posted on June 21, 2001 05:13:08 PM new
This might have been good for the stock
price (closed today at 69) but for the
honest, hardworking sellers & buyers who
have made ebay a success--so far, so bad!
Not only are the store layouts ugly,
confusing & cluttered but there is nothing
appealing about them to help us market
our products. Ugly, confusing & cluttered
stores don't make it in real life---so
it is doubtful that this amateurish effort
on ebay's part will work in its present
form. Ebay has millions of sellers--
imagine trying to browse through a store
directory of unknown names in a category
and ending up with so many choices!
The simplicity of the original ebay business
model was genius. The complexity of this
new boondoggle could easily discourage
users in the future. I'm worried. Perhaps
ebay management should slow down a bit
and not try to fix what really isn't broken.
A bunch of ugly, amateurish web sites that
no one can find (or would want to) is what
caused the dotcom boom to go bust. Ebay
has been the exception....so far. Remember,
Meg & co---there are other places in the
world where people can spend their money
and sell their wares.
posted on June 21, 2001 05:17:50 PM new
I looked at the eBay stores and don't understand them. How are they any different than just clicking on "see sellers other auctions"???
posted on June 21, 2001 06:42:54 PM new
The real reason behind the ebay storefront is simply - EBAY SURVIVAL.
Ebay future is being threatened by auction watch,auction work,andale and who else ,those which would like to replace ebay as the premier e commerce site,think of it,they have the dealer's virtual inventory,auction watch has over 13,000 stores in no time,most of them are from ebay dealers with inventory they usually sell on ebay.
what happens if ebay bidders just troop up to auction watch and buy instead of spending time bidding and sniping on ebay??
then ebay will lose listing fee and final value fee,ebay stock will tank lower than priceline.com
This is very serious threat,ebay always boasts they have no inventory,without dealer inventory,ebay is worth less and less every day until it becomes worthless .
so block email addr,block outside websites,open ebay stores and keep all the inventory where they should be -on ebay!!
a few years ago,ebay decided against ebay stores for great collections,and bot butterfield and asked antique dealers to join,of course it was a big flop.
so this is the reason why the stores are so ugly,so much like the auction seller list,so---------/
posted on June 21, 2001 06:57:04 PM new
If you look at the current listings compared to last year this time you will see they are almost the same. To please wall street they had to raise the fees, but this is only a quick fix. To honor the projections made by ebay they need to reel in some big boys, and that is why they made storefronts. They will also squeeze out paypal, AW, andale, etc. With the ecomomy slowing it will be alot harder for ebay to make the projections. They are starting to cater to the big boys as well. I read the auction guild today, and ebay wont cancel auctions containing links run by the big boys. Really no surprise.
posted on June 21, 2001 07:41:48 PM new
There are limits. I suspect that eBay really thinks at this point that they can do ANYTHING they want and the small seller will have to go along.
My feeling is that there is a certain critical mass of offenses that will result in sellers leaving. Not even for the same reason - but if you do enough offensive things there will come a point the numbers start rolling down.
The worse they do the bigger the chance a major legal action will tell them there are limits and that is a culture shock I don't think they can deal with. They wish to have all the benefits of agency with none of the liabilities, and the thing is that as they get slowly incrementally worse in this regard they are not aware of how the big picture will look to someone who did not see each little step. I know what happens if they end up before the wrong judge and act like they are above being reined in - it can get real ugly if a judge decides they need a full blown lesson instead of a little correction.
Instead of complaining I asked them how I can qualify to have direct links on my auctions to like the discovery people. They said they will get back to me on how to do that. {)
posted on June 21, 2001 08:19:06 PM new
I'm glad to see Yahoo auctions bouncing back from the dead, E-bay really needs some competition. I don't really hold up much help for the E-bay stores, I think they should stick to auctions, which is what made E-bay fun and lucrative. I'm building an e-shop elsewhere.
posted on June 21, 2001 08:37:50 PM new
Executive Girl--
I completely agree with you! I don't understand the ebay stores -- to me it's the same as "check seller's other auctions".
Wbbell has provided a link for us to look at so we can see the difference, but I still don't see anything different except some items don't have an "end date". I don't see how this is anything significant. I don't understand paying extra fees for this.
posted on June 21, 2001 09:40:52 PM new
I was sooo looking forward to eBay stores, but what a disappointment. They won't get my money til they get it right. (I'm prepared for the fact that this may never happen.)
posted on June 21, 2001 09:47:42 PM new
The problem with the eBay stores is that they decided to "dumb them down" so that anyone, no matter how computer illiterate, could open one in a few minutes. Probably because they wanted to be brag that "over X-hundred stores are open already!" People see that, buy more stock, mission accomplished.
The problem is that the stores look like a slightly altered version of the regular auction site. The "hub pages" are just plain lame looking. They should have allowed store owners the option of using their own design. Instead they went with a one size fits none approach that's pretty un-attractive.
posted on June 22, 2001 07:10:35 AM new
I took my first look at the E-bay stores, they do look lousy, I think if you take the time to create a very decent "View about me page" it will serve the same purpose and your not forced to take the problematic Billpoint, plus it is still free at this point(they will probably start charging 9.95 for this soon!!!)
posted on June 22, 2001 08:39:30 AM new
i remember when ebay rolled out great collectibles,it was a class act,all the participating dealers described their items,have nice photos and underprice them to lure bidding.
the ebay storefront is a quick and dirty way of using existing program codes to create store formats,thats why they can afford it at 9.95 plus 5 cents per item.
if they do all the fancy work like the great collectibles or the yahoo shops,it would cost a lot more,yahoo shop costs 100 dollars a month for 50 items.
posted on June 22, 2001 08:45:19 AM newjema: I checked out Wbbell's link also, and felt the same way you did. Ok, so some items are "buy now" and some are just regular auctions because someone started a bid instead of purchased through "Buy Now".
I see absolutely NO difference between these Ebay "stores" and looking at "seller's other auctions" from a normal auction page.
posted on June 22, 2001 09:06:43 AM new
If all you are doing is auctions, then you won't get any benefit from the stores.
If you are doing recurring sales of things or have an inventory, then the stores might actually help reduce fees (!!) as follows:
If you sell 100 styles of widget but only do really great with 40 of those styles, then put only those up for auction and maybe a few of the slower movers, then put a link to your ebay store for more styles of widget ... as opposed to runinng every single widget for auction every week and having 40% sellthru.
This is all my theory, I have no idea if it will really play out like that, but stores are free until Sept. 1 so I might as well try it and see what happens.
posted on June 22, 2001 05:14:41 PM newEG - the mister lister tags format was updated to support stores. And, of course, the assistant software that you can rent from eBay supports it.
If you mean can you list from someplace like AW or Vrane, I am sure you can't now but it seems straightforward enough for them to support in the future.
posted on June 24, 2001 01:44:50 AM new
It's called reverse psychology. I believe that their plan is to get rid of all the little buyers and sellers and make twice as much profit with the stores. If they started with something good people would want something better when it comes time to pay. Their philosophy is to launch the real shops when the time comes to pay for them. That way, we will say 'WHAT AN IMPROVEMENT!" .... and we blindly hand over our money.
posted on June 24, 2001 04:54:55 AM new
dont forget-even though the store items show up along with the auction items,your store items are not included in auction search engine.
so most folks wont know of your store items if they are searching on ebay auction unless they see your entire list.
does any one know why ebay excludes store items from auction search??
Maybe it's just me, but I think a lot of you are putting too much emphasis on this whole store thingy. I think that the majority of ebay buyers are not looking at the store fronts. I think that people do a search to find what they are looking for. I may be wrong, but from people I've talked to - that's generally what they do. They aren't interested in the stores and all the hoopla. Has anyone else checked with buyers?
posted on June 24, 2001 06:28:55 AM new
I was about to sign up for an eBay store, when I saw that after Sept. 1, the will be charging 5% on any fixed price item that sells in your store, and .05 for each listing on top of that!
And you can only keep items in your store for 30 days!
And they won't offer a search feature for the stores!
I quickly closed that window and thanked my lucky stars I caught it in time, before I actually spent time making one.
posted on June 24, 2001 06:35:33 AM new
What good is a store if the search engine will not return items listed there?
Its just a page hanging out in cyberspace which nobody will ever find unless you just happen to have auctions running and somebody just happens to want to check out your other stuff.
There is something smelly about all of this, but I can't quite figure it out... unless these people are just as incompetent as everybody says they are.
posted on June 24, 2001 06:47:22 AM new
Sounds to me like they should have a seperate search engine just for the stores.
I've only looked at 2 and they were from links here(un-inpressed). Its not any different then hittig the "view sellers other auctions" on the auction page.
Frankly I wouldn't waste my time, it would be like trying to find a needle in a hay stack.
There are enough "but it now" in auction search to find everything you would need or want.
I just bet they do away with "buy it now" for auctions once the stores get off the ground.
posted on June 24, 2001 06:58:29 AM new
there will be a separate search engine for store items only.
i have no problem with the fee and the separate hub and separate search ,but since when do stores keep their items on the shelf for 30 days only??
store owner should decide how long they want the items on the shelf
posted on June 24, 2001 07:33:59 AM new
Actually, you can decide how long to keep your items in your storefront. But 30 days is the limit.
This just seems like overkill to me. Why pay for a storefront when you have "view sellers other auctions" for free? Why pay for a storefront for fixed price items when you have "buy it now" for free (at least right now)
Just seems repetitive.
-------------------------------------------
posted on June 24, 2001 07:43:28 AM new
hwahwahwahwa: I asked the PTB at eBay about that 30 day limit... and I believe that is one of the things that they will be getting more feedback on.
The initial reason a 30 day limit was chosen (from what I was told) is that ebay had feedback from BUYERS being concerned with the quality of the merchandis being offered in the stores... and by having a 30 day rotation on the inventory... sellers might re-examine whether or not to continue offering THAT item (as oppose to other possibly more suitable items) in their store... keeping the offerings FRESH.
My personal thoughts on the 30 day limitations was to accuse eBay of forcing folks to relist perfectly good inventory every 30 days to generate MORE REVENUE for eBay... (I kinda still feel that way) *sigh*
So far, from what I've seen and know of the stores, I'm NOT IMPRESSED.
And I tend to think that eBay is only courting the MOM & POPS right now, so that they will attract the much needed traffic to the eBay storefronts...
Once eBay can boast a HIGH SIGN UP count and IMPRESSIVE NUMBERS reflecting the early Success of the eBay Storefronts (mom & pops attract buyers ya know), then they can more easily attract the Corporate Stores (BIG BOYS)... and THEN let's just see what kind of FEES they'll charge for the Storefronts and what kind of SERVICE / FEATURES the Mom & Pops will get out of eBay's MARKETPLACE!
(a.k.a. Venue)
- Uh, of course, that's just my humble little opinion!
posted on June 24, 2001 07:57:29 AM new
It's the "Microsoft School" of customer service.
Unneeded upgrades of existing products, not completely tested to remove bugs, at an ever increasing cost, requiring additional learning and having no significant increase in productivity but providing initial positive publicity and earnings for the issusing company who has a captive customer base.
It actually works rather well for the company, just not for the customers.
Usually followed by a series of announcements of how hard they are working to provide a better customer experience and the mention of the, unfortunately, needed price increases to provide a premier service.
Depending on your point of view it's both effective for the bottom line and rather brilliant.
posted on June 24, 2001 08:53:51 AM newI was about to sign up for an eBay store, when I saw that after Sept. 1, the will be charging 5% on any fixed price item
I have seen a few folks post this with utter horror - what's the big whoop here? They charge the same fee structure on this as they do a regular auction item, plus the nickel and the $9.95/mo. It's nearly exactly the same as the amazon zShops.
Consider the other scenario, for instance someone like returnbuy.com loads up their store with 3,000 aerons a month at $499/each. Without the FVF, eBay would only make $159.95 on sales of $1.5 million? I don't think so!!
posted on June 24, 2001 08:59:22 AM new
wbbell: **I'M** not ReturnBuy.com
Most folks in here are MOM & POPS... and I think a fee schedule (with a FORCED inventory rotation calendar limiting "shelves" to a 30 day life) based on what the BIG BOYS might earn or could afford to pay eBay for the privilegde of a storefront would be out of reach for MOM & POPS.
posted on June 24, 2001 09:02:33 AM newI have seen a few folks post this with utter horror - what's the big whoop here? They charge the same fee structure on this as they do a regular auction item, plus the nickel and the $9.95/mo. It's nearly exactly the same as the amazon zShops.
I wouldn't get an Amazon zShop either, although the eBay storefront is different anyway. Why pay extra for a feature you already have? A storefront? It is already called "view sellers other auctions". Fixed price? It is called "Buy it now".
I see no point in paying twice for the same thing, especially when the chances of someone actually seeing it are slim to none.
)
