‘Sellers are no longer listened to by eBay management,’ says eBay merchant

“Sellers are no longer listened to by eBay management,” is how one eBay merchant describes communication between sellers and the marketplace. As he admits: “There was a time when there were forums and good interaction between sellers and eBay. That has changed.”

Speaking to Tamebay on the lack of sellers’ inclusion into changes made to their operations, Andy, who wishes to remain anonymous turns over 500k per year with 100k items in all collectable categories on eBay, argues that merchant news announcements are rarely made to benefit sellers but those in power.

“Announcements and seller releases now arrive with little or no warning and are rarely good news from a selling perspective. Often these seem to complicate the process of selling, or add to costs, without benefitting sales.”
– Andy

“eBay isn’t on buyers wavelength,” that’s the expression Andy uses to describe the status quo of trading on the marketplace.  He points to the barriers he says prevent eBay from improving sellers’ commerce including their lack of grip on sellers’ reality due “lack of insight” and possibly not “having to ever sell items [themselves]” on the marketplace. Simple factors such as user experience on the website “can be very frustrating” to search for items which contribute to “sluggish growth in sales” and “a lack of growth.”

Looking at the time when eBay’s development stopped “moving forward” he cites Devin Wenig, chief executive officer (CEO) of eBay coming to power as the root of the problem. Andy was prepared to give the CEO time to improve the state of affairs on the marketplace but he says “sadly” things didn’t live up to his expectations. Contrary to his hopes, he found there was downward pressure on prices.

“There has been a general trend towards catalogue items, despite non-catalogue areas, such as our own, representing a hefty chunk of eBay’s turnover, as well as differentiating it from Amazon. It has become much harder to sell standard items on eBay. To explain: a few years ago, I could sell reasonably priced standard items fairly well. Now, those items are virtually unsaleable on eBay, unless the price is slashed to the bone. To counter this, I have increasingly moved into more distinctive areas, which have not yet been crowded out, as well as focusing on rarer or higher value stock.  The margins on these aren’t as good, but at least they still have a market on eBay.  I don’t feel that Rob Hattrell has made any significant impact on UK eBay, either.”
– Andy

When talking about his “specific fears” in the long run – he starts describing the lack of growth in sales and buyers on the marketplace as well as comparing Amazon’s growth to eBay’s “as not impressive.” Pointing to empty promises of “increased profits” without seeing “any substantial sale increas[es] on the site,” Andy says the future of the marketplace’s growth will be built around the merchants’ labour rather than any work eBay themselves. He claims that there’s a substantial increase in the cost of selling on eBay, with 24% soar up in fees from 17% “a couple of years ago.”

“eBay’s future plans revolve more around increasing the amount they make off sellers (taking payments in-house, promoted listings etc) than in increasing sales. In fact, eBay’s previous market statement indicated they do not expect future sales on eBay to grow strongly.  It also now takes longer to list items than it used to.   Instead of a thousand listings a week, I can only list a fraction of that now due to increased complication and constant changes, despite using various listing tools.  There are still the same ongoing problems with the checkout, searches, seller metrics etc.  None of these have been addressed.  Not because they are impossible to solve, but because I genuinely don’t think eBay considers them important.  Besides, some of them make money for eBay from overpaid fees. ”
– Andy

eBay’s future uncertainty over investors relationship also adds to the equation. Last time, an investors’ disagreement saw the marketplace ending a partnership with PayPal and the ramifications of that are continuing with eBay starting to roll out eBay Managed Payments in the US.  Now,  Elliott Associates, who own shares in eBay worth about $1.4 billion have added fuel to the fire over the way that the business is managed, bringing a ripple effect to sellers’ disappointment.

Voicing merchants’ concerns over “the potential for shareholder groups to split eBay, in order to gain short-term dividends for themselves,” he pointed to the possibility of this happening as a result of bad management. He says that eBay’s power is in selling “quirky off-beat ones,” which he describes as unique items, and the marketplace should capitalise on this point of differentiation to not become a “pale imitation of Amazon.”

“Most worrying of all, however, is the potential for shareholder groups to try to split eBay up, in order to gain a short-term dividend for themselves. This is now possible due to the failure of the current eBay management to sustain any serious growth and enables these groups to gain traction at board level. It’s starting to look like a lame duck. eBay’s strength still lies in the fact that it has a far more diverse offer to buyers than any other site. You go onto eBay looking for one thing and come away with something found completely unexpectedly. The retail areas sit well with the more quirky off-beat ones because they are all hooks in their own ways to get people onto the site. Take any component away and you diminish the pulling power and number of visits, resulting in fewer sales all around. The battle with Amazon has been lost for retail items, but eBay risks an even faster decline if they try to become a pale imitation of Amazon, or fail to keep both fixed price and auction options under one roof.”
– Andy

While Andy’s sales are currently down on eBay, he still considers the marketplace as a place to “make a decent living.” However, eBay need an “understand[ing] management team in place” to fix existing issues before they end up “split[ing] up or rebrand[ing].

“I don’t think eBay is helping sellers at the moment and the fear is that it could be taken over, or split up, or even rebranded as something else.  I doubt very much that eBay will exist as it does now in three years time.  I meet a lot of dealers and traders at fairs and events, and most feel that eBay is not really succeeding at the moment and will probably fade away.  That should be worrying for both sellers and buyers.  Sellers need to ensure they have some alternative selling platforms in place. Even without these concerns, it isn’t a good business model to have only one option to sell your items.  So my recommendation would be for sellers to use eBay as a tool to drive business to their own website. That way, you can gain maximum advantage from eBay while minimising the risks. ”
– Andy

Andy is a reader on Tamebay, who shared his personal views with Tamebay. If you would like to share your opinions feel free to email me via [email protected].