Power Sellers Unite

psunite · Joined: 27 Jan 2005 Posts: 6213 Location: Columbus OH

Why does all the protesting, screaming, crying, ranting, raving, begging, petitioning, pleading, and threatening appear to fall on deaf ears at eBay? That is very simple, they do not care. Oh they do care very much overall, but they may not care about you in particular.

Every time eBay increases its fees, modifies its procedures, changes its format, the noise starts up in earnest by those directly affected and they all wonder why eBay does not care about them anymore, or more importantly, why they are pushing them so hard, perhaps to their financial limits.

Consider the math, eBay has; if they raise rates for sellers by any percentage you choose, say 25% then they will make more money as long as something less than 25% of the sellers don't run off to do something else. What are the chances of that? Where would they go? Who would leave first? The ones generating the least revenue with the weakest business models would be the first ones by their own admission. Even then some of the business of those that left would be picked up by the sellers that remained making eBay and the established sellers stronger. That is how the macro-economy is supposed to work and generally does. When and if eBay fails to meet their projected goal by misjudging the marketplace then they will make more changes and adjust again. They have always done that and they will continue to do that. Why can't sellers do that too?
more.. link to news article

*southie* · Joined: 25 Aug 2005 Posts: 1728 Location: Sunny Florida

Good Post ...

But of course they don't care - as long as you're paying their
Ferrari Car Payments, Unique & Elite House Mortgage, etc ...

But they WILL CARE --- once they've fallen short or behind
on their precious little Ferrari payments and the expense of
living in their elite home gets to be a "tad" a little "tight" for
their lifestyle!

2BOYSandTOYS · Joined: 14 Mar 2005 Posts: 10095 Location: Kansas

The blog article in and of itself is great! The comments are also impressive. It's obvious that if you're large and expanding, you'll do 'fine' - altho I suspect of the larger sellers also have B&M. If you're small, there's a great point - your business doesn't affect ebaY at all.

I'd love to see data somewhere that shows what % of Store Owners or Sellers sell what % of total $$. "They" have that, and I definitely believe they're using that analysis in their strategy. It is a huge shame tho that the small-medium sellers have to be hit so hard - at the expense of Corporate Growth/Profit... :? :?

lammergeiernet · Joined: 01 Feb 2005 Posts: 1007 Location: Canada

The company knew there would be protests and they have decided to absorb the pain of ill will and tarnished public image (that part I don't understand at all) to generate higher returns on invested capital.

That's the the first catch

Lets look at it this way eBay spends millions to maintain its image but the last year of conduct is the kind of press that would cost billions and the word of mouth going on is the kind money can't buy and it happens to be BAD !

eBay is doing harm to its brand which is always a big mistake ,you must protect your brand or all else may fail.

If that sounds all too esoteric eBay is failing on the bean counting front ,oh sure the gold is still flowing in but eBay has lost its status on the markets and thats the reason behind alot of its negative actions.

eBay is winning the battles at our expense but is losing the war

The writer goes on about eBay's cold hearted big biz machinations as if its the cold science of economics. eBay is slipping on the bean counting front as well with its status as a growth stock trashed and its blunder to buy Skype.

Its no longer the darling of the market , and all its painful thrashing on its sellers is only a short term gain.Lets pretend it wasn't harming its brand and everything was peachy with its sellers?

Oversea's eBay is losing the battle for Asia and in some other regions ;its blown a fortune on Skype and it will lose market share.Monopoly? In Auctions? So What ?

Auctions have over-reached in North America , eBay sellers knew it by stocking Store items ,but eBay hasn't

Drop the fee's? It would save alot of sellers skins to make ends meet but we all know that bidders are not there anymore to justify auctions rolling per week.

eBay has further hurt its brand by allowing alot of less then honest sellers gouge and cheat buyers. This hurts the brand on the buyer front , eBay brand is becoming more and more linked with scams and junk.

Sure eBay is squishing us because it can and it will continue to muddle and tweak numbers through quarterly targets but the market outside of eBay has changed and its eBay that has not adapted.

The damage to its brand is the kind money can't buy

CrystalStar · Joined: 06 Mar 2005 Posts: 3571

Let's face it...to compete online you have to adjust according to the future. Ebay thought it knew the future of auctions and ecommerce. Undoubtedly they were wrong. If you can't alter and adjust accordingly...then ya need to get out of the race. Like AOL...they knew their time as leaders had ended and they made the adjustments to stay in the race. ( Whether it is successful is another matter.)

Ebay is either going to have to restructure the whole auction end to meet the ever changing ecommerce world or it will continue to lose.

Going free like AOL, Yahoo may be the only thing that saves them from themselves!

HowardH · Joined: 26 Jan 2006 Posts: 159

Sounds to me like Sheldon Liber called it right -- "strikes" and "boycotts" are pretty much beneath ebay's notice. The only thing that will get their attention is some viable competition. And, even then, they are too big to die all at once.

Meanwhile, I will continue to list a couple of items so that I will be able to inform my customers that there are alternatives to ebay, and steer as much business as I can to Blujay (and maybe ebid, if that works out well). Enough others do the same, and ebay will feel like it's getting nibbled to death by ducks.

Meanwhile, I'm growing my business, and ebay is just a small slice of that. Ebay is much too unreliable and capricious to depend on for one's living.

angelsolutions

Quote: › docWrite("quote")Ebay is either going to have to restructure the whole auction end to meet the ever changing ecommerce world or it will continue to lose.

-------> Big Clue for eBay:

Raising the rent on the store owners WASN'T a good start. The future of ecommerce is fixed price...can you say STORES?

sylvia

mojavelyn · Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 8:08 pm Post subject:

Maybe they are trying to get back to their "roots". Meg can't be a real blonde... well she might, she's acting like one.