Power Sellers Unite

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17240 Location: Texas

hear many sellers nowadays complain that eBay are favouring large retailers over the smaller independent eBay seller. Whilst I’m convinced that’s not something that even eBay themselves consider desirable it’s interesting to see the side effects of their policies and just how much advantage large sellers receive.

One thing that’s irrefutable is that eBay are attempting to promote the best deals from the best sellers to buyers. When a buyer has a great buying experience and gets a great deal they’re more likely to purchase again in the future which benefits all sellers.

A good example of of what might be unintended advantage for large sellers is the Daily and Weekly deals program. A few days ago I highlighted what was a great deal for a USB Hard Drive – the 80GB drive was at a cracking price of £17.99 for one day only and sold just over 1700 units in a day.

Now the price is back up to £24.99 and the listing is still selling an average of 10 units per day. What’s more important is that it’s right at the top of search results when you look for a “USB Hard Drive“. It is still a good deal, but at that price it’s no longer a great deal. However it’s recent sales make it a very popular listing and after a week it’s showing no signs of slipping from the number one position in search results.

Larger sellers who routinely supply Daily and Weekly deals rapidly build up a large number of top performing listings across a range of categories. This is gives them an advantage in search results which simply isn’t available to smaller sellers.

http://tamebay.com/2011/11/the-advantage-large-sellers-get-in-search.html

armourereric · Joined: 25 Aug 2008 Posts: 129

I see evidence that ebay wants to keep as much server space as possible by placing items that sell quickly up front. Now, i sell hand made medieval armour but there are 3 or more large bulk sellers of similar items from India/Ukraine. I am usually on the first page (of 55) in search within 3 hours of listing, and the top item in the last 3 days of a 7 day auction, mostly because I have a good 90% sell through on some items and it get outa there faster.

cohibastore.com · Joined: 14 Sep 2006 Posts: 4908

After years of reading about the 'alleged' assault on small sellers I am beginning to wonder if there was a divine edict I missed. Did the clouds clear one rainy day where god spoke saying small sellers are "better" than larger sellers.

80-90% if the problems I have had when buying on ebay have been with small, individual, and/or amateur sellers, say under 1000 transactions a year.

luckyalive · Joined: 27 Apr 2008 Posts: 589

I've long suspected, even before, the dsrs came out, that ebay could adjust the search results based upon individual sellers. They recently ran a promotion in which you could receive high results in searches by simply lists items with X shipping and X handling time. So whats stopping them form altering their algorithms to allow for the insertion of individual seller accounts? Nothing. I want congress to investigate how exactly their results are determined.

cohibastore.com · Joined: 14 Sep 2006 Posts: 4908

luckyalive wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")I want congress to investigate how exactly their results are determined.

With respect - Congress? Are you out of your mind? That would be like Obama investigating physics.

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17240 Location: Texas

"Good news on search visibility – Fixes are happening"

I’ve written many times lately about eBay search – Best Match, Catalogue, Auctions and Fixed price listings being hidden in search results – and none of it’s been good, so today for a change I’m happy to report that eBay appear to be fixing the issues.

I noticed today that I had started getting sales above the level of the last couple of weeks, so I went looking in search to see what was going on. Products are appearing on the first page of search results that previously had been missing – not surprisingly once items were visible they started to sell again. eBay have identified and fixed some of the issues (they are always monitoring the site performance) and the good news is things are getting put right just in time for Christmas sales – traditionally as soon as people receive their pay check at the end of November sales go through the roof.

http://tamebay.com/2011/11/good-news-on-search-visibility-fixes-are-happening.html

sjdataservices · Joined: 21 Nov 2011 Posts: 2

Ebay allows large as well as small sellers.

But by using different method of selling like auction, free shipping etc.. products of large sellers are more visible then others. This increases not only sales but also profit of large sellers on ebay.

All the sellers including the small seller can be noticed if they use proper method of selling.