Who To Blame for eBay and Buy.com
eBay and Buy.com just announced a relationship where buy.com will be listing heaps of stuff on eBay. Sellers are understandably going wild about it as they're afraid that they will lose sales to buy.com, and maybe eventually to other big retailers/etailers.
I was wondering why eBay would do this, and I came up with a theory. Just a theory. Nothing to back this up. But it makes sense to me.
I wonder if it's because of the boycotters. Let's look at this logically. eBay wants items on their site. They want them from sellers who will not randomly strike, and they want them from sellers who won't crap on them in their listings, About Me pages, discussion forums, blogs, and the media. Hey, we all want that. We all want clients/buyers/whatever who don't crap on us. Some of you say eBay deserves it... well that's going to be subjective since not 100% of sellers go through what you go through.
So let's say you're eBay and you want more items on the site. The sellers you've counted on might be leaving. They go to conferences that basically tell them to leave eBay. They join "trade associations" that put out 3-page negative statements about eBay, and tell investors that eBay is bad-o-rama.
What would you do?
You might try to find partners who have inventory that's in demand, who can deal with it and ship it, and who want to put it on eBay. A partner who isn't going to pull it because they don't like the latest announcement. You may have to offer them something nice to get them on board, but you'd probably be looking for people/companies like that. After all, your core keeps telling each other to boycott, and the media keeps telling buyers and sellers to stay away.
When someone keeps taking their ball and going home, you'll probably start choosing a new field. It may not be a level field, but it's a field where you think lots of people can still win.
So, boycotters, eBay hears you. And the message seems to be to find sellers who won't treat them this way. I say the boycots don't help. You probably didn't boycott USPS through any of their recent rate changes. Did your rent go up and did you refuse to go to the office for a few days? Did gas prices go up so you refused to drive for a week? A boycott is not solution focused, and eBay needs to be solution focused right now to turn things around for themselves. If your boycott is meant to threaten that if eBay doesn't do what you want, you'll leave, then
you
just
blinked.
You told eBay that you're so unhappy, you're willing to shoot your own livelihood in the foot to make some sort of point, a point eBay already knew. Maybe eBay will take a second shot at your foot too because you've made it clear that shooting at your foot is just fine. Sellers, vendors, and organisations tried very hard to hang eBay out to dry, especially in February... media interviews, investor calls, statements, conferences, discussion forums, boycots... so much aimed at hurting eBay, getting their attention, or "teaching them a lesson." And how did Q1 look? Not so bad. Not so hurt. Not so destroyed.
The eBay marketplace doesn't work without seller success and buyer satisfaction, but the eBay marketplace can work without the boycotters. Don't make eBay prove that to you because I'm sure they can. Now can you please stop with the boycotts?
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Are you nuts?
eBay spokesperson Usher Lieberman said the seller boycott had no noticeable effect on eBay. Our beloved Uncle Griff said the boycott had no effect. Are you calling them liars? How rude!
Posted by: Henrietta | Tuesday, 20 May 2008 at 08:28 PM
If the original op had 2 brain cells, one has wandered off.
You are indeed clueless.
Please enjoy a climate where you cannot actually see just who your trading partner is due to the feedback changes.
Makes me think about the early days of brothels and not knowing just what I might be subjected to.
The defenders are due their just rewards.
Posted by: Fagan | Tuesday, 20 May 2008 at 08:56 PM
You've got to be kidding.
Donahoe called us noise, called our products "flea market" and said he wanted it gone.
He did all that BEFORE the boycott.
We're just giving him what he wants -- an eBay free of all the pesky noisy sellers of cheap carp that MADE EBAY the great place it was before Donahoe came along.
He's nothing but a greedy egomaniac who wouldn't admit he was wrong if his life depended on it.
Bottom line, the boycott did make a difference but he's too arrogant and STUPID to back down.
eBay is DEAD. The rotting carcass that remains is not worthy of my business, as buyer or seller.
If eBay's shareholders come to their senses in time, they can do what I already did by proxy: vote against all the current board nominations, including Donahoe, at the upcoming shareholder meeting. Throw him the hell out of there and get someone in to run eBay who understands the dynamics of the place.
You don't cut off your head because you have an earache. The problems Donahoe claims to be solving could have been solved very easily without ticking everyone off. All he had to do was SELECTIVELY THROW OUT the truly BAD sellers, not run off 1000 good ones to get at the one bad one.
And he also could recognize that SOME buyers do not BELONG on eBay due to their unrealistic expectations and unstable and abusive personalities.
If he had half the brains of an iguana, he could figure that out. But it's easier to just insult and abuse everyone and replace them with one big company that nobody wants to buy from, otherwise they would be doing so directly from buy.com's own website.
Posted by: horsemama | Tuesday, 20 May 2008 at 10:17 PM
LOL
Posted by: Harmony Collection | Wednesday, 21 May 2008 at 02:23 PM