leapingcat

Should eBay Go Retail?

Should Ebay go retail? I already thought it had done so! For example on Ebay UK only 4% of books are auctions, Ebay has already effectively killed off that marketplace; I would be interested to see some equivalent figure for other markets.
As long as Ebay systematically distort the 'search' in favour of big box sellers of commodity items they will continue to go downhill. I can already find electronic items more easily on Amazon, why should I as a buyer bother with Ebay.

eBay's PayPal X Platform Could Drive an Increase in Transactions

Yet another reason to spin off Paypal and give investors the opportunity to make a reasonable return without being pulled down by the dead weight of Ebay.

PayPal Continues to Be eBay’s Crown Jewel

Paypal may be the jewel, but the rest of the crown is getting very tarnished. The developments in API and non-Ebay growth mean that it is time to set it free and cast off the yoke of Ebay.

eBay Rolls Out More of the 'Top Rated Sellers' Program in Search - Sellers Aren't Happy

Don't think that the buyers are any happier either. The typical Ebay buyer knows what he/she is looking for and manipulating the results in favour of large scale sellers, and hiding the listings of smaller-scale sellers who may offer just as good customer service, is doing no-one any good, including stockholders. I can't be the only one now using Amazon instead of ebay to buy electronic items and Specialistauctions.com to look for collectables.

eBay Takes a Step Backwards

As a buyer, and I am one as well as a small-scale seller, I want to find exactly the item that I am looking for, and quickly. Anything that hinders that, including adverts which are usually irrelevant and reduce the amount of listings that I can see on any page makes my 'buying experience' worse. Ebay claim to be wanting to put buyers first, but I can see no evidence of them putting anyone but themselves and their greed first.

Has eBay Turned a Growth Corner?

Ebay's constant tinkering can only be seen as a way of giving the impression of a constantly improving financial summary. 'ebaysales' has given a really detailed and brilliant summary of how the smoke and mirrors of the media changes have worked. But also, quarter by quarter, changes which increase sellers costs for no measurable benefit but increase Ebay's bottom line, higher listing fees, higher FVFs, higher shop fees, etc are quietly brought in. I think the day is coming soon when they will have run out of ways of extracting even more fees from the same or declining sales and the sky will be black from the flapping of wings of chickens coming home to roost.

Amazon vs. eBay: 2 Charts Say It All

The charts are only raw data, and can be interpreted in a number of different ways, which can be used to make either company appear to be the better investment. A large part of Ebay's profits come from Paypal, and it is as vulnerable to competition there as it is from Amazon in its core marketplace. On the other hand Amazon is developing a range of products that will enable it to offer a more comprehensive service to third party sellers and thereby develop its business while building a bigger barrier to potential competitors. That is the real contrast betwen the two companies.

eBay's Earnings a Successful Bid for Market Leadership

On Apr 23 01:29 PM eBay +++ wrote:

>. How could you be a
> Seller and not love Paypal unless you are a fraudulent Seller?

Perhaps you would like your buyers to be able to pay by other means?

eBay Offers Something Amazon Cannot

'EBAY has a better moat because it is essentially made up of millions of small nimble independant sellers'
Not nowdays; they have been squeezed out by the mass sellers of new junk. Even then I find it easier to buy things on Amazon; I've just bought a cable on Amazon because the listing gave me the information I wanted, the ebay equivalent (from China) just didn't have enough information; the couple of pounds (or dollars) more was a small price to pay.
Perhaps investors are now looking at the fundamentals rather than the BS put out by managements.

What Can eBay Do to Close Its Amazon Gap?

Why is it assumed that Ebay should try and emulate Amazon? Ebay isn't Amazon, it hasn't got the strengths where Amazon has, yet till recently it had strengths where Amazon hadn't. Present (and past, don't forget) management have thrown this away without achieving any value for investors, buyers or sellers. Ebay needs to rediscover itself, not as an Amazon clone (for then it will always be a follower rather than a leader), but in a unique way, possibly by building up the P2P side of its business. I doubt that the present management are capable of doing this, but if there is someone out there who can, then the sooner the better.

U.K. E-Commerce Report: Thoughts from Catalyst U.K.

Hi Scott, thanks for such a good overview of the UK retail market from a short visit. A lot of High Street shops have closed down recently, some due to the collapse of large groups such as Woolworths and Zavvi (music, dvds), but a lot due to the competition fron large out-of-town (and our distances are much less than yours) shopping centres and supermarket chains such as Asda (part of Walmart) and Tesco, who are the UK's largest retailer. These larger stores do tend to open till midnight, sometimes 24 hours, and 10am to 4pm on Sundays (due to our peculiar licensing laws for alcohol)
Online shopping is growing steadily, perhaps due to us becoming more confident in giving our credit card details online, but the changes to Ebay, including free auction listings for items with a starting price of 99p for private sellers do not seem to have translated into higher sales, just more listings especially at the bottom end of the market. For some auctions, eg autos bidder identity is hidden, they become Bidder 1, Bidder 2, etc, which of course encourages shill bidding inthose categories where it is most likely to occur.
On the other hand Amazon is going from strength, although as you say it is still essentially in books and media, but the (largely) irrelevant sponsored links indicate that it is widening its horizons.

eBay: Out with the New, In with the Old

Well, last year Ebay failed to become the next Amazon, this year no doubt they will fail to become the next Overstock.com. They seem to be rapidly running out of business models to fail at!

Eight Ways eBay can Unlock Shareholder Value

I notice that any of these alternatives would require Ebay management to act in a more competent and smart way, which is something that appears beyond them from their present track record. With ebay stock at about $10, its breakup value is beginning to look more than its value as a company. However the current climate would probably make financing a hostile takeover a non-starter, so Ebay will no doubt continue to drift gently downwards, with only Paypal keeping any real value.

eBay to Hold Analyst/Investor Day: Ten Questions to Ask Them

Only one question is needed from investors, as opposed to users:
'A year ago Ebay as a company was worth more than Amazon; now it is worth half as much. Your attempt to become more like Amazon has failed, whereas Amazon has weathered the financial storms reasonably well; how quickly are you going to ditch this flawed policy and return to giving your users what they really want and so give us a return on our investment?'

eBay Listens to Customers, Retires Old Search Engine

It seems that Ebay are distorting the English language as well as their search algorithms. A 'Director of Finding' ! Since the changes have come in I seem to spend more time searching and less time finding those obscure things that I am looking for; and as for browsing, that is obviously a word that isn't even in their dictionary.
Perhaps they should appoint a 'Director of Searching' to actually work with buyers to see what they really want to find, rather than seeing what a bunch of big box sellers want them to find.