@gamersbaystore wrote:
I think its a terrible idea to force sellers to select items for sale from a predefined product list. ebay tried this in the past by forcing sellers to use UPC's/ISBN's when listing in certain categories. It created so many problems ebay backtracked and stopped doing it.
The last time I used ebay's catalog to list a DVD using ISBN, my account was suspended for copyright violations over the images ebay themselves provided. Never again.
Those ISBN numbers are also often recycled and reused for multiple variations of the same movie, game, etc.
I also dont need ebay or anyone else to decide what my listing description and title state, sellers can make such decisions on their own.
I can certainly describe something without having to rely on a software program to do it for me. Some of us can tie our own shoes.
Yea, well unfortunately with the amounts of data being dealt with people then yell about exposure. Again, important to understand most of the civilized world now shops using their cellphones, very very limited real-estate. On a PC or Laptop a consumer at best scroll through one or two page fulls, on a cellphone thats ONE. So there are 1001 DIE HARD DVD's and 25 get displayed not even considering cross sell, up sell, that goes out the window unless within the description or checkout process. Upsell and Cross sell are hugely important, every retailer and mom/pop shop on the planet relies on that.
Amazon is #1 in hard goods sales across the globe for three reasons:
1. The listing format is one product not 1001 listings for ONE product.
2. Multiple offers organized within that one product requiring sellers to price compete for sales.
3. Amazon is a retailer and able to leverage everything said before that a Walmart, Target, or Macy's does.
The above even before the cellphone explosion that exists now.
There exists no way to create "Fair exposure" of articles where there are literally hundreds more or less thousands of listings on a small cellphone screen whereby buyers see ONE SCREEN. One in 50 or one in a hundred might click, "Lets see another page." They ARE FAR more likely to filter on NEW than anything else and want buy lowest price.
The LAST THING ANY point of sale be it online or Brick & Mortar is have buyers have to jump through hoops to even try FIND what they are looking for more or less when they do show them a 1001 of em' all from different vendors.
There are many a way eBay could go at mass numbers of an item trying display them promoted listings is one, another might be rank by metrics and quantity available along with price. Amazon for example shifts its best "case" sellers into the Buy Box, the Buy Box will sell SO MANY more than people clicking into the competitive (all seller) link make you're head spin. By accident twice back in the day when PC Software was the "in" thing it happened to us twice by category manager mistake. We'd orders come in literally every minute and half we sold more in a single day than we'd sell there in three or four months. It's that dramatic nor were we low price. In fact, thats when the decision was made to program up "First Strike" a repricing engine that worked so very well Amazon nixed it.
I've said all along that eBay ought do exactly what Amazon does albeit a rather modified format. Vendors don't like, they've no place else to go but Amazon which is tyrannical in comparison. There's no "guessing" there as to what works, finding things, lowest price, demanding professionalism works... The proof is there to see. Even deployed as an "optional view" for buyers and measure the performance.
As to ISBN, UPC etc. well that's all changing to QR, already happening. QR code allows for 3K of embedded data to show manufacturer lot, distributor on and on, very versatile and likely kill "arbitrage" since most manufacturers, distributors and retailers as well as law under Predatory Business Conducts can be pursued. Target isn't in the business of making privateers money who buy Black Friday Deals to resell, nor is Sony or Microsoft or Disney.
There's allot up in the air my friend perhaps more than I've ever seen in online sales history and I was there at the start before eBay was eBay. It was Auction Web and I'd done some programming work for Haggle which was a free competitor site. I gifted ideas to Pierre' who started this place albeit most never came to be part of the place. How do you think back in the day managed get into Onsale, iDeal's Networks, Auction World, uBid etc?
We made an equation. Delisted PC Games didn't tend have much in the way profits for any of those entities, wat sorta money they make in commission on $10 and $15 games even if you sell a thousand a month? Peanuts. But it'd draw traffic as those folks not looking spend bigger $$$ well... Match made in heaven, everyone was using PC's and Laptops and software was a "natural."
That and the fact we'd come forth really good ideas my ex being a marketing whiz/politician and me knowing software engineering, two fit like a glove in idea creation thinking side by side. So we managed get into the iDeal networks and used that along with the idea seeds to get into the big time places. In corporations Marketing looks at engineers like "Oh geeks" and engineers look at marketing like, "Oh big deal... How to sell stuff, I can do that." Reality is marketing is far far far far more complex but getting the two to "Jibe" as a "Unit" really difficult... Somehow Amazon has managed do that very well even across their Web Services platform.
Problem eBay has is anytime they'd consider a new platform they end up having to be concerned about competing against this platform. Half.com failed because of lack of seller adoption and now there myriads of sellers here who also use Amazon, a platform much like half.com and likely do better there than here. Irony can be a cold iron!
I don't claim have all the answers... I think good place eBay start is going back to Onsale's old model whereby a pure auction venue exists with select vendors. That is to say a whole new site offering up legit in demand products and begin transitioning eBay into something new, I'd say "The Auction Mall" which I'd briefly described in another post. That doesn't loose what is here but instead builds upon it offering new opportunities for the company, its sellers and buyers.
