Where will the strikers go?

February 8, 2008

This post was written in February 2008; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

I’m not convinced UK sellers have anything to worry about from the changes to eBay fees and feedback about to revolutionise the site. Certainly claims from companies such as eBid that fees will rise up to 67% are simply not true, almost every seller in the UK without exception will be greeted with lower eBay invoices soon, and that’s even if they don’t qualify for volume discounts. I’m still being contacted by sellers who believe that their eBay bills will rise although I’ve yet to find one that will.

Feedback changes appear to be still the biggest concern and doubtless the proposed eBay sellers strike will still go ahead on the 18th - 25th February. The numbers taking part will probably be small compared to the thousands of sellers on eBay today but the big question is where will these sellers go?

No seller large or small can simply afford to lose a weeks income - smaller sellers don’t generally have large funds to fall back on and larger sellers have employees and business premises that need paying regardless of income.

I’ve looked at the traffic for the main four alternative auction sites in the UK and with just ten days before the proposed strike you might expect to see an increase in activity as sellers prepare to list inventory but that’s not the case.

Auction site traffic stats

According to Alexa there is no discernable increase in traffic to these sites, and in fact hasn’t been for the whole of the last year.

Visiting the alternative sites doesn’t inspire confidence either, entire categories are berefit of products, and if competitors aren’t listing there already it’s for one reason alone - there aren’t any buyers. Buyers simply aren’t visiting alternative auction sites and are the most important commodity eBay has to offer. Whilst sellers might decide to list elsewhere it’s unlike they’ll be able to support their businesses on these sites. The only serious contender as an alternative is still Amazon.

If strikers are hoping to replace their income from other sources they’re going to find it difficult, the alternative is to simply give up a weeks income and that’s something not many can afford to do.

Written by Chris Dawson · Filed Under Featured | 75 Comments 

Tazbar seize the day

January 31, 2008

This post was written in January 2008; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

I’ve just received an email from Tazbar: they’re obviously keen to grab the business of any disaffected eBay sellers while they can:

Search results are not affected by any form of hierarchy based on seller feedback. … Every seller can benefit from whatever level of membership they choose, thus giving the smaller seller the same opportunity and rate card as the larger seller. … It is by helping the small to medium size seller that we feel we will get this diverse product range. This isn’t to say we don’t welcome large volume sellers. … It is as level a playing field as we can create.

Whoever you are, we love you.

However, what really tickled me was this paragraph:

Tazbar operates a time served traditional Feeback system with a simple Positive, Neutral or Negative option. This is applicable for both buyers and sellers.

We’ve said time and time again that Tazbar and eBay’s other competitors need to work on attracting buyers. In that context, what a great message: “come and buy on Tazbar, where you can still get negged”. :lol:

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | 8 Comments 

Tazbar launch fundraising programme

January 16, 2008

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

Tazbar have announced the launch of their fundraising program, which will highlight charity listing on the site. Registered fundraisers get a collecting tin icon beside their listings, a chance to feature on the home page, and a “progress thermometer” which can be added to their own websites.

Fees for charity listings are 3% of the sale price, which is the same as Tazbar’s normal fee on basic seller accounts. This looks very favourable compared to deductions made by Missionfish on eBay for Charity listings; however, if the seller completes a Gift Aid form, together with eBay fee donations, charities will on average receive 10%-15% *above* the amount donated by the seller. Fundraisers might also consider that eBay’s higher traffic levels are likely to generate more interest in their items in the first place.

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | 1 Comment 

Sister wrapped

December 27, 2007

This post was written in December 2007; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

I guess the papers are short of stories in the week between Christmas and New Year, because the “unwanted Christmas presents sold on eBay” story has been everywhere. “Auction off your dud presents” advises the Telegraph, before rehashing Dan Wilson’s how to eBay series from this summer. The Mirror includes eBay in a list of ways to get rid of unwanted gifts. Even the BBC gets in on the act.

Nun, with pantsBut the prize for best version of the regifting story goes to a surprising winner: Tazbar. “Were your Christmas presents pants?” asks their email. And comes with this delightful image. Would could resist? :-D

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under Uncategorized | 4 Comments 

Spam your friends, win a sat nav from Tazbar

October 23, 2007

This post was written in October 2007; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

Tazbar are running a promotion until 31st October: get your friends to sign up to the site, and you will be entered into a prize draw to win a Sony Sat Nav. I’ve got to admit, I don’t like these kind of promotions: paying *me* to introduce my friends is creepy: offer my friends a freebie, and it’d feel like I was doing them a favour by telling them about it.

Tazbar promotionBut if you fancy entering, just ask your friends to add your Tazbar ID to the promo code box when they register. As a bonus, if they purchase anything on Tazbar before the 1st November, you’ll get a further three entries into the draw. And you can invite as many of your friends as you think won’t mind.

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off 

Should eBay buy QXL?

March 26, 2007

This post was written in March 2007; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

eBay should buy QXL according to Michael Jivkov, he argues that QXL has a clear market share in many East European territories whilst eBay is a minor player. In the UK QXL languishes way behind eBay but in Poland for instance QXL has a 95% market share. QXL also intends to move into more East European countries this year and currently faces very little in the way of competition.

By swallowing the group [QXL], eBay would not only remove a potential competiton in the battle for market share in eastern Europe but would overnight become the dominate operator in Poland, Switzerland, Norway and Denmark.

Currently out of the main auction competitors operating in the UK (eBid, Tazbar, Cqout) none of the others are attractive for eBay to purchase. QXL in the UK isn’t attractive but due to their expansion in territories eBay hasn’t conquered, along with it’s profitability, QLX does have a level of attractiveness.

Written by Chris Dawson · Filed Under Uncategorized | 4 Comments 

The best of the rest ahead of eBay 4th Quarter results

January 24, 2007

This post was written in January 2007; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

Today is the day analysts are waiting with bated breath for the close of markets and for eBay to release it’s fourth quarter results. What we weren’t expecting is analysis of the competition along with their current performance but perversely they’ve obliged - or at least Wagglepop have!

Current Alexa Traffic Rank after just eight months in operation is currently at 47,303,which puts us on par with or ahead of most other independent alternative online auction sites at this time and ahead of all internal projections. We average roughly 2,000 unique sales per week, and currently have 140,000+ listings available in a variety of formats for bid or purchase.

So 2,000 unique sales a week, or about 8,000 a month, just how many sellers (in eBay terms) does that equate to? Taking a medium volume seller with perhaps 500 transactions a month that means Wagglepop currently support just sixteen full time sellers. Contrasted to eBay though they would have to list 8,000 listings each, and I don’t know too many sellers who would happily run that many concurrent listings for a 1.43% sell through, it is astoundingly poor! In reality 500 transactions a month would need to be a reasonable value to sustain a seller, so it’s likely Wagglepop can support less than sixteen sellers.

They go on to compare Alexa traffic rankings with other auction sites, comparing those in the UK (with the exception of eBay and Amazon who are a quantum leap ahead) and there’s no great encouragement. Tazbar and QXL don’t have significantly more traffic, and eBid is about double, certainly not far enough ahead to suggest they have much greater sell through rate. Only eBid has three times the listings of Wagglepop with Tazbar about level and QXL trailing with a quarter the number.

alexa traffic ranking

The best that can be said for any of these sites is that if you have unlimited stock it won’t do you any harm by listing it and forgetting it - especially on those sites with no listing fees. None of them appear to attract the traffic to sustain a full time seller at this stage. They just don’t have the buyers required to give the sell though rates regardless how impressive the number of listings these fledgling sites manage to attract may be.

Written by Chris Dawson · Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment 

eBay gives other sites a good handbagging

January 5, 2007

This post was written in January 2007; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

Online auction sellers fall generally into one of two camps: those who like eBay, and those who hate Feebay with a passion. Those of us in the first camp - and I’m happy to stand up and be counted here - sometimes make the observation that we go where the buyers are, and the buyers are all still on eBay. The response to that is generally that we don’t know what we’re talking about.

Now Trevor Ginn, head of Auctioning4U, has given us some real listings to look at, and interesting looking they certainly are:

Over the last few months have sold many Harpers & Queen Brown Cowhide Briefcase Joyanatura so we decided to try idential listing on other auction sites. Over the period of the trial we have sold 17 for an average price of £27 (ranging from £12.50 to £63) on eBay. Data for the other sites is as follows:
  • CQout: No Bid, 15 viewers
  • eBid: No Bid, 6 viewers
  • QXL: 1 Bid at 99p, 102 viewers
  • Tazbar: No Bid, No Data

Admittedly, it’s one product, but really, how conclusive can you get?

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under Uncategorized | 6 Comments 

Tazbar joins eBay in the fight against counterfeit goods

November 30, 2006

This post was written in November 2006; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

Regarding counterfeit goods Lee Markham of Tazbar today told me “the actions that ebay are taking in this area are good….. there will be many people who are in possession of stock who will be looking to get rid ASAP. therefore we all have to be extra vigilant”

Tazbar are well aware of the problem of counterfeit goods and are looking at measures to keep their site clean. Lee points out “It is easy for me to sit here and point the finger elsewhere. But I must say that if they were not allowed to come into the country in bulk then there would be less chance of them finding their way into the marketplace”.

It’s certainly true that if Customs and Excise could prevent the goods from ever being landed in the UK then sellers wouldn’t have counterfeit stock to sell. From his days selling on eBay prior to setting up Tazbar he reflects “I was importing goods from China, the checks and rules I had to go through were extensive, (and they were only tents!) This makes me wonder how so much counterfeit product is available in the UK.” Tazbar are working with their lawyers to establish new systems to further control the amount of counterfeit items that reach the website.

Whilst the problem isn’t created by the auction sites it’s good to know that Tazbar are as committed as eBay to eradicating fakes and counterfeits to make trading online a safe experience for buyers

Written by Chris Dawson · Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off 

Why you should concentrate your sales on eBay - facts and figures

November 20, 2006

This post was written in November 2006; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

According to Alexa.com the top ten most popular sites in the UK are made up of search (eg Google, Yahoo, MSN) and community sites (MySpace, YouTube, Wikipedia). Only one ecommerce site appears in the top ten and this, unsurprisingly, is eBay.co.uk, sitting comfortably in position three. The top ten is pretty stable and the next highest ecommerce site is Amazon.co.uk, just missing out at eleventh most popular.

With facts such as one in three UK Internet users visiting eBay.co.uk at least once a month it’s not surprising it’s the most popular auction site for sellers and justifiably so as the competition just don’t have the traffic. Whilst eBay performs consistently the alternative selling venues have varying fortunes.

Ebid saw an upturn in its traffic views in October which is likely attributable to the changes in Shop Inventory Format fees on the eBay site prompting sellers to try an alternative. Now in mid November this upturn has nosedived and looks more like a temporary blip then a permanent change of fortunes.

QXL jogs along with no great changes but with about forty visits per million browsers.

Tazbar, the new kid on the block, looks more hopeful but bear in mind it’s early days. Having ambled along averaging ten views per million browsers it’s skyrocketed to forty in the last month. (TV Advertising effect?) The real question is are all the views from sellers or do they have some buyers yet? Completed listing searches don’t fill you with confidence.

All these sites pale into insignificance when eBay is thrown into the mix though. Alexa shows steady traffic, averaging some seven thousand views per million browsers confirming its status as the granddaddy of the auction sites. If you want to know where you’re most likely to get sales put your money into eBay fees because the other sites added together don’t even register as a blip on the horizon. If you do want an alternative your only hope as a serious seller right now is that your products fit Amazon’s portfolio.

We often wonder what it would take for a serious contender to eBay, and the answer is traffic, and lots of it. Tempting promises of free listing fees simply serve to fill the site with items that eBay largely escapes except on cheap listing days. Sure it bumps up the number of listings on the site but then when a hard won buyer eventually arrives any quality goods are swamped by the dross. It doesn’t matter how great a site looks, what counts is if a site can attract the buyers but currently only eBay is worth a serious seller concentrating on.

Is the marketplace big enough for a serious contender? Almost certainly yes and a monopoly is never healthy. Is there one out there? For the professional online sellers looking at return on time and investment the answer is not yet but maybe soon - only time will tell.

Written by Chris Dawson · Filed Under Uncategorized | 2 Comments 

Tazmania?

November 14, 2006

This post was written in November 2006; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

In the seven years I’ve been selling online, I’ve seen a lot of things touted as “the next eBay”. The current contender for the internet auction crown is Tazbar, a site that seems to be lacking many of the things that have come to plague the eBay site: scammers, fakers, buyers…

Tazbar’s new TV advertising campaign began in the UK yesterday. Not only is the online auction format familiar, but the word “it” features prominently in the advertising. Oh dear. And is it just my imagination, or are those swirly boxes on the front page oddly reminiscent of eBay’s design too?

For what it’s worth, my own prediction is that “the next eBay” will be nothing to do with eBay. The things that have been really revolutionary (Blogger, MySpace, YouTube spring to mind) are bringing something new to the online table, not simply running with an existing idea.

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment