According to Valleywag, eBay is going to announce layoffs this Monday or at the latest before the earnings call on the 15th. This comes at no surprise to me as eBay's stock has been tanking as of late(it closed at $18.94 on Friday). I think the consensus among the analysts on Wall Street is that eBay is no longer a growth stock and shouldn't be given the same P/E multiples it enjoyed during its growth phase.
The concerning thing to me about the layoffs is who are they going to cut? Has eBay just decided that "eBay customer service" is an oxymoron and it is not going to employ anymore customer service employees? Or is eBay going to cut its trust and safety department and let fraud run rampant? I guess I will just have to wait and see like everyone else...
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
eBay is now copying Google as well...Adwords for eBay
When you can't innovate on your own it always seems to make sense to copy others who can. eBay is now going to make its search results more like Google's search results by adding "eBay adcommerce" to their platform. Adcommerce from what I can tell is a knock off on Google's Adwords. It allows sellers to bid on Keywords to drive traffic to their eBay stores. I actually like the idea and its success I think hinders on whether buyers will actually click on the ads. The negatives to this change are that it will definitely hurt the smaller eBay sellers who can't afford to pay for the traffic. Please post any thought or comments below.
Link to the announcement and more details on Adcommerce-
http://pages.ebay.com/adcommerceintro/
Link to the announcement and more details on Adcommerce-
http://pages.ebay.com/adcommerceintro/
Friday, September 19, 2008
Donahoe Approval Rating From Employees under 30%
Fortunately for John Donahoe the employees don't vote on who is CEO at eBay. According to Glassdoor.com John's approval rating is coming in at just under 30%. Apparently not even 1 in 3 eBay employees is happy with the job that John is doing at eBay.
According to a Wired.com article, John Donahoe is not rated last but next to last among CEO's with reviews by 50 or more employees. The worst rating that came in belonged to the CEO of Motorola. Although the ratings are probably skewed for a number of reasons such as:
1. A rumor is circling that eBay is going to announce a large lay off.
2. In general employees who are upset post on Glassdoor.com.
3. People who were pushed out when Meg Whitman left, left negative reviews.
Nonetheless, the data shows that a large percentage of the eBay employees is not on board with John and his plans for eBay. Just for curiosities sake I am going to put a poll up for readers to vote on whether or not they approve of John's job as CEO of eBay. The poll's goal is to get an approval rating from eBay users and compare it to the employees.
Also, please post all your comments and thoughts below as to why you think John's ratings are where they are.
According to a Wired.com article, John Donahoe is not rated last but next to last among CEO's with reviews by 50 or more employees. The worst rating that came in belonged to the CEO of Motorola. Although the ratings are probably skewed for a number of reasons such as:
1. A rumor is circling that eBay is going to announce a large lay off.
2. In general employees who are upset post on Glassdoor.com.
3. People who were pushed out when Meg Whitman left, left negative reviews.
Nonetheless, the data shows that a large percentage of the eBay employees is not on board with John and his plans for eBay. Just for curiosities sake I am going to put a poll up for readers to vote on whether or not they approve of John's job as CEO of eBay. The poll's goal is to get an approval rating from eBay users and compare it to the employees.
Also, please post all your comments and thoughts below as to why you think John's ratings are where they are.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Fed Loans $85 Billion to Small Business Owners...wait, no...to just AIG, 1 poorly run large business
This is not going to be a long post but I am still scratching my head about the fed's bailout of AIG. $85 billion loaned to just 1 poorly run company???
Being a small business owner myself, I just wonder if this money was well spent. Now imagine the Fed decided to actually lend this money to hard working small business owners. I think that the taxpayers of America would get a better return on their money if this was the case.
Anyway, I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on the government's bailout of AIG.
Being a small business owner myself, I just wonder if this money was well spent. Now imagine the Fed decided to actually lend this money to hard working small business owners. I think that the taxpayers of America would get a better return on their money if this was the case.
Anyway, I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on the government's bailout of AIG.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
eBay is Testing a New Listing and Search Page
An anonymous ebay seller has sent me these images of select screen shots of the new listing and search pages that eBay is testing. It appears from the screen shots below that the Amazonification of eBay is in full gear. The changes emphasize less of the actual seller and their description of the item and put more emphasis on eBay's product details.
In this first picture we see the importance of being in eBay's product catalog because there are only 3 matching items for "Sony VX2000"(you can click on the image for a larger picture). This change will pull out all of the accessories that typically flood the search results.(like batteries and chargers in this category) Although as you can see that the buyers will have to click on the "matching product" to get only those 3 results.
In this image below the seller has blocked out any identifying information. However, you can still get a feel for how the new layout looks.
In the image below, this is what immediately follows the image above on the new listing page. After this last image would be where the seller's description would show.
Please post your thoughts and comments on the changes. For the most part it seems to me as if the changes will allow buyers to find the items they are looking for more quickly. However, by minimizing the focus on the actual seller and more on the product for sale, I believe that this will make it difficult for sellers who are trying to differentiate themselves based on their feedback and customer service. Nonetheless, these are just another bunch of changes that eBay is throwing at sellers and will likely cause some stress for many sellers as they will have to keep constantly changing their listing strategy. Anyway, those are just a few of my thoughts and I would love to hear what everyone else thinks on the topic. Please post your comments below.
In this first picture we see the importance of being in eBay's product catalog because there are only 3 matching items for "Sony VX2000"(you can click on the image for a larger picture). This change will pull out all of the accessories that typically flood the search results.(like batteries and chargers in this category) Although as you can see that the buyers will have to click on the "matching product" to get only those 3 results.
In this image below the seller has blocked out any identifying information. However, you can still get a feel for how the new layout looks.
In the image below, this is what immediately follows the image above on the new listing page. After this last image would be where the seller's description would show.
Please post your thoughts and comments on the changes. For the most part it seems to me as if the changes will allow buyers to find the items they are looking for more quickly. However, by minimizing the focus on the actual seller and more on the product for sale, I believe that this will make it difficult for sellers who are trying to differentiate themselves based on their feedback and customer service. Nonetheless, these are just another bunch of changes that eBay is throwing at sellers and will likely cause some stress for many sellers as they will have to keep constantly changing their listing strategy. Anyway, those are just a few of my thoughts and I would love to hear what everyone else thinks on the topic. Please post your comments below.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Top 5 Mistakes eBay Sellers Make
Here is a list of the top 5 mistakes that I see many eBay sellers make.
1. Having a bad eBay account name- I can't tell you how many times I have seen crude and sexually explicit names on ebay or just downright disgusting names. You account name is part of your marketing strategy and having a name like stinkyfinger or bluevommit just doesn't make people want to buy from you.
2. Taking bad pictures- a picture is worth a thousand words and the last thing you want is a bad picture of the item you are selling. Many sellers don't take the time to take good pictures of the items they are selling and this hurts the prices that they get on their items. If you are going to take a picture make sure you have sufficient light and don't have strong shadows.
3. Using Stock Photos- This only applies to sellers of used goods. Using a stock photo as your only picture or not having any photos at all will significantly discount the item you are selling. Obviously if you are selling items that are worth less than say $10 then it might not be worth your time to take the photo. But for everyone else you need to have actual pictures of the items you have for sale.
4. Answering emails slowly- people act on impulses and when a buyer has taken the time to ask a question about your item, however crazy the question it might be, you need to respond quickly. Your response time conveys a lot of information to the buyer and if you are quick to respond you are probably also quick to resolve any issues that might arise during the transaction.
5. Failing to clearly post your return policy, shipping policy, and any warranty information in your listings- As a seller you need to put in all the relevant information about your items in a clear format so buyers can easily get answers to their questions. If you fail to do this you will definitely get many time wasted emails about your shipping policy and return policy. Save yourself some time upfront and answer these questions once, when you create your listing, and not repeatedly through email.
1. Having a bad eBay account name- I can't tell you how many times I have seen crude and sexually explicit names on ebay or just downright disgusting names. You account name is part of your marketing strategy and having a name like stinkyfinger or bluevommit just doesn't make people want to buy from you.
2. Taking bad pictures- a picture is worth a thousand words and the last thing you want is a bad picture of the item you are selling. Many sellers don't take the time to take good pictures of the items they are selling and this hurts the prices that they get on their items. If you are going to take a picture make sure you have sufficient light and don't have strong shadows.
3. Using Stock Photos- This only applies to sellers of used goods. Using a stock photo as your only picture or not having any photos at all will significantly discount the item you are selling. Obviously if you are selling items that are worth less than say $10 then it might not be worth your time to take the photo. But for everyone else you need to have actual pictures of the items you have for sale.
4. Answering emails slowly- people act on impulses and when a buyer has taken the time to ask a question about your item, however crazy the question it might be, you need to respond quickly. Your response time conveys a lot of information to the buyer and if you are quick to respond you are probably also quick to resolve any issues that might arise during the transaction.
5. Failing to clearly post your return policy, shipping policy, and any warranty information in your listings- As a seller you need to put in all the relevant information about your items in a clear format so buyers can easily get answers to their questions. If you fail to do this you will definitely get many time wasted emails about your shipping policy and return policy. Save yourself some time upfront and answer these questions once, when you create your listing, and not repeatedly through email.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Will Facebook treat its developers like eBay has treated its sellers?
Much of eBay's success can be attributed to the thousands upon thousands of small mom and pop eBay sellers who helped start the site in the early days. These sellers helped eBay grow, and eBay wouldn't be where it is today with out them. eBay was reliant upon these sellers in the early days and because of this treated them for the most part fairly. By doing this, eBay was able to create a vast marketplace unrivaled in its unique content (you can find just about anything for sale on eBay). Nonetheless, as times changed and eBay's fortunes weren't growing as quickly as it would have liked, eBay began to squeeze these same sellers who helped make eBay what it is today. Many of these small sellers are now going out of business as eBay is making deals with large retailers like Buy.com, which disadvantages these many small sellers.
The reason I mention Facebook is that having been a small eBay seller who was squeezed by eBay, I see a possible red flag for many small developers making those quirky applications on Facebook (which can allow you to toss sheep at friends or play Scrabble). Although Facebook has opened up their site to allow developers to create applications, there are still many signs that Facebook will squeeze its developers as soon as it needs to keep its own fortunes growing. For instance, Facebook intermittently shut down the Super Wall application in the past month for a supposed violation of the privacy agreement (which reminds me of the time eBay pulled one of my listings for a listing violation). This is just a friendly warning to those developers spending lots of their time and money on developing these applications: as soon as Facebook needs to meet growth expectations or fails to make enough money to go public, your applications will be the first to feel the pain.
For eBay, it was just business as usual -- it needed to grow, and the eBay sellers were just in its way. For Facebook, the same thing is bound to happen -- history repeats itself, and it is unlikely that the big fish in the Facebook ecosystem, Facebook, is going to let other small fish live forever.
My only suggestion to the developers is to create a union-like organization that behaves similarly to PESA (Professional eBay Sellers Alliance) and try to negotiate deals with Facebook now before it is too late...
Thanks for reading and please subscribe to this post's rss feed. Also, if you do like it please bookmark/share it with one of the social bookmarking sites on the top right of the blog.
The reason I mention Facebook is that having been a small eBay seller who was squeezed by eBay, I see a possible red flag for many small developers making those quirky applications on Facebook (which can allow you to toss sheep at friends or play Scrabble). Although Facebook has opened up their site to allow developers to create applications, there are still many signs that Facebook will squeeze its developers as soon as it needs to keep its own fortunes growing. For instance, Facebook intermittently shut down the Super Wall application in the past month for a supposed violation of the privacy agreement (which reminds me of the time eBay pulled one of my listings for a listing violation). This is just a friendly warning to those developers spending lots of their time and money on developing these applications: as soon as Facebook needs to meet growth expectations or fails to make enough money to go public, your applications will be the first to feel the pain.
For eBay, it was just business as usual -- it needed to grow, and the eBay sellers were just in its way. For Facebook, the same thing is bound to happen -- history repeats itself, and it is unlikely that the big fish in the Facebook ecosystem, Facebook, is going to let other small fish live forever.
My only suggestion to the developers is to create a union-like organization that behaves similarly to PESA (Professional eBay Sellers Alliance) and try to negotiate deals with Facebook now before it is too late...
Thanks for reading and please subscribe to this post's rss feed. Also, if you do like it please bookmark/share it with one of the social bookmarking sites on the top right of the blog.
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