eBays biggest failure

[snugglypuppy]

Here is an interesting article from Auction Business review, please read:

http://www.auctionbusinessreview.com/rev...ilure.html

[xppman]

Good article snuggly.

Many of us have been saying stuff like this to ebay
for at least the last three years or so to no avail.

At this point in the game ebay sees the handwriting on the wall.

It's no wonder they keep taking capitol and investing in "other" ventures.

My ebay fees last month were $7.45... That's it $7.45.  :blinkie:

My sell through on ebay was just about nothing
(usually run 1 to 3 auctions a week for exposure)
and I would be worried if I thought it was a trend on the Internet.

It's NOT. It is a trend on the ebay website ONLY.

My sales on the OLE website were quit handsome last month
so I know that it is NOT that people are not shopping the net.

They are simply NOT shopping on ebay. 

From my observations and looking at what others are saying:
The buyers are leaving ebay in droves now to NEVER return for obvious reasons.

Their latest blunder and last ditch effort to grab at that penny.

Ebay Express.
Sadly many a foolish seller will fall for yet another GRAB
and ebay will just keep taking their money.  :

[landofsmiles]

From the article:

".. the real failure of eBay is that they have never addressed the buyers flocking out the exit door.

The exiting buyer is the one who tells his friends that eBay is a rip-off, that they lost money, received inferior merchandise, that the item was lost, never arrived, or a plethora of other reasons they will never ever buy on eBay again.

Not that many years ago, the buzz you heard was about how great eBay was, how selling was fun and easy, how buying was simple and fulfilling. Nowadays, the buzz I'm hearing is about the torment of selling and even worse, the 'I will never buy on eBay again' buzz of the buyers. It's getting louder and more frequent. It's becoming the new buzz about eBay. Gone are the days when eBay was a fun, new way to buy."

Ain't that the truth! Whenever I hear the name ebay, if it's not already in a negative context (although it usually is), by the time I've chimed in, it definitely is. I think that I mentioned here before that the principal of my wife's school was ripped off for $2,000 by a lowlife seller. And she got nowhere with ebay. She sent a letter to every teacher in the school advising them not to ever buy on ebay.

~Bob

[bargainbloodhound]

".. the real failure of eBay is that they have never addressed the buyers flocking out the exit door.

That is eBay's biggest failure and is probably the primary reason both eBay and PayPal have far more inactive members than active (in PayPal's case only 29 million of 105 million registered users are still active, for eBay it's 75 million active of 190 million registered).

It's too bad eBay doesn't understand why so many have left and the huge effect negative word of mouth from departed buyers has had on the site (and judging by the "blame the victim" mentality shown by many sellers on the Stores board when Anita posted a link to an article by a buyer who said he would never shop again on eBay because he had been ripped off, many sellers also don't understand why they should be concerned about "the departed" and rather than "blaming the victim" they should be pressuring eBay to do something to address the problem)

EDIT:

My ebay fees last month were $7.45... That's it $7.45.

My combined eBay fees (including subscriptions for 2 stores) have been under $80 every month since late 2004.  In 2003 they averaged $1500 monthly. If eBay had done something to address the problems on the site and to stop the resulting outflow of buyers (and declining sell-through rates on the site over the past several years) it wouldn't have lost that $1400+ in monthly fees...

[xppman]

You just helped to illustrate my point.
(And I know we all share the same outlook on this)

If ebay was doing right by the site and sellers...

And sellers were turning a buck on ebay still.

ebay would NOT see these sharp declines in fees we paid to ebay.
I know they see this too.

I believe they are cooking the books to try and "appear"
that they don't feel the impact of less revenue from fees by sellers
like you and me.

From all price ranges large and small ebay is in a situation
that I feel is coming to critical mass.