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eBay Changes Feedback UI for Consumers

Now Has a 'Show me the Negs!' Feature...

On June 14th, eBay announced and then rolled out a tweak to feedback that allows users to filter the feedback and see just the positive/negative/neutrals instead of only being able to see the combined feedback as was the norm. We typically call this the eBay negative feedback filter and it has been a long time coming. I couldn't find any discussion about this, but this was raised as a feature by eBay in 2007/2008 if I recall and seller outrage made them rethink and punt on the feature at the time. It's always been an option in singapore and some buyers recommend going to the .sg site and loading a sellers feedback there.

In fact there are several online utilities that have been built to give buyers the same functionality such as:

• Toolhaus - This one has been around forever and has a lot of usage (20k+/m) as it is the top result in google for 'filter ebay negative'.
• feedbackselector - Allows you to also search the item text - e.g. show me all the negs for watch sales vs. 'all' sales.
• abef - A better ebay filter - this one is a very popular greasemonkey script.

Here we are in 2010 and eBay slid the feature out yesterday with nary a whimper from sellers. Let's look at the feature from both a buyer and seller perspective and I'll offer a strategy for sellers at the end.

Buyer perspective/use case and a tour

From a buyer's perspective, I do like the feature as it a) saves me time from looking through page after page of feedback and b) let's me educate myself on the types of bad experiences I could face and c) see what the seller has to say about it (if anything).

Here's a tour and a use case wrapped in one.

Let's say I'm considering buying something from eBay's new FashionVault flash sale experience - which goes under the seller ID stylepremium. I look at their feedback and notice three things of concern:

• They have a 99% positive rate which is promising
• They are not a top rated seller (which means they are a Above Standard Seller, but not eTRS)
• There's a gnarly 4.4 star on shipping and handling (for 12 months, 4.0 for last 30 days - ouch! Wait, doesn't that violate the seller performance standards of a 4.6 minimum? I digress. )
• 30 day negatives are 14 and there's 43 over the course of 6 months so they are accelerating

Fashion vault1


Before the negative feedback filter functionality, I would have to look for the 15 negatives in a sea of 800 feedbacks At 25 / page that would be 32 pages of feedback with an average of a negative every other page.

Now with this change, I can click on the '43' in the feedback ratings panel and it automagically shows me just the 43 negatives for the last 6 months for this seller: (click to expand)

Fashion vault2

A quick scan of this feedback reveals a lot about that 4.4 star:

• Most comments talk about two weeks shipping time as a problem
• There is some incidence of the wrong product being shipped.
• Generally the seller is issuing refunds for people that have a terrible experience.

Now as a buyer I can decide if I am willing to risk great prices in exchange for a possible long wait time, but know that if I get the wrong product, I can probably expect a hassle-free refund.

That's a lot more information than a 4.4/5.0 rating on a star.

Seller perspective

From a seller's perspective, you need to be aware that there is now a huge spotlight that buyers can shine on your negative feedback. Even if you are a 99% positive, you need to remember that buyers can and will choose to just look at your negatives. Also as you can see, buyers say some really scary stuff in feedback like fraud, scam, took my money, etc. So you need to be aware that a) they can say pretty much whatever they want and b) buyers can now see all of that on one filtered page without all those positives to help pull the punches.

eBay Strategy - Be sure to respond to all negative/neutral feedback!

This brings us to a strategy that was a minor thing we generally recommend, but has now gone from a 'if you have time to think about it' to a 'you need to make this a top priority part of your customer service processes'.

Some sellers don't realize that eBay allows you as a seller to publicly respond - right in the feedback page there - to feedback. I strongly, STRONGLY, recommend sellers start doing this now that this filtering is in place. Compare the stylepremium feedback where you only have the negative customer voice to this camera seller's (ETRS, 99.6%, 4.9, 4.7, 4.8, 4.9) feedback where they have responded to every negative:

Feedback feedback

You can see that a feedback reply takes a negative like: "Did not include the bag as advertised" and adds the seller's comment of: "Please call us and allow us to reconcile..." and more than softens the problem, it makes you wonder why eBay doesn't make buyers talk to sellers before leaving a negative (but I digress) - in any case it really helps with the perception and when you see it all on a page, you can tell this seller cares as they respond to every (well, all 3) negative.

In conclusion, this feature is going to shine a bright light on all of your negatives - you should take some time and gussy them up so they make it clear to buyers that you care and are going to attend to their problems as quickly as possible.

Decoding & Analyzing eBay's Stated (leaked?) 2010 Marketplace Priorities...

by Scot Wingo, ChannelAdvisor


In the World of the eBay ecosystem, we have our own lingo that is deeply ingrained and we forget sometimes that people have no idea what we are talking about.

Over at the eBay Ink Blog, RBH posted a picture of eBay's priorities from a sign in an eBay building:

Ebay 2010 Priorities


It's titled "eBay Marketplace Goals 2010" and has these three called out goals and then 7 priorities. They are chock full of eBay lingo, so I thought it would be fun to a) decode them and then b) analyze them.

eBay Goals Translation

• Net Promoter Score (commonly called NPS) + 10 ppt - NPS is something I've been meaning to blog about for a while in detail as it has become core to eBay (as is clear from this goal) - it is a measurement of consumer sentiment and word of mouth. The goal here is to improve it 10ppt which translates to percentage points (not powerpoint slides, but that is kind of funny because eBay uses a LOT of PPTs).
• Bought Item Velocity + 6 ppt - This is interesting as eBay doesn't really have a metric publicly called 'bought item velocity'. Pure speculation, but they do have the 'sold item metric' as shown here in this graphic from their Q1 conference call. Perhaps this bought item velocity is a second order measure of sold items and they would like it to increase 6 percentage points y/y (from 31% to 37%).

Ebay Sold Items


• Market Share - Maintain - JD has stated numerous times that in 2010 as part of eBay's turn around they will grow 'with' e-commerce (vs. below -08/09 and above - 2011+), so I'm going to guess this is basically saying that eBay will grow with e-commerce. Sidebar - there's a growing disparity in e-commerce growth metrics. Comscore is coming in very bearish with single digit growth and the US dept of commerce is at 14.3% - comscore is the easier metric and if you use that, eBay is at their goal, if you look at the USDC, they are not there.

eBay Priorities Translation

The sign lists 7 priorities along with the three goals:

• "Retail-like" trust levels by reducing BBEs and protecting buyers- BBEs are Bad Buyer Experiences, kind of like the Amazon ODR (Order Defect Rate). Inside of here you have all kinds of things that can go wrong like (SNAD - Significantly Not As Described, INR - Item Not Received, etc.) all of which result in a claim or low NPS score, or the dreaded 1/2 stars of death.
• Enhance selection and value in CSA - CSA is the acronym for the Clothing Shoes and Accessories (now rebranded Fashion) category. More on this in the analysis section.
• Deliver value across the site - Great deals across the site.
• Scale B2C sellers and improve efficiency - B2C (business to consumer) sellers probably refers to the larger merchants that are coming into the system like buy.com, disney, etc. Scaling them means helping them grow much larger. Deal of the day is one lever for this, perhaps there are more to come.
• Defend C2C seller business - C2C are consumer to consumer sellers - a.k.a. 'small sellers' or 'casual sellers'.
• Improve the eBay buyer experience - Self explanatory
• Build our advertising business - ?! More on this in analysis.

eBay Goal and Priority Analysis

Let's start with the goals (NPS, Bought Item Velocity and market share) - these are all good and very much in line with what eBay has been telling Wall St. as well as sellers. It is a bit of a bummer to see that the "Market Share" goal is "Maintain". While realistic, that's a hard one to get the troops rallied and definitely not in the Meg Whitman realm of a BHAG that she seemed obsessed with. However, in context of losing market share for the last couple of years, it's definitely a step up.

The priorities are not what I would expect. First let's think about the order of these. (buyer satisfaction, CSA, value, big sellers, small sellers, buyer usability, ads). Personally, I worry that the buyer experience on eBay is so outdated that it will become increasingly hard for them to keep market share for the next 5 years if they don't make this a priority. I guess you could argue that CSA is where they are doing some pioneering, but the fact that buyer usability is goal number 6, right above ads, makes me nervous. Personally, I'd say they need to do this order (FIX SEARCH, buyer usability, buyer satisfaction, big sellers, small sellers, CSA) Yes I left ads off and added search in all caps ;-).

(rant on)

Ads? It is disconcerting to me that eBay has ads on here. I hope I'm misguided, but I'm assuming this is something like AdCommerce and ads on the site and not eBay classifieds (not part of marketplaces). eBay should focus on GMV and not ads. Period.

Personally, I find the AdCommerce ads program to be terrible from all angles:

• Sellers - There is no way to measure closed loop ROI of the system. It's 2010, I can't imagine why anyone would pay for clicks and not know if they turn into conversions in this day and age. We do not recommend sellers use the program for this reason alone.
• Buyers - Google is able to show so many ads on the sight because of one reason - relevance. Google is religious about making sure ads are as relevant as possible. When they do that, it results in a BETTER experience than just organic results because the ads enhance the experience. From a buyer's perspective, the only good thing about the AdCommerce ads are that they are at the bottom of the page and hopefully consumers don't see them very often. I've found they are a HUGE step backwards in the buyer experience because 99% of the time they are not relevant. Here's a great example. I just did an iPad search and I am presented with these three ads: (click to enlarge)

Ipad Spam


Scanning the pictures, you may think I'm off-base, they seem decent. But dig a tad deeper. The first ad, while it has a picture of an iPad, is actually for a Arwen evenstar pendent (all my LOTR peeps) will appreciate this, but not your average IPAD SHOPPER?! Really!?!

The second ad seems decent - someone has an iPad on sale with free shipping - ok, very relevant - I click through and find that, well, that's not really the 'case', it is a case and not an iPad - a clear decision by this advertiser to mislead the buyer. This ad would last about .00000000000000000000000000000001 seconds on Google, yet here it is happily spamming up the search results for one of the top products.

The third ad is at least clearly an ipad case (at least the image says IPAD CASE). The ad says: "Best Deal Here and "reat (sic) Deals starting at $.99.....". Again, this ad would not last a second on Google, yet here's an ad with a typo.

So let's recap: Three ads: one is nothing like what we are searching for, second is misleading at best and the third has a typo: Useless Consumer Spam: 3, AdCommerce: 0. Spam wins!

Finally, eBay seems to let anyone advertise in this program. Featured listings got a LOT less spammy when they restricted the program to eTRS, they should at least do the same here and in fact, I don't get why you wouldn't just put a bullet in the whole program - it really is just that bad.

(rant off)

CSA? In the Q1 conference call, JD said this of CSA:

"So we are starting from a strong position as the number one clothing site based on sales and traffic and we begin to expect traction from these initiatives in Q2 and beyond. In fact, we expect to generate more than $5 billion in GMV from clothing, shoes and accessories."

So it seems like eBay has decided this category is an area they a) are top and b) want to stay top. This is great and it's good to see them getting aggressive, especially in light of Amazon+Zappos that is a counter force in e-commerce CSA. My only concern is that they neglect the other 10 billion dollar categories on eBay. They kind of capture this with the 'deliver value across the site' priority, but would it be prudent for eBay to win the CSA battle and lose autos, CE/CMP, sporting goods, home+garden, jewelry, toys, collectibles?

What eBay's Q4 Means for Sellers

by Scot Wingo, ChannelAdvisor


There has been copious amount of ink around eBay's Q4 targeted towards investors, but sellers are scratching their heads wondering what it means. In this post, let's look at the seller-oriented highlights of the release. Also, historically eBay has used the period from mid Jan to early Feb to announce it's first set of changes for a year. Seller's are on pins and needles expecting something soon, and listening to the Q4 conference call, I think Donahoe and team dropped some hints on what we can expect. We'll highlight those hints and give a little speculation on what the announcements could hold.

Follow the GMV

Now that Skype is no longer in the eBay portfolio, the company is spending more time on the eBay and Paypal metrics (positive). That being said there is a fair amount of data in any eBay quarterly release and it can be hard to pick out the pieces that are relevant to sellers. I advise sellers of all sizes to 'follow the GMV'. One caveat is it's best to look at FX-neutral, non-autos GMV (unless you are a car seller) to understand what really is going on at the eBay marketplace. Here are the relevant GMV datapoints from the release:

* FX-neutral international GMV (ex-gmarket) was up 11% y/y
* Domestic GMV (ex autos) was up 4% y/y
* Overall GMV was up 8% (ex-autos, ex-gmarket, ex-fx)
* But be sure to note that international is growing a solid 7% faster than domestic, so something is definitely 'working' there.

These numbers definitely show (especially when viewed with the last 2yrs y/y data) that eBay indeed appears to be turning the corner as they are about half way through their turnaround strategy.



Fixed Price / Auction Mix

For Q4, fixed price came in at 53% (up from 52% in Q3) and auctions came in at 34%. Fixed price GMV grew at an impressive 35% with auctions at negative 3% (actually a strong improvement from Q3's negative 12%). So fixed price listing GMV stayed at a good > 35% pace and auctions were 'less worse' so they helped with growth by not hurting growth. It will be interesting to see if auctions have bottomed out or if this was a seasonal improvement.



Donahoe hints at changes to come...

I found this comment to be the most interesting:

"Bottom line, sellers who deliver the very best experience are succeeding on eBay and buyers are benefiting. These turnaround efforts are paying off. Market share gains are evident internationally where we are further along in our turnaround. In the U.K. for example, we posted 17% growth during the second half of 2009, significantly outperforming the market."

"So I think what we’ll do in 2010 is take some of the learnings that we generated outside the U.S. and apply them as appropriate and as tailored to the U.S. market. I think we feel we’ve proven out some of these things outside the U.S. and they will apply inside the U.S."

If you look at the UK's seller fees (here), back in 09 they actually took the lower insertion fee move that eBay US did when they lowered FP30 to $.35 to an additional extreme. First, they eliminated the store format, and second they allowed business sellers to 'pay down' the FP30 insertion with a monthly store subscription. For example, if you pay £349.99 (approx $500) you now get essentially one penny insertion fees for FP30.

What this model has done in the UK is allow business sellers to focus on selling and not managing selection, so I view this as a win-win that we would definitely LOVE to see in the US and an important step towards 'really' competing with the Amazon business model.

Given the strength of international results and the foreshadowing by Donahoe, I think the takeaway for seller are:

* Look for a continued movement from auction to fixed price
* eBay seems to believe the feedback changes (DSRs, eTRS, etc.) are working, so I don't expect any big changes there.
* eBay continues to be very focused on NPS so it's important for sellers to learn more about that system (look for future blog post on that).
* eBay needs to replicate the international success in the usa, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a more UK-like pricing model come to the US.
* Note that in the UK, our data indicates a 80% fp / 20% auction mix, so if you thought auctions had a headwind before, I think if that change comes to the US you'll see auctions cut in essentially half again.

eBay Forums: Sick of eBay's Feedback

If you are POSITIVELY sick of ebay's
feedback ideas VOTE HERE!!!!

There has been lots of chatter lately in
the eBay Forums about their recent changes
to Sellers not being able to leave
negative feedback for buyers.

Here is what some Sellers have posted:

I do not like this new policy and will find other
places that is fair for both buyer and seller.
I have had 10 buyers that have not paid and 2
that disputed claim in paypal after they received
the item...and leave me neg feedback..this is
totally wrong!

I also hate this new feedback, it is totally
unfair that I can't leave negative feed back
for non payment.. I never had this problem
before. now it is common.

I think as long as the complaints are "contained"
on this eBay web site......NOTHING will be done.
We have the whole internet at our fingertips,
maybe we should focus more on going outward with
our voices instead of staying on ebay and
discussing. I have went to WWW.TWITTER.COM ...
take it outside the walls of eBay it we might be
heard better. TWITTER recently was on our major
news channel in reference to them lobbying for
problems occuring on internet, maybe the is
the next "better business bureau"

GOOD LUCK ALL.

eBay's 5 Free Insertion Fees for Online Auctions

Recently, eBay issued the following announcement about their new listing insertion fees:

Here is some exciting news about $0.00 Insertion Fees. Starting June 16, you’ll get 5 free Insertion Fees every 30 days for Auction-style listings.

Here’s how it works: Regardless of your start price, your first 5 Auction-style listings will have NO Insertion Fees when you list with eBay’s Sell Your Item form or Simple listing form.

The Final Value Fee for these 5 listings with $0.00 Insertion Fees will be 8.75% of the sales price or $20, whichever is lower. Any additional items sold during the same 30-day period will have the same Insertion Fees and Final Value Fees as they do today. Learn more.

Choose the option that works best for you, based on how you list:

• eBay’s Sell Your Item form or Simple listing form – If you’re currently using one of these forms, you can either take advantage of the 5 free Insertion Fees every 30 days, or opt out by listing your items via an eBay tool or third-party listing solution.
• eBay tool or third-party listing solution – If you’re currently using one of these tools, you can either take advantage of this new pricing structure by listing your first 5 Auction-style listings every 30 days through eBay’s Sell Your Item form or Simple listing form, or continue with your current practices at the current pricing.

We’re continuing our efforts to lower the upfront costs of selling on eBay. The 5 listings with $0.00 Insertion Fees are especially helpful if you don’t sell a high volume, but offer the kind of unique and hard-to-find inventory buyers expect to find on eBay.

eBay Forums Posts

Is it just me or has the 5 free insertion fees robbed you too? Let me give you a rundown of how you lose. With free insertion listings, you are charged a flat FVF of 8.75% or $20 whichever is lower. Normal auctions charge 8.75% of the first $25 then 3.5% of the remaining up to $1000 i think. So, heres an example of one of my "free listings" this month:

Normal auction:
Starting Bid: $0.99
End Price: $75.00
Insertion Fee: $0.15
Final Value: $3.94
Total: $4.09

Free insertion auction:
Starting Bid: $0.99
End Price: $75.00
Insertion Fee: free
Final Value: $6.56
Total: $6.56

THANKS EBAY!

Other postings had this to say:

Good, I thought I was the only one who saw this as a scam. Shame (on) you eBay.

I think Ebay was hoping you and the rest of us wouldn’t notice.

While its not a scam or a rip off per say it's misleading and
that is wrong.
Whether you had the time to read the whole explanation on
"free listings"--and dutifully compare the FVF's--the fact
that ebay has the possibility to make more out of it in the
end--provided your junk even sells... is typical corporate BS.

One posting had this suggestion:

It’s a bargain if you know how to work ebay. I put up 5 auctions
that were over $9.99 starting price but knew wouldn't go over
$25.00 selling price.

Therefore, I saved .55 cents on each listing. Only 2 of the 5
sold which is average for ebay. The other 3 didn't cost me
anything and were relisted in my store for .03 cents.
That's how you've got to figure it.

eBay Traffic Down in April and May

By Ina Steiner

eBay traffic declined in April and May 2009 both
consecutively and year-over-year, according to
data provided by Nielsen. eBay page views fell
6.8% in April 2009 compared to the previous month,
and dropped another 7.9% in May 2009. eBay page
views for May 2009 were down 32% from a year ago
and were down 40% from four years ago in May 2005.

A Guide to eBay's Spring 2009 Changes

By Ina Steiner

eBay made some major announcements on Tuesday,
April 14. The marketplace will expand the
rollout its new Item page, launch a new
dispute resolution process, introduce new
features for sellers including a Smart FAQ
and Multi-variation Fixed Price listings,
and more. We've listed some items that might
have slipped your notice and created a list
of helpful links to learn more about
these changes.

Important things to know about
eBay's forthcoming changes:

Sellers will have the option to
cross-merchandise on other each others'
relevant item pages. ("You can choose
not to have cross-merchandising on your
item pages, but your relevant items won't
appear on other sellers' items pages.")

eBay will introduce Multi-variation Fixed
Price listings in certain Clothing, Shoes,
& Accessories and Home & Garden categories,
which allows sellers to include multiple
variations of one product (such as color
and size) in one multi-quantity Fixed Price
listing. Note that each variation has its
own Best Match score.

eBay is introducing a new dispute resolution
process for when buyers claim their item was
not received or the item they received was
not as described in the listing

Sellers are advised to upload package-tracking
information for UPS and USPS shipments.
Starting June 15, this information will be
highlighted for buyers in My eBay. (And eBay
will factor this information in the new dispute
resolution process.)

Sellers may pay for shipping and print labels
on eBay. ("We're gradually moving online shipping
services from PayPal to eBay to make it faster
and easier to pay for shipping and print labels.")

eBay is moving Estimated delivery and handling
time to the top of the new Item listing page and
is removing High Bidder, Seller Location and
Member Since from the Item listing page.

eBay is using iFrames in the new Item page.
("Separating user-generated content, such as
item descriptions, from eBay content enables
eBay to provide an extra layer of security.
The separation will prevent users from
submitting HTML that may interfere with
how eBay works.")

Sellers can turn on "Smart FAQs" by going
to My eBay > My Account > Seller Preferences > FAQ.
("This is a new free feature that draws on live
information from your listings to answer the top
20 buyer questions before buyers reach you through
the "Ask a question" or "Contact seller" links.")

Tough Times for eBay Entrepreneurs

by Karen E. Klein

A bad economy and competition from big e-tailers
are challenging those who make a living via online
marketplaces such as eBay, Craigslist, and Etsy

Ann Wood was thrilled last January when her eBay
store, Willow-Wear, had its best month ever,
grossing around $33,000. In February, however,
Wood experienced a sharp drop-off in sales. Since
2004, Wood has run the home-based business, listing
and selling high-end jewelry, clothing, shoes, bags,
and antiques for more than 40 clients around the
country. She works four to six hours a day, and had
sales of about $250,000 in 2007, she says.

"I've still got steady sales and I'm making money
for my clients," Wood says, "but I've been seeing
more caution from buyers on the items priced for
$1,000 and over. People are being smart. They're
acting like my husband and I are trying to act,
which is to be more careful about purchases and
not buying everything we want."

Yet Wood's inventory is growing as her clients
scour their closets, hoping to make some extra
money selling unused items, and telling their
friends Wood can do the same for them. The other
bright spot for the former appellate attorney,
who became a home-based entrepreneur after her
three children were born, is international sales.
"A great portion of my stuff is shipped overseas.
With the dollar so weak, I've got great deals for
people in places like Germany and Italy. I even
sold something to Tahiti recently," Wood says.

"Pay to Play"
But overall, it's a tough time for entrepreneurs
who sell products through online retailers like
eBay, Craigslist, Etsy, and myriad other sites.
It's also tough to get solid financial data on
these individuals, many of them hobbyists
conducting virtual yard sales in their spare
time, rather than serious business owners. "What
we know is that probably half of all online retail
happens through companies that are smaller than
the top 100 e-commerce retailers," says Sucharita
Mulpuru, a principal analyst in the retail
division at Forrester Research (FORR).

It is suspected that probably about 60,000 small
and medium-size businesses have some sort of Web
presence, and another 650,000 sole proprietors
are selling through an online marketplace where
anybody can upload their product catalogs,"
Mulpuru says. "I can't imagine that they're doing
particularly well in this economy." Small online
operations must either sell unique items, such
as antiques and collectibles that appeal to
niche buyers, or do enough sales volume to keep
prices low.

"The challenge is that if they're sole
proprietorships, they will not be particularly
well-branded. In order to attract traffic, they
have to pay for some interactive marketing program,
which adds to their expenses and cuts into their
margins," Mulpuru says. "They have to pay in order
to play, but many of them don't have the resources
to do that."

That's not to say lots of people aren't trying.
A study of eBay market activity released in May
shows that in 2007 the top 10 markets in the
country—Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia,
Dallas, Orange County, Calif., Washington, Houston,
Nassau-Suffolk, N.Y., and Fort Lauderdale—generated
more than $7 billion, accounting for 55% of all U.S.
sales on eBay. In Los Angeles alone, 196,089
residents sold 24,051,645 items for a total of
$1.3 billion in sales, with cell phones, cell
phone accessories, and clothing the top categories


More Full-Timers
Jacques Stambouli is the CEO of ViaTrading.com,
an overstock liquidation firm that provides
merchandise for a number of online retailers.
"We deal mostly with entrepreneurs and people
trying to make a little extra money on the side
with home-based businesses. What I've noticed
recently is that a lot of people who were doing
this part-time are trying to ramp up their
activities and spend more time on selling. Others
are already selling full-time and they are trying
to grow," Stambouli says.

Some of his clients who disappeared two or three
years ago have gotten back into the swap meet or
online retailing business in the past few months,
he says: "If all of a sudden you have to spend
$1,000 on gas instead of $500, there's twice as
much of your income gone and you still need to eat.
There are also a lot of new faces showing up at the
flea markets, more people bargain hunting and
looking for cheaper ways to buy the same stuff."

The problem for small retailers trying to sell
merchandise more cheaply than volume discounters—
such as Target or Wal-Mart—is that they don't have
the economics of scale on their side, says David
Zahn, president of StartUpBuilder.com.

"It is harder [for small e-tailers] to turn a
profit, because the pressure is on the e-commerce
businesses to absorb shipping costs as many
established sites are doing," he says. "For
Amazon.com, as well as traditional retailers
that have e-commerce sites, such as Staples.com and
others, the costs are often absorbed for both
shipping to the customer and also from the customer,
if the item is to be returned.

What remains to be seen is if the gas crunch will
lead to more online purchasing," he says.

Free Listings
Small eBay sellers have been complaining
about the online marketplace's deal with
Buy.com, an online volume seller that can offer
free shipping and other perks that small store
owners feel will undercut their offerings. That
agreement, as well as recent price increases
(BusinessWeek, is driving eBay competitors as
well as eBay itself), to turn up the volume
on their appeals to get more small sellers
onto their sites.

Some, like newcomer Wigix, are offering
alternative business models. "We don't do
auction; we operate more like a stock market
with open bid orders for everyday stuff. We
don't charge anything for listings," says
James Chong, Wigix CEO.

The company, which launched in April, is
actively recruiting eBay sellers with its free
listings and low—or nonexistent—transaction fees.
"Every time there's a revolt at eBay, we're
getting a benefit from it," Chong says. "The
small sellers there are competing with a
gazillion other listings and they end up having
to pay a lot of extra fees to break out from the
clutter. Their margins are being eroded by
those costs."

For now, Wood is sticking with eBay and hoping
her sales will soon be up again. Her online
store, which grosses an average of $25,000 a
month, has been doing well so far in July, and
she is optimistic. "I'm on track to have another
big month, and we're seeing a lot of volume on
eBay now," she says. She is experimenting with
providing some free shipping as well as
increasing her sales listings, upgrading the
look of her online store, and letting buyers
know she can also sell items for them. "I'm
always trying to take a cue from the bigger,
higher-volume sellers. Watching smart sellers
is how I taught myself this business,"
Wood says.

Craigslist.org
Etsy.com
Wigix.com

TOP AUCTION TOOLS

Tips for Raising Your Margins & Profits on eBay

The following information was sent from eBay's
marketing people and we wanted to share it
with you.

Use Optional Features

A recent study by the Parthenon Group indicated
how powerful eBay's optional features were in
raising margins & profits on eBay.*

Bold featuring increases final price by 24% and
bids by 23% on average (the most effective feature
overall for the $1.00 cost).

Highlighting increases final price by 15% and
bids by 12%.

Gallery featuring increases final listing price
by 11% and bids by 15%.

Featured Plus! Listings increased final price by
47% and bids by 65%.

Many sellers develop a features usage strategy by
monitoring listings in the categories they sell.

Maximize your ebay Store

Try listing items with a lower average sales
price in your eBay Store. This will also allow
you to merchandise these items using the
Merchandising Manager feature (offered through
Featured and Anchor Stores) and take advantage
of the Store Inventory's lower cost insertion fee.

In addition, opening an eBay Store can
significantly increase a seller's gross sales
on average, a seller realizes a 25% incremental
increase in gross merchandise sales (GMS) after
opening an eBay Store.*

Try New Listing Strategies

Try multiple selling formats among your product
types. Fixed Price auctions, multi-item BIN,
wholesale lots and other item "groupings" can help
allay high costs. Reduce your cost of doing business
on eBay by testing and integrating $1 No Reserve
listings into your selling strategy. Start items
(or a portion of item listings) at a low price,
such as $1 No Reserve. Often times, these items
sell above retail value due to the excitement a
low starting price causes in the marketplace.

Look to the Community

Check out what other sellers on the site are
currently doing to sell items on eBay. The
community boards are also a great place to find
helpful information on new listing strategies
direct from the community of sellers.

Do your homework

Review category specific information and data to
help grow your business and increase productivity
and profits.

Read the monthly Seller Newsflash for innovative
ideas from other sellers and eBay. If you do not
currently receive this Newsflash, you may receive
it in your email inbox by visiting the link below
and updating your communication preferences to
receive 'eBay Email'.

eBay's Seller Central

Provides monthly information on categories with
high buyer demand. This information can be
invaluable when testing new products and expanding
your eBay business.

Experiment

Only you know what works best for you. Try
different things start by taking risks with low
cost items first and ladder your way up to high
average sales price items.

For example, there are sellers who sell laptop
computers on ebay starting at $1 every day.

* Please note: We cannot make any representation
that a seller's specific item's final price, bid
count, and conversion rate will increase by the
weighted averages noted.

To receive ebay Newsflash, sign up here

eBay Safer Payments Requirements Go Into Effect

eBay is making some changes that are intended to
make the buying experience on eBay better and
safer. As part of this initiative, expanded safer
payment requirements went into effect on March 17.
Since January 2007, all new sellers have been
required to offer PayPal or a merchant credit
card as a payment option to their buyers. On
March 17, this policy was expanded to sellers or
items when they meet one or more of the following
conditions:

• Seller has higher than 5% buyer
dissatisfaction rates
• Seller has less than 100 feedback
• Items are listed in categories with higher
rates of buyer complaints, including:
Gift Certificates, Video Games, Cell Phones,
Computers and Consumer Electronics.

In addition, for a small number of transactions
that have a higher risk of buyer dissatisfaction,
we may delay the release of funds paid through
PayPal. This hold will be placed on only a small
percentage of transactions for up to 21 days.
(Remember - PayPal is NOT a bank -
they can hold your money indefinitely)
Then the funds will be released if there is no
dispute. The funds may be released earlier if the
buyer leaves positive feedback, or if PayPal can
confirm delivery of the item. Sellers enrolled in
the PayPal Money Market Fund will earn interest on
any pending funds in their PayPal accounts.

Your payments will not be held if you meet the
following requirements:

• You have been an eBay member for 6 months
or more &
• Your total Feedback score is 100
or greater &
• Your buyer dissatisfaction percentage is
less than 5%.

Or

• Your average DSR is 4.5 or greater and
• Your have received 20 or more DSRs in the
last 12 months.

TOP AUCTION TOOLS

eBay Seller Pricing Changes

In this article, I usually have a new useful tool
to use or suggest that was useful. This month we
go back to basics with eBay itself and their new,
what they claim, "to make a better experience
for the buyer."

Here's some new information from eBay about their
upcoming new policies affecting all sellers.

Besides the unsurprising seller fee hikes, there
has been an uproar over the impending change to their
feedback rating system. Read on...

eBay has made some exciting new moves:
reduced the upfront cost of selling on eBay by
cutting insertion fees up to 25% for auction-style
and fixed price listings. Gallery pictures in search
results are now free to help you showcase your
inventory for selling success.

Seller Update: Fees, Rewards & Standards
eBay buyers want value and selection from sellers
they can trust--and good sellers deserve rewards
for delivering great customer service. That's why
we're making a number of important changes that
may affect you:

Reduced Listing Fees
We're reducing Insertion Fees and adjusting Final
Value Fees (8.25% to 13%-up from 5.25%!) to lower your
up-front cost to sell on eBay. You wanted free Gallery,
now you've got it--plus more feature discounts for
Gallery Plus, Picture Pack, and Feature Plus.


Rewards for great sellers
There will be discounts and incentives for those who
satisfy customers best. Who decides who gets rewarded?
Customers do, by giving sellers high Detailed Seller
Ratings (DSRs).

• More search exposure through Best Match

• Fee discounts for PowerSellers

• Increased protection for PowerSellers


Feedback Changes
Significant changes coming soon will increase buyer
confidence and showcase good sellers.

• Buyers will only be able to receive positive
Feedback (Sellers will not be able to leave negative
feedback for buyers)

• Positive repeat customer Feedback will count

• Feedback more than 12 months old won't

• Negative and neutral Feedback left by the buyer
will be removed for transactions in which a buyer
doesn't respond to the Unpaid Item or if the
member is suspended.

Do you think this a good idea for eBay?
Check out the eBay Forum on the new Feedback
policies and see what other sellers think here:
forums.ebay.com

You may also read about PayPal imposing 21 day
holds on your funds.

How do you think these changes will affect you?
Leave a comment!

LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

NOW is the time...

to get your eBay and Internet money
machine ready to blow your competition off the
map.

The New Year and first quarter are the best time
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Start right now!

Make it the best year you have ever had.

Most people don't know this but the fourth
quarter is going to be about 40% of your annual
business and the first quarter of the year will
be about 30%. So the next six months could create
a virtual windfall of profits for you. You need
to have that competitive edge and I can provide
that for you. I know from the incredible
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enough to really make a full time living on eBay
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There are classes to be taken, websites to be
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These are mostly folks that started as you did
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So grab them NOW!!

You get full resale rights so you can post them
on your site and collect all the money or you
can use them as a giveaway to newsletter
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enlightened a little more.

Why are we giving them away when we offer full
coaching and consulting services? Because, we
know that to truly make the big money, you
need hands-on guidance and the more knowledge
you have, the better student you will be when
you finally discover that going it alone is
the hard way.

(AFTER) CHRISTMAS IS BOOM TIME IN THE AUCTION
INDUSTRY AND IT'S TIME TO PREPARE!

* Brainstorm on a product niche.
* How to market your existing or new website
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* Selling on eBay and other auction secrets.
* Customer acquisitions equals a lifetime of
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* Join Affiliate programs that can put $1,000's
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I believe that I am a leader in the auction
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to help in your success and we welcome you.
There are a lot of information gatherers out
there. Some of us like the exploration process
and some prefer to define their goals and
follow the steps to success.

Many students have already spent $1,000's of
dollars on programs, software, books, products,
etc. before they came to me. It's the nature
of the beast to try.

It always looks easier than it is. I don't
guarantee you will make $1,000,000 the first
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off your learning curve and create a successful
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If you are prepared to stop dreaming and reading
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How much money it makes is up to the amount of
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Start taking the initial classes on my
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Legal/Banking Business Structure, Selling on
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You begin to develop your niche and start
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Start using our automation auction tools to see
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This is very important as you continue to build
your success with your own product niche. A
product that you may not even know your going
to sell yet! You want a product that has great
re-order and/or up-sell potential.

You will begin creating your website/blog with a
newsletter, affiliate programs, shopping cart,
etc.

Continue with intermediate courses on the
Your Website CD:
(Driving Traffic, Search Engine Placement/SEO,
Additional Revenue Streams From Your Site).

Now you start with promoting your site adding
like-minded links/products and completing your
internet presence.

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Again this is an action step - no action -
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The above is a basic blueprint for the start up
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You may be an inventor, a stay at home mom, a
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all of you.

Thank you for stopping buy and reviewing the
site. We appreciate your input.

Have a Successful New Year,
Coach Danny

Find Out What's In Demand

eBay's Seller Central is your source for the latest
tips, tools, information, and resources for selling
on eBay!


There, you can find detailed lists of products that
were in high demand from the previous month by
seeing What's Hot.


Hot Items by Category
Hot...Very Hot…Super Hot! Discover which categories
and products are on fire—where bid to item ratios
are high and demand is outpacing supply!

They list products and categories within eBay's
top level such as Clothing, Shoes and Accessories;
Collectibles; Computers; Consumer Electronics;
Cameras & Photo; Cell Phones & Portable Electronics;
Home & Living, Home Improvement and Crafts; Jewelry,
Gems & Watches; Musical Instruments; Sporting Goods;
and Toys & Hobbies.

This comprehensive approach will help provide you
with a useful list of specific products and
categories that will be hot for selling. Of course,
no predictive approach is perfect; given the
market, there can be no guarantee that any
particular product or category will be hot at any
particular time.

Holiday Hot List
The eBay Merchandising team create this list of
products they think will be in high demand and short
supply for holiday gift giving.

eBay Pulse
Track trends, hot picks, and other cool stuff,
including: top searches, most watched items, and
other little known facts about eBay.

Having trouble finding something about or on eBay
in this article or something else? Then, try using
eBay's Help to "Search the Help pages" and answer
your questions.


We hope this information will be helpful to you
in developing effective selling strategies.

TOP AUCTION TOOLS

HOW TO DRIVE BIDDERS FROM EBAY TO YOUR WEB SITE
by Skip McGrath

Awhile ago, eBay implemented a new policy to keep sellers from linking from
the auction description to a web site or shopping portal where they could sell an
item directly without waiting for the auction to end.

Shortly after, eBay introduced eBay Stores, which would seem to accomplish the same
thing. Still, sellers wanted to get visitors to their web site in the hopes of selling them something else or making an immediate sale. The advantages are obvious. First you can sell to many people who just won't bother placing a bid and waiting for an auction to end. Secondly, you avoid paying the eBay listing and selling (final value) fees.

As to the second item, fee avoidance, I can see eBay's point. They are in business
to make money. But so are we. After all, we are paying eBay a listing fee (and
feature fees). This is no more than an advertising fee. eBay isn't really losing any money. If the website links work (and they do) eBay will miss some small final
value fees, but they will make up for this in listing fees because sellers will place
more listings.

Here is eBay's current links policy: "The eBay item page can only be used to
describe, promote and facilitate the sale of the listed eBay item - it cannot refer
to or promote the seller's individual website, off eBay sales or other businesses.
The eBay About Me page is a place where the seller can promote their individual
website or business. The eBay Sell Your Item page can not contain URLs or links to,
or promotional information about, any off eBay webpage, including websites of the
seller or any third party."

There are 2 basic exceptions to this general rule - the Sell Your Item page may
contain a link to information related specifically to that item that:

"Gives acknowledgement to a company that provided services related to that listing
(such as counters, auction management tools, or payment and mediation services).
This acknowledgement may contain both a logo (88 x 33 pixels) and up to 10 words of text (HTML font size 3) but only one of those may be clickable.
Points interested buyers to another Internet page that contains only more
information (such as pictures, product specifications or detailed terms and
conditions) about eBay items listed by that seller.

Links from the eBay Item page that interfere in any way with the eBay bidding
process, or solicit any eBay user information, are not allowed. Links from the eBay
Item page to pages that promote off eBay sales in any way are forbidden, though
such pages may generally themselves contain discrete links to other commercial web
pages."

So how do we work with these rules? Here are some ideas.

Notice the sections. The first one states: "The eBay About Me page is a place where
the seller can promote their individual web site or business."

The second reference says: "Links from the eBay Item page to pages that promote off
eBay sales in any way are forbidden, though such pages may generally themselves
contain discrete links to other commercial web pages."

The key words in this section are "discrete links."

If you have an AboutMe Page there will be a "ME" symbol next to you user name.
Some people do click on this to read about you.

A better way is to invite them to view your AboutMe Page right in the text of your
item description.

Make sure to create a hyperlink to make it easy.

Here is an example with the HTML code:
http://cgi3.ebay.com/ ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=xxxxxx

Just replace the XXXXXXX with your eBay username to create the link.

I have been collecting and selling Beatles memorabilia for over 20 years. Please
visit my AboutMe page to learn more about Beatles collectibles and our business.

Once readers arrive at your AboutMe page you can then direct them to your website
with a live hyperlink.

eBay also allows you to provide links to purely informational pages with information
(including more photos) about the item you are selling.

We used to sell amber jewelry. Each of our auctions contained a link to a free
article entitled "All About Amber." That page contained an interesting article about
amber, how it was formed, where it came from, and so on. However, that page also
contained a link to our storefront web site where people could purchase amber
jewelry items directly.

The trick to driving bidders from eBay to your web site is to:

1. Follow the rules
2. Use the rules to your advantage by finding
clever loopholes.

The AboutMe Page is still your best bet for promoting your website. The best
strategy is to point sellers to your AboutMe page in your auction description and
give them a reason for visiting it.

Good luck on eBay!

eBay AboutMe Overview
eBay Links Policy

Coming Soon: Changes to eBay Item Specifics

We plan to update the following eBay Item Specifics in early January:

- Cell Phone Accessories, "Chargers, Cradle Chargers" will change to "Chargers.”
- Gift Certificates, Lodging, Cruises, Vacation Packages and Airline – Year values will be updated.
- BMX Bikes, Mountain Bikes and Road Bikes – Model Year and Brands will be updated and Model changed from a pre-set selection to a text-entry field.
- Coins, Certification numbers added via Item Specifics will be partially masked on the item page.

Item Information is completely optional, and gives sellers an easy way to add basic, standard information to their listing. Examples include brands, models, colors, and stock photos. Using Pre-Filled Item Information can help save sellers time, and provides buyers with helpful information when searching for items to purchase.

Note: Sellers who use a 3rd party listing service (ChannelAdvisor, etc.), should contact them to verify that they will offer the Pre-filled Item Information capabilities in the categories listed above.

TOP AUCTION TOOLS

When Is the Best Day to List an Auction?

Search millions of eBay's closed listings. Find out theTop Selling Listing Recommendations like Keywords used in Title, Pricing and the Best Time to End. See what the market is (or ISN'T) for your item for the past 30 days.

Get everything you need to make the best deals online for FREE without buying a program with the same information.

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