Small Ecommerce Business Get’s The One Two Punch From Google And eBay In One Day

March 12, 2009 · Filed Under Auction Resources, Internet Marketing, News, amazon, eBay, ecommerce, google, paypal 

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eBay Analyst Day

Much has already been and more will be written about the first eBay Analyst Day held in 3 years. eBay executives did their best to put on their smiley faces in an attempt to encourage the folks from Wall Street. I will not attempt to regurgatate most of what is already out there, however here are two things that I took away from the event:

  1. PayPal is the leading money maker of the company. Some of you will remember I wrote about this last August in a blog post. One of the things I found almost laughable was the talking point eBay made that PayPal’s integration into the eBay platform had risen several percentage points over the past 6 months. Of course it did! eBay made it almost (this is as close as I can come to saying Monopoly) mandatory. Who were they really trying to kid?
  2. eBay will now be focusing on the “Secondary Marketplace”. First this is not a term that has been used before that I am aware of. What it really means is the liquidation marketplace. Out of season or end of live product. It was said, and I paraphrase here, “We are interested in attracting those businesses that have stuff in warehouses that they need to dispose of”. This certainly does not seem to include the small sellers that have one of’s.

While eBay continues to state that they embarce the small seller, in my opinion the only reason for this is the increased search engine visibility they receive by “allowing” these sellers on the site. Once buyers are on the site they are directed to the sellers that eBay wants them to see, not necessarily what the buyer wants to see.

eBay told analysts that 2009 would be very difficult on the eBay site, only slightly better in 2010 and incrementally better in 2011 IF the economy improves. eBay also said that it’s focus is now on the current customers and less on attracting new buyers.

Bottom line is lower volume sellers are in for a tough couple of years based on the current direction of the company.

For complete analysis of the eBay Analyst event check out http://www.ebaystrategies.blogs.com by Scot Wingo CEO of Channeladvisor.com

google_checkout

Google announced yesterday, during the eBay Analyst event (maybe to hope to sneak it out there with little attention????) that effective in May 2009 there would be a significant increase in fees for those merchants using Google Checkout.

Again, the small seller takes it on the chin with these fee increases.

Colderice did a fee increase comparison on his blog, and I think it brings home the point very well.

Every company needs to make a profit. I do not blame either eBay or Google for making these moves. They need to do what they think will improve their position in the marketplace and ultimately their bottom lines. This is what their stockholders expect.

All users of either eBay or Google need to decide whether their businesses can adapt to the changes or not. If not, the answer is simple. Change your marketing strategies to other venues or payment options.

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