Half.com, eBay losing favor with booksellers
Just a few years ago it appeared Half.com might rival Amazon and eBay as an online trading hub for books and music. It combined the best features of the bigger rivals: a community of buyers and sellers like eBay, with simple fixed-priced trading like Amazon.
In 2000, eBay bought Half.com and was expected to make a run at Amazon’s fixed-price trading. Instead, Amazon simply copied all the best features of Half and called it Amazon Marketplace. After Amazon siphoned off most of Half’s traffic, eBay announced plans to close Half in 2004. Sellers were encouraged to move their listings to eBay stores, which offered lower fees and fixed-price trading. After an outcry from sellers, eBay relented, and Half remains open. But the site hasn’t been promoted for some time, and sales are down to a trickle.
EBay was popular for book dealers when the Internet first went mainstream in the mid-1990s. But growth is slowing, and many booksellers have quit using the auction format for common books.
Bookseller gripes against eBay have mounted for years. Every year, it seems bidding volume goes down and fees go up. The listing process is more complicated than ever. “Not enough buyers, too many sellers” is a common refrain these days on eBay.
The biggest drawback with eBay compared to Amazon is it requires so much more time for the same level of sales, yet generates more aggravation in the form of problem customers. Non-paying buyers and quibbling about shipping rates are a problem. One remedy for this is to demand immediate payment via Paypal for all transactions. But this precaution generates still more e-mails from buyers demanding to mail in a check.
Booksellers have had mixed success selling their wares in eBay stores. A major early beef was that store items weren’t visible in buyers’ search results. In a bid to save its Stores program, it seems eBay is beginning to listen to the complaints from booksellers. Store items have been added to search results, and eBay has begun export-ing store inventories to other platforms like Froogle, Yahoo, and
Shopping.com.
eBay has a complicated schedule of fees. Generally, for an item selling at around $25, you’ll pay an insertion fee of 60 cents plus a final-value fee of 5.25 percent. More fees are due for Buy-It-Now, pictures, and other bells and whistles. If you use PayPal, more fees. See the list here.
New in paperback: The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books on Amazon, eBay or Your Own Web Site (by Steve Weber)
In 2000, eBay bought Half.com and was expected to make a run at Amazon’s fixed-price trading. Instead, Amazon simply copied all the best features of Half and called it Amazon Marketplace. After Amazon siphoned off most of Half’s traffic, eBay announced plans to close Half in 2004. Sellers were encouraged to move their listings to eBay stores, which offered lower fees and fixed-price trading. After an outcry from sellers, eBay relented, and Half remains open. But the site hasn’t been promoted for some time, and sales are down to a trickle.
EBay was popular for book dealers when the Internet first went mainstream in the mid-1990s. But growth is slowing, and many booksellers have quit using the auction format for common books.
Bookseller gripes against eBay have mounted for years. Every year, it seems bidding volume goes down and fees go up. The listing process is more complicated than ever. “Not enough buyers, too many sellers” is a common refrain these days on eBay.
The biggest drawback with eBay compared to Amazon is it requires so much more time for the same level of sales, yet generates more aggravation in the form of problem customers. Non-paying buyers and quibbling about shipping rates are a problem. One remedy for this is to demand immediate payment via Paypal for all transactions. But this precaution generates still more e-mails from buyers demanding to mail in a check.
Booksellers have had mixed success selling their wares in eBay stores. A major early beef was that store items weren’t visible in buyers’ search results. In a bid to save its Stores program, it seems eBay is beginning to listen to the complaints from booksellers. Store items have been added to search results, and eBay has begun export-ing store inventories to other platforms like Froogle, Yahoo, and
Shopping.com.
eBay has a complicated schedule of fees. Generally, for an item selling at around $25, you’ll pay an insertion fee of 60 cents plus a final-value fee of 5.25 percent. More fees are due for Buy-It-Now, pictures, and other bells and whistles. If you use PayPal, more fees. See the list here.
New in paperback: The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books on Amazon, eBay or Your Own Web Site (by Steve Weber)
posted by Steve Weber at 10/31/2005
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