eBay drop Bid Assistant
September 5, 2008
eBay.com have announced today that they are to drop the Bid Assistant tool as of 15th September. Introduced in May last year, Bid Assistant allowed buyers to specify a group of items of which they wanted to buy one: the system would then bid for them on each in turn, moving on to the next in the group if they failed to win the preceding one.
eBay’s announcement says that the feature had very little use, and sadly I think this was predictable: for buyers who are savvy enough to use such tools, there are plenty of third-party offerings with better features. Bid Assistant never offered the ability to “snipe”, or bid at the last minute so no rival bidder had the chance to go higher. Perhaps it’s understandable that eBay couldn’t offer this: the whole point of sniping, after all, is to keep auction prices as low as possible. But without this essential feature for buyers, Bid Assistant was never going to take off.
First impressions of the new My eBay beta
August 10, 2008
The new My eBay beta is now available for users to check out and is looking great. The clunky headers from the old eBay are gone and have been replaced with a newly-,designed tabbed page complete with drop downs to access the key sections.
However when it comes to using it, it’s not nearly as feature rich as the old My eBay. While the aesthetics have obviously been given a high priority, it doesn’t appear that enough thought has been given to how people use the site.
My eBay beta positive changes
The entire My eBay look and feel has been updated; the graphic designers really have done a good job in making the page easy on the eye with newly designed icons and section headers.
The introduction of lists is a great new tool. You can create lists for gift ideas, products you want to research, a wish list of items to buy, in fact a list for pretty much anything. The only drawback is that you can only add items to a list if they already appear in My eBay. Do I really want to add things I’ve already added to my watch list or already bought? Apart from that the only items I can add are those I’m actually selling - not a great source of gift ideas, but I’d hope it’ll be expanded to enable items to be added from elsewhere on the site in the future.
Shortcuts replace the links section of My eBay, but they’ve been expanded so that you can now add your own links to this section. Do you want instant access to your blocked bidder list? How about a link to the PowerSeller board? You can even add links to sites off eBay: maybe a link to your online banking would be useful?
The ability to customise My eBay to display the information that’s important to you has always been great and the new My eBay allows you to do this. The new My eBay takes customisation even further to the extent of allowing changes the colours of the page headers.
Sidebar adverts have been removed from My eBay: no longer are they slowing down the page load and hopefully it’s not a temporary move. Adverts in My eBay have largely been irrelevant to users and leave parts of the page unusable until they have loaded.
My eBay beta neutral changes
The summary page is simply a summary of summaries. It adds nothing and doesn’t give enough information on anything to be useful. This is a page that might as well not exist bar the fact that it displays buying and selling totals and they’re no longer available anywhere else. The only thing it might do is scare buyers into curtailing their spending as it highlights how much they’ve already spent.
Read more
25% of listings hidden on eBay.com
August 5, 2008
I’ve been looking at how listings are presented in the new search results on eBay.com to check how they’ll affect sellers. Up to 25% of listings in some categories are hidden which leaves some current listing strategies no longer cost effective.
I searched for a “Laser Printer” with the brand “HP” in the “Computers & Networking > Printers” category and was presented with 813 printers to choose from, except I wasn’t shown 813 printers.
Closer examination shows that with the default 50 results per page and 12 pages there are a maximum of 600 items returned in the search - less than 75% of the available items. The remaining 25% plus items are hidden from view and can only be seen by clicking the “To view all identical listings” link.
Other searches produce similar results - searching for media such as writable “dvd disks” displays 923 items with less than 600 viewable.
Many large sellers have in the past relied on prominence in listing results to achieve sales. They’ve scheduled listings to ensure that they will always have items ending soonest, and the largest sellers literally have items ending every hour of the day in the categories they trade in, especially in consumable and commodity products.
Under Best Match, the default search on eBay.com sellers will no longer be able to rely purely on swamping their categories with listings. Buyers simply won’t see them, it’s time to use new tactics to ensure your items are presented to buyers.
One of the most important factors in Best Match will be listings with sales/bids. Multiple item listings with the most sales or auctions with the most bids will be considered better matched than those with few or none, so longer listing durations Shop/Store Inventory Format (SIF) could become more important and it’s not unthinkable that SIF in core will re-appear on eBay in the near future.
One thing is certain, flooding eBay with listings will no longer be a guarantee of success. New listing strategies will emerge but sellers need to be wary they don’t fall foul of the Search & Browse Manipulation policy. Listing items across multiple User IDs in order to gain more then 10 items per page of search results is likely to be considered manipulation.
Currently there is no indication that the choice and multiple item policies will be implemented in the UK. It’s been stated that eBay UK “don’t have the product solutions implemented in the UK” (PS log in required), to enable the policy changes to take place.
If anything these changes should benefit the smaller seller, as the dominance of larger sellers will be restrained compared to the past. How larger sellers adapt to maintain their market share is yet to be seen, but from now on it’s a whole new ball game on eBay.com
eBay limits items from a seller to 10 in search
August 1, 2008
There are two changes rolling out on eBay this week (or at least eBay.com, there’s been no announcement for the UK as of yet): the removal of the choice listing policy and the removal of the multiple item listing policy.
The reasoning behind this is that Finding 2.0, the technology that presents search results to buyers is now smart enough to remove duplicates from search results and limit the number of items from one seller shown to buyers.
This limitation will affect the listing strategies of many sellers who have in the past ensured their listings all finished at peak times, or who listed multiple identical items to ensure they were always at the top of search results.
If you list multiple identical listings only one will show in search results. It doesn’t matter how many identical listings you launch, buyers will only ever see one, although which of the identical listings they see will vary according to how they sort search results.
An important factor to bear in mind is that under Best Match auctions with bids or fixed price listings with sales will be considered better matched than those without. Once auction listings have bids and different prices they will no longer be considered identical.
There will also be a limit on how many different (not identical) listings will be shown in search results from a seller. No more than 10 items per page from a single seller will be displayed, if a seller has more than 10 items the remainder will appear on subsequent results page, still at no more than 10 per page. Removal of the choice policy allows sellers to offer more options than previously so that buyers can still access their full inventory.
One important change which has hitherto not been spelled out is that these policy changes apply to ALL sort orders, not just Best Match. Even on “Ending Soonest” no more than 10 items per seller and only one identical item will be presented to buyers. When listing products sellers will need to space out start times to ensure products aren’t removed from buyers view just as they’re about to end.
There are however still some questions which need addressing. The FAQs state “If you sell computers, you can offer a specific brand and model laptop with a choice in components such as hard-drive size, processor speed, etc.” This however doesn’t explain how sellers should allow for price differences if a buyer selects a larger hard drive, more memory or a faster processor. Whilst the choice policy goes some way towards more flexibility (e.g. for a choice of shoe size, colour) it doesn’t lend itself to products where there is a price differential.
Finally there is a new policy to be aware of - Search & Browse Manipulation Policy. This prohibits sellers from any activity which could be interpreted as gaming the system, including but not limited to keyword spamming, inappropriate titles and “any other activity that eBay deems as inappropriately diverting members to a listing or harming the finding experience for buyers.”. This should be interpreted to include listing identical products on multiple IDs as eBay have indicated their technology is capable of detecting it.
Overall these changes should benefit both buyers and sellers. Buyers will be ensured a choice of products from multiple sellers whilst sellers should be able to save fees by no longer needing to flood eBay with listings in order to compete with other sellers that do.
PayPal refuse risk leaving no buyer protection
July 30, 2008
When attempting to make a payment via PayPal earlier today, this message appeared stating the seller can’t currently accept payments through PayPal.
I’m guessing that either their account isn’t fully verified, or PayPal have put them on hold due to a security risk. I suppose I should be thankful to PayPal for protecting my money but I’m not - in reality they’re only protecting their own money leaving me to shoulder all of the risk.
None of the alternative payment options offered (credit card, cheque or postal order) qualify for buyer protection, buyers are only covered if they pay via PayPal. Buyer protection sounds great when bidding with a nice logo explaining you’re protected up to £500.00. It’s not quite so good when it comes to paying and you find that if you pay you won’t be covered at all.
I phoned PayPal and they definitely advised against giving out card details over the phone - their entire raison d’être is to keep my card details safe. Cheques and postal orders once cashed are pretty much impossible to reverse should the goods not arrive.
Faced with this situation what would you do? More importantly what kind of impression would this situation make on a new buyer who has been told countless times by eBay that PayPal is the safest way to pay online? Other forms of payment might be safe for the seller but with no buyer protection they sure don’t feel very safe as a buyer.
Resolution center and dispute console updates
July 27, 2008
eBay have updated the INR (item not received) process which has in recent times been moved from eBay to the PayPal site. It’s worth remembering that nowadays buyers have little or no buyer protection unless they pay via PayPal.
The main changes are adding the ability to negotiate partial refunds and an indication of how long each step in the process will take. Also there is closer integration with eBay which enables the eBay dispute console to show the status of claims as the process progresses.
It’s not all plain sailing however, reports are coming in of sellers trying to view the claims to resolve them only to find paypal keeps logging them out. PayPal have responded to them saying that there “is an IT issue which has affected a few claims for a few merchants.”
As a temporary solution PayPal account managers have suggested “If you have experienced difficulties updating a particular claim then please email the PP reference number for the claim, and your response you would like to submit for that claim. We will be able to forward these details to the department who look after buyer complaints so they may update the case.”
It’s great to see the process updated it needs to work for all sellers all of the time. The technical issue appears to occur on new disputes that the buyer has upgraded to a claim since the new system as been put in place. Once the buyer upgrades the dispute to a claim some sellers have been unable to access them even to offer a return for full refund.
Disputes and claims are something that most sellers will hopefully encounter as a rarity. Most buyers will email sellers asking for help and giving the seller a chance to rectify any issues prior to opening a dispute. For the few buyers that go straight to a dispute or upgrade to a claim the new process should make life easier for sellers and also highlight buyers making an unusually high number of claims to eBay.
We’d recommend providing full contact details to buyers with messaging requesting that they contact you if there’s a problem with their purchase. A PayPal claim or even a dispute is something best avoided and hopefully you’ll never get the opportunity to see the new eBay/PayPal dispute flow.
If you’ve got any hot tips for getting buyers to contact you to resolve issues before they escalate into disputes or claims let us know in comments below.
eBay issue discount coupons for tech categories
July 24, 2008
In the tail end of the 1p listing promotion for technology products eBay are offering discount to selected buyers up until the 30th July. If you’ve been sent a voucher it will be in your email and should also appear in your eBay My Messages.
Coupons emailed to buyers offer £7.50 discount for a purchase of £25.00 or more in Mobile & Home Phones, Computing, Photography and Consumer Electronics. To redeem the coupon the buyer must buy and pay for any single item before 30th July on eBay.co.uk .
eBay appear to be putting a big focus on tech products - great news for sellers who list in these categories.
It’s also welcome news as the school holiday period starts to see coupons being issued to remind buyers to visit eBay and giving them a solid reason to log onto the site.
Parcelforce PM & Parcelforce 48 Large services launched
July 18, 2008
Parcelforce are launching two new services - Parcelforce PM and Parcelforce 48 Large.
Parcelforce PM is a next day services promising delivery between 12 noon and close of business. The service enables you to promise an afternoon delivery to buyers who then don’t have to wait in all day for a delivery. ParcelForce already offer services with delivery by by 9am, 10am and 12 noon so sellers can now offer early, morning or afternoon delivery slots if they wish.
Parcelforce 48 Large is designed for oversize parcels which will be delivered within two working days. Items up to 2.5m length and 1.5m width and a maximum of 5m length and girth combined can be sent on this service. (Up to now the limit has been 3m length and girth combined). Individual parcel limits of 30kg still apply, but for those selling larger items this service is a great addition.
As with all Parcelforce services full online tracking is provided and most importantly both new services qualify for PayPal seller protection.
PDF documents describing the services are available for Parcelforce PM and Parcelforce 48 Large, or you can contact Parcelforce on 08708 50 11 50
Goofbay goofed with voucher code
June 3, 2008
Goofbay have written today to all their members who received their latest newsletter apologising for sending them an eBay discount offer which wasn’t valid.
A member of the Goofbay team received a voucher code from eBay that he believed could be shared amongst all eBay members. He had one of their design team create the newsletter and emailed it to registered Goofbay members.
Sadly the offer was restricted to the eBay users that it was intended for and users soon discovered they’d have to pay full price for the purchases they’d made on eBay. Even the eBay landing page specifies the offer is limited to certain eBay users. Goofbay will have done ok out of it though - the voucher carried an affiliate tracking link 
In the email Matt from Goofbay said “I would like to offer my sincere apologies to all who this voucher did not work for. Goofbay is a well established and respected eBay affiliate and we have no intention of misleading you.”
Goofbay have a range of free tools for both buyers and sellers, and make their money through the eBay affiliate program which pays them for buyers and sellers they send to eBay.
(Although we’ve shown the voucher above please don’t assume it will work for you unless it was specifically sent to your eBay account)
73% would buy wedding dress on eBay
May 18, 2008
73% is a very rough figure, but that’s the current rating of a vote on Geek Sugar, of people who think eBay is a great way to save money, or would consider buying their dream dress on eBay.
It’s an interesting question as a wedding dress is probably the most important dress a woman will ever own. If 73% would consider sourcing their gown on eBay, then for mundane purchases how much higher would that figure be?
Is there anything that you wouldn’t feel happy to purchase on eBay, and what’s the most important/expensive item that you have bought on the site?
eBay changes from a buyers perspective
May 17, 2008
It’s easy to forget recent changes on eBay other than the most visible - the feedback changes. There are several others though, that should be well received by buyers.
- Feedback: The main thrust is that buyers can now leave honest Feedback without fear of retaliation and of course can also rate sellers in greater detail than ever before. The real benefit from buyers however, is that in future they can see how fast you ship, how accurately you describe your items, how good your communications are and how fair your postage costs are. If that information gives buyers greater confidence in buying from you it’s great news. With more than 7 billion Feedback comments left on eBay in the future a great feedback reputation will be more meaningful than ever.
- Buyer Protection: From the 3rd June every sale on eBay will offer PayPal and for buyers that choose to pay with PayPal they’ll have free protection of up to £500.00 on every purchase they make. Again buyer confidence should be increased, with about £900.00 traded worldwide every second on eBay buyer confidence is key.
- Customer Service: eBay is rolling out customer support via telephone for UK members. In the past this has been just for sellers, but top buyers are also being given access for instant help with any issues using the site. Over a million eBay users now have access to phone support.
- Business Registration: Business users are required to identify their status and also have to comply with certain laws regarding service standards such as accepting returns. Buyers can shop with more confidence in the service they should expect and receive when trading with a business seller.
- Protection from Fraud: eBay is constantly a target for fraudsters and eBay employ over 2,000 trust and safety employees around the world as well as working with local law enforcement. It doesn’t just stop there though, eBay have masked buyers IDs so that bidding is anonymous, protecting buyers from fake emails and false second chance offers.
eBay have committed to improving the site for both buyers and sellers. Mark Lewis when speaking at Catalyst 2008 talked about having “A deal to strike†between eBay and sellers. In return for eBay bringing confident buyers and providing sellers the incentives and tools to list, sellers would need to provide a great selection of products at a great price with fantastic service.
The selection of products, competitive prices and fantastic service is what buyers not only want but demand of online merchants today. If the recent changes give buyers greater confidence leading to increased purchasing, then it’ll prove to have been the turning point in eBay’s history.
Whatever happened to eBay?
May 17, 2008
Mimi Jackson has been an eBay member, buyer and occasional seller for eight years. She’s not a professional seller, but someone who has enjoyed buying and selling, finding unusual objects and some bargains. Here she reflects on some of eBay’s recent changes and the effect they will have on her use of the site.
I have been a faithful member of, and true believer in eBay for about 8 years now. I have sold some things I thought could fetch a good price, and I have even built my collection of late 1800’s sewing, craft and etiquette books mostly by surfing ebay. Many of the books were lovely little gems from someone’s grandmother’s attic, or some dusty corner of a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. eBay has allowed me to find the things I never would have otherwise found, and connect with people I would never otherwise meet. It has allowed me to fanatically pursue and satisfy such a specific, quirky, and rare interest… affordably!
Now, I fear, that era is coming to an end.
I always thought that eBay was founded on the idea that people are basically good and honest, and are happy to exchange unwanted/extra goods for money, when mutually beneficial.
Just this week, I decided to sell an old Lenox China (Ceramic Arts Company, c. 1900) sugar bowl that we’ve been keeping, simply because it is beautiful. After I noticed the markings on the bottom, a bit of internet research showed that it might be quite a bit more valuable than I realized, and I decided that it might be better off in the hands of a collector.
So I took pictures, and got ready to list it on eBay. After signing in, I saw that due to my “limited†transaction history with eBay ( Me? 8 years? More than 50 transactions?), I would be required to accept Paypal as a payment option, and that the payment would be held until proof of delivery or positive feedback. Uh… okay… but, wait a second… I’m dealing honestly here… what if the buyer isn’t?
Many of my favorite purchases have come from people who aren’t sophisticated eBayers. It seems they just had a trunk of old stuff to clear out, and a need for some cash, in many cases. eBay won’t get those sellers (who are important!) with these new rules. Who wants the hassle of these new restrictions for something that might not even attract a good price? That leaves eBay selling to the businesspeople, those who know have more valuable items to sell, and those who are strapped for cash.
The whole idea of getting a good deal on eBay, in my opinion, relied on the fact that selling was cheap and easy, and that both parties were willing to take a bit of a risk, trusting someone they’ve never met to pay or ship as promised. In my case, I haven’t ever had a problem that wasn’t satisfactorily resolved, and have gotten some phenomenal deals, just because I bid on the right thing at the right time.
Okay, so I can see that there are some items on eBay that look too good to be true, and clearly there are dishonest sellers and buyers lurking about, but can’t we tolerate a bit of that for the greater good?
First posted on Mimi’s blog and reproduced with permission.
My eBay Beta revealed
May 13, 2008
Click to see full page screenshot
The new My eBay Beta is being shown to selected users, currently with the choice to opt out to the original My eBay. Most noticeable is the use of tabs and the vastly reduced number of links on the page. This may be slightly frustrating for some, until they learn where the links are now hidden but should make it easier to navigate once users become accustomed to the new layout
Most of the links eBay users will need are available from dropdown menus similar to the dropdown menus at the top of every eBay page. If you’re looking at the My eBay Beta, you’ll need to use these to access many of the features previously available direct from the sidebar.
The Buying and Selling tabs in My eBay Beta now have the new yellow headers for each section. Thankfully everything now appears to fit onto a 1024×768 resolution screen without the need for horizontal scrolling.
I do like the buying suggestions offered on the summary page. Taking recent items looked at it displays a montage of products the buyer may be interested in. Hovering the mouse over a product enlarges the image and clicking brings up the product details to the left.
The new My eBay is going to take a while to get used to, but on the whole I like it. Best of all I’ve not spotted any of the obtrusive adverts that take so long to download. Hopefully with the new slimmed down sidebar they’re gone for good.
So what do you think? If you’re one of the chosen few to trial My eBay Beta do you like it? If you’ve not tried it what are your first impressions from the screenshots?
More on eBay’s new listing template
February 20, 2008
The new listing template is causing much discussion on what’s good and what’s bad. Since writing the post I’ve discovered a few more changes worth noting.
The “Make it yours” box has some interesting new features. Firstly the time remaining on some listings changes to a dynamic count down clock ticking away the seconds. A more important change is the way bidding works, rather than directing you to a new screen it simply greys out the page opening a bid box without requiring a new page to load.
The other part of the page worth looking at more closely is the “Related items” tab. Clicking this does reveal that items from the seller are shown, but also items from other sellers on eBay. Mousing over the items pulls up an enlarged product shot with title, price and time remaining.
It’s worth pointing out that the buyer has to click the related items tab to view this information. It’s still bound to cause uproar when sellers realise other sellers items are viewable direct from the listings that they paid for.
eBay’s new listing template
February 19, 2008
eBay are testing a new auction template which is being shown to selected users across the site. The major change is the introduction of tabs to pull all the relevant information together making it easier for buyers navigate the listing. At the same time they’re highlighting sellers feedback along with much clearer information on how long the listing has left to run and the cost and payment options.
There appear to be some missing elements on the test pages, namely item specifics and the links to about me page, reviews and guides, account type, seller location and the “add to favourite sellers” link.
The requirement to scroll to the bottom of the page for information such as shipping and payment information has been replaced with a tabbed view, the auction page has traditionally been too long. It’s questionable just how many buyers would scroll to the bottom to read the sellers terms. The tabbed view is in line with Scot Wingo’s recent advice to “Have links to shipping, contact etc above the fold in your auction descriptions“.
One point that will alarm many sellers is the warnings of low DSR scores which have been highlighted on some listings. In this case the seller has a DSR scores of 4.5, 4.3, 4.0 and 4.1 and a despatch time DSR warning is displayed.
Sellers are unlikely to welcome warnings to buyers displayed prominently at the top of their listings.
Overall I like the new layout, it doesn’t affect the listing frame with seller specified shop links and categories, nor the actual description so sellers will have little if anything to change if the test template is rolled out site wide. I’d like to see the missing elements replaced, especially the Item Specifics as many sellers (myself included) use those to convey information such as if the product is new or used.
Buyers will need to become accustomed to clicking tabs for more detailed shipping options but that shouldn’t be any harder than scrolling to the bottom of the page.
What do you think? Is the listing template eBay are testing an improvement or a step backwards?
In the know - eBay for buyers
February 11, 2008
I’ve just seen the latest edition of “In the know, eBay.co.uk”, the magazine which is sent to buyers, with an inside view of what’s happening at eBay and tips on smarter ways to buy.
I love the top three search tips
- Deselect items with a minus sign eg SKIRT BLACK -WOOL searches for black skirts not made of wool
- Quotation marks to dual words eg “NEW YORK” won’t pull up results for “new” or for “York” on their own
- Multiple searches with a comma in brackets eg (”SHOULDER BAG,HANDBAG”) will search for shoulder bags and hand bags at the same time.
It’s well worth experimenting with your favourite search strings to find just the items you want and exclude the ones you’re not interested in.
The eBay challenge, which two buyers took up, was to find a fresh spring look on eBay for under £100. There really are some bargains to be had on the site if you go looking for them.
There were plenty of other articles including a collector of Thunderbirds memorabilia and an introduction to the Community Member of the Year - Peaseblossom.
Best of all is a coupon code for £5 off when you spend £10 and pay with PayPal, a great excuse to get buyers buying!
Why a strike is better than a neg
February 8, 2008
Back in January 2007 I sold an item, sadly the buyer failed to pay. There were two things I could do, one was to open an unpaid item dispute and the other was to leave feedback. The unpaid item was opened and closed leaving the buyer with an unpaid item strike. Feedback was never left and there was no response to the dispute as the buyer was suspended.
Fast forward to February 2008 and the buyer had recovered their account, but has just been suspended again. They have contacted me to ask if I’d consider removing the unpaid item strike which still sits on their account. They’ve even offered to pay the eBay fees that I incurred so I won’t be out of pocket - the item was resold to another buyer a long time ago.
This has come up at an interesting time - many sellers are irately insisting that they should have the right to leave negative and neutral feedback for buyers as a warning to other sellers. Time has proven though, that the unpaid item strike I left over a year ago has been far more effective in stopping this buyer buying than a negative feedback would have been.
A year is a long time for an unpaid item strike to still be affecting a buyer, I’m surprised it hasn’t been discounted by eBay after this length of time. Certainly it appears to have impacted them for far longer than any feedback would have done regardless if it was positive, neutral or negative.
The only question that remains is should I remove the strike from the buyers record as requested?
eBay reveal split screen to investors
February 1, 2008
In the recent Q4 Investor conference call John Donahue made some comments which appeared contradictory. He talked about auctions ending soonest whilst at the same time talking about the “race to the top” of the best matched, best priced inventory from the sellers with the best service.
Now (courtesy of Only eBay) we have a sneak preview into the future of what eBay could look like to achieve this. Revealed in the January 2008 company update is a slide showing a new split screen finding screen.
click pic to embiggen
On one side are traditional auctions with a default sort of ending soonest, on the other fixed price instant purchase items sorted by best match.
I really like this approach, buyers will instantly be able to see what value auctions are compared to fixed price listings, whilst at the same time if an auction has achieved a great price for the seller they’ll be presented with fixed price options. It’ll also encourage buyers to purchase immediately rather than wait for auctions to end if there is product available and anything that assists faster turnover of inventory is great news for both eBay and the seller.
More than anything it would highlight the best priced deals available on eBay, and that’s something sellers are going to have to examine carefully. If your auction start price is too high fixed price listings will be right next to them in search results. If your fixed price listings aren’t competitively priced others will be ahead of you in Best Match. (It should be noted that currently eBay are simply disadvantaging sellers with poor DSRs rather than actively advantaging sellers with the best DSRs).
Although viewing this with slight trepedation (I’ve never been the cheapest on eBay, but sell on service and reputation), I can’t help that think what offers the buyers the best selection at the best prices will be good for everyone, buyers, sellers and eBay.
What are you thoughts? Do you want your fixed price listings side by side with auctions about to end? Is your inventory competitively priced? Is your great service reflected in your DSRs so you’ll be top in best match?
As a buyer do you like this new view? Would it prompt you to bid on auctions or use fixed price more or less than previously?
OFT going after unregistered online traders?
January 27, 2008
This morning’s eBid newsletter contains this interesting little tidbit:
We’ve also added the choice of ‘Business’ and ‘Individual’ account types to ‘My Personal Details’ and in the new sign ups form. This is in conjunction with the Office of Fair Trading and allows sellers to state whether they are business traders or simply selling off some personal possessions. Business sellers, if you haven’t yet updated your details, you should do so now. This also allows buyers the ability to distinguish between private sellers and traders.
Does this mean the Office of Fair Trading is going after traders who represent themselves as private sellers online? We’ve heard a rumour from several sources that one of next week’s eBay changes will be that all Powersellers will have to register with the site as business sellers. There will apparently be fee advantages for doing so, but business sellers will also have to acknowledge and uphold their buyers’ rights.
In fact, if you are a trader, then it is illegal in the UK to represent yourself as a private seller: buyers have many more rights when buying online from businesses, so traders who pretend to be just private sellers may be depriving those buyers of their legal rights.
Making it obvious who is a business and who a private seller should be a great step forward in cleaning up the site. We’d also like to see a block on listings with the dreaded phrase “I am not responsible for items lost in the post”: after all, if eBay can block “cash”, swearing and some brand names, why not block this off-putting nonsense which is both illegal and - in the case of those who take PayPal - just not true?
Of course, none of this is much use if buyers don’t know what their rights are. For example, just a couple of weeks ago I had a buyer express complete incredulity that I would replace an item lost in the post: “I didn’t know sellers had to do that!!!” That’s why in February, we’ll be running a series of posts looking at exactly what buyers’ legal rights are when they buy on eBay. In the meantime, we’ll be awaiting the announcements from eBay Towers with bated breath.
eBay ponder compulsory P&P
December 13, 2007
The one thing I’ve always disliked when buying on eBay is hidden postage costs. I want to see the cost stated clearly at the top of the listing so that I know exactly what the cost will be prior to bidding.
It appears that eBay are in agreement, a post by Richard Ambrose on the UK PowerSeller board [log in required] says that eBay are “at the early stages of considering a move to make it compulsory to specify at least one domestic P&P cost on every listing”.
Many sellers have included costs in the body of their auction description, this can be because they use carriers that surcharge to deliver to various offshore UK islands and Scottish Highlands. It’s even harder to quote for large items such as furniture, pallets and motors that are traditionally charged based on distance rather than per parcel. Sellers of these types of goods would have to rethink their delivery strategies to use a single delivery charge covering the whole of the UK.
On my own auctions I’ve long taken the attitude that I’ll charge an average price and won’t penalise UK buyers based on where they live. This simplifies the carriage charges and allows a buyer to purchase knowing exactly what they’ll pay.
A further problem currently is an intermittant glitch that removes postage costs from Shop Inventory Items. This problem has been around for a couple of months and randomly deletes all postage information from live listings. Previous sales from the SIF listing had postage, but from the day it disappears the only option is to cancel the listing and restart it. This glitch needs fixing once and for all prior to any change in postage policy.
In general however I’m in favour of the change, and so should most sellers especially when sorting search results by total price (Cost plus P&P) becomes more widespread. If eBay sort search results so that listings without P&P specified appear below all listings with P&P visibility will be reduced immensely.
There is of course a get out clause and I’m not sure how ebay will manage this one…. there is always the option to specify the first P&P cost as “Collection in Person £0.00″ and then specify further charges for delivery within the listing body. This would skew search results and allow sellers to specify alternate delivery charges (which could vary by post code destination) and I believe would in general be detrimental for buyers. Sellers however are likely to make use of it, if the option is available.
It was my child that bid, not me…
December 4, 2007
How often have we heard that excuse from a reluctant buyer and how often do we disbelieve the excuse? I know I’ve often taken it with a pinch of salt, but it can and does happen.
Well today I was talking to a friend who told me about her shoe buying experience on eBay. Whilst searching for a pair of shoes she stepped away from her computer to make a cup of tea. Literally just minutes later she returned to discover her seven year old daughter clicking away on eBay. Not only had she been happily buying shoes (no fewer than fifteen Buy It Now listings) but they were all the wrong size for her long suffering mother!
Well a lot of explanatory emails to a whole bunch of sellers with promises of paying listing fees and mutually withdrawing from the transactions later it’s a lesson learnt, if you step away from your computer LOG OUT of eBay.
I can just imagine the poor sellers, at the busiest time of the year, groaning as they read the apologetic emails. That’s one seven year old daughter in a whole heap of trouble!
£200m online sales per day until 20th Dec
December 3, 2007
Experts are predicting that £200m per day will be spent online in the run up to Christmas with £1.25billion spent yesterday, making it the busiest day ever for online sales. eBay were predicting 35 million searches and 2.65 million bids would take place in the last 24 hours as shoppers rush online to spend their final pay cheques before Christmas.
Importantly for eBay sellers 44% of people in the UK expect to purchase at least one Christmas prestent online this year. The most likely online shoppers come from East Anglia (52% expect to make an online purchase), with the West Midlands the least likely at just 37%. In Scotland 50% of people expect to do some of their Christmas shopping on the Internet.
Richard Kanareck, of eBay, said: “Shopping online at Christmas offers maximum convenience, the broadest choice at the best prices, and increasingly, the opportunity to find a more original or personal gift versus the High Street.” and he’s right! Walk down any high street today and it’s the same retail chains with the same goods as almost any other town in the country.
If you want to find that unique Christmas present shopping online is the way to go.
Skype and Best Offer win a sale
November 29, 2007
For the first time today a potential buyer Skyped me from an eBay listing. They had some additional questions to ask that weren’t covered in the auction description and simply clicked the Skype call button on the listing.
I wasn’t expecting the call and it had slipped my mind that any and every potential buyer could contact me. That however is the whole point of having Skype on my listings. Buyers can easily communicate as and when they want to. This particular buyer could have simply sent a question by email but rather than a long drawn out email exchange the deal was tied up in two minutes on Skype.
The good news is that after asking about two particular products the buyer finished the conversation telling me to stand by for an order and sure enough he placed a Best Offer. Even better because I now have auto-accept on my Best Offers I didn’t even have to click a button for the sale to be completed and the buyer to pay.
I do like the new features such as Skype and Best Offer enhancements that eBay have introduced over the last year. Already I’m finding it hard to remember what it was like trading without them.
eBay dispute console gets revamped
November 26, 2007
The “Dispute Console” where buyers and sellers can manage communicate with their trading partners in a formal setting has had a makeover. Now it matches the look and feel of other eBay consoles such as “My Messages“.
The Dispute Console is now split into two logical halves with the ability to report a problem with an item you’ve purchased, or as a seller to report unpaid items. In the tabs below you can track any open disputes in progress.
I still don’t like the term “Dispute” as the title for communications between buyers and sellers. It implies a disagreement whereas in reality many sellers and buyers are only too willing to work together to resolve any trading issues. For buyers there’s nothing quite so antagonistic as getting an “Unpaid Item Dispute” email land in your inbox from a seller, it immediately makes them defensive.
Whilst the Dispute Console is a necessary evil a term such as “Resolution Centre” would be less acrimonious and more descriptive of how the tool should be used.
Don’t get mad, get blogging
November 21, 2007
A disgruntled eBay buyer has set up a blog to express his frustrations with an unhelpful seller. Buyer “paceaudio” bought a Nikon D40 from eBay Store “shopsunshine”. He went to pay by PayPal as normal, but was only given the option to phone the seller; a predictable and rather crude attempt to upsell him followed. The buyer then spent three days calling the company chasing up a promised PayPal payment request which never arrived.
Understandably, he got fed up. The camera was needed for work, so not having it was about to cost him money. The buyer left negative feedback, and started bidding on another camera listed by a seller who offered overnight shipping.
The next day, he had a call from a manager at the company, who had seen the feedback and wanted to make things right. He could have the camera the next day, *if* he would withdraw the negative feedback. “Against his better judgement”, he agreed. Presumably at this point he actually paid for the camera (though the blog doesn’t say exactly when this happened), and he was promised that he’d receive the DHL tracking number shortly.
Nothing arrived: no DHL tracking number, no camera. The buyer writes “Now they have my money, my feedback, and I’m gonna have to cancel this shoot at the last minute. I lose money, reputation, and future jobs because of this.”
The story doesn’t have an ending yet. It’d be nice to be able to say that ShopSunshine, even at this point, tried to make it right: a box full of accessories with the overnighted camera would be a step in the right direction. It’d say “yes, we screwed up and we’re taking the hit for that”; and at this point, I think honesty is all that’s left to them. Better that than the buyer saying “and I did a PayPal chargeback and forced them to give me my money back”.
I think there’s a couple of lessons for buyers here too though. Firstly, the threat of negative feedback is always more potent than the feedback itself. Once you’ve left it, you’ve played your hand, so make sure any issues are dealt with *first*.
The same goes for withdrawing feedback: issues dealt with first, feedback withdrawal second. Don’t let any seller blackmail you with promises of supplying the item you’ve ordered once you’ve withdrawn your feedback, because you can’t put that neg back a second time if they don’t come through.
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