eBay Takes Affiliates To Court Over Unauthorized Cookies
Gamimg The System
Earlier this week it had been reported that several eBay Partner (affiliates) had been booted out of the program. There were posts on the eBay discussion boards regarding these removals as well reports from several sources such as Auctionbytes that the ousted Partners might consider retaliation against eBay in some form.
eBay Pushes Back
While some of those that had been ousted from the Partners program complained on the discussion boards that eBay was angry because these Partners had beat them in the in the search engine rankings enabling these Partners to reap large Partner payments it seems there may be more to the story.
Posted on the Charles G Mullen blog late last night is a report that eBay is suing 3 of it’s former Partners for devising software that clandestinely place cookies on visitors computers to redirect them to eBay without the visitors knowledge.
While many popular websites do very well as eBay Partners driving traffic to the eBay site, it seems that some may have found a way to do it underhandedly. An eBay moderator posted an explanation for the actions taken on the discussion board explaining eBay was attempting to provide the higest quality traffic to the site.
The Right Thing To Do
While I can find no evidence that the users posting on the discussion boards are those indicated in the lawsuit I have to believe there is definetly a connection.
While I am often at odds with eBay over management decisions, I believe this is the right thing for eBay to do. Gaming the system to reap large payments from the Partner program is wrong. Placing cookies on a visitors computer that basically hijacks the user is unethical and I dare say illegal.
I believe this may also have an affect on the eBay visitor numbers though in the scheme of things it may be a small number it is a number.
What Conference Will Replace eBayLive? Where Will You Go?
Now that eBayLive is a thing of the past, (yeah I know, 2010 if you believe in fairytales) where will eBay marketers, and for that matter all ecommerce merchants go to get the latest information and strategies? Where will you go to learn about the latest software and services available to your online business?
I know that there are a plethura of seminars and conferences, but the question is which one will step to the forefront for those that market on sites like Onlineauction, eBay, Amazon, eCrater or any other venue? Will there be an event that steps up and tries to fill the eBayLive void? I don’t believe we will see a company conference the likes of eBayLive in the near future. With it’s vast income, eBay could afford this type of an event. The eBayLive confernece was certainly not a profitable event and never was intended to be self sustaining.
Where Will You Go
While researching this post, I contacted PESA/ECMTA and was given the following information. The will be holding a 2 day event September 10-11 in Melbounre Australia, September 18-20 2008 ECMTA will be at the Inc 500/5000 Conference in Washington DC and finally ECMTA will conduct a 1 day event in San Francisco October 1, 2008. In addition, ECMTA advised me that they are planning on small regional events and larger Summits for 2009 but no dates or locations are available at this time.
Channeladvisor advised me that they are planning another Catalyst event for possibly April or May of 2009 but details are also not yet available.
AsWas’ RocketPlace event is scheduled for September 10-12, 2008 in Las Vegas. This event is focused on eBay marketing but also includes information ecommerce merchants can gain from no matter what venue they sell from. The keynote speaker will be Marsha Collier author of the eBay For Dummies series of books, and other presenters include Jay Berkowitz author of The Ten Golden Rules for Internet Marketing and John Lawson CEO of 3rd Power Outlet plus many other notables.
With the economy in recession, these events vying for your conference dollars are rethinking their positions. I believe there will be much smaller regional events planned for 2009 by the various providers but can’t help but wonder which conferences our readers and listeners will attend in 2009.
If you are planning on attending an event in 2009, let us know which one.
Listen in each week to ebay & Beyond: Basics to Business live every Saturday from 10 AM to Noon ET to hear the latest in ecommerce marketing news and strategies.
Marketing Strategies For the Holiday Season
Oh the weather outside is frightful,,,,,
Believe it or not there are only 121 days until Christmas. You will notice I did not say shopping days till Christmas because in internet marketing every day is a shopping day. How prepared are you for the shopping season as an internet marketer?
If you are not ready and ramped up for the season, you may be facing a frightful few months. Many internet sites have already begun their campaigns and the competition will be fierce.
Marketing For The Holidays
Depending on your niche, holiday season marketing can make or break your business year. Consumer electronics are always hot starting around Labor Day. The one downside is that some manufacturers roll out their new products just prior to the holidays to increase demand and limit supply. Those businesses that can secure the latest versions of a product line do very well during this time of year. Consumers will be looking for the best deals, plain and simple. Big Box consumer electronics ecommerce sites have the advantage of higher search results but there are a few things you can do to increase your sales and visibility. First, know your market, and know what your customers want. Research is the key! Make sure you are paying attention to your competition, because they certainly will be watching you. Secondly, whether you sell on eBay or Amazon, Onlineauction, Overstock or any other online venue get your products listed early and use a Fixed Price format. Buyers of holiday gifts do not want to wait for auction format items. Holiday shoppers do not want to run the risk of not being the high bidder.
Many buyers will be looking for their gifts now before the rush. According to an article by WorkZ.com, most online buyers EXPECT free shipping especially if buying more than one item from the same seller. Free shipping is another great way to attract customers, but if you use email campaigns to promote your sales be careful using Free in the subject line as this may trigger email spam filters.
eCommerce marketers might want to consider a value added type approach to attracting customers such as including a free gift with the sale. I have used this approach in years past and had great success while selling clothing.
Causal marketing, donating a portion of the sale to charity is another great way to attract buyers. If buyers know that part of their purchase will benefit their favorite charity, they are more likely to purchase.
The 2008 Holiday Shopping Outlook
While 2007 was a banner online shopping year, many experts are predicting a leveling off. The economy is the biggest fear among buyers. Mortgage failures, high oil prices and the concern over the presidential race are noted as the biggest reasons for this expected flat growth.
Be Customer Friendly
As you gear up for the holiday season, be customer friendly. Enable your customers. Accept all forms of payment (I know eBay is changing this but do what you can until late October). Communicate with your buyers often to ensure they receive their items and they are pleased. Treat any problems proactively, and professionally.
Bank of eBay? Is This Where eBay Is Really Heading?
The Bank of eBay?
I have been talking and writing for months (OK, years) about the changes at eBay. It has been a long and winding road we have taken to get to this point in our ecommerce journey. While I thought the road was leading to a retail experience on eBay, an article today on the ABC News Money website by Michael S. Malone makes a tremendous amount of cents (OK sense).
eBay Numbers Remain Flat
By reading the financials and watching where the money is really coming from over the past couple of years one can justify the article. While the numbers for eBay have slowed significantly according to the latest financials, PayPal’s Merchant Services is growing at a phenominal rate of nearly 60% Y/Y according to Seeking Alpha. According to eBay’s own Q2 Financial Statement the growth rate of the eBay MarketPlaces was said to be 13% overall. This includes eBay, StubHub, Kijiiji, Shopping.com and other ecommerce sites. But, the PayPal growth is reported to be 33% Y/Y.
The new user growth on the eBay site has gone flat and eBay is more and more moving to a retail online expeprience. As this move will put it more in line with it’s major competiton Amazon, the real move that many people may not be noticing is into the ecommerce payment arena.
Money Makes Sense
Watching the money trail makes perfect sense. With over a 20 point difference in income growth between the MarketPlaces and Payment Systems and the room for growth in the ecommerce payment handling it makes me stop and take notice. Nearly every week I receive emails notifiying me of another company, airline or ecommerce site now accepting PayPal. Given the economy of today, ecommerce sites are fighting for every buying customer they can. These sites will do anything to make online purchasing easy for their customers and PayPal is in the catbird seat due to it’s position as the largest online payment system in the world.
Recent eBay Changes
While many including myself have focused mainly on the impact of the recently announced changes on sellers on eBay, could it be that this is just exactly what eBay wants us to focus on, and not the fact that PayPal is really the money maker and all the rest is just smoke and mirrors?
Is eBay Becoming The Newest Big Box Electronics Site?
Announced Changes Tell The Story
As I try to digest the changes to the eBay platform announced yesterday, I can’t help but notice that it truly appears to me that eBay wants to cash in on the Consumer Electronics wave. To do this eBay has inked “sweetheart deals” with such sites as Buy.com to give these huge consumer electronic sellers an unprecedented unfair advantage. These deals allow the huge sellers to list tens of thousands of items on the eBay site with no listing fees and reduced Final Value Fees (FVF).
In yesterdays announcment eBay states
” In extremely competitive e-commerce categories such as Consumer Electronics, Cameras and Computers, we’re decreasing final value fees. This means we’re giving you an even bigger incentive to list these types of items on eBay.”
In addition, eBay is also offering
a special rate of only 5 cents through the end of the year for Buy It Now™ fixed price listings in the Media categories (Books, Video Games, Music and DVDs/Movies) using pre-filled item information.
These special incentives certainly are placing those high volume sellers in these categories at a significant advantage, just in time for the busiest selling season of the year. It is very apparent to me that with the emphasis eBay is placing on these very high demand and visibilty categories, that they (eBay) wants to become the largest online source for consumer electronics. While this is great if you sell in these categories, it is terrible news for those sellers that sell in other categories like clothing or shoes or any other category not benefiting from the reduced fees.
Auction Format Listings Remain The Same
As the announcement states, there will be no reduction in fees for those selling in the Auction Format. This tells me that eBay is still moving towards a Fixed Price site. Though Lorrie Norrington says in the announcement that “Auctions will always have a place on eBay” I can not help but remember the immortal words she spoke at the PESA/ECMTA conference in New Orleans earlier this year. “You won’t recognize eBay in a year”.
The Same Old eBay-NOT
n my mind eBay already does not resemble what it was when I started selling on the site 11+ years ago. I realize that ecommerce has changed, technology has changed, and the online buyer has changed. To stay competitive, eBay had to make changes to stay competitive. My concern is what marketplace they want to be competitive in. Cetainly it appears that it is not the marketplace that they started out in, and that is OK if that is where they want to go.
In my opinion they should let their customers, who after all are the SELLERS decide what direction they should be heading to.
Silly me, I forgot, according to Pierre Omidyar we business owners don’t know what is in our own best interests.
eBay To Make PayPal Preferred Payment Method, No More Cash, Checks or MO’s
We Knew This Was Coming
At midnight last night eBay made public it’s much anticipated site changes. Midnight??? Yep, eBay briefed a select group of bloggers and media outlets yesterday in their San Jose campus and via telephone and email regarding the impending changes. Those that were given the sneak preview were admonished not to post or publish anything until 12 midnight ET. eBay itself did not post the changes until 10:04 AM ET on it’s Announcements Page.
There are many significant changes in this announcement, but the one that really upsets my applecart is the move to only allow credit card payments. Now we all know that eBay tried unsuccessfully to implement PayPal only in Austrailia.
As this effort failed, and at the time eBay professed it was not going to try to move this to the US site, sure enough they held true to their word,,, sort of.
Electronic Check-Out Coming In Late October
According to the announcement, beginning in late October, cash, checks and money orders will NO LONGER be accepted on eBay.com with a few exceptions. eBay has decided that we as business owners no longer can chose how we are paid if we want to continue to use eBay as a marketing venue. To be fair, the vast majority of ecommerce sites do not accept “paper” payments.
While the vast majority of transactions are paid electronically, I still feel that PayPal is being stuffed down my throat as the other current options allowed are ProPay??? (I am still trying to find out more about ProPay, who owns them etc) or establish a merchant account.
While this policy change does not make PayPal the only accepted way to buy on eBay, it certainly is a move in that direction.
eBay Reported To Make Major Changes But Nothing Posted On Site
eBay Reportedly Making Major Changes
It is being reported by Ina Steiner editor of Auctionbytes.com that eBay announced major site changes overnight. The reported changes include major fee changes to Buy It Now (BIN) and Fixed Price listings, Finding (Search or Best Match) Payments allowed, Shipping, and Seller Standards. While these changes are being reported by Auctionbytes, there is NOTHING posted on the eBay announcement board as of 7:30 AM ET.
No Cash, Checks or Money Orders
In the vast list of changes noted in the article, the one that hits at the core of business is payment options. eBay (as expected) has apparently decided in their wisdom that US currency is no longer acceptable (Wow, I knew the dollar was in trouble) as a form of payment. Neither are checks or money orders. As eBay attempted and failed to institute a PayPal only payment policy in Austrailia, this is not an unexpected move.
Seller Standards Set
In the article Auctionbytes reports that eBay Seller Standards will be set to a minimum 4.3 Detailed Seller Rating (DSR) across the board beginning November 1, 2008.
Shipping Charges
eBay is reportedly setting shipping fee limits.
Select Notification?
While it has long been anticipated that these changes were forthcoming, I for one wonder why there is nothing posted on the eBay General Announcement Board? Ina says she was briefed yesterday regarding the upcoming announcement, and that the news was set to be released at 12 midnight. Reuters and other outlets were also apparently briefed.
As eBay sellers awake to their computers this morning, checking the Announcement Boards as they should every morning (yeah right) they will see nothing of these upcoming major changes unless they read Auctionbytes or receive Google Alerts.
eBay To Outsource MarketPlace Research to Terapeak
Terapeak has announced that their eBay research tool Marketplace Research by Terapeak will replace eBay’s Marketplace Research which according to the announcement will close down on September 15th, 2008.
While there is nothing posted on the eBay announcement board, Terapeak issued the release on Monday August 18th, 2008.
Fred Speckeen, CEO of Terapeak/AERS, says, “The transfer of research responsibilities to Terapeak reflects our longstanding business relationship with eBay, and our company’s commitment to providing the best market research product possible. Although most eBay sellers know us for our Terapeak product, AERS was the first licensee of eBay data, and also provides e-commerce analytics based on eBay data to the larger Fortune 1000 community. We are proud and excited to be invited to offer Terapeak as an alternative to eBay Marketplace Research.”
Terapeak is a Certified eBay Provider and plans expanding the service in the future.
OLA-Radio August 14, 2008
OLA-Radio August 14, 2008
This weeks program focuses on keywords for listings to ensure search engine optimization.
Large eBay PowerSellers Getting Booted The Exodus Continues
PowerSellers On The Lookout
eBay PowerSellers are watching their emails and waiting by the phone for the notice that they have been suspended or placed on notice or restriction. Several very large (Top 25 in category) eBay PowerSellers are reporting that they have been suspended or restricted on the site. These PowerSellers are reporting that due to the increase in neutral and negative feedbacks from buyers who know that they are immune from negatives, they are being scrutinized by eBay.
What totally mystifies me is why eBay would do this without CALLING these sellers to discuss the perceived problems. What further just blows my mind is that according to the affected PowerSellers, their TSAM’s (Top Seller Account Managers) have NO CLUE as to what is going on, and worse yet no idea how to remedy the situation.
eBay vs Amazon
From the postings on forums by the PowerSellers I have seen, they report that they had moved a portion of their products to Amazon prior to the suspension, and there is some specualtion that the suspensions are a result of this move. One PowerSeller speculates that eBay determined the seller had opened and populated an Amazon Store, and is angry over the loss of listings on the eBay site.
Randy Smythe reported in his blog Tusday on the exodus from eBay. Based on the increasing number of seller accounts being suspended, I would imagine the number of exiled ebay sellers will increase dramatically in the very near future.
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