eBay used to be awesome! I think we can all agree. Granted, awesome does not mean “perfect.” But it was good for selling merchandise. But not anymore! BusinessWeek.com reported eBay has just announced pretty crappy sales.
I thought I would write this article to help all the idiots at eBay understand why. So here is a list that I am dedicating to anyone at eBay.com that may have a brain cell left, and also this is a tribute to all sellers (former and current) who remember the joy (and money) that used to come from selling on eBay.
How to Fix eBay and Make it Awesome Again:
I hope someone at eBay reads this (preferably on the board of directors). Want to fix eBay? Here is how:
1. Keep insertion fees a flat rate. It makes it easier on everyone. They should be slightly lowered. Maybe $0.20 would be good. But if not at least keep them the way they are now and NEVER raise them again- at least not in the next 5 years.
2. Lower final value fees by at least 20% – and way lower for items less than $10. I know they are hurting right now, but if a seller can’t make money listing an item, they won’t list it. Make it profitable for them first, then your profit will rise.
3. Use More Ads to Compensate the lower fees that I mentioned above. This way, you still make money, but you don’t charge too much to the seller to list an item. Place ad units in the seller & buyer’s “My Summary” home page for all I care. Just don’t raise fees. You could put an ad section up, and allow sellers to advertise there. Make it contextual like Adwords. In fact, they might as well use adwords, unless they are going to make it cheaper for the advertisers. If not, just use that!
4. Bring back stuff – Bring back digital delivery, feedback, old search engine, paper payments. Digital delivery was awesome- a person could go and list items in multiple countries, and the buyers could get it instantly. Feedback needs to be fixed back. Search engine needs to completely go back to the old way. Allow sellers to accept paper payments if they wish. Granted, you can add some restrictions for new/untrusted sellers. But bring that back too.
5. Focus on YOUR business plan -eBay is not amazon. eBay is an online site specializing in used items, some new items, homemade items, rare items, etc. That is eBay’s specialty. You wouldn’t turn Walmart into Macy’s and expect it to stay in business would you? No, you would lose your customers. Walmart is low price- not fancy items. eBay is not amazon. eBay is cheap, rare, “flea market” unique merchandise at a low price. Focus on that. That is what makes eBay different. Don’t lose that, or you lose your entire business model.
6. Keep working on making it secure and reducing hacking to people’s account. It is good that they have made a few changes to make it a little more secure. I at least don’t get spammed like I used to, which is great. Keep making it more secure to build trust again.
7.Eliminate the failures – one being DSR. I ship all items free (for the last 2 months) and still don’t have 5 stars!! DSR was a pointless feature. If you keep it, fine. But don’t base anything on it for the sellers. Just have it there as a guide to buyers, and don’t factor it in and prevent sellers from listing and so forth. Eliminate other failures too, such as the failed search, etc.
8. Continue to improve how eBay works – send buyer auto information when shipped via Paypal. I know paypal is supposed to do it, but half of my time is wasted getting those darn, “has my item shipped” emails. Help sellers automate feedback free. Help improve the listing and editing process for listings. Make it dynamic with better advertising (placing ads in an eBay home page). P.S. the new design sucks! I don’t like it at all. It needs to be fixed back to the same as well. It is way to slow and glitchy.
9. Market more aggressively -when you do those changes above, send out a press release to let everyone know eBay is eBay again. If you made those changes alone, and announced eBay was back to normal, you would see a HUGE rush in listings, sales, and more. People will come back if you hurry and correct these mistakes and failures now. Admit defeat, listen to the sellers (your customer), and do those changes before it is too late. If you linger on this another year or two, sellers will get used to another site, and leave you in the dust. Or another big fish will move into the auction market (Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft maybe??).
Continue on the same path as you have been on the last year, and you will fail miserably. It will be a slow death, but a death nonetheless.
Make the changes above (and I am sure so many sellers agree with that), and eBay will be awesome again and sellers will flock to it. You will probably see a huge boost within just 1 quarter.
This is a bad economy- Last time I checked, the places with lower prices usually did okay or better. It was the “luxury” based businesses that hurt. eBay should be doing fine, or even better, in a bad economy since you can get items cheap. But that isn’t the case right now.
Don’t forget the saying of Sam Walton (walmart founder)–Only one person can fire every single person in the company, including the CEO/owner, board of directors, etc.—-and that is the customer, and they simply do it by not using your service. Make eBay “amazon” and keep screwing over your sellers, and you will literally be fired! Many sellers have already begun firing you! And many more will too if you don’t make the changes above.
Take 1 minute to actually listen to your customers! Your customers are the seller- NOT the buyer. The buyer’s are the seller’s customer. The seller’s are eBay’s customer. Get the drift! If you attract sellers, they will come with loads of merchandise and cheap deals. They will have unique items you can’t get on Amazon. They buyers will soon follow, and you will see your business getting better and better.
So instead of continuing your dumb business ideas, listen to them, bring it back like it was, ad more ads if you need to (and let eBay members advertise on your “my ebay” section instead of the search page-duh).
Can I get an Amen? lol. Rant over. I just want it to come back. I rarely sell there now, and the reason is the changes they have made this past year.
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Posted under Making Money, eBay
This post was written by Ben on April 29, 2009
