eBay.com extend promotions on media and free shipping til March

December 18, 2008

eBay.com has announced the extension of two listing promotions until 31st March 2009.

Free shipping

Media Categories

All sellers get 5c insertion fees and free subtitle when they list using pre-filled item information.

These offers apply only on eBay.com. Other eBay sites have different fee structures.

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under CLD | Leave a Comment 

EUK & Woolworths to impact DVD sales on eBay

November 27, 2008

Whilst the news that Woolworths has appointed Deloitte and Touche as administrators this morning probably hasn’t escaped you, what’s less known is that it includes Entertainment UK (EUK), one of the last major DVD suppliers in the UK.

The DVD distribution market has been shrinking and EUK, one of the last, is doubtless a major source of supply for many eBay sellers.

“EUK are likely to have been the last source for many DVD sellers on eBay, listing numbers in the DVD category are likely to go down”.
- Steve, of drstevew, one of the largest eBay media sellers with over 100,000 feedback

It’s not just on-eBay supply that will be affected, EUK are also major suppliers to Tesco, WHSmith, Morrisons and of course Woolworths themselves.

In the short term it may be good news for buyers as the administrators try to dispose of stock with cut price deals, both for media items and the other products Woolworths sell. This could potentially lead to lower sales for other high street retailers and online merchants as they struggle to compete.

In the longer term it could lead to a re-balancing of DVD prices, with less supply prices may increase, though no doubt overseas suppliers will be evaluating opportunities in the UK DVD market.

Written by Chris Dawson · Filed Under News | 13 Comments 

25% off FVF with free P&P for media sellers

October 30, 2008

eBay are reducing the final value fees for items sold in media categories by 25% for the whole of November and December when free postage is offered.

Sellers will need to offer free domestic P&P to qualify for the discounts. Free P&P will become compulsory from 27th January for DVD’s with maximum rates set for other media items.

In order to qualify the first domestic postage needs to be set with a cost of £0.00, although other premium services (such as recorded or special delivery) can be charged as can International post.

It’s important to realise that increasing prices to include postage in the buy it now price is likely to affect placement in Best Match and will lose any Recent Sales boost in search results. In this case “Free” postage really does need to be “Free”. However if you’re launching new listings or using the auction format you can take full advantage by rationalising your prices to build postage costs in.

There seems little doubt that eBay will move towards capped or free postage for many categories on the site. For sellers who will have to offer free P&P or reduce their shipping rates at the end of January a 25% discount on FVF is the perfect incentive to make the changes now rather than wait until they’re forced to in the New Year.

Written by Chris Dawson · Filed Under CLD, Site Changes, eBay.co.uk | 13 Comments 

eBay.com announce more changes

October 16, 2008

eBay.com have announced another set of changes which they say will help sellers be successful this holiday season.

Likely to be most controversial with sellers is a new Amazon-style product page for goods which use pre-filled item information. These feature the “best value box”, one single Best Matched seller highlighted at the top of the item page, labelled “buy from trusted seller…”. Somehow, I don’t think this is going to be terribly popular with sellers.

Beyond the best value box, media items are grouped by condition, from “brand new” to “acceptable”. Bizarrely, buyers appear to have to click on the seller’s comments on the item condition in order to access the view item page to purchase. This is a major change in what we expect from buyers, who are used to clicking item titles and gallery pictures. If we must make eBay more like Amazon, then lets have a “buy it now” button right there on the search results page.

Free subtitle for pre-filled info items

Media items (books, music, movies, DVDs and video games) listed with pre-filled item information receive free subtitles from now until the end of the year. “Help your listings stand out” says Dinesh: if everyone’s using subtitle, of course, your listing won’t stand out because of it, so think about how you can use this space imaginatively.

Featured First might get you featured

Featured First is a new listing upgrade, which offers you the chance to have your listings appear at the top of the search results page. A limited number of FF listings are randomly rotated into the featured area: there is no guarantee that yours will appear. At $24.95 for up to 10 days, and $74.95 for up to 30 days, FF isn’t cheap, but it can be a good way to kick-start sales on a new listing to boost them under Best Match: choosing 10 days’ FF on a 30 day listing is a more cost-effective way to do this.

Best Match for SIF

Stores Inventory Format listings will still be shown at the end of search results pages which have not returned many results: the threshold for this has been increased from 30 core listings to “about 50″. SIF listings will now be sorted according to Best Match, “using the same factors that apply for Fixed Price listings. These include recent sales, competitive pricing - including shipping - and seller track record.”

No more relist credits for BINs

From October 22nd, there will be no more relist credits for BIN items which have not sold. Previously, sellers who relisted an unsold item would receive a credit for their insertion fees if it sold on the second time of listing. Auction items will still be eligible for relist credits, and so will unpaid items.

These announcements are for eBay.com only at the moment, though I think we’ll see the end of relist credits and that Amazon-style product page rolled out on more sites in the very near future.

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under Site Changes, eBay.com | 18 Comments 

eBay to make free P&P compulsory for DVDs

October 11, 2008

eBay UK will announce a raft of changes on Monday including compulsory free postage for DVDs.

From early next year there will be maximum postage rates set for media and mobile phone categories. Richard Ambrose from eBay stated that some of the maximum rates will be below actual cost and for DVDs they will insist sellers offer free post, although upgrade to priority services and overseas postage can still be charged.

Other changes to be announced will include:

Feedback Revision

Feedback Revision will be live on the site in about a weeks time. Sellers will be able to request buyers revise negative or neutral feedback upwards with a limit of 5 revisions per 1000 transactions, which is roughly the rate of negative feedbacks left across the whole site.

Identity Confirmation

eBay have already announced they’ll be protecting seller accounts by checking they are creating listings from the computer they habitually use. This is already turned on in TurboLister but will now roll out site wide by the end of October. If a seller tries to list from an alternative PC they’ll be required to confirm their identity before continuing which will prevent fraudsters from listing on hijacked accounts.

Annonymisation of emails

Similar to Australia eBay will begin to hide email addresses between eBay users until they have transacted. When buyers and sellers communicate eBay will create a temporary email address which can be replied to from email clients such as Outlook or webmail without the requirement to log into the eBay account.

This will be a great assistance for sellers trading on multiple eBay IDs to save time having to log into the relevant account just to answer a simple buyer enquiry.

Postage and Packing maximum charges

eBay will begin to set maximum postage costs from January, begining in the media and mobile phone categories with free post enforced for all DVD listings.

DSR transparency

eBay will increase visibility of DSRs to enable sellers to improve their businesses. Users will begin to see a breakdown of DSRs by category to establish if particular product lines are dragging their overall scores down and enable them to target areas for improvement.

By early 2009 great DSR transparency will appear in the Seller Dashboard, but will be available to developers through the API by the end of the year.

eBay Priorities

eBay are focusing on the three top reasons why buyers stop buying on eBay

  1. Losing money on eBay
  2. Getting a negative feedback
  3. High postage and packaging charges

They have already made progress by banning sellers from leaving negative or neutral feedback for buyers, in 2009 they will be focusing on buyer safety - it’s simply not acceptable for buyers to be able to lose money on the largest ecommerce site in the UK. This is why changes such as anonymous emails and seller identity confirmation are being introduced. If fraudsters are unable to list on the site or contact potential buyers there is no way they can take their money.

Postage and packing charges will be next target area for eBay in order to meet buyer objectives. Although maximum or free postage charges are being introduced in media and mobile phones first, don’t be surprised if they come to your category next.

Written by Chris Dawson · Filed Under Featured, Site Changes, eBay.co.uk | 123 Comments 

eBay Poland offers free media listings all summer

July 8, 2008

eBay Poland are offering free insertion fees in media categories from 1st July to 30th September. Listings in Movies and DVDs, Books and Comics and Music and CD, in both auction and BIN format, will qualify. The offer is available only to Polish residents. Here’s Google’s translation of the announcement.

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under CLD | 4 Comments 

“Because the feedback looked so convincing I sent the cheque anyway”

May 18, 2008

This post was written in May 2008; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

Sellers protesting eBay’s plans to make offering PayPal compulsory might like to cast an eye over a report in today’s Times, about ways to scam people on eBay. I’m sorry to say that much of the piece is stuff we’ve heard all too many times before: “buyer spots bargain, buyer posts cheque, buyer receives nothing” just about sums it up. But this statement from one of the victims caught my eye:

“The worst thing is that I knew we shouldn’t pay by cheque but everyone - my son, friends and even the lady in the bank - said it was not unusual.”

The Times goes on to comment

About £20m day is traded on eBay worldwide. The site recommends buyers pay via its own system, PayPal, which offers up to £500 cover for transactions that meet its criteria, but there is nothing to stop vendors demanding other methods of payment.

If eBay is ever going to move beyond its “dodgy” reputation, we have to put an end to stories like these; you and I might look at the story and be able to pick holes in The Times’ reporting, we might try and blame the buyer who don’t investigate their seller closely enough, or the sellers who let their accounts get taken over. But think of the dozens, maybe hundreds of people who have been put off eBay yet again by this article. How many customers does each of us lose to a story like this? Many of us might not like the idea of being forced to offer PayPal, but it’s worth it, to be able to tell the world that eBay’s a safe place to shop.

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under Featured, News | 17 Comments 

eBay UK join anti-piracy campaign

April 21, 2008

This post was written in April 2008; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

eBay UK have announced that they’ve teamed up with the government’s Knock-Off Nigel campaign, with the launch of their own eBay against Counterfeits campaign. Content on the UK homepage and DVD-related pages will, for the next two weeks, direct eBay users to the campaign portal, which gives guidance on how to spot counterfeit DVDs on eBay and what to do if you unwittingly buy one.

I’m glad to see eBay meeting this issue head-on; hopefully explaining to buyers exactly what phrases like “not even released yet” and “can’t vouch for authenticity” mean, should cut down on the number of fakes available in the media categories on eBay UK. If you’ve managed to miss the Knock-Off Nigel advert so far (you lucky person), then here it is:

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under Featured | Comments Off 

eBay elsewhere : links for 10th February

February 10, 2008

This post was written in February 2008; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

A UPS driver has admitted stealing £19,000 worth of eBay parcels and selling them himself on the site. Buyers expecting delivery of goods they’d purchased instead saw them up for auction again. The 31 year old West Sussex man received a 12 month sentence suspended for 18 months plus 200 hours of community work.

The ex-fiance of Dancing on Ice star Suzanne Shaw has put their engagement rings up for sale on eBay. The his and hers rings have an opening bid of £5,000; personally I think they could do with much more detailed photographs.

The NYT covers the loss of the level playing field with some very nice quotes from Scot Wingo, including ““If you are selling 1000 units a day, you don’t have time to say I’m going to leave these five negatives today because they deserve it.”

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | 1 Comment