Ecommerce analysis supplier Terapeak has emailed users explaining changes to their services and tools. The exact timings are unclear but it seems imminent. A lot of eBay sellers who rely on Terapeak will be interested in the changes which largely relate to competitor analysis.
Here’s the text of the email in full: “To safeguard privacy as e-commerce evolves, Terapeak and eBay have agreed that our users’ eBay seller IDs should no longer be exposed in Terapeak search results.
For this reason, you’ll soon see the following changes in your Terapeak account:
■ New uses for the Top Sellers view. Starting in January, you’ll research sales competition for any product using the Top Sellers view in our Product Research tool. This view will continue to provide detailed data about the competitive landscape for any product.
■ Hidden seller IDs in search results. While you’ll still be able to find the number of competing sellers for a product and see these sellers ranked by sales volume and other activity, actual seller IDs will no longer be revealed in search results.
■ The retirement of saved searches using seller IDs. Because seller IDs will no longer be available for search queries or in search results, saved searches that rely on them will automatically be retired.
Though these changes may impact some workflows, they will enable us to develop and release exciting new research tools in the coming year—without compromising your privacy and safety.”
Are you a Terapeak user? What do you think of the changes?
40 Responses
Not a comment about this subject, but can Tamebay “please” get rid of the moving ads on each of these pages.
If it’s a New Year addition, please remove them.
Certainly not ideal as it is useful to know exactly what each seller is doing for certain products.
Does that mean the competitor research is going as well? Considering you just search a seller ID I assume that is the case?
For us, the Competitor Research tool is a vital component. Without access to this search system, there is little point in us renewing our multiple licences. The statement about privacy is floored, as an eBay account name does not identify the seller. I wonder if this is really about freeing up server space?
Seeing as the only real reason for most sellers to pay for Terapeak is to get the additional research tools, I think this is very poor judgement of them. If seller IDs are excluded, how can one calculate one’s market share, spot emerging competitors or identify niche areas? I would be surprised to see them keep their clients like this.
I’ve already cancelled my subscription – No user Id’s makes it of no use to me
I really do not need to see what the competition are doing and I certainly do not feel that information about my sales data should be sold on to others.
If I had a high street shop I would not be happy if a person walked in and started to ask how many sales of an item I have made etc, etc
How much data is being sold on?
If anything you should be able to opt out of such crazy ideas.
For anyone using Terapeak this function was the ONLY reason to pay the subscription fee. Without competitor data whats the point of the tool? I have just tried to use to it glean any meaningful data and its complete rubbish now. If they don’t reinstate this function i will be cancelling subscription as will thousands of other users i would have thought.
Absolutely agree with Graham etc, the ONLY reason we use it is for competitor research. Will be unsubscribing today.
Agree with all users that needed the competitor research tool. How else are we suppose to analyze the market-share being taken and follow the ebbs and flows of the business?
It would at least make some sense to completely shield that information but by hovering over the undefined seller name and selecting “research similar items from this seller only” you are still able to locate the Seller Username. It is reminiscent of the Andale & Hammertap days.
This is ridiculous and I also will be cancelling our multiple licenses.
Has anyone found any good alternatives or did eBay shut this off to everyone?
I have to agree with the previous two comments – Having been a subscriber to their service for about 4 years I contacted them regarding the implications of these changes.
I questioned them as to whether eBay had forced this situation on them during the recent renewal of their contract and asked that as they were removing 80% of the software’s functionality would this be reflected in an 80% reduction in subscription prices.
My basic reply said that they agreed with me regarding the difficulties of competitor research, there would be new tools to follow in the next few weeks and if, after trying these I still wasn’t happy with the service, they would pro rata me a refund for the remainder of my subscription!
I have to agree with the previous two comments – Having been a subscriber to their service for about 4 years I contacted them regarding the implications of these changes.
I questioned them as to whether eBay had forced this situation on them during the recent renewal of their contract and asked that as they were removing 80% of the software’s functionality would this be reflected in an 80% reduction in subscription prices.
My basic reply said that they agreed with me regarding the difficulties of competitor research, there would be new tools to follow in the next few weeks and if, after trying these I still wasn’t happy with the service, they would pro rata me a refund for the remainder of my subscription!
Oh, and thanks for being a customer…!!
Looks like they won’t be drawn on eBay’s involvement in this and can probably see this finishing them which would be a real shame as this was a valuable resource.
Time will tell
I’ve just been having a look at Terapeak. The details of competitors have already been removed and the knock on effect is huge. When I do a product search and have a look at top sellers all I get is a list of numbers, but I cannot link through to the listings or drill into the data in any way. This makes the numbers totally useless.
I know who my competitors are and I can even search on them by name in ebay, and I can see a list of recent sales, including (for the most part) the sale prices and times.
I cannot help but wonder what has caused this – it’s a huge change and the argument seems weak. The sellerID and sales activity is publically available via ebay websites. In simplistic terms Terapeak is collating “big data” from a public source. How this turns into a privacy issue is a puzzle.
It looks like I’ll be cancelling my subscription as well.
Has anyone noticed the business seller information at the bottom of a listing page doesn’t show the company details any longer?
Is this somewhat related or perhaps a glitch?
after 6 years of a terapeak subscription, I have just cancelled because of this. It was all I used it for. Is another company going to fill void? Could someone post a link?
I’ve used Terapeak for over a year and the competitive research feature is the only reason I use it.
I have now cancelled my subscription.
Does anyone know any alternatives?
I agree with most and also cancelled today. I can find everything else without paying.
Hi guys,
I like most others posting here have been a long time subscriber to Terapeak and the main reason was for competitor research.
As we also have an online business, we have found the tool useful in other ways also.
EG : We get many fraudulent credit card attempts on our online store, we catch most but not all.
The ones we don’t catch and end up shipping, we usually found on sold on eBay by use of the Competitor research tool. The tool itself has helped us recover losses we otherwise wouldnt have been able to due to the fact it helped locate the “suspect to good to be true sold below cost price” sales.
Anyway, without this tool, we’ll be cancelling our subscription also.
Really annoying changes, competitor analysis was the main reason we used Terapeak. The remaining features are certainly not worth the current subscription fee.
Have cancelled my subscription!
Already cancelled my subscription. Terapeak will quickly realise that getting into bed with Ebay will cost them dearly.
Cancelled my subscription today, it was such a great asset, well, nothing else to be said, Terapeak, you’re fired!!!!
Subscription cancelled, pointless without competitor analysis.
Hey, heads up for people, because at the moment i’m trying to find an alternative.
Some of you might find this useful? Anyone else got any other alternatives?
Its a lot longer than terapeak though and a lot less detailed, and you have to know the sellers name 🙁
Hopefully someone will see this gap in the market and grab it.
(goofbid)
Just cancelled my subscription, very limited use now.
I can not understand why they decided that much limit their software to protect ebay privacy. In my opinion, to cater to the requirements of privacy without losing many subscription terapeak should consider:
– removing the possibility of competitor reaserch by seller id to fullfill eBay’s needs
– The transformation of all id sellers to hide their nick : A **** X
– category research should have oportunity to click on the seller and analysis in old way (the time period 30,90 etc as was till now) but still “hidden” id: “A *** X”
Privacy in terapeak fully protected, right?
and for clever users it can be much smaller loss!
I use some research software for local bids which use this kind of privacy since a long long time and it’s works.
Perhaps I ask this question to terapeak support and hope for (the honest) answer.
The competitor research tool was a large part of why we used Terapeak as well. I suspect we will soon be cancelling our subscription as it is difficult to see why Terapeak would be a useful subscription tool without the seller details.
Ebay’s ‘Top Rated Seller’ badge is a constant nonsense. Sellers with non existent customer service qualify only because of volume.
See loveourprices2 – terrible feedback with hundreds of disappointed customers and yet badged as best on eBay.!
Does eBay care about anything more than its fees?
Mike
I also cancelled my subscription and I have to wonder the bigger idea behind this move.
As far as we are aware over the previous 18 months the UK lost out on over £1 billion pounds in VAT & Duty from unregistered sellers from outside the EU operating on eBay and Amazon.
(All the un-declared or under-declared true value of goods sitting in fulfillment centres up and down the country.)
Is this a move by eBay to protect seller id’s from HMRC or Inland revenue using the tool to detect these unregistered sellers to protect the volume of sales that take place at the moment?
Terapeak is now useless to most that used it, HMRC you missed the boat – again!
This is a huge shame. I too have just cancelled my subscription as the service has been rendered useless to me. I actually didn’t use it to compete on Ebay. I’m based in Ireland I used it to find the best sellers and find similar/the same products to sell locally in Ireland.
time to cancel, if they aren’t under legal pressure to do this change, they are idiots, they have killed their business model and whole raison d’etre.
Have not used Terapeak for over two years and could not see much point in it when i did use it.
Essentially gives you the tools to be in a war on price with competitors.
Utterly pointless race to the bottom in my opinion.
When i gave up chasing my competitors a few years ago and started focusing on my business and customers i am alot happier and still growing and successful.
My business is often not the cheapest on the market and i have no desire to be.
There will always be another bedroom seller come and have a pop at selling an item that i sell for half of our price, they do not last 90% of the time.
We mostly ignore our competitors and release our own products in our own unique way that communicates our brand values of quality for a reasonable price, cannot be bothered with the quick and short lived wins of copying someone, it never lasts and is not a long term business strategy.
For all of Jeff Bezo’s faults and questionable profitability etc he still talks a lot of sense with quotes like this:
“If you’re competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering.”
As far as i am concerned, Terapeak makes you focus far too much on your competitors to the point that you forget about growing your business and focusing on customers, you end up spending all day chasing your tail updating your prices to a lower amount with less profits and more stress.