eBay.com have announced another set of changes which they say will help sellers be successful this holiday season.
Likely to be most controversial with sellers is a new Amazon-style product page for goods which use pre-filled item information. These feature the “best value box”, one single Best Matched seller highlighted at the top of the item page, labelled “buy from trusted seller…”. Somehow, I don’t think this is going to be terribly popular with sellers.
Beyond the best value box, media items are grouped by condition, from “brand new” to “acceptable”. Bizarrely, buyers appear to have to click on the seller’s comments on the item condition in order to access the view item page to purchase. This is a major change in what we expect from buyers, who are used to clicking item titles and gallery pictures. If we must make eBay more like Amazon, then lets have a “buy it now” button right there on the search results page.
Free subtitle for pre-filled info items
Media items (books, music, movies, DVDs and video games) listed with pre-filled item information receive free subtitles from now until the end of the year. “Help your listings stand out” says Dinesh: if everyone’s using subtitle, of course, your listing won’t stand out because of it, so think about how you can use this space imaginatively.
Featured First might get you featured
Featured First is a new listing upgrade, which offers you the chance to have your listings appear at the top of the search results page. A limited number of FF listings are randomly rotated into the featured area: there is no guarantee that yours will appear. At $24.95 for up to 10 days, and $74.95 for up to 30 days, FF isn’t cheap, but it can be a good way to kick-start sales on a new listing to boost them under Best Match: choosing 10 days’ FF on a 30 day listing is a more cost-effective way to do this.
Best Match for SIF
Stores Inventory Format listings will still be shown at the end of search results pages which have not returned many results: the threshold for this has been increased from 30 core listings to “about 50”. SIF listings will now be sorted according to Best Match, “using the same factors that apply for Fixed Price listings. These include recent sales, competitive pricing – including shipping – and seller track record.”
No more relist credits for BINs
From October 22nd, there will be no more relist credits for BIN items which have not sold. Previously, sellers who relisted an unsold item would receive a credit for their insertion fees if it sold on the second time of listing. Auction items will still be eligible for relist credits, and so will unpaid items.
These announcements are for eBay.com only at the moment, though I think we’ll see the end of relist credits and that Amazon-style product page rolled out on more sites in the very near future.
18 Responses
Does eBay publish information about what these item conditions really mean? Is it identical to Half.com?
I have something for that. In response to a blog entry posted here two weeks ago I created the following tool:
Quantity Manager
NO Re-list credits will hit some sellers quite hard, can see this being a real complaint maker.
Buy from trusted seller, here comes the unfair playing field again. Will be interested to see how this is calculated and how it affects the sellers sales in question and whether it will be a place to be (ie. manipulate the algo to get there like pulse etc)
#1 I think the reasoning behind it is that sellers should be using multiple item BIN and that insertion fees for BINs have been lowered so much that unsold BINs should be the exception rather than the rule – to be honest for me with a featured UK shop BINs are costing me 5p instead of anything up to £1.90 so resold credits simply aren’t worth the time it takes to worry about them any more.
Funny how they announce the changes to featured plus on a discussion board instead of giving sellers a grace period.
https://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=510028220&tstart=0&mod=1224154060483
Now the featured plus is useless.
buy from the trusted seller in the best value box…and dont even bother looking at the rest as it will take forever to get to the actual listing..
Unless the trusted seller is one of the household names, then just go straight to their website and buy cheaper, with a huge choice of payment methods.
So ebay lose on the sale, as do hundreds of small sellers who are not deemed worthy of the prime spot and are left floundering among the flotsam and other assorted crap that JD and other esteemed residents of Feebay Towers have excreted.
Someone really Donahoe’d that up 🙄
#5 Spot on.
Yet another kick in the teeth for media sellers.
I think Whirly is right, some large media seller – Tescos or someone equally large – will be coming onto ebay soon with “free” postage and a guarantee of the top spot as a “trusted” seller. The rest of us can go hang.
#9 I am right 😆
Although would have to disagree with you over Tesco’s, far to big and far to clever to do something so stupid.
#9 Whirly does this mean that you know who that seller will be?
#10 Play,Zavvi or HMV,, tbh I don’t know for sure it’s just my best guess based on the new eBay policies that are targeting highstreet/corporate names.
The DVD free postage policy is completely wrong and places all small DVD sellers in a uncompetitive position compared to the VAT dodging corporations that run the high street.
#10, All three of those are small fry compared to what could happen if the one I’m thinking of comes into being.
So what happens if I’m your typical standard seller but the holiday season is approaching mail starts moving slower, I get lowered standing due to my falling DSRs, but have several featured first listings currently out?
Does eBay refund my featured first fee and cancel this option for me? Does eBay continue to let me use it for existing listings? Or does eBay just not show any of my listings first and keeps the money? After all, there is no guarantee they’ll ever show first anyway.
#12 Who are you thinking of (excuse my inquisitiveness please folks 🙂 )?
Any very large seller will have at least some CS and/or performance issues.
Take a look at ‘primemediaking’ they had around 250,000 listings at one stage.
#5 spot on
#9 spot on
I would have to question any blue chip company wanting to be associated with a damaged brand like ebay.
Brand image is very inportant these days and large international companies are very protective of them.
With all the stupid changes that is why the sell through rates have plummeted as people are voting with their feet and going to alternative sites like eBid.net if you read the forums they are awash with those who have defected from what has become a greedy monster, and suprise suprise guess where they are now buying it ain’t eBay.
#14, Those in the trade will know. Let’s just say people thinking at retailer level are barking up the wong tree. 🙂