she need to be replaced -
the pricing of EBAY gets to a point
of painful experience.
They will loose the market of online
auctions soon and brutal - if a serious
competitor comes in and does reasonable
pricing - like it had been.
She listens to much to the demand to make
more money in the game - greed kills.
what a pitt for such a fine idea.

manfred zorn

we have been a merchant on ebay since 1999 and will be leaving after this holiday season. we currently have over 5,000 items listed and while we are irate at the new fee structure(we spent hundreds of hours listing all of these only to have the rules changed starting tomorrow)are more upset at their complete lack of professional when it comes to resolving a problem that is 100% on them to fix.
specifically, over the past several years, thousands of pictures have just vanished from our listings. in the beginning they told us it was a problem they fixed so we spent OUR time fixing them. it happened again, we were told then that it was a 'gliche' and it had been fixed, so we fixed the pictures again. however, when it happened the beginning of this year we had enough, and have been fighting with them ever since trying to get them to take action to fix the problem. since then we have been told so many stories by their 'technical' and 'customer service' people that it is now apparent they are just trying to get us to go away because they simply can't fix this problem. excuses such as it was our computer's java that lost the pictures, stored on their picture service, when we simply hit the relist button(all on their system!) we have gone through 5-10 different people, each taking several days to respond to our emails(they stopped returning phone calls a few months back) only to ask us the same thing and "PROMISE" to help as long as we give them info to assist them which we can no longer retrieve!
ebay has lost many of their bigger sellers who have made a decision to leave(based on economics, i'm sure)and they simply do not care as they think that the new people who keep hearing about the millions of people getting rich selling on ebay will keep them afloat. however, just like a chain letter or pyramid scheme, it ends. while i do not know the answer to this, how are the ebay stores doing financially? when i look at the fees they charge to sell peoples items, how do most people walk out of an ebay store thinking they did well on the sale?

being in retail, i do not blame the store owners knowing how much it costs to run a brick and mortar store. however, when a person hears that if they want to sell an old lint ball, just put it on ebay and you will get more than you think, what is their reaction when it DOESN'T sell and they get a bill for $20.00 to cover the costs of the stores fees?
my business paid tens of thousands of dollars in ebay fees last year as well as the salaries of two full time employees and three parttim employees to manage our ebay store all in the hopes of building our overall business. so for us to take the step of leaving ebay completely next year does not come easy for us, considering we have probably shipped in the neighborhood of 50,000 items in the past several years! however, i have looked at the economics of our present ebay model and with the rediculoue fee hikes starting tomorrow will be leaving in february. i can only imagine that i am not alone in this and that other merchants, much bigger than us, will also come to the same decision.
unfortunately for ms. whitman the buck does stop with her. i have watched the glowing stories of ebay and the 'love' that people such as david faber feel for her but if things turn bad, eventually we can get an accurate story out on how they handle problems.

There needs to be a major shakeup and ebay needs to care about their sellers and provide not only "some" customer service but outstanding customer service to their sellers. You cant even talk to a live person at ebay.
Their rules and policies are mostly just, but their punishments are swift and unyielding... and then they provide no help at all to loyal hardworking sellers who pay THEM a lot of money. Any other big corporation couldnt get away with what they get away with. Its a crime.
And then they raise prices to kill off the small vendors !
Greedy Greedy Greedy

paypal owned by ebay has many problems and many complaints including lawsuits growing by the day not to mention all the fedral trade commission complaints that are growing by the day . unfair business pratices and almost zero customer service provided thru paypal . when is this company going to get investigated and get what they have coming to them !!!! please read all the complaints thru paypal sucks .com

what about all the paypal users that have been screwed over ? please advise all the horror story's you can tell there must be millions out there

Perhaps off the subject, just a little, but isn't France focusing in on eBay management for their egregious behaviors relative to allowing fakes and knockoffs to rule the site after multiple warnings?

Greed and arrogance is always the means to an end.

Very sad for the once beautiful community of online businesses.

I liked your blog and information. Can you please contact me when you have a chance. alfredo.gutierrez@zecco.net

Melly, thanks for the post. Your comment: "They seek management change due to "the deterioration in the company's flagship auction site, where they say they are seeing fewer transactions and declining sale prices."

Just an FYI - A good number of the store sellers who are complaining about fee increases realized this long ago and moved their items to store as an alternative. That is why we see the "imbalance" today. eBay is headed down the same road with stores. At some point the financial community need to do their homework and look at the underlying facts rather than making assumptions.

Having closed my UK Ebay store just a couple of days ago due to the fee hike, I have ended my last remaining core austion listings today also.

If I am forced to move to alternative sites with the bread and butter side of my online listings then I will take the rest of it with me too. The reasoning is quite simple. Why do I want to support eBay in any way now when it is far easier and cheaper to encourage the massive customer base I've made over the years (thank you eBay) to come and view my listings elsewhere now?

Ebay are suggesting to investors that users switched from core listing to store listing which has caused their "balance" problem. This is misleading in my view. The massive boost they achieved in store listings was largely NEW business that will not revert to core listings now. A genuinely talented management would have seen this and accomodated their new found listings within the eBay community properly. Instead they launched Ebay Express to try and accomodate this business which, to my eyes, has to date proved a total failure. So now they simply dump the massive investment of time and energy they actively encouraged store users to make.

Crazy.

Investors beware, I personally wouldn't back a management that cannot show even a half hearted public understanding with it's highest paying customers.

Fee hikes aside I am acutely worried that Ebay hasn't realised how its users have matured over recent years.

The days of juicy bidding wars are over as virtually every buyer knows another 'widget' will come along soon. No matter how long the auction listing now we all know virtually no bids will be made until the final hour and, sadly, I see far too many sellers losing items of real value for peanuts at times!

Such experiences have made the fixed price listing methods more popular but Ebay don't want to face up to it.

Other online auction sites seem to have woken up to this problem and are devloping innovative methods to rekindle the competitive aspect to their users experience. Ebay sadly has become too obese and bogged down in its own sense of immunity to show any recognition. It is busy trying to flog Billions of dollars worth of telephony services to flea market bargain hunters! Now that's quality focused management if ever I saw it.

If I had funds to invest in this sector I think I would be looking at smaller risks with the up and coming competitors who have had a fantastic opportunity handed to them on a plate.

Our website (www.firemeg.com) was set up some time ago to address the problems caused by the management at eBay inc. One thing that many (actually MOST) analysts miss is that the company continues to experience lower numbers of listings, lower sell through rates, and lower site views. We read as much as we can about the company being that we make a living selling there (but have recently started the exodus ourselves to our own e-commerce sites). It's interesting to see when analysts post news, comments, blogs, predictions, etc., right after eBay releases a press release or statement.

Many times these press releases from eBay come right after "listing sales" when the listing numbers jump considerably over a week (although the site views do not go up, and the sell through rate actually plummets - but of course, eBay doesn't mention that). We deal with eBay about 15 hours a day - like many full-time sellers. We aren't just being mean spirited or simply disgruntled about fee increases when we say Meg Whitman and several others in top management need to go.

Sellers have known for a while now that "core" listings are in many cases no longer economically feasible. That's the main thing that fueled the move to stores in the first place (along with eBay's own encouragement to use store listings).

You can't force those listings back out to auctions; they are not viable there. When you have to pay listing fees for four, six, eight weeks on an item, and in addition auctioned items sell for less than store items so there is less profit anyway, well you can see that sellers made a very sound financial decision to move to store listings.

eBay can't fix this by raising fees. That's a very short-term view of the problem. Honestly I'm not sure how eBay can bring life back to the auctions. But e-commerce has changed in many many ways since eBay began, and I don't think they understand the changes at all.

Ebay's decision to raise store listing fees clearly shows that they do not understand the phenomenon of the "long-tail" that they helped to create !

Do you wonder why you are getting so many comments . Well check http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000204317&tstart=0&mod=1156231186682

Store seller are pissed because the listing price went up from 2cents to whipping 5cent, so some of the store owners want the management changege (lol).

MD

The analysts have it wrong on this one. Unfortunately, I don't think the sellers have it right either. It isn't about changing management -- but there are definitely issues with eBay that the analyst are missing.

Analysts have continual focus on listing volumes. These are simple to measure and very accessible, but placing focus there skews the underlying stock-value estimation of eBay. This false focus implies that SELLERS directly drive the underlying value of the eBay platform. Listings are indirect measures at best. Sellers, quite naturally since they pay fees, also think they drive the fundamental value of eBay's stock.

Both are wrong. It is the BUYER who drives the direct underlying value on eBay. It is just harder to focus and quantify buyer value. However, the sooner analysts shift from seller metrics to buyer metrics the clearer the picture on proper valuation.

A true valuation by an intelligent analyst would explain how sellers are creating strategies to cope with increased eBay fees (e.g. focusing on their own website sales with PPC ads replacing the marketing function eBay provides).

The analyst would also take time to point out the economics of a buyer purchase on eBay. That starts by showing how many items a buyer can choose in any typical category (100? 200?) and noting how that volume depresses sell-thru rates and ASPs.

From the sell-thru and ASP discussion, the analyst would explain how those buyer fundamentals drive a simple P&L for a seller. The P&L would show, in turn, that to reach a 10% net margin -- with a fixed gross product cost, shipping cost etc., a seller can only afford to spend about 11% on eBay fees.

Ergo, you have the point we are at today -- unless eBay changes the BUYER demand, there remains no room for sellers to make more money, which means eBay's growth stalls unless it can grow buyer demand.

Then, and finally, the analyst can focus on what the hell eBay is doing to drive buyer demand.

Of course, it is a LOT easier for an analyst to say "On a Y/Y basis, total unadjusted US listings were up 17%."

Accurate, but irrelevant.

The same lesson is true for sellers -- rather then calling for eBay management changes, sellers need to focus on attracting and retaining buyers. To many eBay sellers simply post a listing, close there eyes, cross their fingers and HOPE that someone buys the item at a decent price on eBay.

Sellers need to start selling/marketing to their own buyers or they will forever be beholden to eBay -- no matter who is running the company.

The comments made by Brian Lawe are absolutely on target and very eloquently expressed. One additional point if I may. On eBay there is no possible way to scale your business in relationship to fees. Increased sales are directly related to increased listings yet as you increase your listings your sales do not grow at the same rate as your fees and before long your now paying 17% of sales to eBay. On eBay there is no benefit to scale. All large sellers on eBay hit the revenue wall and grow no further unless they diversify onto their own websites.

Ebay sellers are good at moaning and whining, but the truth be told most are hobbyists/parttimers with no other place to go. Ebay is where the buyers are. The other sites are useless. The only reason they're selling in the first place is because Ebay established a platform.

Ebay sellers are good at moaning and whining, but the truth be told
most are hobbyists/parttimers with no other place to go. Ebay is
where the buyers are. The other sites are useless. The only reason
they're selling in the first place is because Ebay established a
platform.

Thank you for raising issues about eBay in general.

Site Changes:
One of the concerns I rarely hear mentioned by anyone is the horrible instability of the eBay site. eBay has made changes to the site on a too frequent basis. The stated policy by the ceo is to not beta test changes to impose change and then try to fix it on the fly.

Unfortunately this has created search problems, listing problems and advertising problems.

Charging more for Less:
Monetizing nearly every aspect of the selling experience has been not surprising, but difficult to absorb for small sellers. The Google feed from eBay has been sporadic for about 1 year. The deal with yahoo may be at fault, however, the wide exposure for products has diminished making paying more a clear question for sellers. The reach of the eBay site used to be one of the primary draws for myself and many small sellers. It is still large, however, diminished.

Trust:
The number of fraudulent listings is out of control. This has eroded trust in the site for buyers and sellers. EBay management has been dismissive of concerns raised by sellers on the eBay hosted forums.
Recently scripts have been added to some seller's listings that redirect the buyer offsite, steal eBay user data and install malware on their computer. None of these issues have been acknowledged or dealt with directly or aggressively by eBay. Listings like this are only removed when reported.

EBay always seems to fall back on the argument that they are "just a venue", like a blank slate. They do however promulgate rules more like the government and change them with little notice to sellers and buyers. This makes the “just a venue” argument null.

Personally I have tried to raise all of these issues via email with members of eBay staff and have been either told I am wrong. All of my comments were made with citation of forum entries, quotes from the ceo or other outside sources. These are not just my perceived problem they are actual problems that make eBay a less attractive selling site for this merchant.

This reminds me of the dysfunctional family rule that one should not believe their own eyes just what one is told by the person with power. Users on eBay forums have several ways of referencing this that I will not quote here.

The absence of buyer metrics has been one of the frustrating elements of evaluating alternative sites. Like eBay, the number of listings is available, but very little data is available about the number and activity of buyers.

Also, a previous poster mentioned fraudulent listings as a concern on eBay. While I know that is true, I am amazed at how little is being done to counter fraudulent buyers. Competitors bidding on items with new user ids, false "Not as described" claims to PayPal, message spamming, feedback hostage, fake money orders, credit card chargebacks, and more are rampant activities that are costing buyers more time and money each day.