"Learn to bear bravely changes of fortune".

It looks to me like further signs of the "Amazonation" of eBay.

Higher closing fees for items posted in a shopping format at lower listing fees driven by DSR performance. The happier the customers the more exposure you get and the more increased FVF eBay will reap.

I think eBay is also attracted to the way Amazon reigns supreme over their sellers and has a "at our pleasure" attitude about if you sell there or not. This is a reversal of the last 5 or 6 years of eBay's campaign tactic of driving sellers to the platform, they took the buyer for granted and focused their marketing on "you to can make a living on eBay, everyone is welcome come sell here". They were at trade shows and any event that had a large group of potential sellers pounding this message. Well look what they got, an unscrupulous unmanaged International den of thieves destroying their name and platform while we the sellers that made them who they are (and many who left along the way) took the brunt of the problem.

At the same time Amazon took another approach, the opposite approach, customer's are gold and sellers offer goods here at our pleasure in a very regulated system. They pay little upfront and share a bigger piece on the back end and they will make buyers happy or they will be gone and no unhappy buyer will be left in the lurch, you will resolve. This is not the "we're the asphalt at the swap meet and you buy and sell to each other and work it out if you're screw each other" kind of a strategy.

Guess where I shop?

eBay knows whats wrong and they are desperately trying to fix and create a format buyers can use. I think I understand the strategy and direction of this new plan. To little to late? Executed ineffectively?

I have my concerns.

Louis Palafoutas - PeSA Member

and vintageroadshow.com, Louis also sells under the eBay names wjoutlet and vintageroadshow

eBay no longer wants certain types of sellers on their site... Where to Go?

With all of the recent turmoil in the eBay community, mainly derived from comments expressed by the "new" powers that be within eBay, it is no wonder some long-time sellers are expressing more than a little angst over the quick use of terms like "retail experience" and "buyer experience" in conjuction with new performance-based discounts tied in with detailed seller ratings and feedback. It is not as though they were minor adjustments which should be obvious to everyone involved with using the eBay site for the last 10 years or so.

Lorrie Norrington - President of eBay Global Marketplaces - recently stated in a keynote speech: "....However, if you cannot, or will not change business practices to provide a great customer experience, then eBay is not for you."

Good sellers recognize the value of the bargain image that eBay nurtured for many years. In contrast, high volume sellers appreciate the retail experience language, while low volume or one-of-a-kind & consignment sellers have a harder time with this particular message. Is there a place for everyone to be comfortable? Apparently it is no longer going to be eBay.

Mr. Donahoe, who has been running the company since his appointment to the top spot was announced in January 2008, wants the company - the Internet’s largest eCommerce site - to operate less like an unruly flea market and more like a strip mall where buyers are guaranteed to have a comfortable and predictable shopping experience. See NY Times Article

If this message of change is affecting your online business plan or if you are unaware of other venues available to sell the types of goods you feel eBay was built upon (yet now seems to no longer want), we have assembled a short list of alternate venues for your to explore. Some of these marketplaces offer a venue for your online sales of unique and one-of-a-kind items and others could be more appropriate for the types of inventory no longer wanted on eBay.

1. OnlineAuction.com - Fixed flat rate yearly or monthly price to sell , 13 million listings live on the site.
2. eBid - $49.95 lifetime price to sell, international sites. Less active listings than OLA but growing.
3. Etsy - Free to list, 3.5% transaction fee if items sell, dedicated to hand-crafted & arts merchandise. Etsy has 870,000 registered users with 160,000 individual artists listing 1.5 million hand-made creations.
4. Yahoo Stores - Not an auction venue, but a great place to set up an online store if you do not want to build your own website with a shopping cart. $39.95 a month + 1.5% transaction fee for the basic package.
5. BuyitSellit - Buy It Sell It is an Ink Frog product. Many eBay sellers will be familiar with the Ink Frog eBay listing software solution. The BuyItSellIt basic package is free, but there are upgrades available including a digital delivery option for $9.95 per month. BuyItSellIt offers to also feature eBay listings alongside the shoping cart listing created in a merchant's BuyItSellIt Store.
6. Amazon Webstore - While the fees are higher here - $59.99 per month plus a 7% transaction fee - Amazon Webstores provide the Amazon experience to buyers and allows merchant specific branding. In addition, the merchant may operate multiple niche-specific Amazon Webstores all under one account for no additional fees.

Amazon Webstores Details

All credit card processing and transaction fees. There are no other hidden fees such as hosting, payment gateways or merchant accounts.

Payment Fraud Protection for you. WebStore by Amazon uses sophisticated fraud detection tools in use on Amazon.com. This allows you to benefit from Amazon’s world-class fraud protection services and experience.

Purchase protection for your customers. Customers who shop on your WebStore will feel more confident buying from your site knowing they are protected by the same A-to-z Guarantee that protects shoppers on Amazon.com.

Creating multiple WebStores within your account. Each WebStore can be a customized and independent Web presence for no additional monthly fee.

The option of adding Amazon products to your WebStore. Offer items from Amazon.com through your WebStore and the Amazon Associates Program allows you to collect a referral fee when such items are sold!

Every merchant must make his or her own choices when it comes to multi-channel selling. Using a multi-channel listing service which can feed inventory to many venues is also an option. This option is often the most expensive way to get product online and many small businesses cannot take advantage of the services of a ChannelAdvisor or Infopia multi-channel management solution. But if convenience and automation are your goals these are the types of services you should look into. Merchant Advantage is another service worthy of investigation if you have a large inventory and are interested in placing it in multiple online venues.

The point here is that there are multiple options to explore. eBay is not the only marketplace, yet it is also not a marketplace to be ignored or abandoned. Using eBay in a smart and informed way is the best solution. Doing that while exploring the other solutions mentioned above (or many more) is a smart business plan for the future.

Diversify, reduce costs, raise efficiency. These are not just terms for large corporations - they will apply to any business. See what you can do to make them apply to your business.

Scott Pooler

What are the best places online to get your products noticed in 2008?

eBay - 225 million eBay members are actively buying and selling in the world today and over 68,000 businesses are trading there. Over $52 billion was traded on eBay globally in 2006. eBay is one of the first places that consumers looks when trying to source a product to purchase. Consider opening an eBay store. If set-up correctly and managed, an eBay store can result in your listings being organically visible on the top search engine organic listings. You can even give your eBay store the same look and feel as your website. Continue Reading

Turmoil 

There is a great deal of turmoil emanating from within the ranks of eBay sellers since the numerous and ominous recent announcements and changes in the eBay policies and fee schedules. Some of this consternation is worthy of serious consideration.  Changes in feedback and seller ratings criteria, changes in fees and significant changes in the eBay consignment requirements have all caused quite a stir.

Fire Storm 

While within eBay management it seems the powers that be feel they will weather this fire-storm just as they have every other major upheaval from sellers due to fee hikes in the past, this round of announcements seems to have salted some very old wounds.  Sellers this time around seem to be more genuinely ready to look for alternatives to eBay.

Mistake? 

I will say that I personally agree with many of the sellers' viewpoints.  But alternately, eBay has its goals as well.  It seems that eBay is working hard to play catch up with Amazon, which in my mind is a mistake.  eBay is not Amazon and should never try to be Amazon.  Buyers go to each site for different reasons.  When a buyer lands on an eBay page they are aware of what eBay is, they are somewhat excited by the bidding process and exhilarated when an item they won at auction arrives at the door as promised.  eBay is - and always was - a scavenger hunt destination.  People enjoy the hunt and even though they do like to complain about this or that, they always come back because of the hunt.

eBay has been slowing morphing into a new version of Amazon with more new fixed price items than ever before.  This may seem like a good thing to eBay executives and board members because the major players in the fixed price market pay eBay fees on time and without complaint.  But what happens to those sellers when the buyers stop coming to eBay? When eBay is no longer a scavenger hunt, a place to find interesting or weird items and/or great deals, why will the world flock to its portal? 

If we want a new product and we want it delivered tomorrow, as a group of educated buyers we go to Amazon or Buy.com or one of the many hundreds of other new merchandise sites.  If eBay changes are meant to morph the site into another Amazon.com, why will anyone go to eBay?  It will simply become one of a hundred other sites and will diminish in stature over time.  Amazon has the lead in new merchandise sales and will probably retain that lead.  eBay should concentrate more on its core sellers and its original reasons for success.

Loyalty Shift 

Recent news articles and comments from the sellers themselves on eBay's own discussion boards may prove that this upheaval is different than recent similar outbreaks of revolt.  Talks of seller strikes may sound silly to the casual observer since they have been tried before without much success.  The real proof of a possible shift in loyalty comes from reports of an influx of new sellers on eBay alternative sites. 

Fortune CNN Reports 

Fortune Magazine reports in this article eBay rivals circle an influx of new sellers to multiple alternative eCommerce and auction sites.  We will review these and many more online selling sites for you in this publication in the coming weeks. 

Our view is:  check options, be open to change, evaluate inventory and costs and try new ideas.  I would never recommend leaving eBay altogether as other have openly demanded.  eBay still is a powerhouse of traffic generation and will continue to be a part of our business and a recommended tool for any business we work with.  But options are out there to explore and from our initial evaluation, some of these options may just be a viable alternative. 

Eggs 

I have always preached that no business should depend completely upon one outlet for sales.  There is no real reason to place all of your eggs in the eBay basket.  But do not abandon eBay completely because of some sort of seller upheaval.  Take a wait-and-see outlook and check your options.  Change, in the end, is almost always a good thing.  But change just for the sake of change can be dangerous.  Keep your eBay account, keep your customers happy and keep selling...

I must admit that this past holiday season was a true milestone for me personally. I never once set foot within a major shopping mall or even a Walmart this past Holiday season. The fact is that I purchased every single holiday gift either online through Amazon.com, Buy.com or eBay.

While that may not be a surprise for those of you tech and Internet savvy readers... but I would wager that the major retailers in America are cringing at the reality of those words. America is now shopping On-Line more extensively and if you are paying millions of dollars per month for retail space in crowded malls, you're probably not liking this new version of retail reality.

As eBay sellers we are strongly positioned to take advantage of this new and exciting (for us) online retail acceptance. eBay itself is trying earnestly to morph into a destination which makes the traditional American mall type of shopper comfortable enough to forgo the entire crowded holiday mall shopping experience.... Amazon.com has already seemingly made that transition.

eBay is strongly looking at what Amazon.com does to provide buyers with an online purchasing experience that makes them comfortable and brings them back time after time. If eBay is at least somewhat successful in modifying the eBay shopping experience - in a good way - to compete with Amazon.com, we all will be more successful eBay sellers.

eBay cannot compete with Amazon.com or many other eCommerce retailers because of higher than average shipping costs for sellers resulting in higher than average shipping charges to consumers. This has been a thorn in the side of eBay for many years.

eBay has attempted to address this problem through enforcement of rules for sellers concerning shipping along with making the shipping charges on each item for sale on eBay more visible to consumers. This second innovation has greatly reduced sales in our opinion. Sellers can not survive if they charge less than costs for shipping and eBay seems to be encouraging sellers to do just that. There has to be a better solution...

We suggest looking at a new shipping model which could compete with Amazons shipping calculator and even with Amazon Prime (a yearly subscription based model which provides Amazon Prime members with free 2 day shipping) to provide a more stable and satisfactory experience for buyers on eBay.

Proposal - The eBay Powersellers Shipping Alliance

This is just a proposal you understand, but we think if a program were to be developed where sellers could join a shipping co-op through eBay and promise to ship within a specified amount of time in exchange for a reduction in shipping charges as arranged and negotiated by a large association of successful eBay sellers (Powersellers).

With a little work and negotiation, along with enforcement of strict guidelines concerning shipping on-time, eBay could compete favorably with Amazon.com and Amazon Prime on many levels.

This program is not currently available to eBay sellers, but I dare say that if it were made available this program would be valuable to sellers, buyers and eBay alike. It's amazing how much negotiation power is available when you combine all of the Powersellers on eBay - Just look at what Amazon has done and know that with their volume that they pay significantly less to ship each package than any individual eBay seller does, no matter the volume of that seller.

Shipping costs are a major concern for eBay and all eBay sellers. We must find ways to lower our cost to the consumer for shipping if we are to compete in 2008. This is just one idea which could solve part of the buyers perceived shipping friction found on eBay.

Proposed shipping discounts aside...

If you’re not already selling product on Amazon.com, we strongly encourage you to look into this second channel for your eBay business.

Amazon’s North American third quarter sales in 2007 grew 42% compared to the third quarter of 2006 (and you can expect similar growth for this past holiday season). Amazon has over 78 million active customers that you could reach at no cost (there are no listing fees). As we have said before, it is imperative for the stability of any business to have more than one income stream. Relying completely upon eBay to bring in customers is less than wise.

Check out the minutes from Amazon's quarterly report included below to make your own judgments about selling your products through the Amazon Marketplace.

Scott Pooler - http://www.AllBusinessAuctions.com/blog & http://www.iBusinessLogic.com

Read the Amazon Quarterly Report Here: Continue Reading