eBay switching strategies: Will be focusing on smaller sellers, not retail giants...

[jeffweico]

OK, so we have all been saying for years that eBay needs to stop trying to be Amazon and needs to focus on what made their site great - small sellers. We all have stories about how eBay could care less about us, since we are not Best Buy or Adorama Camera. But things seem to be changing.

John Donahoe, eBay's chairman, left eBay when they split with PayPal and is now running PayPal. As longs as he was with eBay, nothing like this would have happened. Like most corporate executives, he believed in the philosophy that bigger is better and had eBay's sales team trying to land big fish to sell on their website, companies like NewEgg and Best Buy.

But eBay's NEW CEO Devin Wenig, has a different approach according to an article in EcommerceBytes:

eBay had been focused on retail, and the company was a mile wide and an inch deep. But Wenig said post-PayPal, he'd rather have "a million small businesses" instead of putting "three more huge retailers on to sell commodity goods where I don't compare well."

In other words, Amazon beat the crap out of eBay. eBay realized that no matter how hard they pushed their sellers, they could never compete with Amazon's logistics. And I have to agree. I LOVE Amazon Prime 2 day shipping. Anything I want, I can get almost as quickly as by going to a bricks and mortar store. eBay could not compete with that, no matter how hard they tried.

I seriously recommend that everyone read this article, it has several interesting points.

Wenig stated that in the past when PayPal was a part of eBay, they sometimes made decisions that were good for PayPal, but not so much for eBay. Now that eBay is a separate company, they are free to make decisions that are good for eBay, without having to worry about PayPal.

eBay hasn't scratched the surface of the richness of inventory "as we pivot out of big retail," he said. "Think of every boutique and artisan, and small bookstore, and handmade crafter."

It really seems that eBay is serious about this. It makes sense, especially given the new seller rules put in place on February 20th, that ease up on sellers for shipping issues which are beyond their control.

This could be EXCELLENT NEWS for those of us who sell niche products. If eBay adds more sellers and brings back all of the cool types of items they used to have back in the day, then eBay could start to be seen as a cool place to shop rather than being thought of as a low-rent version of K-Mart.

Of course, it is way too early to tell if this is a serious effort or if eBay will again pivot back to large retailers, but this cannot be BAD news.

If you want to read the full article, you can do that here:

eBay Pivots Away from Big Retail, CEO Tells Wall Street

[slokor]

Interesting read. Thanks for that.
Ill believe it when I see it though. Its not so simple to change such a mindset as has been ingrained into all levels of management and customer reps over the last few years. If it does happen it will take years to implement.
But I agree - this is a move in a positive direction.

[yaBeh8ater]

fingers double crossed!

[123]

Now that's awesome news for sure, thanks for sharing!

[empirestate]

Only time will tell if it will be implemented to benefit us.

[jeffweico]

Originally Posted by slokor

Interesting read. Thanks for that.
Ill believe it when I see it though. Its not so simple to change such a mindset as has been ingrained into all levels of management and customer reps over the last few years. If it does happen it will take years to implement.
But I agree - this is a move in a positive direction.

I agree, it is not easy to change corporate culture. But it CAN be done. If eBay wants to be a serious player in the long term, they either have to do what they are doing now or find a way to compete with Amazon. And I don't see the latter happening.

[james13v]

Have you not see the "Late shipment rate" defects? That's specifically geared for full time big time sellers. How many people have lost their top rated status over that? I really don't see ebay going back to the small sellers, until they lose quite a bit of money.
They STILL want to be like Amazon

[jeffweico]

Originally Posted by james13v

Have you not see the "Late shipment rate" defects? That's specifically geared for full time big time sellers. How many people have lost their top rated status over that? I really don't see ebay going back to the small sellers, until they lose quite a bit of money.
They STILL want to be like Amazon

Shipments will be considered late only when:

• Tracking shows item was delivered after the estimated delivery date and there's no acceptance scan within your handling time or there's no confirmation from the buyer of on-time delivery, or
• Buyer confirms item was delivered after the estimated delivery date and there's no acceptance scan within your handling time or there's no delivery confirmation by the estimated delivery date

Under the new standards, all you have to do is ship on time. If your shipping schedule is something like "Saturdays Only" or something like that, then you WILL have problems. If you ship every day, then you will be fine. Anyone who is serious about selling on eBay should be able to ship within 24 hours. I don't think that necessarily favors big sellers. The reason I like it is, the one downfall that e-commerce has is that you don't get your item immediately like you do if you go to a store. But customers are OK with that if they know they can get their items in a few days. When sellers sit on items for two weeks before shipping them, it really discourages people from buying online.

[james13v]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

Shipments will be considered late only when:

• Tracking shows item was delivered after the estimated delivery date and there's no acceptance scan within your handling time or there's no confirmation from the buyer of on-time delivery, or
• Buyer confirms item was delivered after the estimated delivery date and there's no acceptance scan within your handling time or there's no delivery confirmation by the estimated delivery date

Under the new standards, all you have to do is ship on time. If your shipping schedule is something like "Saturdays Only" or something like that, then you WILL have problems. If you ship every day, then you will be fine. Anyone who is serious about selling on eBay should be able to ship within 24 hours. I don't think that necessarily favors big sellers. The reason I like it is, the one downfall that e-commerce has is that you don't get your item immediately like you do if you go to a store. But customers are OK with that if they know they can get their items in a few days. When sellers sit on items for two weeks before shipping them, it really discourages people from buying online.

I'm sorry, but no. It's not that easy. If someone buys something at 2AM eastern time, and I get on my ebay account around 3PM the next day, I have TWO HOURS so ship. I also have work, I can't be on ebay all the time. I have to get home, and figure things out and pack them. Ebay is literally asking you for SAME DAY shipping, even if you list 1 day shipping. I'm missing a lot of my things by a couple HOURS, sometimes even MINUTES. And it's all based on PST while I'm on the east coast. Of course this favors big sellers. They have stuff going out every single day. I was having things going out every 48 hours. But with this new system, that's no longer possible. My feedack is full of " he shipped so fast!". My star rating is 4.95 for shipping time. only 2 people have said their packages arrived late. And 75% of my shipments that are counting as late, arrived HOURS after ebays estimating shipping time.

[easy.bake.oven]

Amazon Prime for me:
I order something in the morning and it arrives in the evening!!!!

A man cant ask for more! I love it... I get my 'toys' to play with fast and a lot of what I need/buy is on ebay at the same price (prob same sellers).......

........so...... buy on ebay and wait for 'how long is a piece of string' or buy for same price on amazon and get it delivered most of the time that same day!

Another great post Mr. Jeff, thanks

[BigCJ]

I have prime...and im addicted to it.

Want a can of beans? ORDER IT AT 4PM AND GET IT BY 5PM!

(No,im not that much of a jerk to order small craap like that but you get the jist)

[GhostOfAmazon]

Originally Posted by james13v

I'm sorry, but no. It's not that easy. If someone buys something at 2AM eastern time, and I get on my ebay account around 3PM the next day, I have TWO HOURS so ship. I also have work, I can't be on ebay all the time. I have to get home, and figure things out and pack them. Ebay is literally asking you for SAME DAY shipping, even if you list 1 day shipping. I'm missing a lot of my things by a couple HOURS, sometimes even MINUTES. And it's all based on PST while I'm on the east coast. Of course this favors big sellers. They have stuff going out every single day. I was having things going out every 48 hours. But with this new system, that's no longer possible. My feedack is full of " he shipped so fast!". My star rating is 4.95 for shipping time. only 2 people have said their packages arrived late. And 75% of my shipments that are counting as late, arrived HOURS after ebays estimating shipping time.

It's called "handling time". You can set it up for every single item individually.....

[solefoodbk]

Originally Posted by GhostOfAmazon

It's called "handling time". You can set it up for every single item individually.....

I think his point is trying to maintain TRS is difficult because that one new metric.

I'm on the east coast too, and it is silly how we have to go off of pacific time just because that's where they're located. That and TRS will have to honor 30 day returns come May 1st. Great updates but it makes being TRS really difficult. I mean sure some people might waste 30 minutes each day to drop off their packages but not me.

I always utilize drop boxes but even if I ship it same day, depending where it was purchased and when USPS actually scans it, I'm technically "late" even though I'm not.

FYI If you live in a small/medium city shipments should never effect you. For the people living in cities like Chicago, New York City etc... We're basically counting on USPS to do their job 100% of the time properly. Thats simply not realistic in big cities with more packages coming and going daily.

[Bernie Sanders]

This is what Bernie Sanders wants to do.

[dealagreeproceed]

Originally Posted by Bernie Sanders

This is what Bernie Sanders wants to do.

[outofluck]

Great article Jeff!
Thanks for posting the link. I will be reading and watch that one for sure.

Its about time for some change!
VOTE TRUMP!

[solefoodbk]

Originally Posted by outofluck

Great article Jeff!
Thanks for posting the link. I will be reading and watch that one for sure.

Its about time for some change!
VOTE TRUMP!

Go rot in some dark corner.

[outofluck]

Originally Posted by solefoodbk

Go rot in some dark corner.

Gee Thanks!

[james13v]

Originally Posted by solefoodbk

I think his point is trying to maintain TRS is difficult because that one new metric.

I'm on the east coast too, and it is silly how we have to go off of pacific time just because that's where they're located. That and TRS will have to honor 30 day returns come May 1st. Great updates but it makes being TRS really difficult. I mean sure some people might waste 30 minutes each day to drop off their packages but not me.

exactly! Maintaining TRS if you sell a lot of things but also have other responsibilities. Ebay wants big businesses . Not small.

I thought it would help, with not dealing with all the old defects. But man. Now I'm at the mercy of the post office? One of the worse run government agencies out there.

[GhostOfAmazon]

Originally Posted by james13v

exactly! Maintaining TRS if you sell a lot of things but also have other responsibilities. Ebay wants big businesses . Not small.

I thought it would help, with not dealing with all the old defects. But man. Now I'm at the mercy of the post office? One of the worse run government agencies out there.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Maintaining TRS isn't worth it anymore.

[jjohnson777]

I tried mailing check Christmas Eve and could not due special hours. Than missed Saturday mail on 26th. I could not mail check until 28th. So they did not get check until Dec 31st. I rarely mail stuff but did it due to amount I preferred check over PayPal. Seller was ok as no fees. So no way would I want to base my business on government agency but if used it daily I probably know there hours. So I did not get websites bought for week due counting on government. I never closed as find make most on holidays or weekends. I play games during week as few buy and work harder on weekends.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by Bernie Sanders

This is what Bernie Sanders wants to do.

You mean You