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Ebay 3rd quarter results..... sellers/buyers down but ebay PL revenue UP 39% ???
For the third quarter- ebay released results saying sellers and buyers were down by the millions, GMV sales were up 2% ( i believe this is ebay creative accounting- do you know anyone who sells her that had sales go up?), but promoted listing revenue grew 39% over last quarter basically keeping the company on a flatline.
Do you know anyone who has has had good sales this past year?!
Basically ebay is destroying the platform and search results and buyer experience with promoted listings which are driving up the cost of goods to buyers while lowering the margins for sellers- all the while charging sellers upwards of an additional 10-15% Promoted listing fee for far less actual sales!
At this point its on sellers......by letting ourselves be taken advantage of we are part of the problem......the only way out is for everyone to stop using this abusive program- its a race to the bottom that they capitalize on.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoSee now I just has an offer on $29 item for $10... Thats 200% off, now far be it from me to be a Rocket Scientist but I could look at it two ways... If I took what's left in my pocket and added a few dollars I could get a flat of Chicken Drumsticks at the Grocery. Or perhaps six cans of food for "Snake Pusskin" a cat we took in right before last winter. Or I could send an offer out, think I'll do that. Maybe I can get $18 so Snake isn't looking at me like I'm dinner and I'm not looking at Snake like he is.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoOh man you gotta feed the cat for goodness sakes.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoAlso "In The News" is the USPS bled billions this year so...
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoYeah and Fed Ex probably too. Much lower volume of packages and for USPS first class mail I read. Some of the other logistics company are not going as well either this year.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoI didn't read the USPS press release on the site of Commandant LaJoy's and the Generals statements. Butt I figure with that news the butt end of shipping well be... I wonder how Charmin is doing? Those Pink Bears on the TV sure do look happy don't they?
I know! I know the answer!
I need to convince the charming Charmin manufacturer to create USPS reseller rolls! Not for resale mind you. Some extra sheets be good cuz' likely with the rate increases to come well... Gonna be a lot a sheetin' goin on.
NOTICE: "Charming" and "Charmin" are only one little letter off. See I notice that stuff. I'm advanced.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoHa HA and Ha and I hope Ho Ho Ho for you at Christmas. My sheeting is not selling like it should on here this year so far, a couple more weeks to go I quess. I will be using the charming charmin to dry my tears. Love ya retro.
toomuchstuffagain35
·2 years agoWhat happened to "lower prices = more volume"?
Carriers are raising prices, then wonder why their volume is less and because it's less they need to raise prices again.
Although they DID reverse that recently for holidays. Oh we have more volume so we have to raise prices.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoGot to get it when ya can.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoJaimie was interviewed recently regarding the 3rd quarter results. Very good interview. He said that they are seeing great results with all the vertical categories, better customer satisfaction because of their authenticity programs. A lot of good sales on the refurbished products because let’s face it the economy HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THIS. The vertical sales HAS encouraged people to spend more on OTHER things on here. The momentum just needs to keep picking up on these items which it probably is. The site has to be distinct now from other sites in what they do and offer. For that I applaud him in gaining more and more of these types of buyers. The AI and improvements to the site itself is what he is focusing on now. Keep up the faith.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoTo Siamjane, I really have no problem paying ebay a bit of extra money to get my listing up front. What I am concerned with is the drop in traffic to this website overall.
lawnmowerpartsstore2
·2 years agoWhat I am concerned with is the drop in traffic to this website overall.
I most definitely agree with your statement
mr_lincoln
·2 years ago@vintagecraze50
If you mean items with:
0 Views = 30.2%
1 View = 20.9%
2 Views = 10.1%
Total = 61.2%
That would be 61.2% of my items with 2 or fewer Views in the last 30 days ... so over half my items are buried, hidden, virtually never found, etc.
Of course I have seen those kind of numbers for well over a year which might explain why only 2 out of the last 18 months have set new sales records ... its been a slow steady decline for sales.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoOr they are loosing buyers that used to buy on here by the millions.
nilis13
·2 years agoYour numbers mimic mine too...they do not care - it's all about paying more and more for promos - paying to be seen off-site now, etc...not sustainable.
wifetrained
·2 years agoHow about this to think about,
We are heading in a direction where we, as a country, are moving from zero interest money into an era where interest rates are historically more normal.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoRight and then it makes buying a bit more difficult if you have to hold a balance on a credit card.
esg-enterprises
·2 years agoYour thread has officially been hijacked by the eBay lap dog.
reallynicestamps
·2 years agoAmazon annual gross profit for 2022 was $225.152B, a 14.01% increase from 2021. Amazon annual gross profit for 2021 was $197.478B, a 29.28% increase from 2020.
gloryglorygifts
·2 years agoWell, they are saving money on advertising. I can't remember the last time that I saw any. It seems that the only ads that you do see are for big ticket items, like autos and brand names and those selling fees would be a nice chunk of change for them. They sure as heck aren't being kept afloat by my store. They are making money from seller ads. No doubt about that.
To answer your question about sales this year for myself? I'm just a few hundred shy of last year, so no real growth, which is disappointing. But I am NOT complaining because I see lots of people in the community that are really doing poorly. Ebay may be working on enhancing buyer confidence, but seller confidence is quickly being flushed down the toilet.
reallynicestamps
·2 years agoThis is the eBay ad that turned up on my FaceBook page yesterday.
My only interest in sports is that my BIL used to play for the Detroit Tigers a while back. He just turned 92 and no, you've never heard of him.
But I see eBay ads at least once a month and more often just now with the Holiday Season underway.
Happy Diwahli by the by.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoPeople who buy THIS stuff HAVE more spendable income.
gloryglorygifts
·2 years agoThat's funny you mention sports, because yesterday I bought baseball cards for a friend of mine that played for the Mets farm team back in the 70's. Great prices too!
gloryglorygifts
·2 years agoI was watching Lifetime network last night and there were 4 Amazon ads in an hour and a half show. All holiday related with the logo colors front and center. Maybe I'm watching the wrong network.LOL Haven't seen any ads for Amazon nor ebay on Facebook.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoI've saw eBay ad's on youTube, they are running ad's on Roku as well as mobile inside some Apps such as my Scrabble game whomever's ad network does that stuff.
As to traffic retention and gaining subscribers well, there's many ways but eBay is not the only bubble in the universe and really it requires sellers cooperate towards the site being able to compete against external entities. Folks in here want yip and howl about fee's yet if eBay lowered fee's I very much doubt most sellers would apply that to end pricing. That's traditional... The fact is many sellers need lower prices and higher volume to make what they did. Competition for the dollar is fierce and likely not going to end, its that simple and that complex.
Take Black Friday, Cyber Monday... Sure, sellers in here run some sales but nothing is uniform where-as a Black Friday Event could be done. Sellers need commit inventories months in advance so there is no price fixing and markdowns of 50-80%, advertise that. Traffic will come, do it year after year, do it with events all year long. Do it with vendors who have above average metrics and a respectable quantity of inventory.
Getting sellers to cooperate towards eBay's growth whilst earning less and selling more is a big problem as retailers don't have that problem and they access to unlimited new inventories basically be that new, overstocks, delisted etc. Those entities dont need even pay for the inventories per se as they consign under terms. The web has changed and thus eBay need change but sellers for the most part reject change and then blame eBay.
If you own a small brick and mortar and say Target moves in across the street 95% sellers here would go, "Oh boy! There's going to be more traffic for my business!"
Reality tends to be more people shop there spending their limited funds and you're small business sinks as they don't have the money to support both even when what you have isn't competing with Target. So for you're small business to survive have to get ultra aggressive, might mean more hours open, lowering prices considerably on and on.
Traditionally sellers have loved third party points of sale as they buy stuff cheap at yard sales, or closeouts, or thrifts on and on and then place huge percentile markups on things or look at what other sellers have sold them for. That equation is changing and been changing a year into Covid. Sure, many sellers did good during Covid given the free money handed out. One hand out by the previous administration to take peoples eyes off the massive failure of the Fed's handling of Covid having thrown away protocols developed over 40 years that twice stopped SARS-1 and MERS from exactly why those protocols exist. This administration, handout to ensure election with an end result of a huge inflation bubble. They knew if they didn't win Democracy was over, the mans own staff have stated that WAS the goal and if States hadn't jumped in America be lookin' a whole lot more like China in the years to come. Truth. That might be the right answer for America, some say yes but things like eBay, FB, etc more or less lifestyles, well... Sing it bye bye. Ya' know an actual real conservative GOP Congressman stood on Congress floor yesterday shouting at his fellow Republicans, "We've had Congress for three years. Show me ANYTHING of substance we've done." He's right, zero.
Why is there a war in Israel? Fact of the matter is Mr. Jared K. made a real swinging deal with the Saudi's, remember that? The one nobody in investigating but are ever so concerned about Mr. B's son? That brokered deal included having tighter ties into stepping into this century in as far as Israel. The Saudi's looking at recognizing Israel and opening up, change to the region. That's why and it's all fallen apart because Iran and other entities know if the Saudi's and Israel create a respectful association those nations NOT in that fold will have ALL SORTS of problems with their citizens and more. So, the man touting his K-Rap about "none of this happen if I" is in fact the same that has caused it. Truth, and you wont hear it in mainstream media as the citizens are short attention span theater and will go rabid, rip themselves apart truth be told.
Point being everything tends come full circle to roost, thats not law, thats not government, that's nature.
Ask yourself how many sellers here would accept a formula(s) set down for profit margins? That is to say if eBay could see cost of goods and fit it into a sales tier and place it there? Get it sold for a profit, period.
I'd bet place become a ghost town as sellers scream and yell. There is no way eBay get lions share of sellers to cooperate. Thus that doesn't leave the company many choices except to attempt maintain its revenues and become more product focal. Specialization. Happens in small and medium brick and mortar every single day. This type of product is selling, these are not so we change and focus on what does.
Traditional online reseller goes, "Oh I've money, time buy more!" Like a drug. Its funny and not. There are several reseller youTube channels barking about sales numbers so what do they do? Go out and buy more.
gloryglorygifts
·2 years agoWell, I'm glad that you are seeing ads out there for eBay. I'm right. I am watching the wrong channels.
I have a friend that does fairs selling new and antique toys and even her market is pretty unstable. She had one two weeks ago where she had no sales and I'm talking about someone that bought a house from her sales 5 years ago and is still in the house. She's pretty much been doing it for 20 years now and I would say that it is only in the last two years that she signed up with her state to collect and pay sales tax. She had a store on ebay and Amazon with fulfillment for a few years but closed them down because of the fees and low traffic. Now that's a very low overhead. You pay the fee to sell at the fair and that's about it. If you want to sell in a marketplace there will be fee upon fee, but you do get your stuff in front of more people I think. I don't know why some succeed on marketplaces and others don't but can assume it's over saturation for starters. Everything does come full circle eventually. I'm wondering if I'm seeing my cycle ending on here. I guess time will tell.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoI'd never even considered markets like Antique Toys beyond watching that "Pickers" show on TV handfuls of times asking myself, "Really? Paying $200 for that and its worth $400? Is that like custom rust?" LOL.
I know some vendors at a pretty big seasonal flea market and they've been on the struggle too.
gloryglorygifts
·2 years agoI guess it is pretty much everywhere.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoIf ebay continues to loose core customers yes what they term LOW SPEND. because of competition then that will be the factor. There are only so many wealthy people who buy high end merch. If that is the way this platform is going that that is what you need to sell.
mam98031
·2 years agoWhat is a "core" customer? How do we tell what kind of buyer we are losing? Just curious?
@vintagecraze50
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoI give ya' a little statistical hoe down... Wordpress and WooCommerce are the most used storefront applications on the Internet, hands down, nothing even close not Shopify, GO Daddy, absolutely nothing is even in the remote ball park of numbers of Wordpress + WooCommerce webs.
Now every single one of those installs has the same fundamental problems the largest being qualified purchasing traffic. Here, have that!
With everyone having their own domain who opts into storefronts they could HAVE a Wordpress site yet the commerce leg is eBay Stores, robust stores. Now, get more traffic into eBay... I could for example blog'th about old video games or whatever. Again, have tremendous social media potentials. An Auction Mall is what eBay becomes. That is to say every category is a MALL within the MALL and EACH have a main auction floor and A sellers auctions ECHO into their storefronts and they can use the Wordpress install with proper plugins to promote.
Now you may have say, 15 ancient PC Games and via working with me we can cross post on an arranged percentile AND eBay gets a cross post transactional fee. That's just one simple example. There are literally BUCKETS of them and each and every aspect of it eBay make revenues from. Instead of places like Coach and this manufacturer and that one being adversaries NOW have a tool by which can be MUTUALLY beneficial. Everyone wants make money right? Seller, eBay, Coach and have happy customers right? Auction Mall is the way... Real partnerships across select categories.
So like how cool it be to be able get certified iPhone and a deal with the actual line provider TMobile or Verizon? Again, Auction Mall concept allows for extreme versatility. These are just "Off the top" of whats possible, it literally IS the logical evolution of eCommerce. Just as the Strip Plaza was an evolution, Strip Mall and then Mall evolution of Brick & Mortar Commerce.
There's no reason for example through Auction Mall concept that "The Online Fishing Dept. Store" can't exist. Who in hoots name care go to Walmart for fishing lures when HERE THEY ARE BUT the presentation is not of 70,000 vendors but IS THAT of an online Fishing Dept. Store, the largest EVER conceived completely seemingly a separated entity from eBay with APPROVED vendors meaning, high standards.
DO that video games, Records, near anything everything... and ATOP it also specialized malls, dont like the Big online store feel? Ok, here's 500 shops.
Again point being the possibilities are LITERALLY endless.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoSo you are saying ebay should group shops like a one click that takes you to certain specialty shops on here for specific targeted items and THAT would make it easier to find what they want. I think that’s a great idea.
reallynicestamps
·2 years agoebay should group shops like a one click that takes you to certain specialty shops on here for specific targeted items and THAT would make it easier to find what they want.
We can already Search by category .
My favourite Search is "Firefly Serenity" which shows me everything listed in that (cult TV show) category.
How does your suggestion differ?
Most of the shops have a few items for the category, but many others for other fandoms or even completely different categories.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoThese are general stores, yard sale... No different than consignment or co-ops. The Auction Mall conceptually offers them product visibility on the "Main Floor" within the specific mall or sub-mall and capability should "storefront owner(s)" within that mall or sub-mall option to "adopt" listings under easy terms for further exposure. The Mall is the logical extension to enterprise commerce data, even Amazon did argue that with us, we proved it to their CMO and basically their Board. They'd concerns several and they were valid concerns, Amazon is a retailer.
Slight concepts of The Auction Mall can be seen online succeeding beyond avarest. Walmart, no, not a mall but embracing a commerce channel in large scale that USED TO BE EMBRACED by B2C commerce venues who sat on their "Duffs" rather than continue to innovate, Overstock.com comes to mind for example but there are many. Temu, another that has "In part" concept and going big guns.
At eBay we've the largest flea market ever conceived that long since drove out its competition that had any substance. Sellers want compare eBay to Amazon and just can't do that, the fact Amazon has a 3P selling arm is only a portion of what they do and thus CAN OFFER consumers not to mention Information Tech. You have to compare eBay to Etsy, Mercari etc... All the other competitors of similar flavor be they P2P, B2C, PB2C eBay has dispatched.
Most folks don't realize how very IMPRESSIVE that truly is and stands as a historical testament as to the smarts that are eBay.
Now the playing field changed once again in multi-factorial ways most of which are completely out of eBays hands. They cant control post Pandemic consumers, can't control Post Pandemic retailers who now have brought their web presences mainstream and innovating their business models around that. Can't control student loans on and on... Yet, even with all the heaps of external factors the company has zero control over they STILL managed to have a better than average financial statement given the landscape. Thats AMAZING and worth of tremendous respect from business perspectives.
People here look at everything through their own sales bubbles. Naturally as such they blame the Horse for failing versus the jockeys. The jockeys cause the problems and there are more and more of them as money is tight, sell, where eBay. Consumers, lots of choices now and those demographics change, consumer demographics change no matter the point of sale.
People here never look at the brilliance of the company unless it pours upon their own wallets. Truth.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoSo I am seeing a landing page that has my store and others who sell the same type of product. When customer searches for that product instead of 8 million individual item results you get like 15 store fronts or whatever that pop up. You view the storefront and decide which store you want to enter to look at the goods. The store fronts can have clickable categories, price points blah and blah for more specificity. Each store has a searchable web page on google as well, all tied into Ebay.com
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoCan browse or search in multiple ways including similar to now or that like Amazon's price comparison or by stores carrying brands etc. Yes, each store indexed in external engines all tied to domains which yes are "Powered by eBay Stores." Far more robust storefront software, what we have now is extremely basic. Conceptually its very open ended by sheer nature, that's what extensible means... The software applications stack are partitioned in a way that allows them to be mutually exclusive or inclusive yet all pulling upon the same data core(s) and shared assets.
eBay right now from the outside in for site users appears to be a tightly coupled application or site. Auction Mall creates a loosely coupled software structure and this is where it draws the vast extensibility from. I've been surprised that over the years none of the Open Source eCommerce applications have not went this route. eBay is a proprietary software stack albeit using numerous open source code libraries. In a way can think of the Auction Mall software stack similar to say Android whereby the operable core is uniform yet the applications (APPS) can be coupled in plethora's of ways.
toomuchstuffagain35
·2 years agoMaybe, but the ebay "approved vendor' part, not so much.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years ago@vintagecraze50
Conceptually imagine a grand brick & mortar mall. Inside that mall are more malls. So instantly a customer who is seeking specifics knows what to mall to go to. "I'm headed to the gaming mall" or the Sporting Goods Mall or Fashion Mall. That takes one level of filtering currently needed out immediately and is "natural (human shopping nature)." So now you're at the Fashion landing page at that Sub-Mall per se which instantly affords eBay real-estate for external advertisers/internal advertisers same with every Sub-Mall as well Search ***OR*** click navigation, I want Mens Dept. So whisked off that, yet another landing page w/ real-estate can be used. Now there I've more choice, what do I want, shoes, Apparel, this/that, all landing pages w/ real-estate eBay can use feature storefronts, advertise on and on. When I get to my "Dept" I am seeking goods at, there's an advanced search or BROWSE. Advanced search, I want sox, I'm looking for new ones, I want see dress sox whatever, brown under $10 and bam I submit. Thats a human natural process.
Now at that landing page I can also choose to browse storefronts in the mall suiting my wants or "The Main Auction Floor", "Browse Floor" which is just that, auctions or browsing (or both). Every one of those storefronts also have external domain names affording sellers to use social media effectively for their store, web search spidering etc. AND the stores need be robust in features like most eCommerce software today. eBay can make money as well on features of the software and advertising space on said stores. So, my game store for example is a natural for say males under the age of 50 demographic, I can pay for ad's to run in Men's Fashion, eBay makes money.
Have "Feature Storefronts" run on a rotation basis and if wanted even some anchor ones who pay monthly for that priviledged upon landing pages. Can have a "Master storefront list" whereby folks can get exposed to varied storefronts, what they feature, do they sale running on and on.
Can have localization features so you want preferably shop local you can! Very attractive to small businesses that do not have or do have existing Internet storefronts but traffic? Well, thats another ball game. eBay has the traffic. Can even have existing sellers go out with an eBay generated PDF print to small businesses locally and get em' aboard and receive some sort of reward and if said businesses sign on, they get whatever, a year of 25% storefront cost. It's all "virtual" so sauce for the goose! That localization also affords localized service businesses to want in either advertising or offering services. Roku does this for example picking up the user physical domain and serving ad's as well as National ads.
Now each eBay mall can have it's own domain too, ebaymotors.com goes to eBay, eBayfashion.com should go to the Fashion Mall. eBayGames.com to the gaming store. eBayPhones.com to the phone store. At each Mall and Sub-Malls there exists valuable real-estate and POSSIBILITIES.
Its very open ended conceptually for extenisbility.
Obviously entire concept is beyond that of a forum messages. As I noted, my ex and I designed this, 20 years ago? It was designed for Amazon.com to be exact. Back then Amazon had just entered third party commerce with auctions and zShops making the exact mistakes others had already made and we experienced. Back then PC's were it, wanted on the Internet, used a PC/Mac and we peddled software and since everyones using computers, well, natural seller right? So we'd A TON of expertise on various sites, Haggle Online which did some coding for, the giants Onsale, iDeal, uBid, Auction World, Surplus Direct to name a few. We were "key" on Onsale's Exchange site, that was the third party arm vs direct B2C. Onsale's Exchange was the ONLY site back then that very very much worried eBay.
When Amazon came into the fray we sold there, had our own merchant account etc already. Now that fact we were an anchor vendor at these top level sites AND the fact "Bing Gordon" was on Amazons Board of Directors gave us a communications channel upwards. Mr. Gordon was CEO of Electronic Arts and it is HE who got us into the online software resale. I wrote (well I and others!) strategy game engines for years and it was at a CES show that I was told, "Mr. Gordon wants speak with you." I was like OH CRAP!!!! But, he'd heard I'd done code work for Haggle wanted know what it all about and said, "Want try sell some delisted titles there?" I'm like no, "I'd rather eat dye and ***hit" but of course dont say that or NO to Bing Gordon. So, that's what happened.
Going to and fro w/ Amazon was mainly my ex, she charm the skin off a snake and smart as a whip, smartest person I've ever known and a just a natural marketing genius. I'm put her up against any CMO in the land and odds are very very good she'd do better in big fashion. Now the auction mall concept they loved, we'd even went out to several local business associations, presented mock ups and four out five LOVED it, even wanting connect us to venture capital make it a reality. But Amazon was already moving into its own retail away from simply Books and that was a crux. "Mamma wants to feed the babies not starve due to them or afford them too much clout and thus loss of control." That's how the reverse price mechanism was born, my ex had direct part in that speaking often with a Mr. Tsuzak (something like that) who was Amazons CMO back then.
Now obviously entire of "Auction Mall" concept is beyond that of forum messages. We'd written it all up, did mockups the works and I still have them someplace on a hard drive pretty sure.
In as far as Jamie goes well... Problem with many an enterprise dynamic live entity is the daily operations, the daily stress, hierarchies of staff which MUST be in place or it's anarchy and they do their jobs. They don't tend to be "All in" that is to say "All consuming." Understandable as they work on something already existing attempting to innovate within a bounded environment. It's not like the excitement of a new startup. Where-as me, well... I'm a programmer and learned so much from my ex that I've pretty decent marketing and concept design. Those two professions SELDOM meet and when they do, it ain't pretty. Programmers think Marketing simple, Marketers think programmers geeks. Marketing and concept is far far more difficult than software engineering. I am gifted with both and its the excitement of the challenge for me AND the interfacing with others whereby concepts emerge, are refined and innovation sprouts, grows.
I'd be more than happy communicate with eBay management and probably love working for the place in making things happen. Good things. Whenever I look at anything like an eBay or Amazon or what we did with The Onsale Exchange I always first vision as "Mutually beneficial relationships."
In a case like eBay we've company, sellers, buyers, advertisers AND competitors. Now the biggest swath of competitors are now the big retailers! Crapski's! So how do we make for an environment whereby those entities are not adversaries? I'll tell you how, The Auction Mall. The fact Target, Macy's, Kohls and literal plethora's of retailers ALSO FIT. Thats how!
"If ya can't beat em', can't join em', then they need to join you!" Right?
Go to any significant Mall and you'll find anchor tenants and you'll find smaller businesses that THRIVE because of those retailers. Now you're gonna get a Walmart at eBay but you can get a Macy's and a plethora of others resulting in Walmart, Amazon crappin' their pants. BUT YOU HAVE TO HAVE THE PLATFORM and if you do the consumer public will come in DROVES as will the investors etc.
The Auction Mall is simply a logical evolution of Internet commerce and FITS how consumers WILL SHOP in the future. The cellphone is a hiccup sorta online, in time it's 3D glasses or headset type deal bringing commerce closer to retail brick and mortar experience. When that becomes "it" the old way we eBay now will be like DOS vs Windows. This is EXACTLY where the FB Marketplace "Metaverse" part of concept lay, I know, I know engineers there. Heck back in the day I knew John Carmack, the man behind The Quest headsets albeit back then he coded video games, Doom to be exact, he in John Romero, that another fascinating story of meeting on a UseNet game programmers forum.
Now here at eBay making for "The Auction Mall" certainly a complex movement to stage whereby back with Amazon they were startup in 3P commerce and again what soured them is they are a retailer. NOTICE that Amazon DID heist part of concept in that Amazon AWS services powers many a retailer now like Target. Go figger LOL.... And NOW what we be for me personally so very very paradoxical would be eBay Auction Mall where Targets an anchor vendor whilst their online retail is run by Amazon who did not go with the Mall concept yet boosted part of said concept. Eeeps!!!! LOL.
The Auction Mall concept is as valid today perhaps more so than 20 years ago and to this day nobody has done anything even remotely close. Now if I had to say, "Well who is closest to point of concept?" I'd likely have to say Temu and in concept its not there to the tee either but you can see at least a bit of "light" of concept and the success thereof.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoI think Jamie needs you as a consultant. You have some great ideas.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoI think I get your concept now. So there would be Online fishing shop with x number of vendors. Online jewelry shop, etc etc, Group us into these shops. Each shop has dedicated URL google presence. Those shops may be able to compete with other established sites with better price points perhaps. One stop shop for everything imaginable in those stores in that category. Wow that might take a lot of massive reprogramming for ebay.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoYou would have a sporting goods Mall. Inside that mall are sub-malls and vendor shops within as well "Main Floors" (Auction, BIN/Both) (One floor and a toggle to what care see). So there be a "Fishing Mall" within the Sporting Goods Mall. Each Mall have its own static domains xxx.eBay.com as well as storefronts able have their own domain retrofishing.com for example. As I noted previously the entirety of concept is far beyond ability to slap in a forum message.
Yes, shops compete with each other and there is no reason why eBay couldn't also provision a price comparator to external entities such as say Dicks Sporting Goods. Walmart for example has an application whereby it hunts the "popular web" for prices as they demand low price of their third party vendors.
One of the biggest pluses is the technology has moved towards the "Shops" conceptually. Mobile devices having the small real-estate means get as much filtering done to drill down to products as one can before ever displaying a product. eBay mobile APP shopping for example has one do a search then needing use filters drill down. Those filters ought be front facing before the search ever takes place. AKA: I am searching for Playstation 4 games, role playing and fighting, new, priced between $1-$10, lowest price first, w/ free shipping. Search or BROWSE. That ought be that way now.
Whats coming in eCommerce is obvious as well, interactive shopping on one's TV set. Voice command. 3D headset shopping for more true to life experience albeit the latter is probably still 15 years off.
Not knowing eBay's software architecture I can't say how much work is involved but there are things we do know about the venue.
1. Storefronts are an aside currently. They are more so a mechanism of getting more free listings than a traffic driven resource. If that were not the case they'd have far more functionality common in storefront applications.
2. It's difficult to target mass social media without the site being "Storefront first" and Social Media is a huge aggregator of traffic which is why big retail advertises in social media. By storefront first CURRENTLY I mean that sellers instead of all things "Listing First" should be "Listing Storefront First." What's that mean?
Well it means I should be able to place Tags on any products both public facing and hidden. It means I should be able to upsell, it means templating flexibilities, it means unlimited nested depths of categorizations and a plethora of features common in eCommerce storefront software.
Sellers now are "Care for my listings" vs "Care for my storefront."
But before such concepts of change can even be considered there are core issues that really need be addressed at the site and these are difficult. They are difficult because some vendors will be alienated as well as prospect impacts on eBay core revenues.
Trust and safety are a big big one and I've described how metrics could be used to alter that curve in big fashion. However in doing so, eBay core revenues might have negative impact until such a point as trust and safety are regained. There are essentially three reasons why buyers might exit eBay. First is trust and safety, bad buying experienced are a REAL REAL BIG turn off because as a whole the Internet has grown up. You've all these large entities ensuring good experiences and professional conducts consumers expect when shopping.
Second is pricing on competitive products. Now how do you control that as an "eBay." Genuine Nike shoes or whatever should be cheaper here than any other venue but sellers set what they WANT versus what their focus should be, "Any profit is better than none." Time and time again in these forums which are literally a "sliver" of the vendors at eBay you see this, "I'm not selling anything!" Forum folk look it up and yeah, prices just lunar.
Third and this is under eBay control, how difficult is it for people to shop and find product.
We can address these big three. As I noted, trust and safety can use real metrics PREFERABLY on both side of the equation seller and buyer. Right now for buyers all they have is Feedback and a percentile rating. Sellers have nothing, they've a "If buyer hasn't paid for nn items option and thats it." You as a seller have no idea if this buyer is a chronic returner for example or numerous claims returns of different than sent, on and on. Should be able filter them out, that is to say, I set options in my account and those who dont meet those standards never even see my listings. There's more.
In as far as prices go well that's difficult. Walmart uses spidering software and will block listings that are over market price. Really cant do that here. Amazon uses a reverse price to drive low price, can do that here be it frontline or optional to consumers. Not going to sellers to change their mindsets on pricing as they've been valuing based on years and years of "This is what I want get" versus "This is what I NEED get (a profit)." They will refuse to realize that the Internet has changed and they now have to compete with every retailer on the planet for the consumer dollar. People have finite money and if they are shopping at Amazon they are not spending that money here. Instead, sellers blame eBay. eBay didn't cause the Pandemic and coming out of the Pandemic the "Big guys" recognized the error of their ways not mainstreaming Internet sales in their business models. NOW they have done that AND they have taken a BIG LESSON from Walmarts enormous online success. But seller don't think they compete against Walmart for example but they do, Walmart knows it... They know for every consumer spending dollars anywhere else are not spending those dollars at Walmart. Its LITERALLY how Walmart has become king. People here think they compete with Amazon third party sellers... No, they compete with ALL OF AMAZON and Macy's, Target, every single retailer. Trust, price and shopping experience make Kings.
Now the shopping experience eBay does have control over here. People now shop mobile, allot! That mandates that whether browsing or searching it has to be as human friendly as can be. It's not.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoActually sound like a Zip drive where you would take all the multitudinous listings and zip them up into all the store fronts. I have no tech education so I am trying to understand the concept. Yes, Walmart, where Jaimie once worked I believe early on. They are killing it online for sure. And yes, you cannot even think about listing something that can be bought from walmart etc at a lower price on here. You must do your own spidering.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoActually Jaimie work with Sam’s Club.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoCurious how you think the stores should be featured the best way to make them not just a way to get free listings and make them appear more prominently on Google not just here.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoI forgot, you can pay for the clicks to feature product on google.
mr_lincoln
·2 years ago@vintagecraze50
Do you mean the Offsite Ads BETA offer? Sure, $ 100 ad credit now but at the end of the day it's another Fee based strategy for something eBay should be doing anyway to promote THEIR site and OUR items ...
I have proven on my account that Pay to Play works, the downside is it would cost me 12% - 15% more in Fees to get back to Sell through rates, growth and Sales levels that I enjoyed prior to 2022.
This is my 9th November Selling ... currently it is sitting in 6th place and it's the middle of the month. Even if sales were to double it would only move up to 5th place ...
If it tripled it would only move up to 4th place. And oh by the way, historically November ranks as my 2nd highest Selling month behind December ...
valueaddedresource
·2 years ago@mr_lincoln well said! Another caveat people need to consider with that offer - if you enroll items in the Offsite Ads beta program they will *not* also be shown in Promoted Listings Standard External placements, so it's possible you could end up with less external traffic overall as a result.
Personally I don't know that it would be worth it to risk that during Q4, even if eBay is covering $100 for Offsite Ads beta.
https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/growth/promoted-listings/offsite-ads
How will my Offsite Ads campaign affect the visibility of my Promoted Listings Standard ads in external placements?
Once you’ve created an Offsite Ads campaign, your listings can only appear on external channels through that campaign. They won’t be eligible to appear on external channels via your Promoted Listings Standard campaigns.
gloryglorygifts
·2 years agoYou have to be careful with Google. They pad those clicks. I know because I have analytics on my website and what Google charges is not the views, etc. that show on the website. Just a little fyi
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoI figured all that stuff is rigged, so I never have used it.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoSo now you can pay here to get the store featured on the top pages of the search results. That’s a move in the right direction.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoI sez' it before and I'll sayz it again... Need to shopify (and no not shopify shopify). Make the storefront software more robust, allow for domain names, mail lists, anti-social media features within which allow sellers better utilize facebook etc.
Then start focus more on categorical specialization, The Auction Mall. To this day no entity on the web has created "The Auction Mall" and it'd be a windfall for eBay leaving many other commerce venues scratching their heads wondering how to respond. It affords so much flexibility that no matter WHAT the circumstances of Internet Competition it simply CANNOT BE BEAT and IS a logical evolution towards the next waves of how people shop online, TV, 3D headsets.
To be exact when I and my ex (brilliant marketer!) designed it we wanted create the most natural to real life online shopping experience that is essentially INFINETLY extensible.
colfaxstation
·2 years agoI'm seeing a MAJOR drop in listing views in the last 4 weeks, that corresponds with a drop in sales. Had the best summer and early fall sales ever this year but starting in early October, the bottom seems to have dropped out of sales.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoJust read numerous articles on reasons for decline in general. Primarily, WEAK CONSUMER SPENDING, started to get really bad beginning of this quarter. Critics say they cannot curtail their costs to run the business. Stock down. Many saying that the company is heading in a downward spiral. But these stock people always get into these discussions in this manner when things are not that great. One said Ebay just does not have much pizazz, anymore. Well the verticals have pizzazz right?
valueaddedresource
·2 years ago@vintagecraze50 not sure of the context of the one you're talking about here but I think it might come down to pizzazz compared to what?
I think it's fair to say the verticals have more "pizazz" than the non-verticals on eBay primarily because eBay has chosen to invest so much in them - many new features/experiences on the site (eBay Live shopping for example) are all vertical focus, ad campaigns and special events are almost vertical focus, etc.
So comparing focus verticals to non-focus verticals within eBay certainly makes those categories "pop"...but the real question is how does eBay stack up to other options consumers have for those focus vertical goods? I think that may be where analysts see a lack of pizzazz.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·2 years agoI've got pizzazz. Wait what? That's Pizza followed sleep right?
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoYeah. I got a very nice pizazz store with a lot of stuff.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoSo where are the customers. I think they have school loans to pay or something much more important .
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoRetro you continue to be the stress reducing force I need right now. You are terrific.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoPeople I think are getting really tight as time goes by with spending, it keeps getting tighter and tighter.
cool.jewels.by.jeff
·2 years agoOur sales dropped on ebay immediately back in late 2021 and have not come close to what they were. It was like a light switch.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoPandemic—everybody was selling tons then. Those days are way over absolutely. Never again on here.
reallynicestamps
·2 years ago@cool.jewels.by.jeff
Our sales dropped on ebay immediately back in late 2021 and have not come close to what they were. It was like a light switch.
As did every other online seller and site.
When most of the population was vaccinated, the urgent need to shut down and stop people breathing on each other ended, and B&M stores and malls re-opened.
Online sales suffered.
Meanwhile, slow moving big box stores finally realized that much of their product could be more efficiently sold online either for pickup or for delivery.
The nimble little guy lost sales to the lower prices the big guys could offer. And to their efficient delivery systems.
So how do we little guys find our niche in the market?
yuzuha
·2 years agoYep to all of this. In-store sales at my B&M job pretty much cratered for most of 2020 and 2021, but our curbside pickup orders increased by so much that we had to get an entirely new software system to handle the volume because our previous one couldn't take that many orders per day.
Once things opened back up again and everyone started going back out, our in-sale stores bounced back and our curbside pickup sales dropped significantly, though we still get a lot of people using that option for the convenience factor.
cool.jewels.by.jeff
·2 years agoWe only experienced this on ebay.
zamo-zuan
·2 years agoProblem is, they have dropped even below pre-2018 numbers and have never recovered.
eBay functionality has also drastically changed, not only with promotions exploiting sellers more than ever, but it does less than ever to actually increase sales now. It's just a "requirement" to get a baseline of sales, not something that actually brings in many sales now.
Say what you want about the economy and compare to other sites... But the fact is, the top 10 sellers of each category are getting SUBSTANTIALLY less income on eBay now than they were 1 year ago, two years ago, five years ago.
And the site is glitchier than ever, and rather than them even pretend to be working on it, the tech team and even leadership team? They literally ghost you.
Let's not ignore the fact that, despite economic issues, eBay has HUGE problems. They have been putting on bandaids to try to make things look great for the stock holders, but the bandaids have already begun to slip off, and sellers can feel it.
tramp0014
·2 years agoAnd for this reason too, I abandoned eBay and am closing my account!!! I’m tired of the boundless greed of the site owners and no protection from scammers, especially with “professional experts†who don’t know a **bleep** thing about watch technology (I traded watches), they crap into my soul!!!
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoAll I have to say is that this CEO has a lot of challenges to face in this current environment balancing a lot of factors and circumstances. It’s never an easy job with trends, economy, stocks, competition etc etc. God help him always.
femmefan1946
·2 years agoIf I sell 100 items for $10 each I gross $1000.
If I sell 10 items for $1000 each I gross $10,000.
The sellers who are selling are selling their more expensive items, just fewer of them.
vintagecraze50
·2 years agoThe program is not abusive. It is not forced on ANYONE. You can choose to profit from it if you want, WHICH, a lot of people are. Go figure.