| Junkymail | 05-14-2008 11:00 AM |
eBay wants Small Sellers?
eBay Wants Small Sellers! Quote:
After telling a gathering of high-volume sellers that eBay is becoming a more retail-like site, eBay executives Lorrie Norrington wrote a special post on the eBay Ink blog to tell the community that eBay does indeed want to retain small sellers. Here are some actions that speak louder than words.
- eBay cancelled next year's annual eBay Live user conference, an event at which many small sellers have traditionally attended, saying it would attend smaller meetings next year instead. I can't think of a "Small Meeting" in this industry that is not composed of "Large Sellers," (okay one, but it's out of the price range of many small sellers who enthusiastically attended eBay Live each and every year).
- Shipping costs are rising, and eBay is forcing sellers to reduce shipping charges. This favors high-volume sellers who get volume discounts from shipping services. This, combined with the shipping DSRs, puts the squeeze on small sellers.
- Low-volume sellers are disproportionately affected by negative DSR ratings, leading to a vicious cycle of less exposure, fewer sales, lower volume.
- eBay is giving special deals to Buy.com (and others?) it is not giving to small sellers.
The timing of Lorrie Norrington's post, meant to reassure small sellers, could indicate eBay is worried that small sellers may leave and/or list less. While eBay is headed in a direction where that might not matter to them, for right now, it appears to be of concern.
| This is the blog post that the above article is referring to: Small Sellers: Our Competitive Advantage
Sure, whatever. Reinstate my old accounts, stop suspending my new accounts, lower the listing fees, let us neg bad buyers, stop forcing us to use PayPal and their high transaction fees, and maybe I'll consider believing that you care about us small scale sellers. Blah. | 
