eBay sellers are split on changes
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The significant&#160;changes that eBay announced last week&#160;have merchants abuzz as they analyze and react to the impact that the restructured fees, modification of the search and feedback functions, and other changes will have on their sales and profits.Of particular interest have been the proposed changes to fees, which involve lowering the cost of listing items and increasing the commission eBay gets when products are sold. There has also been much discussion in blogs and discussion forums of eBay&#39;s plan to forbid sellers from leaving negative feedback for buyers.While merchants are split on the potential benefits and disadvantages of the changes, there seems to be a general consensus that, whether one supports them or not, the changes represent a major attempt on eBay&#39;s part to alter the way that the marketplace works.&quot;It&#39;s clear eBay is taking it really seriously that they have to improve the buyer experience, and they&#39;re laying the groundwork for getting aggressive about doing it,&quot; said Jonathan Garriss, executive director of the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance (PESA), a group of large sellers that has often been highly critical of eBay.Garriss, also CEO of Gotham City Online, an apparel store on eBay that also has its own site, hopes that the proposed changes will be a first step of others that eBay will take to fix what PESA considers key problems with the marketplace, such as making the buyer experience more convenient and streamlined.To that end, Garriss is encouraged by the proposed incentives to reward merchants who provide superior customer service by giving all qualifying merchants preferred placement in search engine results and offering PowerSellers additional fee discounts based on their customer ratings.&quot;We don&#39;t want to lose sight of the health of the marketplace, and the changes eBay is making are absolutely in the right direction,&quot; Garriss said in a phone interview.While he supports the concept of lowering insertion fees and shifting them to the commission, he recognizes that, as proposed, the fee restructuring will greatly hurt some merchants, particularly, in his view, those that sell lower-priced items in high volume via auctions. Garriss hopes that eBay will take this into consideration and possibly adjust the fee changes before rolling them out in a few weeks in the U.S.Lisa Witt, an eBay PowerSeller for eight years, says the fee changes will not have much of an impact on her bottom line. A seller of fine jewelry, Witt says the listing fees will remain too high even under the new fee structure.&quot;They need to dramatically change the fee structure if they expect seller growth on the site. eBay should have a flat rate listing fee and it should be the same amount across the board for everyone, and that listing fee should be low,&quot; she wrote in an e-mail interview. &quot;A monthly fee for unlimited listings on eBay would work well too.&quot;Witt is against the plan to forbid sellers from leaving negative feedback about buyers. This change may lead to buyers using the threat of negative feedback as an extortion tactic to get extras, she said. Buyers may also be disinclined to contact sellers if a disagreement arises, resorting simply to leaving negative feedback, she added. &quot;Feedback is voluntary and should be able to be left by either party as they see fit,&quot; Witt said.Meanwhile, John Lawson, another PowerSeller and owner of 3rd Power Outlet, is generally positive about the proposed changes. &quot;There&#39;ll be some bumpy roads, but they&#39;re on a path to make this marketplace more vibrant,&quot; Lawson said in a phone interview.3rd Power Outlet , which sells urban wear and accessories and makes about 80 percent of its sales via eBay, will save about 50 percent in listing fees and, factoring in the increased commission, will have net savings in eBay costs of about 30 percent, Lawson said.&quot;It&#39;ll have a nice impact on our eBay costs. It&#39;s extra money in our pockets,&quot; Lawson said. While not a major windfall, the savings will allow him to add more listings and do more auctions, he said.Forbidding sellers from leaving negative feedback about buyers is a good move because, as eBay officials have argued, some sellers have used negative feedback to retaliate against buyers, he said. &quot;A seller doesn&#39;t have to leave any comment about buyers at all,&quot; Lawson said. &quot;The buyer has to be satisfied and must have the ability to leave a true comment.&quot;Still, he&#39;s not crazy about new proposed fee discounts to PowerSellers based on them attaining certain levels of DSR (Detailed Seller Rating). For example, he finds that it&#39;s off the mark for eBay to have a specific DSR category for shipping and handling, because, as a rule, no one likes to pay for this portion of the transaction. Merchants like himself, who sell to buyers overseas, are in particular disadvantage, because many buyers abroad don&#39;t have a clear understanding of shipping costs from the U.S. to international locations, he said.For others like Witt, DSR-based fee discounts are welcome. &quot;It&#39;s fine to offer incentives to sellers who strive for excellence. That was a good idea and they should expand on it. Offering rewards has always worked better than punishments,&quot; she said.These and other differing viewpoints about the plans reflect the ripple effect that eBay changes inevitably have, since there is such a wide variety of merchants on its platform. It remains to be seen whether eBay will want, and be able to refine further, its planned changes to achieve -- as much as possible -- a happy medium across its vast community of sellers.&#160;
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InfoWorld - EBay unveiled changes to its online marketplace Tuesday that the company characterizes as sweeping and historic and that are aimed at boosting sales by making the shopping experience simpler and safer.
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NEW YORK -- You might call it the ultimate full-circle moment: Two guys fed up with paying eBay listing fees are now selling their own alternative to the online auction business -- on eBay.
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This fourth priority&#39;s main focus has been improving or obtaining CRM and ERP software for the past year and a half. Online auction giant eBay won&#39;t be closing down its Half.
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$30m patent claim Online auctioneer eBay is to appeal a US court decision relating to its patent dispute with MercExchange.â¦
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Successor has big pricing changes ready Ten years of hawking Britney Spears' used undies and Hummel figurines proved enough for Meg Whitman. The eBay CEO today announced her departure plans, as her company dished out solid fourth quarter figures.â¦Learn &amp; Contribute, Live &amp; Online - The Register Debates Green Computing
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p2pnet.net News:- eBay has gone from being an online community founded in 1995 so people could sell things to each other, to a vast, multi-national virtual monopoly where the dollar and the bottom line rule.
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EBay Inc. said on Thursday  the head of its PayPal unit will leave the Web auctioneer in a  surprise shake-up that closely follows Google Inc.&#039;s   unveiling of a rival payment service.
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But trend provokes industry unrest; panel makers call for drop in retail markups to move units. By Evan Ramstad and Gary McWilliams.
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EBay is making changes in its fee structure to encourage sellers to list more items and attract more buyers.
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Online auction giant eBay has been slow to respond to concerns about pirated software being sold there, prompting the Software &amp; Information Industry Association (SIIA)&#160;to file nine lawsuits against eBay-based software sellers, an SIIA official said.The SIIA believes it is necessary to file the lawsuits because eBay has been largely uncooperative in cracking down on software piracy, said Keith Kupferschmid, senior vice president of the trade group&#39;s antipiracy division.&quot;We haven&#39;t had very much success in getting [eBay] to work with us,&quot; he said.SIIA has asked eBay to stop &quot;buy it now&quot; and one-day auctions for software, but eBay has not complied, Kupferschmid said. In many cases, sellers offering pirated software are looking to sell it quickly, he said. SIIA also asked eBay if the trade group could buy banner advertisements warning about piracy when a user is looking at software, but the auction site declined, Kupferschmid added. &quot;We shouldn&#39;t have to do that,&quot; he said. &quot;eBay should do that themselves.&quot;Two eBay spokespeople didn&#39;t immediately respond to a request for comments on SIIA&#39;s position.The lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, are the largest round the SIIA has filed since launching its auction-site antipiracy program two years ago, the trade group said in a news release. Seven of the lawsuits were filed Wednesday, the SIIA said. Two others were filed two weeks ago. Most of the lawsuits target eBay sellers of Abobe PhotoShop CS3; one of the lawsuits targets a seller of several Symantec software packages.The defendants are from Texas, California, Washington state, Illinois, and New Jersey.&quot;SIIA has declared war against those who continue to sell pirated software on auction sites such as eBay,&quot; Kupferschmid said. &quot;Our goal is to give illegal software sellers a rude awakening so that unsuspecting software buyers and legitimate sellers are protected. For too long, auction sellers have been able to sell pirated software while risking only the removal of their auction.&quot;Since launching its Auction Litigation Program about two years ago, SIIA has filed about 20 lawsuits, not including the nine from the last two weeks, Kupferschmid said. The SIIA has won about six of those lawsuits in court, but in every case, the lawsuits have resulted in the seller stopping unauthorized sales of software, he said.&quot;Ultimately, they have stopped selling the illegal software, and that&#39;s what we&#39;re trying to do here,&quot; he said.
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Plus: eBay outlines policy on racist language. [News.com Extra]
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Lower listing fees have arrived at eBay.
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Online auction leader eBay Inc on  Tuesday introduced price changes and tighter sales standards in  a bid to retain quality sellers, improve customer service and  revive flagging growth.
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Online auction house eBay goes the traditional route for the holidays.
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The significant&#160;changes that eBay announced last week&#160;have merchants abuzz as they analyze and react to the impact that the restructured fees, modification of the search and feedback functions, and other changes will have on their sales and profits.
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New strategies are alienating high-volume sellers, and they're taking their business elsewhere.