eBay e-commerce forum live blogging - Breakout III Seller panel
There are four sellers moderated by Matt Ledwith (ML). I know two - Jon@Grapevinehill (GVH) and Sarah@fashionphile (FP). I'll call the other two guys seller1 and seller2.
Q: What do you think about today's announcements:
S1 - generally happy
GVH - feedback, not sure if negative or positive
S2 - feedback is very concerning.
FP - I got hit with fee increase and VERY concerned about the power the new feedback rules put in the hands of buyers.
Q: Moviegoods.com - I've cut store listings with 30k store items
A: GVH - we use store listings as an added chance at selling something.
Q: This is for GVH, you guys are 4.6/4.7 on DSRs, can you get your DSR up?
A: GVH - no, I don't think we'll get to 4.8, feels like free ship required.
Q: Is there a better time shoeA sells better than shoeB?
A: GVH: evenings are the best, some day time activity.
Q: (from MattL) Do you publish your shipping and handling policies?
A: Free shipping gets 4.8/4.9
****Ah, Seller1 is Michael@gainesville coins (GC) and Seller2 is Stephen@ Thrilling Audio (TA)
(audience getting kind of worked up over shipping+handling DSRs, lots of rumbling and agitating).
Sellers at mic:
Q: I have a 4.8 on shipping and have free insurance and shipping.
(nxt) Q: There's no way we should be accountable or have to explain what we charge for shipping!
Q: Debbie@snappy - we found when people leave feedback they don't remember, so the closer to feedback time you can touch them, the better. You can try to put something in the box that says - we take great care to package everything, etc.
A: TA - we do do that and send the fees with the feedback request email.
Q: how do you nudge people to your website.
A: GC - websites are expensive
GVH -we prefer website sales.
Q: How do you drive sales to your website
A: How do you look at multi-channel.
GVH: Let customers know.
TA - we use google adwords and flyers
FP - we have tons of content on our website
Q: DSR Shipping question - some guy said in the last presentation said that his international feedback DSRs were lower - how'd he know?
A: ML - Bill told me that international is lower than US, we shared it with him. We are looking into how we can get more info on feedback.
ML - think about these as starting points.
Q: VERO
A: FP answered, pointed to tabberone's site
Everyone is running in circles about the feedback changes; but Ebay counted on this to provide cover for the FEE changes. They go into effect in 20 days and will provide an immediate hurt for every major seller on ebay. Insertion reductions are token at best and any DSR savings are two quarters (if ever) from realization. Any talk about Ebay take rate going down is just plain silly.
Personally, this looks like a near-term effort to boost up the balance sheet, accumulate cash, narrow P/E, and (ironically) put the company up to the highest bidder (4th quarter 2008).
Posted by: Scot (not W) | January 31, 2008 at 12:59 PM
Ebay seller's are leaving left and right. Several hundered have already closed their stores. They are angry about the fee increase but the most angry about the new feedback rules. I kept a close eye on Ebay's stock. Ebay is in Crisis because of these new changes. Don't be surprised if you don't see Ebay's feedback drop below $20 in the next week or so.
Posted by: Mackey | January 30, 2008 at 03:05 PM
Has anyone highlighted that the final value fee for selling a $24 item will go from $1.26 today to $2.1 (5.25% to 8.25%) Feb 20th. To justify this, eBay knocks a nickel off of the listing fee. Final Value fee up 67% and not even 10% off of the listing fee as justification. You can bet I will list less stuff with eBay.
Posted by: Jason | January 30, 2008 at 09:01 AM
If you want the financial community to see what the other financial news reporters don't want investors to know, please publish this backlash site and many of the forum comments on eBay. It is going to get a lot uglier. Many Power Sellers have already closed there eBay Stores in protest and are calling eBay quits.
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/ga05/
Posted by: Larry S. | January 30, 2008 at 08:46 AM
Seller feedback should be eliminated entirely if they can only give +. What a an unbelievable slap in face to people with years of work invested in that number. Nothing could tell sellers more clearly what Ebay thinks of them. Ebay foolishly thinks that chasing away sellers will increase sell through. Get a clue ebay you are losing the very sellers that bring the buyers.
I have no doubt Ebay jumped the shark today.
Posted by: drew | January 29, 2008 at 07:00 PM
Dear Scot,
How come we don't get to see pics of the sellers saying hello to us bloggy readers at this conference! I dont want a pic of Cobb though. lol. Hi meggies!!!
Posted by: Fruity | January 29, 2008 at 05:52 PM