More seller changes on the way?

soolin · 23 July 2009 at 7:54AM

http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2009/7/1247938302.html

Oh dear, it looks like they are going to tell us how to sell again.

mrcol1000 · 23 July 2009 at 8:56AM

It is quite obvious that Ebay are slowing going over to a marketplace that is for big businesses. Who can blame them? Why bother with your average person selling unwanted Christmas presents or the person selling stuff she makes in her spare time when you can have big names selling high volume with Ebay very rarely having to get involved with disputes? Ebay just need to sit back and count the dollars. Never mind Ebay's history and philosophy...

cyril82 · 23 July 2009 at 10:02AM

Question for Donahoe, how low does ebay's share price, revenue and site traffic have to fall before you admit your ideas were crap and your implementation of them a failure?

cyberbob · 23 July 2009 at 10:16AM

Oh well it'll give or the moaners something to go on about. I'tll make a change from free postage. A petition thread anyone?

Good sellers will adapt to the format. Some of the changes will be bad and some good we'll just have to see and work with them if you want to keep selling on ebay

As part of the Seller Responsibilities policy, eBay will prohibit sellers from offering shipping insurance as an optional fee,

I must admit I agree with that one.too many listings I have seen quoted that if you dont take insurance your item isnt covered for delivery. When its really the seller trying it on as we know they are responsible

Smart_But_Casual · 23 July 2009 at 10:22AM

There doesn't seem anything too radical in there so nowt to worry about IMHO.

soolin · 23 July 2009 at 10:28AM

Actually Smart you are right, there is nothing in there at all that shouldn't be normal selling practice anyway. The only people that are likely to be affected are thosse with the additional insurance costs or where they try to add extras on after auction end.

cyberbob · 23 July 2009 at 10:34AM

soolin wrote: »

Actually Smart you are right, there is nothing in there at all that shouldn't be normal selling practice anyway. The only people that are likely to be affected are thosse with the additional insurance costs or where they try to add extras on after auction end.

They'll be petitions on the ebay forums i'll bet :cool:

Premier_2 · 23 July 2009 at 10:44AM

cyril82 wrote: »

Question for Donahoe, how low does ebay's share price, revenue and site traffic have to fall before you admit your ideas were crap and your implementation of them a failure?

Probably by a lot more than the $2.1bn they announced yesterday for Q2.

* Q2 adjusted EPS 37 cents vs Street view 36 cts/shr

* Q2 revenue $2.1 billion vs Street's $1.99 billion

* Sees adjusted Q3 EPS 34-36 cents, Street view 35 cts

* Shares rise more than 3 pct (Adds analyst's quote, details of results, byline)

SAN FRANCISCO, July 22 (Reuters) - Ebay Inc (EBAY.O) posted better-than-expected quarterly results as it managed to slow the deterioration in its main online auctions and retail business, sending shares up more than 3 percent.

...

EBay said it expected third-quarter adjusted earnings per share in a range of 34 to 36 cents per share, compared with the 35 cents per share expected by Wall Street.

Shares in eBay rose 3.3 percent to $20.10 after closing on the Nasdaq at $19.45.

http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN2234185720090722?pageNumber=1

chja · 23 July 2009 at 2:40PM

You may find the FT view interesting: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6f5d6314-770a-11de-b23c-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

Seems to acknowledge the confilict between private sellers and business sellers. Still some work to do imo, but the free 99p listing is a good start.

There is still no one else that does it as well or reaches as many potential buyers.

cyril82 · 23 July 2009 at 2:50PM

Premier wrote: »

Probably by a lot more than the $2.1bn they announced yesterday for Q2.

http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN2234185720090722?pageNumber=1

shares up 3% ? to a whopping $20, they only need another 100% increase in the next quarter and they will be back to their high of $40, that’s where they were before they started messing around with the site format.

so all in all, on a pure business level, if they were once getting $40 a share and are now getting $20 a share, they are still doing something wrong.

Is it the recession? no, Amazon demonstrate that point perfectly as do many other online businesses that are thriving during the recession, surely the biggest name in online selling should be thriving? but they are not.

i wonder why.

Soolin's right too, nothing drastic in these next bout of changes, which begs the question, why bother annoying people with petty little changes, they are trying to run a business, they don't want to be bothered reading up on endless changes. There is nothing wrong with offering extra postage options, Amazon do it, wh smith do it, in fact just about all online retailers do it, ebay think by removing it people will automatically default to a higher value postage option, as they bring in more compulsory free postage that will go into the sale price and mean more fees.

at the end of the day if revenue is down and people are leaving the site you have two choices, back track or squeeze the remaining users for as much as you can, donohoe is choosing the latter. Good luck to him.

Premier_2 · 23 July 2009 at 3:07PM

cyril82 wrote: »

shares up 3% ? to a whopping $20, they only need another 100% increase in the next quarter and they will be back to their high of $40, that’s where they were before they started messing around with the site format....

The last time they hit $40 was in Q3 2007 (and prior to that they fell below $40 in Q1 2006)

Where have you been? Have you not heard about the global recession?

In Q3 2007 the Nasdaq index was about 2600 -2800; today it's below 2000

In Q3 2007 the Dow Jones index was about 13,000-14,000; todays its below 9000

More seller changes on the way?

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