I bought on ebay.ca sold from a seller in the USA that had 10+ in stock and was asking $1.99 USD. The same item was found in a quantity of one on Amazon.ca for $55 USD.

Amazon is not the heaven online that people cavalierly claim; it's only useful to buyers (and sellers alike) in certain circumstances. Shoppers have to be smart. Unfortunately, most shopping is done online due to laziness and sitting-on-my-butt-on-my-sofa-convenience.

retroman_studios · ‎07-14-2018

I'm curious about something. I have one my auctions/BIN (when I have them up) that a buyer is required to have a PayPal account. Does that affect guest checkout if they simply don't sign up for PayPal or does it require them to?

I've had a few transactions in the best from customers that had the (0) feedback, and I was able to leave feedback, so wasn't sure if they indeed signed up for the purchase or if it was one of those Kijji things I hear about where select eBay items are advertised but they have to sign up.

pjcdn2005 · ‎07-14-2018

They no longer have that option of requiring a PayPal account. It was taken off sometime in the last month or two.

femmefan1946 · ‎07-30-2018

That's a problem for sellers if the transaction goes bad.

With Paypal there is a set process (return for full refund on buyer's dime/ seller's tracking shows delivery) governing Disputes.

With credit card chargbacks, there is no process for the seller to refuse and unwarranted refund or to get the disputed item back.

hlmacdon · ‎07-30-2018

@retroman_studios wrote:
I'm curious about something. I have one my auctions/BIN (when I have them up) that a buyer is required to have a PayPal account. Does that affect guest checkout if they simply don't sign up for PayPal or does it require them to?

I've had a few transactions in the best from customers that had the (0) feedback, and I was able to leave feedback, so wasn't sure if they indeed signed up for the purchase or if it was one of those Kijji things I hear about where select eBay items are advertised but they have to sign up.

Missed your question earlier. Guest checkout doesn't require paypal and principally exists to service debit/credit card payments. You can leave feedback for the randomly generated account, but in order for the guest buyer to actually convert that to a permanent account they have to opt-in through links in the order emails they receive from ebay. A large percentage of my buyers are repeat customers and it is quite rare to see a guest buyer convert to a regular site user with a permanent account. I find most of them flow through via external traffic sources like google shopping feeds, find the one off item they want then disappear back into the ether.

femmefan1946 · ‎07-30-2018

@wsomu0

How can eBay absorb these discounts (expenses) and grow in revenue ..

Every time eBay finds a profitable side business, they spin it off.

Skype (which wasn't a good fit anyway). Paypal (which was). Probably others less well known.

Remember that eBay doesn't pay dividends.

This means the profits go.... where?

Back into their coffers to finance the company, I guess.

And the shareholders want the share price to b volatile, so they can buy low and sell high.

Which makes no difference to the company* since they don't see a penny of that churning.

amazon to ebay drop shippers

EBay has always allowed dropshipping. The AZ thing is new (along with WalMart, Target etc).

It reflects more on the stupidity of the dropshippers than on eBay as such.

The customer learns she can buy cheaper elsewhere and feels cheated into the bargain.

give a man a fish.jpg

I'm sure the recent tax ruling is scaring side sellers away

Meh.

Americans are scared of everything.

That ruling is in one state. And every state has different rules.

There is a good discussion about what it really means somewhere on these Canada Boards.

Which comes down to ...not much.

Trade war is heating up

I think this will affect US sellers more than Canadian.

We are not putting high tariffs on Chinese or other goods.

Canada just signed on to a Free Trade Agreement with the European Union and another is nearly complete with the Trans Pacific partners, which specifically does not include China.

If anything this would be an opportunity for Canadian sellers shipping from Canada into the USA.

In any case, American residents have a duty-free allowance of $800. That's a lot of cellphone cases, cheap jewelry, poorly made wedding dresses, and counterfeit sneakers.

* It would make a personal difference to officers who get compensation in the form of shares.