http://www.aspkin.com/forums/../../b...OCT08_2009.jpgeBay CEO John Donahoe appeared in several segments on eBay Radio on October 6th. You can listen to all of the segments by visiting
this page. I had expected John to use the opportunity to make a case for the major changes that rolled out to the site last week - Top Rated Seller program and changes to search - and allay fears from sellers. But for the most part, John answered questions - first from the host, Jim "Griff" Griffith, and then from some sellers who called in or emailed to the show. A question about problems with eBay's search came up, but were not addressed.
I put some VERY rough notes together on the time slots I thought were most interesting.
Classifieds Format, Seller Threats
John spoke on several issues in the first segment in which he appeared (Segment 7), but I did not learn anything new. In Segment 8, the program host Griff revealed that eBay was taking a closer look at bringing the classifieds format to eBay.com (listen around 4:00 into the segment). The issue of eBay sellers making threats in the PowerSeller board that they were considering leaving negative ratings for Top Rated Sellers was also addressed (around 7:00 minutes).
On eBay-Generated Reminder Emails to Buyers
In Segment 9, a seller asked about the emails eBay sends buyers reminding them to leave feedback and pay sellers, which she objected to fearing that buyers thought sellers were sending them and "breathing down the necks" of buyers. Griff addressed the concerns (around 2:30 minutes).
Top-Rated-Seller Search Filter and Search Problems
Another seller called in asking about the TRS purple pop-up box that excludes non-Top Rated Sellers from search results, you can listen at about 5:00 minutes.
That one was interesting, because John Donahoe revealed that less than .5 percent of visitors clicked on the box, which he admitted was "jarring" the first time he saw it. He said if eBay finds more visitors click on it to the detriment of sellers, they would remove the feature. (I'm not sure I understood the logic there!)
Griff then apologized for having previously told sellers that there would be no filter, followed by an apology from John about glitches that were occurring as they rolled out the changes.
Another seller called in around 9:00 and said despite being a Top Rated Seller offering free shipping, his listings were appearing low in search results, and said it was a problem affecting other sellers as well. No time was spent on this issue, basically Griff said he would forward the comment to eBay's search team.
eBay Feedback Changes and Net Promoter Score
Chris Mitchell emailed a question about the
AuctionBytes article on Net Promoter Score (approximately 21:40 minutes). John confirmed that eBay was testing Net Promoter Score in feedback. A summary of what he said: This is something we're just testing in about 1 percent - if it works well, we'll test it in 5 percent. We don't take changes to feedback lightly, there's nothing imminent - nothing has been decided.
