Friday, May 9th, 2008

Small Sellers: Our Competitive Advantage

Posted by Lorrie Norrington

In reading some of the comments in Richard’s eBay partners with Buy.com post and the Evolution of the eBay Feedback post I think it’s important that we address the misperception that eBay dislikes small sellers. Let me be clear: eBay has always believed that small and casual sellers — “the little guys” — are eBay’s most important competitive advantage … These sellers created our community, bring a human touch to the marketplace, and continue to make eBay a truly one-of-a-kind shopping experience.

However, having a unique selection alone is no longer enough to maintain a growing and healthy marketplace. People also want to find inventory that includes the latest and greatest brand name models. As a result, in January, we lowered insertion fees, for all sellers, to decrease the risk of selling on eBay and bring more overall inventory onto eBay.

After a few months observing these changes, it is clear that gaps remain between buyer demand and the supply of inventory on our site. This is an obvious opportunity to delight buyers.

We have chosen to partner with Buy.com because we believe their new-in-season inventory, 4.8 DSRs, liberal return policy, and low shipping costs meet unfulfilled demand on eBay.com. Put another way, we are actively pursuing the merchandise our shoppers want and are willing to experiment with new ways of securing it for this holiday season.

We are closely monitoring the results so stay tuned for next steps. But regardless of the outcome of this particular experiment to bring more supply to eBay, we are determined to create opportunities to succeed on eBay for all sellers who consistently deliver great customer experiences– no matter your size.

Thank you,
Lorrie Norrington
President, Marketplace Operations

Tagged: buy, buy.com, buyers, community, ebay, ecommerce, Marketplace, online community, sellers, small+sellers

StumbleUpon

129 Responses on this post. Click to add yours.

Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 »

Patricia1On 05.14.2008 at 2:07 pm Said:

“But what depresses me is you are mean. Call it business. Call it what you wish. You can afford to gamble to try and make your mark and if you have to crush millions of regular people to do it well that’s just business isn’t it?”

Very aptly put…and since its not being disputed then everyone feels its true. Very sad - thank goodness my parents taught me to never burn my bridges behind. Here, I feel nothing but disrespect and disdain towards small sellers. It feels clear to me we are just added baggage and we’ll be carried until no longer needed.

implogOn 05.14.2008 at 2:11 pm Said:

@TW

You wrote:

“I guess the execs are too busy coming up with new policies to communicate with the paying customer.”

From what they are so fond of saying, they’re all occupied “listening to sellers”.

That or they’ve gone to the mattresses.

BrendaOn 05.14.2008 at 3:23 pm Said:

If the small sellers are so important why is policy skewed to favor the power sellers?

AmberOn 05.14.2008 at 3:56 pm Said:

Apparently, even buyers aren’t happy with the Buy.com deal…

“seller has ruined the book category”

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000567806&tstart=0&mod=1210805528362

The category is flooded with overpriced books now, to the detriment of all other booksellers.

JTFOn 05.14.2008 at 4:26 pm Said:

Well, now I know why no one can find my books. Another slap in the face to the small sellers that you claim are a vital part of ebay.

There has never been a dearth of books, current and older, on ebay. Never. That’s an excuse and a poor one.

I’m not buying it. Between ebay and paypal, the fees are killing us - the new feedback policy won’t help. Most of the “valued” small sellers have had to move to other venues. We can barely afford to list here any more.

You protect your Powersellers. I have 100% feeback and 4.9 star rating, but my sales don’t qualify for that status. I ship the same day I receive payment. Let me tell you why I will never buy from a power seller. My one and only experience: $16+ for “fedex” expedited shipping for an item that took over two weeks to arrive.

That seller is protected by ebay. I am not.

Go figure.

JTFOn 05.14.2008 at 4:35 pm Said:

Just reading through these posts…all of which are very thought provoking. I have cut my auctions down to almost nothing since I am selling on two other sites. But now, I think I am done with ebay. Why should I, as a small seller, pay fees that are killing me so that big sellers like Buy.com can reap the benefits? I never really thought about that before. Makes no sense.

SandiOn 05.14.2008 at 5:33 pm Said:

I stopped buying books on ebay middle of Feb. I typically purchased 20-25 used books a month, I also typically give new books for presents.

I still check prices, but sellers simply can not compete with other sites that have lower fees. I have found some of my regular sellers elsewhere.

To give you an idea of the price difference, I purchased 25 paperbacks, Kellerman, Woods, Patterson, etc for 30.21 total - that includes shipping. I would have paid close to 52.00 buying on ebay.

I even got to pay using google checkout which I find easier as I don’t have to tell them 3 times I REALLY want to use my credit card, not my bank account because I KNOW my credit card is more secure no matter what they say. (that is so totally not a pleasant buying experience)

The ColonelOn 05.15.2008 at 1:58 am Said:

I am just dying to attend the annual shareholders meeting.

Luckily I live in Chicago as do many shareholder-stakeholders.

Lets see how you spin all this turmoil to those whom you ultimately report to.

permacrisisOn 05.15.2008 at 8:37 am Said:

Got an interesting email from ebay this morning.

Entitled “Search tips-Find Great Deals Fast!”, it crowed about finding things quickly. The first thing mentioned were all the great things on ebay that nobody had bid on. Hidden by Best Match no doubt. So the first way is to take advantage of all those mucky sellers they supposedly want to protect everybody from.

The second mention was to choose items having buy it now. Especially chilling was the “Buy It Now®” wording complete with registered trademark symbol, as if to rub in– “Hah, hah, we won Merc-X-Change lawsuit”.

Thirdly was wholesale lots. In order to find anything ‘quickly’, most took four clicks like the person above I so miss ending soonest.

The mail may as well have said, “Ebay is broken so take advantage NOW NOW NOW and oh, if you’re a seller, so sorry and please disregard this email.”

Ebay is an emu, not a chicken, with its head cut off–huge, flailing, aimless and dangerous.

ex-ebay-sellerOn 05.15.2008 at 10:10 am Said:

Is Richard on vacation? No blog posts since last Friday?
Or have these comments become too ‘noisy’ for the eBay executive team?

JJHOn 05.15.2008 at 12:49 pm Said:

Ex-Seller: Richard mentioned in some other thread that he had a death in the family, and had taken some time off. I believe he’s back, because a new post appeared yesterday, and today.

It appears that other than Usher Lieberman, no other executive (meaning Lorrie Norrington) seems to bother to reply to their posts.

The ColonelOn 05.15.2008 at 7:08 pm Said:

JUST A WARNING HERE

The eBay discussion boards are heavily censored.

I have been kicked off of them and I have never once:

personally attacking any person no matter how much i have been “baited”

pretty much have always kept to the thread rather than twisting it.

never advocated the intentional disregard for any of eBays rules

Generally, even to those who disagree with me, I have always treated them with the utmost dignity and respect.

Argue the point, not the person.

Obviously when you get too close to the truth, rather than address the question or issue at hand, rather than defend their point, eBay finds it easier to just ban you from the discussion.

So if the the eBay discussion boards are censored in a manner to prevent open discussion of dissenting opinions, I can just imagine what this blog is.

Just another PR scam.

Thanks eBay for saying you want and value our input and then locking out any who actually take you up on the offer.

AmberOn 05.15.2008 at 9:12 pm Said:

Colonel, I find it ironic that many are being “pink slapped” for posting off ebay sites on the discussion boards when the site in question is buy.com

Any mention of that company by name seems to be resulting in posts being pulled and sanctions meted out.

Not fair at all as these are ebay’s “partners,” right?

Patricia1On 05.15.2008 at 9:48 pm Said:

I got a pink slap on seller central just for mentioning “W”…that’s just how I posted it too LOL Kinda touchy for a site that couldn’t care less about us small sellers.