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CAPP -> CAPP -> Online auction listings down 13% in boycott of eBay
Post Info TOPIC: Online auction listings down 13% in boycott of eBay
budnonymous


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Online auction listings down 13% in boycott of eBay
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Online auction listings down 13% in boycott of eBay

By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO

 The biggest boycott by eBay (EBAY) sellers concludes Monday, capping a week of acrimony after the online-auction site raised fees and changed its feedback policy.

Auction listings on eBay.com dropped some 13% since the strike started Feb. 18 to about 13 million items, according to third-party tracking sites such as dealscart.com and medved.net.

The boycott, amid slowing growth and intensifying competition from Amazon and Google, could presage a challenging year for John Donahoe, eBay's incoming CEO, say analysts.

Like dozens of other boycotts against eBay the past few years, this protest is largely over pricing changes. Though many previous boycotts have fizzled after a few days, the most recent gained more attention through protest-related actions on YouTube and MySpace.

"If (eBay's listings total) falls below 12 million, we've made a pretty good impact," said Nancy Baughman, an eBay PowerSeller who deals antiques and collectibles. She is also co-author of a book on online auctions.

Jim Griffith, dean of eBay Education, declined to comment on third-party statistics, and said that the site's internal statistics show the boycott "has had no impact on our listings." EBay does not publicly release its listings totals.

Fluctuations in eBay's listings can be hard to interpret due to seasonal swings. Complicating matters, eBay ran a one-day promotion Feb. 13 offering steep discounts of fees, which pushed listings up more than 20%.

Still, the impact of the boycott is evident, says David Steiner, president of AuctionBytes.com, a publication for online merchants. "The protestors made a loud statement."

Donahoe, who becomes eBay's CEO in March, recently announced changes to the fees eBay charges. The cost to list items will be cut 25% to 50%, but the commission that eBay charges for completed sales increased, starting last Wednesday. As of May, sellers will no longer be able to leave negative feedback comments for buyers.

"When I heard the changes, I thought it was April Fool's Day," Valerie Lennert, one of the boycott organizers, says, referring to the changes in fees and feedback. She sells doll clothes on eBay.

Lennert has spread her message with an anti-eBay video on YouTube. The video has been viewed 140,000 times. The protestors also created a MySpace page.

Despite the protest, eBay is not considering altering or postponing its policies, Griffith says. "A lot of deliberation went into these decisions," he says.



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budnonymous


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February 24, 2008 |

eBay suffers 13% drop in auctions during boycott

By Triston McIntyre

For many people today, eBay isnt just a place to participate in the sales and purchases of auctions it is a way of life. That way of life was drastically challenged when eBay recently announced negative changes to the fees and feedback system which resulted in a seller boycott. The boycott is definitely having an impact, causing a 13% drop in total site auctions.

The drop in auction listings has been monitored by medved.net and dealscart.com, which claim that listings have gone down to thirteen million since the beginning of the boycott Monday of last week, according to USA Today.

The changes to eBays feedback and fee systems arent horrible for buyers, but are terrible for sellers. Though listing fees are slightly lower, completion fees are significantly higher; additionally, sellers may no longer leave feedback for buyers.

The changes to the listing fees and selling fees obviously reflect a greater percentage of completed sales than previously in eBays history. Most sellers work diligently to list and market their products so some sort of sale is completed; by increasing the completion fee, eBay is just restructuring its system to better benefit eBaynot sellers.

Furthermore, the change so sellers cant leave buyers negative feedback has huge implications. Sellers rely on negative feedback to protect against a flood of buyers who have no real responsibility once they participate in an auction. Where buyers were once accountable for bidding on auctions and then not following through or making the transaction difficult for the seller, that responsibility is gone.

Sellers will suffer greatly from this; sellers rely on these safeguards as many sellers support themselves with their eBay auction business. That is exactly why theres any boycott worth discussing.

If the boycott doesnt affect the changes to eBay, I would expect to see sellers start initiating changes of their own. For instance, some sellers refuse to allow bids from users who dont have a certain level of feedback or have a certain number of completed transactions.

If it was me, I would do something drastic like only accept bids from users who had a certain number of completed sales as well as purchases and who had stellar feedback. The nice thing about eBay is sellers still have a lot of control over their own auctions.

The boycott will conclude tomorrow; hopefully sellers regain some of the power they held before the changes.




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