Creative Compulsion

Over the last 6 months, eBay has made some major changes, with more changes expected in the coming months. How has this affected me? Honestly, not a whole lot. I still hear the occasional rumblings of a boycott and sometimes read forum posts about how evil eBay is. Maybe I just got lucky, or maybe I just don’t subscribe to any particular conspiracy theory or Chicken Little mentality.

Am I crazy about some of the changes? No. But here’s what I’ve done in response.

Fees
Back in February, eBay made several changes to it’s pricing structure. Essentially, front end fees went down and back end fees went up. I like to call it Amazonification. This was actually a good thing for me, particularly with respect to the free gallery change. I used gallery on everything prior to the changes, so my fees actually decreased monthly.

Rumor has it more fee changes are on the horizon. Insertion fees are expected to be decreased even more as a way to promote fixed price listings. This would also work well for me. I sell only FP and Store Inventory.

Feedback
Now this is the one that irritated me. As of May 19th, sellers were no longer able to leave anything but positive feedback for buyers. Honestly, I agree with the majority here, this was an ill-thought out policy change and creates just as many problems as it purports to fix.

Luckily, I haven’t had any negative or neutral feedback given to me since the change. What I have noticed, however, is a steady increase in the number of UPIs and in requests to return items. Seems eBay buyers suddenly believe that a purchase is actually a “try it before you buy it” trial.

Granted, this change could merely be a coincidence, but I don’t think so. It seems to me that buyers realize there’s nothing I can do if they don’t read my return policy and follow it. Mind you, I’ve always offered a VERY liberal policy - 30 days, Money Back Guarantee - no restocking fee.

I’ve accepted returns for any reason and, up until now, very few buyers have taken advantage of it. The only requirement I have is that the items be returned in like new condition with all original packaging. Pretty simple, eh?

Suddenly, I’m receiving returns for the dumbest of reasons (ie. I purchased a remote trainer and thought it was an electric fence… huh??). A couple of weeks ago, a customer insisted a bark collar I sold him was defective. He wanted to exchange for a new one. OK, send it on back.

What I received back was a muddy, chewed up mess that obviously was used and guess what? It worked perfectly. He flat out told me that if I didn’t exchange it, I could expect negative feedback. Is this the type of buyer eBay is hoping to attract?

In light of this, I’ve made several changes to my return policy. First of all, you open it and use it - it’s yours. If it’s defective? Guess what, there’s a warranty - use it. If you return it to me and your dog used it for a chew toy? You can pay to have it sent back to you, otherwise consider it a donation to my local animal rescue shelter.

I hate to be that way, I really do. I want my customers to be happy and go to great lengths to make sure they are thrilled with their purchase. After all, word of mouth is the best advertising. But, by the same token, I’m not Wal-Mart. I don’t do millions in business per day, and therefore I can’t bend over for people that can’t read or are just plain idjits.

Choice Listings
OK, this one I like. There are no longer restrictions on placing choices in your listing. Say I had a collar in 3 different sizes. I used to have to create three separate listings. No more. I can now list all three sizes, a definite savings in fees. The only trick with this is inventory management, but since I sell all repeatables, I don’t see this as becoming a major issue.

Links Policy
Yeah, this one is a blow. I’ve always included informational links in my listings. They led to more detailed product information on my website. Nothing for sale on the pages, but most buyers could easily browse the site and buy directly if they chose. No more links like that.

I also display Authorized Retailer logos for my products. They link to a statement I’m required to have by the manufacturers. I’ve been told that these will no longer be allowed. This is really stupid, IMHO.

First of all, I’m required by contract to provide this information. Second, isn’t instilling buyer confidence what eBay is aiming for? These logos assure my customers that they are purchasing from an authorized dealer which means their warranty is 100% valid. I really hope eBay revisits this decision.

Finally, a redo of my ME page is going to have to happen. I currently have a link to my website. Not pushy, just says “Visit us on the web”. That’s gotta go now, too. This isn’t a huge deal for me, as my logs show little traffic generated from that link, but all the same, I’m not thrilled. This is MY business and if eBay can post off-site links right on their search pages, I should be able to direct MY customers to MY off-site business.

While I’m not thrilled with all the changes, all in all, it hasn’t affected me too much and the initial shock of some of the change has worn off. I know that many sellers have been affected much more by all of this, and I truly feel for them.

As always, it’s a matter of adapting. If you’re able to adapt your business to remain profitable on eBay, then by all means, do so. I’ll be the first to say, when eBay is no longer profitable for me, I’ll be gone.

Good luck to all!

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!).

Everyone that knows me knows that I just have to try out anything new that comes along. The eBay To Go Widget is no different

It’s a pretty nifty tool. Unless you put your user ID or some identifying word in your titles, only the single or multiple item showcases are going to be useful for showing off your items. The search option (which I think looks the coolest) pulls auctions from various sellers based on keywords or a key phrase. Not exactly what you want if you’re trying to draw people to your own auctions. That said, the widget is still very useful and has the potential for being a great marketing tool on blogs, social networking sites or anywhere else you can think to plug it in. Here’s mine:

Some time ago, I created a simple Excel spreadsheet to give me a quick idea of my profit per item when selling on eBay. I’ve looked around and there are some good programs out there for sale, but I really didn’t need anything fancy - just a general idea of target pricing when I get new items in. I decided to post it here for download in case anyone else finds it useful. The best part? It’s free!

There are 2 sections to it, one for stores and one for auctions.To use, just plug in your cost, desired selling price, any handling fee you charge and the amount for postage/shipping costs. The spreadsheet will give you your gross and net profit for that item. It does take Paypal fees into account, you could delete that column if you don’t use Paypal.

There are some limitations. Unlike the fancy schmancy programs, this isn’t going to figure out your listing fee for you. I list often enough that I know a $24.99 item is going to be $0.95 - $.60 for listing and $0.35 for gallery. You could always copy the listing fees to the bottom of the spreadsheet if you don’t have them memorized. Also keep in mind that this won’t figure in necessary costs like labor, unsold item fees, monthly store fees, etc. It’s simply designed to be an “overview”.

Download the eBay Fees calculator

Enjoy

I’ve never been an eBay basher nor a cheerleader. I use them and so far it’s worked for me. End of story. NOW I’m getting pissed.

My frustration started a few days ago. When I attempted to send some store listings to core I was greeted with this message:

These listings cannot be edited, because of following restrictions:
Item #1100XXXXXXXX - XXXXXXX

* The Item Specifics of the above item have been updated. You may want to review the listing before relisting or remove it from the list of items to be relisted.

Please do one of the following:
* To edit different listings, click the Back button.

Uh, wrong. First of all, I’m not trying to edit anything and second, I haven’t changed any item specifics. I popped on the eBay Technical Issues forum and sure enough, its a “known” issue. Yesterday, Ina Steiner wrote about it in this article on AuctionBytes. eBay seems to be well aware of the issue and as of today has done nothing to resolve it.

Second, feedback appears to broken now. A few days ago, I read a post on one of the eBay boards that people were having trouble leaving feedback. Up until this point I hadn’t had any problems, but today, I went to leave feedback and was greeted with an error message telling me I had already left feedback for the item. Uh no. Wrong again.

I really didn’t freak out last summer over the raising of store fees. I adjusted my pricing to accommodate the higher fees and it really hasn’t affected me too much. What DOES piss me off is the higher fees in relation to the value of the service. Store items don’t appear in normal search so store owners have to rely on core items to draw traffic to the store. Not a big deal, but it IS a big deal when you can’t send items to core without going through several additional steps. Time is money eBay, and you’re wasting mine.

The feedback isn’t as huge a concern for me. I don’t sell on eBay for feedback, I sell to make money. I really don’t care if I receive it or not. HowEVER, its only a matter of time before I get a 10 feedback numpty that sends me a dozen emails a day asking “Where is my feedback, where is my feedback, where is my feedback?”. Guarantee it. Again, annoying and a complete waste of time.

eBay - you need to start providing more VALUE for the amount you charge! It seems like my eBay bill continues to go up each month while the usability of the site goes down and the glitches steadily rise in number. What the hell am I paying for?

Time to go work on MY websites….

Due to state regulations (most notably in New Hampshire), eBay is in the process of making changes not only to advertising, but also to their current user agreement. They will be removing the term “auction” and no longer referring to themselves as an auction company or auction site. This is in order to avoid legal issues with the current New Hampshire law that requires auction sellers to hold a current state auctioneer’s license.

One of the speakers, Clougherty said, was an attorney representing eBay. Clougherty told the ED & A committee: “According to this attorney, eBay is in the process of changing their agreements with all of their 212,000,000 registered users. eBay will no longer advertise themselves as an auction or auction company and will discontinue the use of the word “auction” from their online and paper advertising.

… by Kathy Greer at AuctionBytes

Personally, I think the whole thing is ridiculous. You simply can’t equate running a live auction with running a 7 day online auction. They’re entirely 2 different beasts. It will be interesting to see if other online auction venues follow suit once these changes are made.

Read the whole Auctionbytes article here.

How generous! eBay has graciously offered a 50% off sale. Ok, so it’s auctions only.

It works for me, I normally only run fixed price but in the last few weeks I’ve been experimenting with some auctions and having some decent luck. I’ve found that you have to bear in mind that the environment on eBay is different these days. Auctions (most anyway) don’t result in the bidding wars and high returns of the past. With the body jewelry, I start the auction at my store price with no BIN. Sounds stupid, huh? It’s actually worked quite well. One of my belly rings that I normally sell for $9.99 just sold for a little over $21.00 by running an auction that way. At least I am sure to get what I want for them and most times a bit more.

The collectibles are a bit different. I normally run those auctions as loss leaders anyway, so I’m not so much looking at the dollar amount it closes for, but rather looking for additional business from the winner with that sale and/or in the future. Most sellers I know do this and it’s certainly not a new theory. It does work and that’s why people do it.

However you run your auctions — good luck and happy eBaying! But hurry… the 50% off sale is good for today only!

I think a lot of people have been waiting for something like this for a long time. eBay’s new Markdown Manager will allow store owners to hold virtual sales on their items. I haven’t delved too far into it, but it appears you can mark down a single item, sub-category, whole category or even your entire store. But, as we’ve come to expect, the name GlitchBay has been earned yet again.

From Ina Steiner’s Auctionbytes today:

Sellers welcomed eBay’s new Markdown Manager feature that allows them to put items on sale, but technical glitches are putting a damper on their enthusiasm. eBay notified developers of the problems, though it did not put an announcement on the Systems Announcement Board.

There are a number of ongoing issues with the “Markdown Manager” feature on the eBay.com site. Sales created through the API (which affects listings submitted via seller tools) are not becoming active at the scheduled time. Sellers also reported the opposite problem. A thread on the eBay Stores board relates sellers who put items for sale for a limited time, only to have the sale never end. “I had a one-day fashion jewelry sale on February 1st which never ended,” wrote one seller.

Nice try eBay. I attempted to use it to put a category on sale for the month of February. No go. No sale. Guess I better watch it carefully or my whole store may be on sale for the remainder of the year. Honestly, I think this will be a very useful tool for sellers once they get it working correctly. If you haven’t used Markdown Manager yet, you can get to it by viewing your Selling Manager main page and clicking the link under Manage My Store. Alternatively, go to Manage My Subscriptions -> Manage My Store -> Item Promotion -> Markdown Manager. Have fun!

I’m always looking around the internet for creative ideas and tips about selling on eBay. Of course you always get those, buy now and make a million tomorrow scams, but once in awhile you do find something well, creative. I found a cool website maintained by Jim Cockrum. He has a free eBay newsletter called Creative eBay Selling. I’ve gone through some of the back issues and he does have some really good information. Nothing to lose, click here to sign up!