Creative Compulsion

It’s been a busy afternoon for those who pay attention to the goings-on at eBay.

The rumors have now been confirmed and it’s official: Meg Whitman will be retiring as CEO of eBay effective March 31st. She will stay on as Director. Slated to take Meg’s place is John Donahoe, who currently runs the Marketplace division. Announced in the same article is eBay President Bill Cobb’s retirement which will take place later this year. What remains to be seen is whether this is a positive or negative change.

Also taking place tonight was the Q4 2007 earnings call. Of interest to sellers was the announcement that a new fee structure will be introduced sometime next week that will cut fees on auctions and fixed price listings. It’s assumed that eBay will also begin advantaging sellers with lower shipping and a good customer service record (remember those DSRs!).

Should be interesting…I’m still reserving judgment until I see the new fees. While many sellers are still moaning about the store fee increase of 2005, many of us simply adjusted our business plans to either make it work and/or began venturing to other sales channels. So far, the eBay boards seem pretty upbeat about the news tonight. Nice to see for a change

For a great synopsis of tonight’s call, visit Scot Wingo’s eBay Strategies Blog.

Yes, I admit it. I let my blog suffer a slow, torturous near-death the last couple of months. Christmas kind of snuck up on me and before I knew it, I was knee-deep in work and no time to myself. It hasn’t changed too much; things are still fairly busy, but at least I’ve been able to catch my breath.

Some interesting things going on in the near future at eBay. Scot Wingo confirmed on his blog the other day that eBay has been “telegraphing some big changes coming to the fee structure“. A couple of the ideas being tossed around are category-specific fees and bulk listing discounts. Scot also reintroduced his “3F” approach to cleaning up eBay, proposing that fraud and finding need to be cleaned up prior to a fee adjustment. I couldn’t agree with him more. My guess is… NOT gonna happen.

Further speculation regarding the new fee structure is that eBay will lower listing fees (and include free or lower cost gallery) and increase the backend (FVF) fees. I guess I’ll reserve my opinion until the adjustments are announced. My guess is that this will be a boon for some sellers and a death toll for others. What I can’t wrap my head around is the whining that is already taking place on the eBay boards. Do these people just like to complain?

Listen folks, if you’re not willing to adapt your business to the changing times, economy, market, etc., etc., then perhaps sales/business isn’t the career for you. By adapt, I don’t even mean adapting to sell on eBay. If eBay has priced themselves out of the market for you, explore your alternatives. Be ready to do some work and research. If you’re not willing to be flexible and change/adapt your business plan to remain competitive (or afloat!), then you really should consider a regular 9-5er with a dependable paycheck.

I realize eBay is no longer the only “show in town”, but if you’ve ever run a B&M and seen the numbers that flow through on a monthly basis, you’d have to agree that it’s still a pretty decent bang for your buck. No matter what, the expected announcement next week should prove to be interesting (if nothing else, entertaining!).