Friday, June 20th, 2008
eBay Live! 2008… Day 2
Another day is coming to a close here in lovely (but slightly overcast) Chicago and, with the exception of Monday night, I haven’t had a chance to see much of the city so I plan on getting out for a little R&R this evening… Before I do though, a few things to report on from day 2. I apologize for the length in advance.
The morning started off with the much anticipated keynote highlighted by presentations by John Donahoe and Lorrie Norrington and the presentation of awards to 2008 Hall of Fame winners. Both John and Lorrie took an extremely personal approach to their presentations (as a native of Chicago, John’s parents were in the audience and we got to see some rather candid, amusing photos from his childhood). His presentation borrowed much from yesterday’s stockholder meeting citing interesting facts and figures regarding the eBay marketplace. Lorrie’s presentation focused on a number of the announcements reported yesterday.
What was ever-present throughout both Lorrie and John’s presentations was a sense of genuine personality and good humor that was well received by the audience which brings me to something I’ve been thinking about a lot since I arrived on Sunday. DevCon and eBay Live! provide an opportunity for worlds to collide. Statistics on a presentation slide become human beings… and seemingly untouchable executives aren’t in an ivory tower. There is a palpable sense that we’re all in this together and we’re all doing what we think is best for the marketplace… and we’re not always going to agree on what that is.
Which leads to the elephant in the living room (aka the McCormick Conference Center here in Chicago): changes to Feedback. It wasn’t all sun and fun during the keynote. When Lorrie reported on the successes eBay has seen with the changes introduced earlier this year there was audible heckling but there was also genuine applause to the following statement:
“When we first announced the PowerSeller incentives in January, we knew that 60% of PowerSellers had DSRs of 4.6 and above,” Lorrie said. “Today, that number is 67%. Also, in January, 15 percent of PowerSellers had DSR of 4.8 and above and today that number has more than doubled with 33% with DSRs of 4.8 or greater.”
Lorrie encouraged all attendees to go to the Feedback panel taking place immediately following the keynote to discuss further… which was very encouraging. However, the room in which that panel was taking place was not large enough to house the number of people wanting to attend (candidly, it should have been at least twice the size it was) and only an hour was allocated for the panel discussion (it could have been at least an extra half an hour to accommodate the extra questions that would have been asked). I managed to get a spot at the front of the room after the presentation period ended (I’ve asked Brian Burke if I can get his slides to share with Ink readers) but before the Q&A panel began.
As anticipated it was a heated discussion at times with calls coming from the audience sometimes drowing out both panelists and people asking questions at the microphone. Having said that, I thought it was a great discussion and pretty productive with a lot of the same questions that came up here on Ink last month. Griff played devil’s advocate to the rest of the panelists which made for some good back-and-forth. My question got asked about half way through by a longtime PowerSeller (why not get rid of neutral feedback all together?) and Chris Dawson from TameBay asked “Shouldn’t every communication of importance be in “My Messages”? (Take it out of email all together)”… which could actually go a long way in dealing with the lack-of-proof issue that comes when reporting extortion. Essentially the issue of forged emails wouldn’t be a factor if all of this was captured in the My Messages tool.
There was also talk of being able to debit a PayPal account when an auction closes starting early next year which seemed to excite a number of folks too.
If you weren’t able to follow my “Tweets” from the panel, you can get a blow-by-blow account at Greg Holden’s live blogging report HERE.
Tomorrow, I look forward to getting out of the classrooms and onto the Solutions Center Expo floor. I’ll also be live blogging from the Town Hall Meeting at 11am CT and the PowerSeller Panel with Execs at 3pm CT tomorrow so if you haven’t done it yet, please go to http://twitter.com/ebayinkblog and start “following me.” But, it is Saturday tomorrow, and I will not be offended if you choose to do something better with your time than to read what I have to say in 140 characters or less every 60 seconds.
Cheers,
RBH
Tagged: brian burke, ebay feedback, ebaylive, ebaylive08, griff, john donahoe, lorrie norrington
TheBrewsNewsOn 06.20.2008 at 5:00 pm Said:
“When we first announced the PowerSeller incentives in January, we knew that 60% of PowerSellers had DSRs of 4.6 and above,” Lorrie said. “Today, that number is 67%. Also, in January, 15 percent of PowerSellers had DSR of 4.8 and above and today that number has more than doubled with 33% with DSRs of 4.8 or greater.”
Hmmm… so that means that eBay’s plan is working! There is a positive effect on the numbers when you put some folks out of business (not to say that poor performing sellers should be allowed to stay but lots of dolphins in the net are losing their livelihoods). Ebay is removing sellers from the site so that the “poor performing” Powersellers are not “bringing down the statistics.” Improvement in statistics results simply as a result of removing the lower numbers.
And… are the DSRs rising primarily because “bad” sellers are going away and the buyers are becoming educated on what the DSR ratings REALLY mean (so that their ratings more accurately reflect how they really feel now) or is it as eBay says and the remaining good sellers are actually “improving their performance”. Perhaps the true answer is a combination of many things.
HenriettaOn 06.20.2008 at 5:57 pm Said:
If you had (for example) 100 powersellers of whom 15 had the desired DSRs. Some go somewhere else to sell, others are no longer powersellers or are suspended because their percentage fell too low. Now you have 50 powersellers and the percentage who have the desired DSRs has miraculously risen.
This, after all was the result desired by management.
Here is the collateral damage. Personally, as a buyer, I rarely bought from powersellers. They tend to be sellers of cellphone and computer accessories, dvds etc. Things it is more convenient for me to buy at Costco where the return policy is good.
The reason I came to eBay as a buyer was for vintage silverware, English transferware china and teacups of a specific brand with violets on them. I searched today and found nothing.
Then I went back through my feedback looking for sellers I had purchased from in the past, and I was saddened.
permacrisisOn 06.20.2008 at 7:20 pm Said:
Looks like the “Power of Three” this year are Griff, Donahoe, & Norrington.
The irony of Henrietta’s post is that I’d bet none of those 3 people are eating off Corelle. They most likely use the Henrietta stuff!
MechelleOn 06.20.2008 at 7:33 pm Said:
Come on Richard!!
Where is the good stuff? Men just don’t know how to get and relay the good stuff LOL. You need a female sidekick.
I looked at the photos- there is one that appears as though they are posing for your photo. One of the subjects is turned toward the camera, but I can’t tell if he was deliberately leaning toward the people sitting next to him or if the guy from behind who has his hand on his shoulder is shoving him out of the way- I’m thinking that guy is shoving him out of the way and he doesn’t have an I am so excited I have to see this look to him. His demeanor appears aggressive and not happy.
The majority of your readership - at least those who comment- are women as such we require more details. What is the feel of the room?? was tense, excitement, indifference, emotional, anger, hostile, disgust??? What questions were asked? Which questions relative to feedback that have been discussed on Ink seems to dominate the Q&A- negative equals neutral, nonpaying bidders trashing our feedback, discrepancies between the information supplied to buyers as a opposed to sellers, the absurd expectation for shipping fee star assessments, the impact of the DSRs on the sellers visibility???? What was their response to the question “why still have the neutral?” and did it appear others wanted an answer to this question as well??
Give it up- I want more info
A few issues I would like to address
UPS discounts-
1)this may be good for particular products sold but it has no value to me, why have they not attempted or achieved a deal with USPS? This would be much more beneficial to me as a seller and frankly as a buyer.
A) I hate UPS- Why? because they take forever, charge to much, and have no regard for my packages. The last 2 shipments I have had come in have both been fragrances (glass with fluid) both packages had been damaged in transit. Luckily the company knows to package in anticipation of the disrespect to packages that is common from UPS.
B) the time to delivery is to long and does not compliment our new rules set by eBay- how is this supposed to be beneficial if it decreases our star ratings resulting is lowered visibility?
2)Every time eBay makes announcements concerning well anything they are never specific. They always input the terms - most, many, those that qualify, eligible…. What is this about? Why can’t they ever disclose what the exceptions are? I find their style of communication disingenuous and empty.
3) Non-Paying Bidders- I personally am experiencing an increase and have read many threads expressing the same. I fail to see this has not increased. Maybe the data is skewed due to the decrease in the pool of sellers. Regardless I think that is an out right lie.
4) Feedback from buyers has increased??- again I am experiencing the opposite and again I have read numerous threads expressing the same. Where are they getting these numbers? I would like to view the data
nobodyOn 06.20.2008 at 8:58 pm Said:
Nice sexism there, Mechelle. Not all women want gossipy touchy-feely stuff. This isn’t the eBay Gossip Blog or even the eBay Disgruntled Seller’s Blog, it’s about “all things eBay”. The most interesting stuff I’ve seen on here was about the DevCon and I’d like to know more about what’s on the technical horizon for eBay, not what mood everyone was in at eBay Live or how their planets were aligned or whatever.
implogOn 06.20.2008 at 10:22 pm Said:
@ Richard
You wrote:
“There is a palpable sense that we’re all in this together and we’re all doing what we think is best for the marketplace… and we’re not always going to agree on what that is.”
I am wondering who among the all together us you reference thinks that eBay’s approval of non-paying deadbeat bidders leaving neg/negtral feedback for honest sellers is in any way, shape or form “best for the marketplace”.
President Norrington, Mr. Burke, your thoughts?
Patricia1On 06.20.2008 at 10:24 pm Said:
Well, I had a lovely youtube of a powerseller exploding in anger at ebay live but richard removed it 
If anyone wants to see it they can google it - its all over the place - even on the ebay boards.
Patricia1On 06.20.2008 at 10:28 pm Said:
“I am wondering who among the all together us you reference thinks that eBay’s approval of non-paying deadbeat bidders leaving neg/negtral feedback for honest sellers is in any way, shape or form “best for the marketplace”.”
You can add to that what possible value is there in telling buyers a 4.0 is good and punishing sellers for less than a 4.7? The list is quite long when you think of it. No…nobody ever asked me for my opinion about these policies before they were pushed on us - include me out of this power of three! In effect, ebay needs to “sell” its sellers - not try to purposely downgrade them in the eyes of buyers for whatever ulterior motive they may have.
DaveyOn 06.20.2008 at 11:05 pm Said:
I read Stephanie Tilenius’ comments again on how valuable small sellers are. Again, like with Ms. Norrington, as a small seller I sure feel the lovin!
NOT!
Everywhere I turn, I see things that are “for the good of the marketplace” stacking the deck against me, not to mention the 50 percent overall fee jack I experienced in February with my auctions, which have a high sellthru rate by design and are thus fee-disadvantaged in eBay’s current structure (and I’m sweating bullets with the announcement of the next fee adjustment just in time for the holidays, which I bet will amount to another draconian fee increase for me). The things that eBay could have put forth that cost them nothing but would have been a token for us small sellers, such as a 7 day negative feedback moratorium, were given only to Powersellers because we were told us small sellers are not as trustworthy. Another slap… Another dump of carp.
I’ve got to stop or I’ll do the print version of that Powerseller going nuclear on Youtube today.
Patricia1On 06.20.2008 at 11:35 pm Said:
“because we were told us small sellers are not as trustworthy. Another slap”
I don’t think I could ever forgive them for that alone.
SandiOn 06.21.2008 at 12:44 am Said:
There was also talk of being able to debit a PayPal account when an auction closes starting early next year which seemed to excite a number of folks too.
Are they going to let buyers set a default payment that is always used if they opt in for this, or are they going to force buyers to automatically use their bank account?
HenriettaOn 06.21.2008 at 3:35 am Said:
Patricia you need to think RED ink! It is there, been there all day, will still be there tomorrow.
permacrisisOn 06.21.2008 at 3:47 am Said:
RBH, thank you for mentioning the My Messages proof-of-extortion issue. Actually, for acknowledging extorion at all! 
HenriettaOn 06.21.2008 at 3:55 am Said:
UPS is absolutely NOT an option where I live. It works out to cost at least 300% more than Priority and it is infinitely slower.
In so far as the 60 day feedback window, this is not enough time for international transactions, particularly when the seller is kind enough to agree to surface shipment. This should be extended for those transactions.
Even shipping Airmail I have never had a sale to Italy arrive in less than 60 days, their customs holds are horrendous.
@ Davey
What is good for the marketplace is for small sellers by which I mean low volume with no desire to grow larger, to just go away. When you look at the policy towards us it is evident that although we may be loved we really aren’t wanted. Its kind of like the mother-in-law, loved best when she is living someplace else. Mr D will be much happier without the flea market effect.
@ RBH, am I truly loosing what passes for a brain or did you tweet eBay is implementing an A2Z policy?
ALSO thanks for such a magnificent effort put forth today and yesterday under some very difficult conditions. I know I hand out brickbats fairly regularly but this week you have earned a bouquet for frequent and factual reportage.
DakotaOn 06.21.2008 at 4:19 am Said:
@ Herietta,
I thought I would point out that this thread omits a very important part of the new DSR and new PowerSeller status created.
If you google eBay stock, open the first link, check out the links to the right of the page and click on the link titled eBay Offers New Discounts For Its Big Retailers, you will find:
Not only will the big retailers be entitled to the same discounts for high DSR’s as other sellers but:
“One of the new add-ons is a program set to allow large vendors to negotiate lower fees.”
That tells me that eBay is actively recruiting huge retailers with reduced fees that they are not offering their regular sellers.
When a story is written, it should have all important info included. I believe that this omitted info is important.
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