Several times in the past, eBay sellers protested changes in site policies with boycotts. Though sellers received more attention this time, they had the same result in effecting a change: zero.
Editor's Note: All that sound and fury isn't signifying much to the newly-dubbed FeeBay. One commentator says the impact could be on delay as eBayers exit stage left. Nevertheless, Atlas (FeeBay) shrugged, opting for the Wal-Mart approach. You guys had lots to say last Wednesday about it, so this time the conversation should be just as lively in the comments section.
eBay Logo (Photo Credit: Ebay)
At one point, sellers boycotting eBay due to an increase in Final Value fees claimed a drop to 12 million listings would represent a victory. One third party count at DealsCart found a low of some 13.5 million listings on one day last week.
eBay shrugged off the boycott without comment, other than to claim the action had no effect. We don't see that as being completely true, since thanks to the Internet this boycott received significant attention leading into its run.
Ultimately it played out in the way we believed it would. EBay isn't going to shift out of a volume-driven model it wants to engage, by rewarding bigger sellers with generous fee mark downs.
There could be a Wal-Mart way of thinking in place at eBay's San Jose HQ. The world's largest retailer makes a lot of money in volume at its brick and mortar stores. For eBay to gain a similar bottom line, they have to scale upwards.
Many of our readers generously commented on our earlier thoughts about the start of the boycott. One commenter claimed the boycott had the desired outcome:
I'm technically not in the boycott, because even if eBay changes the rules, I'm not coming back. I have abandoned the account and when the 180 mandnatory waiting days have passed, it will dissappear. That's $50-$80 per month they've lost out on and I wasn't that active of a seller. To our boycott delight, many of the sellers that are leaving eBay are the kilobuck powersellers. THAT is what will hurt eBay the most.
Another commenter embraced those departures:
Goodbye boycotters, and good riddance. I'll enjoy taking your customers.
We were impressed at the number of people who cited how they bootstrapped their ecommerce sites after departing eBay, not to mention the number of suggestions for online auction alternatives. They voted with their feet and substantial action in response to conditions at eBay they found less than desirable.
Boycotts come and go whenever eBay makes a change. We said it before and we'll say it again: eBay saw minimal impact from the latest one. Faced with another boycott, eBay dropped its listing fees with a one-day special in advance.
Think about that for a second. Boycotters threatened to deprive eBay of business. EBay responded by giving up fee income on top of whatever impact the boycott could generate. If that didn't reinforce the message of eBay's shift in strategy, nothing else will.
2 comments:
Ebay = spinster.
A company that has PROVEN a cheat when it comes to padding listings can be trusted when they say the boycott had little or no effect, why?
Reuters.com published an article quoting ebay as saying, "If the changes we announced in January cause sellers to leave, it will hurt ebay's bottom-line" and "We have to reactivate former members". Does that sound like the boycott efforts have had little or no effect on ebay? Or, is that ebay downplaying the affects of losing 2-4 million listings per day during the week-long strike? And, keep in mind, ebay benefitted from a so-called glitch that placed ebay-owned shopping.com items into ebay's listings. Ebay once again downplays the numbers, claiming "about only 35,000 listinsg were affected". We can trust them why?
None of ebay's half.com listings were shown to have "accidently" (and, I might reiterate, "beneficial to ebay's listing numbers) showed up. Why only SDC listings, listings that Usher Lieberman said were test auctions, and later had to retract, because it was stated on ebay's website, after much attention, that it was "a glitch in the system".
Again, I ask, we can believe and trust ebay why?
The evidence is there. Ebay tainted the numbers, got busted, and tried to cover it up. Thats what WE see. We have NO reason to trust or believe ebay. We see spin, and we see downplay.
Btw; for the record, at just a loss of 2 million listings (with no extra features and not including final value fees) ebay conservatively lost 2.4 million dollars PER day, during the Feb 18th strike. When the listings were down around 4 million, it is an extremely conservative estimate to say Ebay lost close to $5 million PER day. After we add in extra services and final value fees, we are easily beyond the $10 million mark, perhaps closer to $20 million per day.
Can we trust ebay to be forthcoming with this and say, "The boycott cost us over $10 million per day"? Not if they want investors to invest; something that is already hard to convince people of, considering ebay is having to prove there is still room for growth. Something anaylists seem to disagree on.
Well we shall see how things affect ebay with the coming indefinate boycott on May 1.
You on the outside can probably expect a fee sale or two on ebay's behalf and I'm sure they will also start sending out thousands of coupons to buyers as well!
Many sellers did not know about the last boycott and many of the bigger powersellers wanted to move there stuff off of ebay. That is not something that can be done over night.
The withdrawl of items gets greater everyday. I'm seeing fewer and fewer cheerleaders for ebay as well!
Especially since Donahoe took over on March 31... Let's see just prior to that they pulled all of the digital items with NO WARNING over a policy that not only did not exist at the time but had no plan of being announced or enacted for at least a week. ALOT OF SELLERS TOOK NOTICE OF THAT! Alot of sellers also noticed that said Digital Sellers were given account violations over a policy that did not exist.
And the recent announcement and I quote "the concept of an annual price change would no longer existed at eBay and that further pricing adjustments could come at any time. He also said Tilenius promised "even bolder and faster changes at eBay, stating that eBay's goal is to deliver a more retail-like experience"
Do you really think anyone can run a business under those condtions? How many people are going to stick around with an ever changing site... not know what the rules or fees are going to be from day to day.
Also the first rolling DSR changes took affect and lots of sellers who thought they were supposed to get discounts found out how honest ebay is... all of a sudden just in time for the discounts somehow their DSR ratings dropped so they either qualified for a lower discount or no discount....
My but that is just the durndest thing how that worked out so well for ebay isn't it.... Yeah they are just solid and trustworth as it gets.... SO WAS ENRON!
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