Last night eBay held the presentations for the eBay for Business Awards in London which were hosted by Jenny Campbell of Dragons’ Den fame.
As expected at any awards ceremony, there were some winners and some trophies were presented, but that’s not what really mattered on the night. It was a coming together of an amazing group of people and the message that I took away was that eBay changes lives.
So many stories spoke of eBay being a last chance and a final throw of the dice when life took a turn for the worse. Some of the stories spoke of failing businesses hit by UK recession who turned to eBay wondering if it could add a revenue stream. Others spoke of personal circumstances needing a diversion from being a new parent or having to look after family members and as carers being unable to take on a full time nine to five job. Many spoke of desperate times wondering if they’d be able to keep a roof over their heads and, at least in one case, an award winner started from literally nothing to being able to run a business, get his own flat, pay his bills, pay for food and pay for his own mobile phone.
eBay changes lives. eBay changes lives in truly amazing ways and we too often forget when we are dealing with the frustrations of seller releases and new mandates coming down from on high that eBay has given us opportunities that just a few short years ago simply didn’t exist.
Personally, many moons ago, eBay changed my life when I was made redundant just as I was buying a house and was left with no way to pay the mortgage. Just as eBay gave me an income, 300,000 business sellers make their living in part or in all on eBay and and the opportunity eBay has given you is worth celebrating.
Last night’s eBay for Business Awards celebrated 11 unique eBay stories, but it didn’t stop there. Many of the previous awards winners were back to present the awards and their eBay stories go on.
eBay isn’t just a place to make money, eBay is an amazing opportunity for those who take a chance and when you hear stories such as the grand prize winner who started out with just £50 to his name and turned it into £150,000 in sales setting a base to look after his baby, his parents and his older brother who he cares for, it reminds us why we love eBay. It’s an opportunity that doesn’t care about race, gender, personal circumstances, how much you may have messed up your life in the past and even if you have a history that for many would make you unemployable. eBay is there and an opportunity for anyone and everyone. The eBay for Business Awards were about more than the 11 winners, they were a celebration of how eBay has changed millions of lives and carries on doing so today.
We’ll be publishing the names of the eBay for Business Awards winners shortly and will profile each of them on Tamebay over the next few weeks. But today it’s time to celebrate eBay and how it has changed our lives.
8 Responses
Someone recently remarked that Tamebay (and implicitly Chris) didn’t or couldn’t say anything nice about eBay (and lets not get into the silly accusations of years ago).
This piece dispels that notion entirely, and although the awards ceremony clearly evoked feelings of nostalgia and gratitude, we’re left wondering how much better off things could be if eBay were managed professionally, ethically, and frankly without the frequent ‘short-term gain, long-term loss’ poor business decisions eBay often employs to appease Wall Street.
Personally I think it is nice that every now and again we humanize eBay and remember where we would be without eBay. They may have their issues but I don’t know of a company that doesn’t have a few. We have the benefit of the concierge program and they always support us and do a fabulous job. Positivity is a wondrous thing to have in our lives. Thanks Chris 🙂
I have to say I will be leaving the eBay platform very soon due a current non functioning eBay web site. Buyers moaning that they are unable to ‘check out’, eBay blaming PayPal and PayPal blaming eBay. The whole process of buying and selling is currently plagued with glitches, errors, bugs, enough to say it’s shocking!
I am a seller on eBay of over almost 8 years, but I have to admit it’s gone downhill rapidly. I have watched my sales go from a healthy number 30 – 60 a day to less than ten a day. Today is now 13:25 and I have zero sales, so far. My stock and products are always ‘fresh’, listings are great, clean, fast ‘n free delivery etc, every trick in the book, nothing, even promoted listings isn’t working!
This is not an isolated case as I follow several forums where sellers are claiming the same downwards sales trends, glitches, bugs, errors, etc. Other sellers are leaving eBay due to the fact it is broken. Reports from USA, UK and GERMANY are pretty much identical, all negative!
I am sure there are other sellers out there who are doing well, but I speak for the majority that are not doing well at all.
It’s going to be a flat Christmas and eBay need to pull their finger out!
A fellow sellers report:
Is eBay DEAD IN THE WATER or is it just me? We seem to assume poor sales are down to something that we’re doing wrong with our listings or that our seller settings aren’t set correctly. However after 17 years as a seller I’ve seen the high’s and lows,I didn’t think it could get much worse than the time they switched on Cassini,it took three years for my falling sales figures to eventually plateau. I’ve tried every promotion and recommendation they’ve ever thrown at us, free shipping, free returns,promoted listings,same day dispatch, give away prices blah blah. Non of it makes any difference, last Sunday I sold one item (in a 36 hour period). My teenage sons don’t use eBay, never have,probably never will. Maybe the real reason our sales are so poor is that the number of people using eBay has a actually dropped to an all time low!!!!?
People have voted with their feet and left eBay- sellers because the fees are too high and the hoops to jump through almost untenable, buyers because prices have inevitably risen and the site is riddled with glitches and search doesn’t work.
It’s not rocket science. Only eBay know the truth and will have a breakdown of the figures, but as a buyer and seller I can tell you the platform is a shadow of what it was in the pre- Wenig era.
“eBay changes lives. eBay changes lives in truly amazing ways and we too often forget when we are dealing with the frustrations of seller releases and new mandates coming down from on high that eBay has given us opportunities that just a few short years ago simply didn’t exist.”
I think this would apply more the other way around, ebay too often seems to forget who their sellers are.
“My teenage sons don’t use eBay, never have,probably never will. Maybe the real reason our sales are so poor is that the number of people using eBay has a actually dropped to an all time low!!!!?”
Yes I know what you mean, many clients (mainly local businesses) do not see ebay as a viable option these days which is a shame as it still offers tremendous marketing and conversion opportunities. It would be good to see some factual data on visitors/users on ebay UK to see if the number is in decline.
ebays still the most talked about venue so someones using them
apart from amazon not many others are talked about