eBay Stores revisited
A recent article here on selling contemporary versus collectible books drew some interesting responses.
As readers of this blog know, I prefer selling on Amazon. But I also believe it's a good idea to avoid putting all your eggs in one basket. So that's why I think it's prudent for online booksellers to be active on eBay, as well as the The River.
Elaine's eBay Bookseller Blog ran a great follow-up that pointed out many of the eBay advantages I'd glossed over.
What it boils down to is, sellers have a lot more flexibility with an eBay store. So I agree, eBay today is probably best for rare and collectible books.
I'm glad to see the recent improvements at eBay -- with enhancements to their Stores program, and the upcoming launch of its Express fixed-price platform.
As always, one of the huge advantages of eBay compared to other bookselling sites is that eBay actually listens to its sellers. For example, when eBay made an unpopular policy change regarding store search results last week, eBay got an earful from irate PowerSellers. eBay has been pretty frank about that, and is keeping its members in the loop.
By contrast, Amazon can't be bothered to give the time of day to its Pro-Merchants, the biggest cash cows the company has.
Competition is good. If eBay can give Amazon a run for its money in 2006, my hunch is that sellers will benefit.
As readers of this blog know, I prefer selling on Amazon. But I also believe it's a good idea to avoid putting all your eggs in one basket. So that's why I think it's prudent for online booksellers to be active on eBay, as well as the The River.
Elaine's eBay Bookseller Blog ran a great follow-up that pointed out many of the eBay advantages I'd glossed over.
What it boils down to is, sellers have a lot more flexibility with an eBay store. So I agree, eBay today is probably best for rare and collectible books.
I'm glad to see the recent improvements at eBay -- with enhancements to their Stores program, and the upcoming launch of its Express fixed-price platform.
As always, one of the huge advantages of eBay compared to other bookselling sites is that eBay actually listens to its sellers. For example, when eBay made an unpopular policy change regarding store search results last week, eBay got an earful from irate PowerSellers. eBay has been pretty frank about that, and is keeping its members in the loop.
By contrast, Amazon can't be bothered to give the time of day to its Pro-Merchants, the biggest cash cows the company has.
Competition is good. If eBay can give Amazon a run for its money in 2006, my hunch is that sellers will benefit.
posted by Steve Weber at 4/05/2006
3 Comments:
Steve,
I agree that eBay does listen to its sellers. They make changes, get feedback and fine-tune those changes. They have done it many times. I especially loved all the perks that eBay store sellers got after the fees were increased last year (and complained about).
But in this case of eBay store traffic, I don't read the announcement as eBay admitting a mistake and reversing it's decision. Did I miss something? Yesterday's announcement says to me that now they are commencing the "rollback" of store inventory listings - meaning they will no longer come up in searches unless there are 30 or fewer auctions (they way it was before). This is what they announced they would do on March 28.
We were surprised but delighted when they announced it in January and lots of sellers had increased sales when it began in February. But now they are taking it away :^( .
But they leave us with hope: "we'll be testing new ways to increase exposure for Store inventory listings" . . .
So it would not surprise me if they do make some further adjustments, but I don't think they have responded to those irate powersellers yet.
This whole issue does not affect listings of COLLECTIBLE books, because they came up in searches all along (because there were always fewer than 30 listed at any one time).
In any case, they sure are keeping us on our toes!
Elaine
Thank you for that clarification, Elaine! Or maybe I should call it a correction ;-)
I think this is definitely up in the air right now. eBay is really trying to make it simpler and faster for people to buy the commodity-type items. Hopefully they'll be able to do this and increase visibility of store listings at the same time.
Being an ebay seller and buyer, I tired of the constant scams and unethical treatment rendered by both sides of the deal. I started a blog to help expose these idiots (buyers and sellers) who try to take advantage of the eBay market place: www.bad-ebayers.blogspot.com
I invite all to come and share their stories and the eBay names of the people who scammed them.
Thanks,
Danial
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