• About

LIVEdigitally

Lack of Trust key to eBay's decline

Posted on November 25, 2008 by Jeremy Toeman

I read on The Technologizer that eBay is suffering from a drop in visitors (SAI has some more stats too).  This comes as no surprise to me, as I believe eBay has abandoned its core over the years.

eBay is one of those “the community really matters” success stories.  The company slowly and steadily built a community around niche products, antiques, hard-to-find stuff, collectibles, etc.  eBay was so successful that neither Yahoo nor Amazon could even dabble in the space.

But that was a few years ago, and many things have changed.  For one, we have a whole new generation of Internet users.  The “millenials” are less likely to seek out collectibles or memorabilia, as they’ve been brought up with the Internet right at their side.  An old Sega Genesis kit is much less exciting to a 25-year-old than an Atari 2600 is to a 35-year-old.

More relevant to the decline in eBay traffic is the erosion of trust for the brand.  As the company served the needs of its shareholders, instead of its users, it catered to the bottom line.  And that bottom line meant foregoing the concept of nurturing the community, and instead to increased sales and transactional revenue.  Which, in turn, means less value is placed on the individual seller, and a higher value to the institutional or semi-pro seller.

When faced with the challenge of selling my Vaio (now $1000, want it? anyone?  I’m throwing in the docking station too!), my wife and I initially turned to eBay.  We put up a fairly standard listing, but have a zero rating.  We had a handful of inquiries, every one of them turned out to be a scammer (including one who very cleverly had establish a history of 35 items purchased, but as I checked I realized they were all under $5).  Similarly, I’m going to assume we had no other offers due to our 0 rating.  I’m trying again now.

The above experience is the core problem of eBay today.  It works for power sellers, and is probably still just fine for the collectibles and hobbyists.  But “regular people” trying to sell decent-sized items are unable to leverage the millions of people who use eBay.  It’s almost off-limits to us.  I actually found the process more daunting and nerve-wracking than experimenting with Priceline and playing Call of Duty 4 on Xbox Live with 12-year-olds.

As I’ve polled my friends and peers, many have expressed similar doubts and concerns.  “eBaying it” is no longer the action verb it once was, and if a company loses it’s position as brand-category, it’s in trouble. Their stock price is down over 50% this year alone (I sure hope nobody takes that one too seriously, but hey, it’s the Internet).

The interesting thing to me here is the opportunity.  I think eBay could easily rebuild, but they’ll have to make some tough decisions.  I also think it’s a great time for another brand to attempt to enter the online auction market (you’ve got to lock that down!), with an emphasis on trusted sellers and buyers, integrated community selling (I tried importing my sale into my facebook account, but it was very non-obvious and failed miserably), and empowering individuals.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Reddit

Related

Posted in Web/Internet | Tags: ebay | 5 Comments
« Netflix on the new XBOX 360 Live – disappointing so far
2008 Holiday Gift Guide (part 1) »

5 thoughts on “Lack of Trust key to eBay's decline”

  1. Ricky Cadden says:
    November 25, 2008 at 6:18 pm

    I had a similar experience recently when trying to sell my Nokia E90. First of all, simply listing it was a hassle, as I had put a staunch warning that I would *not* ship using Western Union or MoneyGram or similar. It seems as though Ebay’s listing checker thingy took the presence of these keywords to mean that I was trying to sell USING those tools, and warned me to remove them – only, it started with Western Union, and when I’d removed Western Union, then it informed me that MoneyGram wasn’t kosher, either.

    What made that more annoying is that each error required me to correct the listing, a process involving at least one more page load, during which several checkboxes and entry points were changed.

    Once done, I also got 15 questions, 14 of which turned out to be spammers. I even have 31 feedback, so I’m slightly better positioned than you. The listing cost me $3.25, which isn’t bad at all. However, the biggest problem is that I used Paypal for payment, which means that not only did I have to pay a percentage to collect my earnings, but…

    They have this RIDICULOUS new ‘Buyer Protection’ system that I was NOT informed about until after the auction had ended. Basically, your money is placed on HOLD for up to 21 days. It will be released earlier however, once you either get positive feedback from the buyer, or show delivery confirmation that the package arrived. The delivery confirmation *still* holds your money hostage for another 3 days, but the positive feedback releases it within 24 hours.

    By the time it was all said and done, I ended up waiting 5 extra days to get $30 less than what the auction ended at for my phone. It would have almost been cheaper for me to just pawn the thing, sadly.

    Reply
  2. Pingback: TechMacro :: (un)Official Daily Tech News » News » eBay Traffic in Freefall, How about User Confidence?

  3. smorty71 says:
    November 26, 2008 at 5:19 am

    I haven’t used eBay in a couple of years. Had two incidents where I sold working items to people who later tried to claim that they didn’t work. In those cases, the burden was on me to prove the items were in good shape when they shipped. Very tough to do after the fact.

    In both cases, the buyers threatened to post negative feedback if I didn’t give them a refund on the items that were listed “as-is” with “no refunds.” In both cases, I took the hit on my feedback rather than cave to someone who was having buyer’s remorse.

    I eventually resorted to shooting a video of the products I was selling showing them in use. Those items sold without a problem; however, I wasn’t willing to keep up that amount of work to sell things (not to mention pay all of the listing and PayPal fees).

    I am exclusively Craigslist now for both buying and selling. There is a lot less of a hassle, plus you can negotiate the price. Sure, it’s harder to find those A-team Colorforms, but it’s perfect for things like furniture.

    Reply
  4. Dave Zatz says:
    December 1, 2008 at 6:21 am

    My ebay rating maxed out at around 400 a few years ago, which probably represents only half the transactions I participated in. Due to fraud and annoying people, I gave up. Over the last year, things I’ve needed to “ebay” I’ve brought to an ebay consignment shop. They take a steep cut, but all the problems (and resolutions) are theirs to deal with. It’s worked out well. No muss, no fuss.

    Reply
  5. banderscom says:
    December 24, 2008 at 1:54 am

    FIRE DONAHOE!!!

    Search the internet for

    “Ebay Stockholders and Sellers Calling For Immediate Termination of John Donohoe CEO Petition”

    Reply

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

About

Jeremy Toeman is a seasoned Product leader with over 20 years experience in the convergence of digital media, mobile entertainment, social entertainment, smart TV and consumer technology. Prior ventures and projects include CNET, Viggle/Dijit/Nextguide, Sling Media, VUDU, Clicker, DivX, Rovi, Mediabolic, Boxee, and many other consumer technology companies. This blog represents his personal opinion and outlook on things.

Recent Posts

  • Back on the wagon/horse?
  • 11 Tips for Startups Pitching Big Companies
  • CES 2016: A New Role
  • Everything I Learned (So Far) Working For a Huge Company
  • And I’m Back…

Archives

Pages

  • About

Archives

  • January 2019
  • April 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • May 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • June 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006
  • December 2005
  • November 2005
  • October 2005
  • September 2005
  • August 2005
  • July 2005
  • June 2005
  • May 2005
  • April 2005
  • March 2005
  • February 2005
  • January 2005
  • December 2004
  • November 2004
  • October 2004
  • September 2004

Categories

  • Convergence (81)
  • Gadgets (144)
  • Gaming (19)
  • General (999)
  • Guides (35)
  • LD Approved (72)
  • Marketing (23)
  • Mobile Technology (111)
  • Networking (22)
  • No/Low-tech (64)
  • Product Announcements (85)
  • Product Reviews (109)
  • That's Janky (93)
  • Travel (29)
  • Video/Music/Media (115)
  • Web/Internet (103)

WordPress

  • Log in
  • WordPress

CyberChimps WordPress Themes

© LIVEdigitally
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.