This is Bill Meyer, AuctionWatch's Director of Content.
I think I should respond to the thread "Corporate Sellers Allowed Links To Their Web Sites."
I'm excited to see our feature "Corporate Auction Theory" has produced such a lively discussion.
I do want to clarify some misconceptions. Unfortunately, the story is now outdated, due to eBay's recent decision to enforce its offsite link policy, making many of the "theories" in the story obsolete.
It's important to note that the story was published 4/20/01 and that the information in the story was based on eBay's policies at that time.
We did not intend the story to be an "expose," highlighting eBay's preferential treatment of corporate sellers.
The intent of the story was to underscore why large, high-volume sellers are attracted to consumer auction sites, such as eBay. We hoped to underscore the value of auction sites, in general, and give sellers a perspective on why eBay has become a larger, more mixed marketplace. We also hoped it would provide sellers some new strategies to consider.
Of course, the story's "theories" now have to be viewed in the context of eBay's current policies.
If you have any questions or remarks, feel free to email me at [email protected]
Also, I've locked the earlier thread. Please continue the discussion in this thread.
posted on May 25, 2001 03:34:42 PM new
On the LOCKED THREAD, Dottie said:
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AND THE REST OF THIS IS JUST MY OPINION:
However, as you can tell by my other posts... I agree it's time (long overdue, in my
opinion) for sellers to seriously consider incorporating other venues into their online
sales.
It's TRUE that "money talks" and as a BUSINESS, eBay will follow the money - and the
money is in the big businesses bellying up to eBays Platform.
I strongly believe that eBay will eventually incorporate automated check-outs, which WILL
eliminate the ability of BIG BUSINESSES as well as Mom & Pops to correspond directly
with thier customers in EOAs... thus effectively haulting UPSALES on outside websites.
It would also seriously change the importance of many "auction assistance" related
services currently being offered around the world wide web. (some of these sites
offering auction services should be honey-fuggling up to the smaller START-UP auction
sites and pray they succeed... because eBay sellers will NOT have any use for them in
due time, so if they're not partering on their own level to provide services to sellers on
some of these smaller sites, they will simply parish).
But it's clear that eBay realizes the benefits of "tiny steps".... the big boys are no
exception to this phenomenon. Clearly, eBay is still warming up to the Big Boys...
WOWING THEM with the Open MarketPlace (on the backs of Mom & Pops) traffic and
visions of drawing customers to their own businesses (websites). It would be foolish of
eBay to bolt the doors behind them and "lock them in" too soon... before they have
grown accustomed to depending on eBays "venue" (PLATFORM) for a portion of their
quarterly earnings.
Just like it would have been foolish of eBay to risk seriously upsetting the Mom & Pop
Sellers with restrictions (some of what we have been seeing recently) being
implemented before being properly positioned to sustain any potential negative
consequences that may have resulted.
I love eBay. I enjoy trading on that site... and have done very well in the past... even
continue to do fairly well in some categories from time to time. As far as I can tell, eBay
will ALWAYS be a part of my own sales plan. It would be foolish (especially at this point)
to shun the benefits of eBays WORLDWIDE MARKETPLACE for my offerings.
This is NOT about "dawging" eBay. This is about being honest regarding the potential
for long term success as an individual in Online Sales. The choices we make RIGHT
NOW, will definitely effect our ability to have choices later on down the road.
Incorporating other venues into my mix of offerings is my CHOICE PLAN for long term
survival via interenet sales. Even if I were enormously successful on eBay, this would be
my plan. The way I see it, if there is a clear market for my items on eBay... then I'd be just
as adamant about growing that success in other venues too! (think of it as a successful
CHAIN of stores) *smile*
SOooo while I do believe that the Big Boys will be responsible for abiding by the new
policy on links... I recognize that the revenue they will bring to eBay is going to put the
Mom & Pops at a disadvantage early on, when it comes to AFFORDING the eBay
Storefronts, and Banner Ads linking directly to those eBay hosted storefronts...
ultimately, Automated Check-outs from the Storefronts, Buy It Nows and Regular Listings
will squelch the UPSALES for these big businesses, but not before they are HOOKED...
(and perhaps, if they've "negotiated TOS contracts" they might not be in the position to
WALK AWAY from eBay as easily as the Mom & Pops can).
Something to think about...
- Dottie
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I'll have to say...this sounds like a horribly likely scenario...and exactly the slow and surreptitious method eBay has been proven to use. The heck with "Big Boy" perks...this is what's important to all of our futures.
If I wanted a store...I'd be at Tias. If I didn't want autonomy, I wouldn't be self-employed. I do not want eBay in my business. I just want to rent space from that self-proclaimed venue, and nothing more.
posted on May 25, 2001 03:59:51 PM new
Hi, Bill. Thanks for posting that. I did not realize the story was published over a month ago, so I will humbly retract my criticism. I do think it would be an interesting follow-up to interview some of eBay's clients who have made no secret of their purpose to use eBay to "drive customers to their web sites," in the light of eBay's new policy.
I agree with Dottie and Toke. eBay welcomes customers in the front door with open arms, but then clamps down. A word or two changed in the user agreement, a few new policy interpretations, and there you have it. If I read "it's always been our policy, but we've never enforced it..." one more time, I'm gonna scream.
I wouldn't believe that eBay will have one set of rules for big sellers, and another for Mom and Pops, but nothing surprises me any more. I suspect much of the new changes will center around eBay's new storefronts. The rules haven't been set, so there is a lot of room for favoritism. eBay can price storefronts out of our range, and then offer those perks to storefront owners.
I had a Concentric dial-up account, which I never used because I also had cable. I heard some time back that Concentric was cutting loose dial-up customers in favor of big business accounts. I wondered, "how will they do that?" When I closed my cable account and returned to Concentric, I found out. They drop the connection after three minutes of inactivity. I would start reading a web page, and by the time I got to the bottom, I would have to dial in again. Needless to say, the account was useless and I closed it. (I now have Earthlink which seems fine. They drop after 20 minutes of inactivity.)
The point of this story is that if eBay wants to get rid of small sellers, they can do it. Through fee increases, through special storefronts for big customers, via their new API, or any number of ways. The handwriting is on the wall.
Has anyone noticed that, with the new Sell Your Item page, a seller must now go through four pages of forms in order to list an item? Unless, of course, you're paying for eBay's own Sellers Assistant. And of course, relisting items is far more hassle than it's worth. Just one more way eBay is squeezing the small/medium-sized sellers.
posted on May 25, 2001 06:10:58 PM new
Here is a story published today. Anyone want to take bets on the 1st mass-merchant on ebay??? I still pick wal-mart.
SAN JOSE, Calif.---eBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman said the online auction giant will soon open online storefronts as part of an effort to gain a greater share of retail sales.
Speaking at the company's annual shareholder meeting, Whitman said the storefronts--where buyers can get goods at a fixed price without going through the bidding process--should launch sometime in the next quarter.
eBay has said for a while that it was considering offering storefronts, and sources outside the company told CNET News.com in April that the storefronts would be launched "soon."
Also at the meeting, Whitman said the company was positioning itself to reach its goal of $3 billion in revenue by 2005. To do that, sales would have to increase 50 percent annually over the next five years.
eBay has greatly expanded its global presence with the acquisition of iBazar, which eBay completed earlier this month, and its investment in South Korea's Internet Auction. Meanwhile, the company has added fixed-priced trading through its acquisition of Half.com and by allowing sellers to add a "buy it now" button to their auctions.
Whitman said the company plans to eventually roll Half.com into eBay. Maynard Webb, who head eBay's information systems as president of eBay Technologies, said the process would be a gradual one. In the meantime, eBay will try to share features and technology with Half.com and plans to synchronize the feedback systems on the two sites.
"We will figure out how to migrate everything into one global platform," Webb said.
eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove said the company plans to integrate Half.com into eBay's main site within the next two years. Integrating iBazar should take between six to nine months, he said.
Shareholders offered little criticism of the company in a question-and-answer session with Whitman. Despite a market downturn that has devastated the e-business sector, eBay's stock has remained relatively stable, closing Friday at about the same price it did one year earlier. And unlike most e-commerce companies, which are under heavy pressure from investors to post profits, eBay has run consistently in the black for several quarters.
Tony Mezzapelle, a San Jose resident who is a professional investor and has owned eBay's stock for about three years, plans to continue to hold on to the stock and said the meeting offered few surprises. Mezzapelle said he wished Whitman would have spent more time talking about the success the company has had in making its computer systems more stable.
eBay suffered a rash of outages in 1999 that led the company to invest heavily in upgrading its infrastructure. The investments depressed the company's profits, but have led to a more stable system, generally.
Mezzapelle said he also wishes the company would give more information on its user base.
"They claim they have 29 million users," he said. "I'd like to know how active they are."
eBay spokesman Chris Donlay said the company's customer numbers included the total number of customers who have registered with eBay, no matter how active they've been in recent months. The number also includes customers of eBay's overseas sites, including those run by recently acquired iBazar, he said.
One shareholder asked Whitman about Butterfields, the high-end auction company that eBay bought in 1999. Whitman said the unit is profitable and that listings had "grown nicely" at eBay Premier, the upscale online auction site that Butterfields anchors.
But Whitman acknowledged that there had been a "lot of transition" at Butterfields since eBay bought the company and said the company had been disappointed by the high-end market.
"The high-end market is much smaller than we thought," she said. "It's not as big as we initially thought it would be."
eBay Premier replaced eBay's Great Collections, which struggled to attract sellers. Last fall, Butterfields cut 15 percent of its staff in the second set of job cuts in six months. The company also ceased holding live auctions at its galleries in Chicago.
posted on May 26, 2001 06:04:31 AM new
Toke- you're right on target.
eBay has the ability and the $motive$ to further separate buyer from seller to prevent "leakage".
eBay also has the $motive$ and ability to effectivly shut out secondary providers such as AW and Paypal.
Before they are done, picture hosting, communication with buyers with eBay as intermediary, and payment will be exclusive and mandatory through eBay.
There will be no EOA from the seller, no 3rd party picture hosting, and payment will be through eBay.
eBay will have to do all these things to reach $3 billion in revenues.
edited to add- I suppose it is only a question of how eBay will go after the revenue of these secondary providers- through "competitive advantage" or through technology and "rules" ?
[ edited by reamond on May 26, 2001 06:21 AM ]
posted on May 26, 2001 10:38:55 AM new
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9.4 Promotional or extraneous material. The Buyer name and address information is provided for the sole purpose of shipping the specific purchased product(s) and may not be used for any other purpose, either in connection with such shipment(s) or separately from such shipment(s).
+++++You agree not to include in your shipment to Buyers any promotional or other material that is not provided or approved by Half.com. This includes, without limitation, material that announces a website or invites the Buyer to visit a website other than Half.com, catalogs, business cards, business reply cards, bookmarks, coupons, flyers, solicitations or other marketing or advertising material.+++++
The inclusion of extraneous materials in a shipment may offend or annoy Buyers and may negatively affect your Seller rating. If Half.com receives a complaint relating to your shipments regarding extraneous materials we may take any action that we deem appropriate in our sole discretion, including without limitation issuing a warning, immediately terminating any pending sales, or immediately terminating your access to our marketplace. You agree not to separately contact any member beyond the shipment of purchases through the Half.com marketplace, unless the Buyer initiates such communication pursuant to the Buyer Protection Policy.
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Half.com rules. How long before this is an eBay rule?
posted on May 26, 2001 11:12:35 AM new
So who left the commies make those kind of rules? This should be interesting. If I were a upcoming auction site, I would pay close attention to the rapid turn of events that is taking place on ebay.
posted on May 26, 2001 12:43:29 PM new
Toyranch quotes: +++++You agree not to include in your shipment to Buyers any promotional or other material that is not provided or approved by Half.com. This includes, without limitation, material that announces a website or invites the Buyer to visit a website other than Half.com, catalogs, business cards, business reply cards, bookmarks, coupons, flyers, solicitations or other marketing or advertising material.+++++
Yikes. Have I not been doing the right reading, or is this a common policy at most of the popular auction sites? Does eBay have this rule? Yahoo and Amazon? Is this the shape of things to come? How sad for the small business auction seller.
posted on May 26, 2001 06:54:09 PM new
The no extraneous contact rule , payment through eBay, and no off site picture hosting, will be at eBay within the year.
eBay announced at its shareholder meeting that Half.com will be fully incorporated into the eBay site within a year.
posted on May 27, 2001 06:40:52 AM new
"But Whitman acknowledged that there had been a "lot of transition" at Butterfields since eBay bought the company and said the company had been disappointed by the high-end market.
"The high-end market is much smaller than we thought," she said. "It's not as big as we initially thought it would be."
WELL! What does she ecpect, with all the ads for eBay emphasizing CHEAP! CHEAP! CHEAP! ... you get the kind of customer you advertise for, and the ads are aimed at bargain hunters.
