Leftfield

Will Holiday Shoppers Bring Retail Back into the Black?

I'm not sure what Lorrie Norrington from Ebay was saying exactly in her vague pronouncement regarding Cyber Monday, but I would check the facts with that company. They have a habit of issuing positive spin that Wall St. picks up but their results are down since they began chasing small sellers, the core of their business, off the site a year ago under the delusional policies of CEO John Donohoe. It is always wise to check the figures as their statements are filled with future hopes of a "turnaround" that would never have been necessary had Ebay continued to provide access to it's formerly free-market platform to buyers and sellers of unique merchandise and bargains to drive business far higher in this distressed world economy.

Where are their actual Cyber Monday sales in the list?

Should eBay Go Retail?

Did some new positive numbers come out since the dismal quarterly report a few weeks ago? You know, the 4th in a row with the first declines ever for Ebay?
I get the feeling this is spin practice for the government. Treat the small producers (sellers) like crap, spin negative numbers as positives for stupid policies and flush past great real success down the memory hole.

There Will Always Be Wal-Mart and Amazon

Steve Jobs is another deserving CEO. But most of them, along with the whole leadership class are Marie Antoinettes. Someone in politics has to sell a government that serves and doesn't take another chunk out of the little guy again. The paradigm has been: Here is your dysfunctional lousy program with no possible future of getting funded but for smoke and mirrors and here is your huge new tax and regulatory burden.
Real leaders could weed the jungle of failed and cross-purposed programs, offer real solutions and......Savings. We'll need them to pay off the mess we've created so far.

eBay Offers Something Amazon Cannot

Donohoe has staked his arrogant pride on selling out to large vendors of same-old-same-old and has thrown out the "noise" (small sellers) as much as he could. He's done everything possible to negate Ebay's uniquely democratic model of providing a forum for buyers and sellers large and small to make Ebay a commercial strip mall festooned with popups and hostile to small sellers. Sadly, the board that foolishly elected him and went along with this is likely to follow the modern way of obscenely overpaid leadership and stick with all this until Ebay is a footnote.

E-Commerce Battle: Amazon and eBay on Deck

Ebay is dealing with it's "core marketplace issues" by pissing it away. It has always had horrible execution technically and one of it's false economies seems to be hiring low-grade technical help.

So, how can it compete with Amazon by trying to be more like them with a crappy, confusing site? But, they've done everything to drive away the small sellers that were their unique strength, calling them "noise." You don't get the blizzard of attic finds anymore that could raise cash for sellers and present bargains for sellers that could thrive in this down economy.

Ebay should be up more than anyone else in retail, period. They chose a remarkably stupid time to follow a remarkably arrogant and foolish CEO into decline.

Amazon: King of the Retailers - Barron's

Amazon has done an amazing job since a near-death experience at the dot-com boom. There they had made the mistake of financing via bonds rather than issuing stock and they were really on the hook.

Great execution and decisions since. I have the misfortune of doing lots of my business on Ebay and they wish they could somehow copy Amazon. So, they have eradicated countless small sellers and thereby lost buyers as many do both, favoring large purveyors of Chinese dreck.

Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon. He deserves the rewards he gets. Ed Donohoe (Ebay) is a typical MBA manager milking a company for hoped-for short-term gains for himself. Arrogantly pursuing stupid policies with his unwise use of power. Calling small sellers, "noise."

Ebay is going the opposite direction of Amazon because Donohoe didn't recognize Ebay's unique model and strengths. He is doing damage to the company and many others livlihoods until a compliant board wakes up. Small sellers could be raising needed cash selling to strapped buyers needing to save.

This illustrates what's gone wrong with American business. You can't justify paying obscene compensation to management that is just hired hands. They, unlike a founder who has his all invested, are just playing with other people's money.

The results in the entire economy are now evident: Obscenely paid management takes risks and plays games with OPM to satisfy its greed and eventually gain enough power to bring everything down.