eBay : Cry Havoc! And Let Slip The Dogs Of War!
Hi gang,
“Ohhhhhh, the sun’s not so hot in the sky today.”
“And I can feel summertime slipping on away, yes I can.”
-September Grass, James Taylor
Believe it or not, the title of this post and my man James’ quote are actually related. You see, I hate summer. For my business, and I suspect for many businesses, my sales are almost directly inverse to the temperature - the hotter it is, the worse my sales are.
So I really root for fall every year. The blazing heat of summer here in Charlotte begins to subside and sales start to slowly creep up. Soon, I will have to wear ankle socks under my flip flops.
This year will be different, however. This year, there is a war brewing.
Now don’t get me wrong - every year there is a battle brewing on eBay. We spend summertime locking down our technical systems and fine tuning our customer service processes. We huddle around spreadsheets in our war rooms, preparing to do battle with our competitors. 4th quarter is coming. It’s time to make or break our entire year. Some sellers do as much as 40% of their annual business in 6 weeks on eBay. Sales skyrocket, and we’d better be ready and able to handle it.
This year will be different, however. This year, there is a war brewing.
Many of the massive changes eBay recently announced go into effect in a few short weeks from now. We sellers have spoken to each other about them, read and posted on message boards, and participated in conference calls. The changes are not small. The changes will completely change everything on eBay.
Here’s the fun part - we really can’t do much planning for the changes.
eBay has made so many changes so close to the busy season that, quite honestly, I feel like a sitting duck right now. The problem is that nobody knows what will happen to their items if they decide to stick with Auctions vs. go 30 Day Fixed Price, for example. Nobody has seen or can test search results. eBay is tweaking Best Match for both formats so, depending on your situation, one may favor the other for you. Then there’s this velocity component they are adding - nobodys seen that in action either. Will I sell more Bambi DVD’s if I put up 1,000 of them on 30 day Fixed Price, or 1,000 auctions for them over a month? No idea.
This fall and winter will be a war of endurance for sellers on eBay. We are going to all have to test our new strategies live, and hopefully make good decisions as we see sales results. We are going to have to do all that as sales pick up in general, and as competitors unleash their strategies as well, WHILE eBay is introducing even more changes (3.00 capped shipping in October, for example).
This Christmas may see sellers selling more than ever before, and it may put other sellers out of business. I personally think the net effect of all these changes on eBay will be to simply redistribute orders from Seller A to Seller B. I don’t think we will all benefit, as I don’t think eBay’s going to offer up a larger buyer pie this Christmas.
So a war is coming - it’s probably the biggest war ever on eBay for sales this Christmas.
Soooo, do I pack my sword or my crossbow? Help!
Kevin
http://inflatablemadnessdvd.com
�
September 2nd, 2008 at 2:00 pm
I wonder whether there is a market for broken backed camels on eBay this season?
September 2nd, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Well, its been one heck of a year. One in which I finally realized that my sales were less than dismal and I finally figured out why. Looking back at former sales I noted that the majority of people who bought from me were other sellers. Those sellers are either gone from the site or no longer buying. Ebay is poised to become a site of huge retail sellers with some powersellers of various things mixed in. Makes little difference which you list in come Sept. 16. Best Match is skewed to show buyers the limited number of sellers Ebay wants them to see and most buyers do not even know they can change the sort. This may be more then a war - it may (hopefully) end up showing Ebay it is on the wrong trail by severely cutting into their revenue (the only way they feel pain). Me? I’m too stressed out over this year to continue worrying about it. I’m a retired person who sold simply to make some pocket money - so I’m in the envious position of being able to sit back and watch the slug-fest and hope the best man wins!
Incidentally, if anyone cares for my opinion, I believe this fixed price “reduction” is a desperation move on Ebay’s part. Why else would they do the very thing Meg and Cobb stopped dead in its tracks a couple of years ago when they put stores in search? The site is going to be flooded with junk!…which is what Meg called it
September 3rd, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Kevin,
one of my clients appears to be an eBay refugee. He’s been trading on eBay even before our 4-year relationship started. What he’s turning his business into is a multiple-platform selling. Now we’re working on his fully featured e-commerce web site on separate domain, where he will be storing his full inventory and only listing what’s selling the best on eBay. Guess it never hurts to have a Plan B