First, I know I’m not the only one that feels a bit let down that there was not a free listing day announced. I’ve talked to quite a few sellers who were pretty disappointed that eBay has let go of the tradition of “thanking sellers” with a free (or almost free) listing day between Christmas and New Years. Typically sellers use this as inventory clearance and have had great results in the past.

And to top of this disappointment, the sale that was announced was for 50% off listing fees until the end of January, but it excludes some categories not typically excluded. With the lower prices for media, it makes sense to exclude them from a sale as they are already reduced, but collectibles?

It may be that it a favor that collectibles are excluded, as this sale is only for 1 or 3 day auction style listings and these are probably not the best for collectibles, which may need more time on market.

Excluded Sellers- Anyone with 12 month DSRs less than 4.5.

Excluded categories: All Collectibles categories, Media (including Books, Music, Movies & DVDs and Video Games), note: Video Game Systems are included in the promotion, All eBay Motors listings (including Passenger Vehicles, Parts & Accessories, Motorcycles, Power Sports, Other Vehicles, Real Estate, Business and Industrial Capital Equipment (including tractors & farm machinery (91952), heavy equipment (25249), concession trailers, carts (67145), imaging and aesthetics equipment (92036), forklifts and other lifts (97185), manufacturing equipment (92080), metalworking equipment (92082) and commercial printing presses (26247).

Excluded listing types: 5, 7 and 10 day Auction-style listings, Fixed Price listings, Professional Services, Ad format and Store Inventory listings.

When eBay first started adding items to the home page boxes, sellers would take the time to figure out how to get their items included. If eBay was highlighting purses, sellers would list purses that week. I’ve not heard of any sellers who take the time to do that anymore (please let me know if you do this and prove me wrong). I’m beginning to think that the promotions that have so many exclusions will go the same way.  Sellers just not paying attention.

As far as the offer, sellers will really have to gauge the efficacy of a 1 or 3 day auction. I’ve not had much luck with 1 day auctions as they don’t appear on the site for quite some time after listing, so I’m not sure how much of that 24 hour period will be useful. I’m quite sure that some sellers will really benefit and its probably a good promotion. But it just doesn’t feel like it.

So I was a bit curious as to the conversion rate in books. Using Vendio Research (category research), I ran a 90-day category report on Fiction Books and Non-Fiction Books, which are the largest leaf-level categories in books. Fiction books fared a bit better with a 16% conversion rate, while Non-Fiction books came in at 11%.

Of all the book categories, cookbooks garnered the highest percentage of conversion with 33% conversion but it had the least number of listings. I’m not sure what it all proves, except that the book category may have hit a saturation point and that eBay definitely needs more book buyers for the insertion fee paying sellers in the over-populated book categories.

As most now know, eBay/PayPal acquired BillMeLater earlier this year to augment their growing payments business (and likely to head off a potential competitor before it got too large).

At the time of the acquisition, BillMeLater was an integrated payment method at Amazon.com.  Amazon.com announced today in Seller Central, however, that they will no longer support this payment method.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Notice: BillMeLater no longer accepted as of December 31, 2008
Dec 30, 2008

Effective December 31st, 2008, BillMeLater (BML) will no longer be accepted as a payment method on Amazon.com. All sales and orders processed with BillMeLater prior to this date will continue to be processed; no changes are needed for these existing orders. Buyers and sellers can continue to use the remaining payment methods available on Amazon.com for future orders. _______________________________________________________________________________

While we assume eBay equally assumed this removal would occur when contemplating the acquisition, the real question is the amount of payment volume, customer acquisition, and brand awareness this Amazon.com relationship drove to BillMeLater.  Also, note the speedy removal of BillMeLater and short notice period.  It’s possible eBay could have assumed a bit more of a tailwind depending on the contractual terms between Amazon.com and BillMeLater.

Expect continued innovations, maneuvers, and fighting for transaction and payment volume between these two eCommerce giants in 2009!

How many diamond level sellers can easily navigate the unrelenting march of eBay changes? Its very easy for a small seller to be nimble and adjust to any changes, its quite another when you need to change an entire organization (which is what has to happen at the diamond level).

I’ve often thought that once eBay had a significant number of diamond sellers that the changes would have to occur at a slower pace, as behemoths are just as not agile - In this area, having large diamond level sellers actually will help steady eBay and force them to behave in a manner that brings a cohesiveness to the manner and methods they use to release changes.

I also wonder about the balance of power. If I was sending out a million packages a week, I can pretty much set my terms with UPS and they would do pretty much anything to keep my account. Will the same thing occur at the eBay diamond level? Will diamond sellers begin demanding and getting some of items sellers have been requesting for years. If diamond level sellers want the off-eBay advertising removed, for instance, will they get it?

Its going to be a very interesting year!

Happy Selling and Happy Holidays !!

Despite the quiet there were some very interesting items this week.

Auctionbytes Interview with Griff
Great interview with a lot of insight

Skip McGraths introduction of Geezers
You can’t help but get fuzzy feeling about this one

John Donahue quotes by Genuine Seller
Very interesting and telling

eBayInk eBay in Washington - Price Fixing

There does seem to be some confusion around eBay changes. Here are the top 3 things that I’m seeing.

1. Many sellers are confused about their DSR Ratings and why they change day to day.
DSRs are rolling, including only the last 30 days - thus a seller will see a lot of ups and downs.
(Rolling = Roller Coaster)

2. Sellers who only ship once a week are not going to make it.
DSRs for sellers who ship once each week are plummeting. Seller’s who rely on this method will have to rethink their shipping and determine how they can ship more frequently. (Sellers can also count on very low DSRs if their gift item doesn’t make it in time, even through postal error or delays)

3. Sellers who have multiples or unlimited quantity of items are launching many multiple fixed price listings.
It is much better to have less listings of the same item. Sales from your items are counted in your recent sale score and you’ll lose future visibility by splitting up your listings.

Happy Selling!!

1. Consider the last date you can ship and think about offering expedited shipping to extend your holiday selling season and to assist your customers.

2. Offer free shipping. It gets you more exposure in eBay search results, and buyers are searching for sellers who offer it.

3. List your items as three-day auctions. This will give you additional opportunity to sell more items.

4. Make sure the keywords and the categories for your listings are optimized. Vendio Research can help you determine both.

5. If you accept coupons from MS Live Search and eBay, let your customers know. Consumers are more price sensitive than ever.
6. Run a clearance sale to attract more customers and to reduce end of year inventory. This can be done now, not just the last week of the year.

7. Get items ready to launch for after the Holiday. eBay typically holds a listing sale between Christmas and New Years, so have your items ready to launch.

8. Email your customers to wish them a happy holiday season. This increases their loyalty, and you can use the opportunity to inform them about sales and offers. If you do not have a customer list, there is no time better than now to start one.

9. Make sure you list your items properly to avoid having them buried in eBay search results. eBay has recently made changes that can result in poor search result positioning. For more specifics about how these changes affect you, click here.

We look forward to getting your feedback on these tips, and wish you the very best this holiday season.

Happy Selling !!

I’ve found some interesting tidbits that I did not know before, so am sharing.

1. A neutral is still counted as a negative in Seller Performance (it’s just not counted in the dashboard view).

I did not know this. I made the assumption when eBay stopped counting the neutral as a negative, that it reverted to the way it used to be. Apparently, a neutral is still counted as a negative for seller performance.

2. PayPal is testing a Student Account.

I wondered if this had eBay implications. So I went looking on eBay to find this out and here is the current help answer:

“When eBay members agree to buy or sell items, they are entering into contracts with each other. Throughout most of the world, individuals under the age of 18 are not allowed to enter such contracts. For that reason, eBay does not allow individuals to register as members until they reach the age of 18.”

3. There is a new  law regarding Children’s Product Safety - http://www.cpsc.gov/cpsia.pdf

I’m sure we’ll see some eBay rules as a result.

4. New Postal Rates are going into effect in January

I still have penny stamps from the last increase.

5. eBay has a Police Blotter Page

This page was very interesting, a bit disconcerting, but interesting.

So, how many of the above did you know?

]]> http://www.vendio.com/vendable/2008/12/08/small-items-of-interest-from-the-ebay-world/feed/ http://www.vendio.com/vendable/2008/12/03/ebay-maintenance-on-thursday-friday/ http://www.vendio.com/vendable/2008/12/03/ebay-maintenance-on-thursday-friday/#comments Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:58:14 +0000 crystalwells-miller http://www.vendio.com/vendable/?p=185 Wanted to let you know about an eBay system announcement that’s been posted as many folks don’t remember to check the systems announcement board as there is typically very little there.

The eBay system will be undergoing general maintenance from approximately 23:00 PT (11pm) on Thursday, December 4th to 01:00 PT (1am) on Friday, December 5th. During this maintenance period, certain eBay site features may be intermittently unavailable or slow.

Just a note, you’ll want to check out Dealio’s Cyber Monday Deals – and if you are stuck on what to get for all those special people in your life – the holiday gift guide is just the ticket for creative and unique shopping ideas.

Happy Shopping!!

Brand restrictions stop you from listing or launching certain brand name items (i.e. Disney, Tiffany, Gap, J. Crew, Gucci, etc.). A seller may be restricted from listing these items or have a cap placed on how many they can list. Typically, they are restricted for 30, 60 or 90 days.

I’m going to guess - from the rising number of complaints I’m seeing - that eBay may have automated this system entirely. Some sellers (with high feedback) are having good luck in emailing Trust & Safety to have their brand restrictions lifted or increased. However, it seems the majority are having to wait the 90 days to list their items.

I’m quoting from an eBay email regarding a brand restrictions..

“Unfortunately, there is no timeline for when the limits will be removed
from your account. While we are unable to remove the limits right now,
you may want to appeal them some time in the future. At that time, we
will review your account again and determine whether or not we can lift
the restrictions.

In addition, we are unable to be more specific regarding how many items
of what type can be listed at any given time. These limits are variable
by nature and will be different in a wide variety of situations. In
order to maximize the effectiveness of these limits, they are constantly
evolving to help eBay maintain positive buyer experience on the site”

Normally, I like to help sellers with some recommendation, but there seems to be very little that can be done. I’m not sure if this is the right time to be buying truckloads or pallets of brand merchandise for resale on eBay unless you already have high limits. There seems to be a definite barrier to entry for brand name merchandise.

I do not fault eBay for trying to limit counterfeits on their site or complying with DMCA through VERO. I also think they have a huge number of listings and they should automate the process. On the converse side, there should be a method or process for sellers to list their legitimate items and I’m not convinced that a “limit on how many” is the best way to accomplish that goal.