Market research ethic

[patojen]

Is it ethic or fit policy to research an item statistics (such as PRICES, how many SOLD etc.) from other sellers to decide start selling or not of this item.
I am afraid of taking any sellers right as a religious person so wanted to ask if they are assumed to accept sharing those data by ebay policy or any laws for e-trading or may be unrecorded general trading ethics. I actually found about content policy but couldn’t be sure if its an answer this spesific question.

[notsosureaboutit]

OP, I think this question you would have to ask in another forum more specialist in sharia conform trading. However "Terapeak" which is a legal software that collects analytical data about products from eBay and Amazon should be fine for you to use.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by patojen

Is it ethic or fit policy to research an item statistics (such as PRICES, how many SOLD etc.) from other sellers to decide start selling or not of this item.
I am afraid of taking any sellers right as a religious person so wanted to ask if they are assumed to accept sharing those data by ebay policy or any laws for e-trading or may be unrecorded general trading ethics. I actually found about content policy but couldn’t be sure if its an answer this spesific question.

Religious person? Why do you ask this?

[patojen]

I dont know why you guys focused on religion so much, i think about my english reflected wrong my point of view, have just touched upon it secondarily, question was beginning and clearly marking with ebay policy and universal ethics not religious sharia .

[notsosureaboutit]

OP there is nothing ethically wrong to check on how your competition is doing, its just a market research, isn't it? .... but most of us here do stealth so maybe its the wrong place to ask.... because is "stealth" ethically right in the first place?

[jeffweico]

What is wrong with researching a market? Why would anyone go into business with a given product unless they first tried to find out how large (or small) the market for that product is? TeraPeak will show you how many of a given item was sold over a specific period of time, what the average selling price is, and much more. There is nothing wrong with using something like that to determine if selling a product is worth your while. Sellers don't OWN a given product - if I am selling tents, there is nothing wrong with you deciding to sell tents too. That is capitalism.

[patojen]

Its understandable market research is necessary to see if their business can go well, you can do by researching demands and supply simply. My concern was about second selection of market research below:

1.Customer demand research
-Top searched keywords (like ebay pulse, google keyword tool)(ok)
-Trend and survey websites and more options for customer demands(ok)
2.Seller Supply research
-Top Sold keywords (Terapeak) (?)
-Following succesfull competitors to sell same niche(?)

At first step i am clearly ok, but about second(may be most subjects in the life when you think complex you may reach some new questions like this) when you consider theoritically that a million of sellers are yours at ebay, you wouldn’t definitely share your item availibilities, solds, pricings for new sellers its clearly what you dont want. But since you are unable to seperate ebay customers and sellers with a mind reading device you can’t hide those items for sellers.. Its clearly violating your rights here, but except (this section is what i am looking for) most important point, if there is any policy which you signed physically (like ebay policy) or assumed to accept this content publication as a price of selling with some unsigned rules (like national/global trading laws or universal ethics or karma  ) then seller supply market research can be accepted ethic i believe..

About religious word, dont think please about islam or any name, i believe on human rights and karma , its not its place but since it has been touched here i wanted to say a few things with your apologizes, i believe all religions islam christianity buddhism etc.. and human mind universal ethical findings comes from one source of the universe which unknown yet. Everyone always talk about same thing just different way i believe.

[dallis]

Not only ethical, but vital.

Seriously, what ethical problem could this possibly present unless you're hacking somebody's computer and stealing confidential trade secrets?

[easy.bake.oven]

Wisen up I say X

[james13v]

Originally Posted by dallis

Not only ethical, but vital.

Seriously, what ethical problem could this possibly present unless you're hacking somebody's computer and stealing confidential trade secrets?

Muslim religion doesn't allow quite a lot of things, if this person happens to be Muslim that is. Religion has a completely different set of ethics than your average person would.

[patojen]

I had asked religious point by the way, there is no problem with any of them, its more than primitive rules james and may be discussed after a century these deep decisions for ethics may be

[james13v]

Originally Posted by patojen

I had asked religious point by the way, there is no problem with any of them, its more than primitive rules james and may be discussed after a century these deep decisions for ethics may be

I wasn't trying to get into a religion discussion. Nor calling them primitive rules. Just that religion has a different set of ethics. It's not a judgement on it. Just a fact. Sharia law. Jews laws. 10 commandments. While a lot of it is universal, there is quite a bit that doesn't apply to anyone that doesn't believe in those religions. So asking if something is ethical, depends on your specific beliefs. Muslims don't pay or receive interest. So a savings account would be unethical.

So yeah, you're question is too broad, doesn't specify your ethical values, and asked to the wrong people. If anyone thinks market research is in any way unethical, they shouldn't be in a market.