Does eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) still have the image of a popular and friendly place to sell and buy everything from cars to beanie babies to cell phones to wrapping paper? The sheer amount of stuff on eBay for sale (from junky coffee cups to Hummers) still makes the company's website exceedingly attractive to millions of Americans, as well as millions of other consumers and sellers across the globe. But not all has been rosy for the world's largest online auction house in recent years. Rising fees, growing customer dissatisfaction, and an exodus of certain sellers all have been highly publicized and have given eBay a few large black eyes. The auction website keeps on churning though, and listings seem to be as plentiful as ever. Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) even announced that is would discontinue its Yahoo! Auctions website soon. My guess? All auction customers were using eBay instead.
For a "newbie," trouncing around eBay looking for things can be a somewhat daunting experience. Does this make it likely that a transaction may not take place? After all, there are hundreds of Nintendo Wii accessories on eBay right this second -- what makes one better than the other? Are customers shopping on price alone, or opting to not shop at all? The auction juggernaut is reaching middle age, and it seems the stagnant strategy that was once darling to its customers and visitors is getting an overhaul. It's time for that midlife-crisis Corvette to spruce up its image, yes? What can eBay do in the next twelve months to grow beyond its past as an "online auction?" Meg Whitman, eBay's CEO, has a cryptic answer for that one.
A recent point Meg tried to make is that the company she leads needs to provide an easier experience when buying products from its auctions and make inroads (and off-ramps) to the online marketplace seem more like a physical shopping experience. Remember, eBay does not make money from browsers and lookers, but from transactions and listings. Anything that ups the number of transactions (which drives more listings) is a good thing for eBay and its investors. With that, eBay CEO Meg Whitman recently said "'Our user experience has always been fantastic, but it didn't keep up, in my view, as well as it should have ... you will see more changes to eBay's buyer experience in the next 12 months than you probably have seen in the past three or four years.'' Let's hope so.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-23-2007 @ 5:20PM
Randy Smythe said...
Brian, eBay does actually make money from browsers and lookers through the use of Yahoo sponsored ads and apparently they make a lot because the sponsored ads are expanding to more and more of the site, look for sponsored ads to make their way on to user generated content like My World, eBay blogs, guides and wikis.
I've always wondered how an increase in ads including banner ads improves the buyer experience.
Just my 5 Cents
http://www.myblogutopia.com
6-25-2007 @ 11:47AM
David Armstrong said...
I'm a bit of a hypocrite on this one as I used my ebay proceeds to , I bought ebay stock in 1999 made a lot of money, sold it two years ago to launch my own venture, which ironically distributes ebay listings along side many many others. It's a buyers experience. I think eBay is in trouble. SELL
6-26-2007 @ 3:43PM
t mills said...
EBay must address the problem of sellers that are thrown off and then can not BUY any thing. Is this a business or what? The goal is to make money. Not every one is cut out to be a seller, but eBay foolishly won’t let you spend money either. “No No you have been band for life.” This will be a growing problem for eBay in years to come.
Did you know that something like 75% of Americans have worked for Mc Donald’s at some point. Now Imagine Mc Donald’s banned these people for life from every using Mc Donald’s service because they did not have the right “Mc attitude” so could not be part of the “Mc community”. This is what’s going on at eBay. Meg Whitman Needs to go, the sooner the better.
EBay’s future is to have ever more users who for some reason can’t use the service to buy. Example: User XYZ banned for life for owing 8¢
Truthfully I only joined eBay to sell and make money but once you get in on eBay you realize all of the bargains so even though I can’t sell and don’t wish to (high Fees) I would not mind buying a few things at the every day low prices on the site but I’m black listed so I’ll simply by my computer parts from retail sites like I always have and get them delivered next day. Ah and the new box smell.
The share holders need to know what’s going on at eBay. What type of future will it be if no one can Buy anything from the site people will just go else where to web sites with less hassle.
I recommend “Sell”