eBay Will Survive,,,,Will Your Business???

June 25, 2008 · Filed Under eBay, ecommerce 

Sometimes families fight. That is just a fact of life.

Since it’s beginning, eBay has called the users of the site members, actually community members is the correct term. Thousands of members of the eBay community have been using the site for over 10 years. They have come to know the employees of eBay. The members think of some of the employees like part of their family, and eBay employees consider many of the community members as part of their family.

With this in mind, I remember hearing somewhere that one should never mix business with pleasure, and I also remember hearing somewhere that working with family is very difficult.

eBay has had to make changes in their business model in order to survive in the changing ecommerce marketplace. This has caused a rift among many community members who take the changes eBay has made personally. Community members whose businesses have been adversely effected by the changes eBay has made have been passionate and vocal in their discontent, much like a family squabble.

The truth is simply this. Your business is your business. eBay is not a non-profit organization, eBay is in business to make money for their stockholders. In retrospect, though I and thousands of other members enjoyed the family like atmosphere of the early days of the site, it probably was a mistake on eBay’s part to create and encourage this relationship. Business decisions must be made, and when family is involved, it causes problems.

As a business owner selling on eBay, you probably don’t ask eBay before you make changes to your business model, and eBay though they may ask community members about changes, they ultimately make their final decisions predicated on the marketplace.

It is up to you to make sure your business survives. eBay will certainly do anything it can to make sure it survives.

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