eBay's Downfall?

[dugoldstuff]

Very interesting article. I bolded /redded the best parts:

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4188922-ebay-stagnation-mode

eBay: In Stagnation Mode

Jul. 21, 2018 3:18 PM ET

eBay's second-quarter earnings report fell heavily short of analyst expectations, with revenue growth dimming to 9% y/y (from 12% y/y last quarter). The company's below-consensus guidance caused the stock to take its biggest hit. GMV growth in the U.S. also showed its weakest growth rate since a year ago, while the volume of sold items stayed flat. Margins also showed a worrying contraction.

Despite all the signals that keep pointing to its demise, eBay (EBAY), the one-time e-commerce wunderkind, continues to plod forward as if it was still a giant of the internet. Like last quarter's earnings release, eBay's Q2 post showed a company that is continually unable to meet analysts' targets as the company fails to accelerate the process of bringing new buyers to its platform.

Rightly so, eBay has been one of the worst-performing of the large-cap internet stocks all year, despite general enthusiasm for the e-commerce space. Companies like Etsy (ETSY) and Stitch Fix (SFIX) that were earlier pegged as losers, for example, have shot up meaningfully in the first half of 2018, as has perpetual giant Amazon.com (AMZN). eBay, however, seems incapable of reversing its slow decline. Year to date, the stock is down nearly 10%.

Yet, I believe the shares have further to fall. Activity on eBay seems to simply be running cold. Call it the hangover effects of eBay's fee hikes in the past several years - as sellers walked out on eBay in protestation of higher seller fees and took their variety of wares with them, buyers also saw less and less reason to buy on eBay. One of the things shoppers like most about Amazon is that it's the "everything store," where you can type in even the most obscure of items and find at least one seller that carries it. On eBay, with both the selection and volume of items getting thinner, it's getting harder and harder to bring buyers to the platform and, more importantly, reverse the steep deceleration in GMV growth.

[chapeau-noir]

---

@castlemagicmemories wrote:

---

@jason_incognito wrote:

eBay will not seperate used from New.

eBay originally rolled out new as it's own area and it bombed. They finally integrated it into all the rest to make it work.

---

Yes, I remember that.  Ebay Express.  It failed.

I think that was when they put store listings into search.

I just think they should offer both, new and used; the greater variety, the larger the buyer base, and that expands as needs occur, building a loyalty and boosting sales, IMO.  More variety, greater selection, greater chances of sales.  

---

I recall eBay Express, but I think its reason for failure was that after design and implementation, eBay seemed not to know what to do with it and just let it languish.  With lack of any follow-through or due diligence any project is bound to fail.  I remember scratching my head over the waste of resources.

Dumping stores into core was a separate issue, but I do think it took place roughly at the same time.

[sonoranboutique]

---

@futuretomorrow wrote:

@ebbyisme

5. Amazon has an infrastructure that eBay can't even begin to compete with because they have none.

6. Amazon has AWS, Amazon Fresh, they rolled out new business startup package in 2018 for small businesses and they are working on a clothing technology (it's now in testing) that if successful will completely revolutionize online shopping for clothes.

7. Nike, the worlds largest footwear and sports retailer partnered with Amazon, not eBay.

Not only does eBay have none of these things what so ever, these are the things we publicly know Amazon is doing, not the full breadth of their patents and all technologies in action. While it's convenient for many, I don't even see these as comparable companies anymore. eBay would need Trillions, yes...forget the B's and let's jump straight to the T's, in order to even stand a chance against Amazon at this point.

---

Yeah not to mention all the money that Amazon makes from cloud computing and other things (edit: derp, that's what AWS is.  I'm tired.)  This is why it makes me laugh when EBay thinks it will gain profits by copying Amazon on everything, and doing things like implementing a "product catalog".  It just makes me just want to pat EBay on the head and say "Wow a product catalog, good job little buddy!"  Let's watch them implement that and see their stock continue to plummet and sales in the ebay market continue to go down year after year, just like with every other change they make.

Seriously, EBay is EBay, they need to stop wasting so much money on the horrible new Seller Hub, Free Returns, and a Product Catalog.  If they invested any money into making EBay more EBayish then they could just ride the wave of the economic boom instead of their stock going in the opposite direction.

[grasshopperx]

Everyone is leaving this site! Member since 01. Just this morning I went looking for three things. One was a coffee seller. Looking for a special coffee. Gone . 0 items listed. Another was a place I've been going to for years. Hundreds of listings, now only 12! Third seller sold craft supplies. This seller no longer exists. This is just this morning. I guess when sellers cant be seen and make no sales they GO! This ship is SINKING fast. I personally think it's to far gone to EVER be repaired. It just keeps getting worse. Unless they fired all the management and started over.

[fairystonevintage]

Some of the feedback from EX EBAY employees who got laid off recently. Some interesting notes here that prove what we were talking about the recent changes

---------------

eBay abuses the very people who pay their wages..
I quit working for eBay after sitting in long executive meetings, where management basically plotted ways to farm more and more money from Sellers, without any actual knowledge or research to show why they where doing it. They would 'create' market research which they would release to the public, yet it was completely false and made up only to support their hypotheses - which normally included making it more and more difficult for the account holders (sellers) to actually, well, sell. Many of us often were left perplexed by what they were trying to do, none of it made sense - destroy the account holders with ridiculous policies and charge them more for doing so? It literally gobsmacked me. That along with the fraud was the last straw for me, they used to a good, fun business, since the last five years, the new CEO's, havung never sold on eBay have single handedly destroyed it. I fear, that it was intentional, to basically short the stock. Who knows.

--------------

Our CIO is one of the biggest "all me and only me" types that ever walked the earth. Shareholders have got to wake up and smell the air - they have to ACTIVELY police the executives activities as they are representing a threat to the longevity of the company. Since when are bank executives the right choice, please tell me? Just have them leave. Meanwhile, while we are working on finding new jobs please ensure that no eBay executive leaves the company (in order to prevent them from f---ing up other companies). eBay used to be a company to be proud to work for, but that's not the case any more.

--------------

After over a decade at eBay, I was let go as well. I’m happy in a way, because I was too comfortable working there, even when I felt the company is poorly run and see no bright future. But in my opinion, everyone up top should get slashed, and not the people who delivers what they wanted. It’s been years after split, and nothing has been achieved. All the people up top failed.

[gurlzroc]

It's becoming a total farce,I have been selling off an on for years ,was even in that scam where they took away all feedback and started a person all over on thier feedback scores.I personally will be starting to slowly wean myself off of E-bay and onto another site.Good Luck All.

[suznn2010]

ebay keeps pushing china sellers! i purposely cut my sales on ebay with the forced free returns, i'm still get charged the $.40 fee on the shipping cost, plus packaging costs.. it's out of pocket and i didn't sign up for it!

[suznn2010]

i didn't sign up for this, she returned it said it wasn't soft, so i get charged?

i want my 64c back!

      VTG New $155 Anbian White Battenburg Lace Hem Tiered Cotton Maxi Skirt Floral S Final Value Fee on Shipping US $0.64 VTG New $155 Anbian White Battenburg Lace Hem Tiered Cotton Maxi Skirt Floral S Final Value fee US $2.40       VTG New $155 Anbian White Battenburg Lace Hem Tiered Cotton Maxi Skirt Floral S Final Value fee −US $2.40 Transaction ID: 1734820812006 Return ID: 5090307314      

[ozarkjoe]

Part of the problem is Wall Street and the MBA business school mentality.  Running a good business with profits and customer satisfaction is not good enough.   You must show constant growth to the stock holders.   If that means cutting back on quality, gimmicks, looting assets, private equity vampires, etc.  then so be it.  

[my_boston_baked_beans]

No to say, as was once conversed, that eBay was trying to make itself marketable for takeover by giants like Alibaba not a snowballs chance in hell for that with eBay's market stats. Not worth the investment!

Alibaba

[mr.scrappy-doo]

75% of my current age comics were listed under the Catagory Platinum age comics in Dec/2017 to July. If your searching for comics after 2012 why would you be looking in the 1800-1938 age comics? I used the eBay catagory & it just switched. That’s just one of three problems after they took my raise away in July/2017 so they could fix a broken eBay. They didn’t have any answers for me. My problems got worse not better.

[luckythewinner]

---

@my_boston_baked_beans wrote:

No to say, as was once conversed, that eBay was trying to make itself marketable for takeover by giants like Alibaba not a snowballs chance in hell for that with eBay's market stats. Not worth the investment!

---

Thank god for that, because Alibaba proved with 11Main that they have no idea how to operate in the US market.