Ebay Changes To Help Large Merchants Sell New Products
Dow Jones
July 24, 2009: 07:47 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- Ebay Inc. (EBAY) is poised to announce on Monday a series of changes to its core marketplaces business that are designed to help large vendors sell new goods in greater volumes.
Ebay will tweak its search algorithm to favor new products, allow sellers to include more and bigger photos in their listings for free, and do away with features that sellers have used to dress up their listings, two people familiar with the e-commerce giant's plans said.
The company will also limit communications between buyers and sellers, a step designed to ease the burden for volume-sellers, they said.
The San Jose, Calif.-based company will also introduce a series of categories to describe an item's condition, such as "brand new," "factory refurbished," " used: like new" or "damaged." Sellers previously were required to specify only whether a product was new or used. The changes will be implemented later this year, the people familiar with the plans said.
The changes will help underpin eBay's ongoing shift away from auction sales toward fixed-price listings, which are increasingly popular among online shoppers.
"It's directionally very positive," said one of the people familiar with eBay's plans. "We're seeing more changes this time than ever before."
On Wednesday, eBay Chief Executive John Donahoe said the upcoming changes - which he didn't detail - are part of the company's continuing effort to overhaul its core marketplaces unit, which generates more than half the company's $8.5 billon in annual revenue. Ebay's other key businesses include its PayPal online payment business and Internet telephony service Skype.
An eBay spokesman declined to comment for this story.
Ebay, which established itself as a quirky online auction site for used and antique items, has struggled to reinvent itself in the face of intensifying competition from rivals. For example, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) has continued to capture a greater share of the e-commerce market with a growing selection of fixed-price items and often free shipping.
In a bid to reverse the trend, Donahoe told investors earlier this year that eBay will focus on establishing itself in the "secondary market" by serving as a platform for sellers offering fixed-price out-of-season and overstock items in bulk.
On July 22, the company surprised Wall Street analysts by reporting better- than-expected second-quarter results, a sign its turnaround efforts were beginning to pay off. Shares of the company, which have gained more than 52% so far this year, closed down 1.3% at $21.24 on Friday.
Ebay has said Monday's announcement will mark the second - and last - time the company will introduce changes to its marketplaces platform this year. The company made numerous revisions last year, a pace of change that sellers said was hard to keep up with.
Other changes include the introduction of a "top-rated seller" program, under which sellers will be more stringently evaluated based on the quality of their products and service.
Sellers will also be given the criteria that eBay uses to determine which products are the "best match" for any given product search. That will give sellers a better sense of how to boost their rankings within search results.
-By Scott Morrison, Dow Jones Newswires;
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~Jillian
artist, Jillian Crider
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~Jillian
artist, Jillian Crider
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