One of the great things about eBay events is the realisation that eBay employees are real people. At Live, you can be haggling over a badge with someone one day, only to realise the next that they’re the head of security for eBay North America. eBay’s Backstage party tonight was no exception to this, and that’s why I’d like to apologise to “Carl from PayPal” for not realising that you’re Carl-Olav Scheible, MD of PayPal UK. Eeek!
The evening began with a fantasy from eBay UK’s CEO, Doug McCallum, of an eBay where sellers sold via Skype and mobile phones as well as the site itself, where account managers proactively inform you of changes to the site and when glitches will be resolved. This dream site had eBay fees more closely aligned to selling success: a formula that back in the real world seems to involve lower insertion fees and higher FVFs, as we’ve already seen in the Media category. Look for these kind of fee changes coming to a Toy category near to you before Christmas. Also promised by the end of the year is that “we’ll be back on dot-com at least in a limited way”. But Doug’s big message was a simple and obviously heart-felt “thank you”, to the sellers who make eBay UK what it is, and to the partners who put up with us doing it.
The Innovation Centre showcased all that’s new and exciting about eBay UK right now. If you hadn’t been paying attention, or writing a blog about eBay :-D, this would have had some lovely surprises: Speed eBay, with its five minute auctions, really does put the excitement back into bidding – particularly when I was waiting to see if I’d got my Miu Miu sandals for just £49.94 (I did!). Some possibilities for the new version of the eBay UK homepage were on show, as well as software to take your website feed and turn it into eBay listings, and the lovely people from eBay for Charity.
Dinner was delicious, the wine flowed very swiftly and the eBay staff were their usual invariably cheerful selves: I’d mention them all by name but I’d be sure to miss someone nice! Richard Kanareck, eBay’s head of PR, said that the response to eBay’s invitations had been phenomenal: so much so, in fact, that the party was oversubscribed. We were pleased to see that those whose invites had not been confirmed were finally allowed inside, because this was a relaxed and fun experience that should be extended to more eBayers than the few hundred present tonight. All in all, we had a great time, and hope that those who were there did too: if you want a look at the piccies, they’re on our Flickr stream.
8 Responses
Sue
Good to talk yesterday and thanks for attending. Thank you also for your nice and very quick entry above.
Regards
Carl
eBay really need to move away from the Cheap Insertion idea, and move the benefits to the back end of sales – reduced FVF’s and/or paypal fees. Insertion fees are peanuts – CLD or no CLD, it’s only a few pence. FVF’s are the crippler, especially when combined with the slice of pie that Paypal greedily take as well.
Given the amount of tat that gets listed on CLD’s, and the depressed selling prices caused by Market saturation, I really can’t see it as being a long term solution.
How about a separate Final Selling Fee that combines FVF and Paypal Fee if paypal is used by the buyer? Or offering a reduction in FVF’s for those sellers offering Free Postage 😉
eBay Like UK is going on now? I am jealous! Thanks for sharing the news. Bring us lots of inside info! 🙂 What kinds of sessions & speakers do they have?
Hi Julia, it wasn’t really “eBay Live! UK”, but it was the nearest category we could find to post in. However it was a great evening, many eBay staff on hand to demonstrate the latest new features on the site, and a Q&A session with Doug, the eBay UK Managing Director 🙂
Great night out. Was good to put some faces to some names and meet fellow sellers. Well done ebay! (think that’s the first time I’ve ever said that)
A fun night out, good food, a nice hotel (with a lovely view of Tower Bridge) and a chance to catch up with old friends and make some new ones. Nice one ebay!
It was a really great night, we really enjoyed it. Has anyone been given a link or found a page on ebay where they have posted there pictures and video they took throughout the night???
Hi Oliver, the official eBay pictures and video should be available sometime next week 🙂