posted on May 31, 2001 12:56:38 PM new
Just read an article in Business Week that Yahoo auctions Japan is going to start charging their users in July $2.25 a month plus commission for Yahoo auctions.
No details yet available on actual commission rates.
My questions is, assuming the commissions are reasonable [I know we are dealing with Yahoo so this is a big assumption considering past history][Please no assume jokes], will any of the ex-yahoo sellers go back?
I would give it a shot. I think this would have generated a lot more revenue for Yahoo in the US and made Yahoo users less unhappy if they would have tried it first instead of the listing fee.
Listing fees are not generating enough revenue for Yahoo and Yahoo US auctions listing are holding steady for now. No auction growth equals no auction revenue growth. With a minimum of a 20 cent listing fee for an auction with a sell through of even 10% that would still average out to a $2 "listing" fee per item sold. With no free relist like on ebay that doubles to $4 on some items that don't sell the first time through.
posted on May 31, 2001 02:59:19 PM new"My questions is, assuming the commissions are reasonable,...will any of the ex-yahoo sellers go back?"
You asked the wrong question. You should have asked, "....would any of the ex-yahoo sellers go back?"
The word "will" means that Yahoo is **going to** charge its American Auction sellers the same low $2.25/mo + commission that it's charging the Japanese sellers---and there's no indication ANYWHERE that Yahoo intends to do that on the U.S. Auction.
posted on June 1, 2001 07:30:51 AM newIF Yahoo implemented that in the American market and [/b] and IFYahoo gets a handle on its ridiculous TOS cancelations, then perhaps we would consider returning - BUT those are some big IF's
[ edited by insightwatcher on Jun 1, 2001 07:31 AM ]
posted on June 1, 2001 07:45:49 AM new
My take on the BusinessWeek article, and Fitzgerald's comments in that article, is that Yahoo!Auctions will do nothing to improve the auction site because their "business plan" has been carried out with success.
Parent Yahoo!, with a userbase they say numbers in excess of one hundred million, cannot get even a percentage or two to click on the Yahoo!Auctions link. So the bottomline is that Yahoo! has fully satisfied with the piddly little Yahoo!Auctions.
posted on June 2, 2001 01:18:26 PM new
That's an ingenious idea! Boy would I love to go back to selling on Yahoo if something like that were to happen. I don't mind paying success based fees, but listing fees for a site where the buying user base completely disappeared is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!! Yahoo really does have the best chance of eating into eBay's marketshare with Amazon now chasing its tail. Hope there are many other changes in store for Yahoo. How about starting a Fixed Price competitor to Half.com as well? Are you listening Semel???
