I've been on these boards voicing my extreme dissatisfaction with the loss of listing time options for several days. I've called ebay multiple times, and I've ranted and raved. I think a lot of this came out of shock and confusion, as I just could not figure out why in God's name they would have done this.
To ME, in my mind, eliminating the urgency that short duration auctions provided was basically suicidal for eBay, and homicidal to my business by eBay's hand.
It's taken me a few days to digest this change, and really put it into perspective. I think I have finally come up with the bigger picture answer here, and I have begun to see this from eBay's perspective.
Let me start this by saying this: eBay is not an evil, greedy corporation, looking to suck everyone's blood and destroy everyone's businesses.
eBay is simply a BUSINESS themselves. But eBay is a different kind of business than any of us run on their site (unless any of you are running a global, publicly traded corporation on eBay - then you are excluded from that statement).
They are a Multinational GIGANTIC global corporation, which is publicly traded on Wall Street. They have shareholders to answer to, board members, and also of course almost 7 million sellers.
So while I may not agree with everything they do (all of us might not)? It's important to try to think like them, and consider that they are trying to keep eBay afloat and viable for EVERYONE, including their sellers that depend on them and this website.
If they do not produce profits, growth, dividends and good stats for their shareholders (who may be some of you too), and get their stock price to go up? There will be no more eBay.
We will just wake up one day and our favorite market place will be gone. It's a sobering reality to think about. I would be extremely, extremely upset and crushed if eBay were to be no more personally.
That said, many of you may become very angry at what I am going to reveal here, some not so much, and some of you might not care. But understand I am not writing this to "unmask a villian" here and reveal the "evil master plan"..
What's going on here is simply a calculated business decision, and it actually makes a lot of sense (whether you agree with it in full or not).
What I've seen on these boards (and some of these opinions were previously espoused by me as well) are some basic (incorrect I believe) assumptions, and judgements as to why eBay instituted this GTC change - and took away our previous options:
1) "It's a sneaky fee grab because they are depending on my unwanted GTC renewal fees as a cash cow because they can't produce more sales!!"
I don't believe this is true. I firmly believe eBay will remedy this unwanted consequence somehow, because I do not believe this was their intention. They have also come out vehemently that this was NOT their intention by doing this. I do not think they are lying to our faces that blatantly. This was not their real intention for this change (In my opinion).
2) "They're idiots who have no idea how to run this website!! They arent actual eBay sellers and they are making changes just to make them without realizing how much they are going to hurt my (and their) sales!!"
I was one of the people saying this initially. I do not think this is the case anymore. One thing is for certain at least? They are NOT idiots.
3)"They are trying to push all the small sellers off the site!! They dont want us here anymore!! They just want big China companies (Big corporations, etc)!!"
Again, no I do not think this is their real intention either. Although it might be an unfortunate collateral consequence it seems, to early to tell. I do not believe that this was the "spirit" behind this decision though. It just doesn't make enough sense. "Casual" sellers who create bad buying experiences for customers are already being weeded out by their other systems, so it just wouldn't make financial sense to axe 30% of your sales force in this way. The revenue losses would be tremendous, and there would be little to no way to make up for them (again in my opinion that is).
4) "They want to force me to buy a store subscription even though I don't want one!!"
This is probably true, but it's not the whole picture. Us buying store subscriptions though makes them more money, so obviously if this was one of the reasons for the change? It would make sense, and I couldn't argue with it as a capitalist understanding they are running a business as well, and knowing all the things I said initially. So this one? Probably true, but not the main intention (in my opinion again)
Why is eBay really doing this? Here is my synopsis:
I believe now that forced GTC is a way to basically nudge more sellers to start using promoted listings.
It's a very covert way of raising their Final Value Fees without actually announcing that change (and really pissing people off)...
I think they thought the change to GTC really wouldn't upset too many people, because they claimed that 80% of listings on the site are already GTC anyway.
I think they underestimated how many people would be upset about this though, and this amount of backlash was not what they were anticipating.
It's just ironic that all that backlash has been coming from complaints that were incorrect about their agenda (in my opinion).
I believe eBay figured something out here as far as the short term listing duration options go: I believe that they figured out that sellers were getting "free" organic boosts on the site, using these options.
Especially the 3 day option, which is basically all promoted organically..You get the newly listed boost for a while, and then pretty much right after that ends you are getting a free ending soon boost as well. Plus you are getting free buyer urgency to help you make a sale. You were charged nothing for all this before (except the FVF fee and a nominal listing fee if you had no store)
I believe that eBay came to the realization and made the decision: "Why give sellers something for free? when we can start charging them to promote instead?"
I think this the biggest reason they have done this now.
Also, and I know this is true for me; I don't use promoted listings for shorter duration BIN listings. I don't have to really.
So by allowing those duration options there for my (our) use? They were actually losing money on a big segment of sellers who they believe will now start paying for promotions instead.
They were leaving money on the table before. This closes that gap.
Now with this change?
It totally levels the playing field for everyone and there are NO organic boosts anymore. (outside of "newly" listed, but how long does that last when all your listings start going through the GTC cycles, if they do?)
With everything GTC there is no longer ending soonest boosting, as nothing ever technically "ends". Plus there's no more organic urgency. If you think how great that is for eBay, with their promoted listing structure in place to fill the gap? It's almost astonishing.
It's a complete win - win for them. Now as a seller you can have slow or moderate sales compared to what you had before with your short duration's? OR you can promote your listings to get them to sell faster, and pay higher Final Value Fees voluntarily.
And of course? You can always lower your prices to get faster sales. Either way? eBay wins (in their minds at least I think).
Eliminating the shorter duration's to me now is just eliminating a few freebies they were giving away for a long time - Organic listing boosting is definitely one of them.
In one fell swoop they took that away completely, and also took away the free URGENCY that those listings created for buyers as well.
I couldn't figure out why in god's name they would have done this. Until this all hit me. Because that URGENCY? Is also a FREE TOOL they had been giving us.
Now? No More. Now it's basically just paid promotions.
eBay has very, very brilliantly changed the entire landscape of their market, in a very simple way. To accommodate and usher in a whole new "promotion" game it seems to me.
And they are proving that there is no free lunch out there big time.
I'm not as angry now that I understand this. I'm not thrilled about it either, but I'm also not as confused. Now this all makes sense from their perspective at least.
I've also heard that they will be initiating a feature where you can send offers to watchers. I think this is brilliant, and it will actually help very much to convert GTC listings (which in the past you simply could not do at all, except running a sale maybe).
I also like the idea that every listing now with have automatic Make Offer included for free (at least this is what I heard they are going to start doing site wide).
I think these two features will help with sales a lot. I don't use best offer too much now, but admittedly in the past it has helped me make a lot more sales when I did. So they aren't wrong about that.
In a nutshell? I think what I listed above was the "master plan" though..
It's really the only thing that really makes sense from a big picture, macroscopic lens that eBay sees the world and the market place through.
All in all, I do not think it's a bad idea. I think it balances out their needs as a business to survive, and our needs to make sales and money pretty well. If you think of it in those terms, which you really have to. If you want eBay to be here to sell on.
If this truth **bleep** you off? I'm sorry, but it seems it is what it is at this point.
I can't say that I am definitely going to start promoting my listngs, but maybe I will at 1 or 2% to compensate for the other lost free tools. Luckily my profits on my items are usually good enough, and my FVF's in my category are pretty low as to where I wont really feel a 1% increase or so in FVF's.
But that's just me.
I have no idea how others will fare with this, and I doubt eBay does either.
This seems like a very calculated "hail mary" play, where if it works? It might work wonders.
If it blows up in their face with the sellers? It could also spell catastrophe as well.
I guess we'll see how it plays out.
That's my new take on all this. It's their sandbox, and I need and want them around as a venue to sell on.
So I'm going to stick around and see how this all plays out.
It could wind up being for the best. Or it could wind up being the worst thing they have ever done/tried and sink the entire website. That's the cold reality of all this.
We shall see
Good Luck to you all.
