With the changes eBay made to the Trading Assistant Program in the past year there has been a significant reduction in the number of TA’s (Trading Assistants). Now Pennsylvania has signed into law the Auctioneer Licensing and Trading Assistant Registration Act (Senate Bill 908) that will require those selling items online that do they do not own, to obtain a license and secure bonding or face criminal actions.

While the purpose of the law is apparently to protect those that consign items to be sold on the internet, it appears that this law was requested and lobbied for by auctioneers in Pennsylvania who saw a decrease in the amount of items brought to their auction houses. Instead those with items to be sold were seeking out ecommerce marketer’s that advertise online sales of items for a fee.

Though this law is clearly directed towards those TA’s on eBay, it will be enforced for any person or business selling in an auction type format on any marketplace. I have a call into the Pennsylvania Dept. Of State regarding those selling in fixed price or Buy It Now format to clarify if these are affected by the new law. Stay tuned!

Today eBay announced their newly planned eBay AdCommerce program for German and US sites. Their plan as outlined in the announcement will allow eBay sellers the opportunity to bid on the reported 4 billion keywords in their database. Based on how MUCH sellers are willing to pay per click will determine whether your ad will appear at the bottom of the search page.

eBay Has Been Selling Advertising For Years

eBay has been selling advertising on search pages for years. This has caused significant concern amongst sellers for the entire time. Now eBay is apparently telling sellers that paying for listings is not enough to get attention to their listings. Now in order to be visible eBay wants sellers to pay more money to attract more buyers. According to the announcement from Caroline Malifaud of eBay’s advertising team, these ads will be text type with a small logo and can only link to specific items or eBay Stores. Here is the link to the AdCommerce Info Page.

Why would eBay sell advertising to 3rd party companies linking to competing websites drawing buyers away from sellers listing and not allow sellers to create ad campaigns to their own websites? It would seem that eBay’s links policy is for everybody else but eBay itself.

Just The Latest Loss

Eric Shoup is just the latest manager that we are aware of who has “punched out” from eBay in the past 8 months. As has been well chronicled by Scott Pooler of TradingAssistantJournal.com, Scot Wingo CEO of Channeladvisor.com and Randy Smythe of MyBlogUtopia.com among many others, it appears that there is significant change taking place at eBay. Scott Pooler wrote a blog regarding eBay’s loss of talent and  his latest post today which asks the question

Is the management team forcing new and untested technical challenges down the throats of the engineers just to make changes in a panic? 

 On my ebay & Beyond: Basics to Business blog today I wrote about the 28 % internal approval rating of John Donahoe CEO of eBay. I have to question whether the number of managers “punching out” of eBay is directly connected to the concern over the rapid and drastic changes ebay is undertaking or if this is just normal attrition that occurs after a change at the top?

Based on the number of employees changing jobs and the rumored impending layoffs at eBay coupled with the significant drop in eBay stock, I feel the answer is clear. Staff, users and investors are not pleased with the the direction the company is taking.

What do you think?

With eBay stock reaching a 52 week low of 22.16 which is also a 5 year low, and ending the trading day Friday at 22.55 the company has lost just over 40% of it’s value in the past year.

Analysts are describing seller unrest and poor returns on eBay’s purchase of Skype along with the declining US economy and strengthening of the dollar as possible reasons of this decline.

Seller unrest has risen drastically since January when incoming CEO John Donahoe referred to the seller concerns and complaints to announced site changes as “noise”. eBay has made significant changes to it’s pricing structure including negotiating formerly unheard of reduced or free listing fees and reduced Final Value Fees for large volume sellers, restrictions on payment methods disallowing payments on the site by check, money order or cash, and placing limits on shipping fees sellers can charge in certain categories. Last week eBay announced more changes to the site including changes to the search engine on the site and changes to the Items pages that have sellers scrambling to ensure their listings can be seen by buyers which has increased seller concerns. Sellers cite bugs in the eBay Best Match search engine and concerns that the planned look to the items pages will be glitch ridden and confuse and frustrate buyers.

Sellers Moving to Other Venues

Thousands of posts on blogs and even the eBay Discussion Boards seem to indicate that ecommerce sellers who once believed that eBay was THE place to market are now looking at other venues such as Amazon, Overstock, Bidtopia, eCrater and Etsy and many others. In addition many sellers are ramping up their own websites as marketing venues. Unfortunately especially now as sellers and shoppers get ready for the very busy Q4 shopping season, many of the sites sellers are moving to with the exception of Amazon simply do not have the buying traffic coming to the sites.

eBay has for some time been making concerted efforts to wean it’s sellers away from auction format sales even though continual denials come from company officials. From John Donahoe to Lorrie Norrington to head cheerleader and eBay Ambassador Jim “Uncle Griff” Griffith all say that there will always be auctions on the site. The small seller is the thing that make eBay unique is what they say. One only has to look at the number of Fixed Price (FP) or Buy It Now (BIN) listings on the site to see that these make up the vast majority of the items listed on the site. This in my mind is due to the effectiveness of instant gratification for buyers who do not want to wait for auctions to end or lose out at the very last second by snipers. This is a valid point and I agree to some extent.

However this situation is percipitated by eBay’s refusal to institute the automatic extension of auctions that receive bids in the last minutes. Live auctions do not end until the bidding stops, other online auction sites extend auctions that recieve last minute bids to give bidders an opportunity to act so as not to be outbid. But this is another issue.

The point of this article is to point out that small sellers who sell unique items really will have a very small chance of success with the new Best Match search criteria.

Best Match Is NOT Simple

 Just when eBay sellers thought that maybe, just maybe they had a handle on the way eBay was going to be using Best Match to sort listings, reality sets in. According to a post on the eBay Developers website there is really no way small sellers can determine what will be used in the Best Match algorhythm. In the article eBay clearly states the factors used in the search criteria are NOT LIMITED TO those listed. eBay is very practiced in the things they do say but more importantly what they don’t say!

Recent Sales

Recent sales of identical items by the same seller will be used in the Best Match for FP sales. What this means is that if you as a seller bring on a new product line, you will not be ranked high in search regardless of your price, feedback or DSR’s until you sell some of these items. eBay’s rationale is that “a recent purchase from a buyer is a great way to measure satisfaction”. Ok, I as a seller will simply put a few items up at a slightly lower price to draw attention to my items, sell some, then increase the price to my normal selling price and I will be advantaged in search. 

Not so fast! eBay says that one of the other criteria is that the prices must be the same. So this strategy will not work.

Sellers Really Don’t Know

There are certainly many more factors that go into Best Match, including what category you list in, time ending your feedback and DSR’s etc. Sellers will know what categories will have different criteria for BM but since eBay does not give out propriatary info on the search algorhythms sellers will not know all the information they need. At least not the small sellers. Big Box sellers will know. Software developers will know, but the little guy won’t.

In my opinion eBay has made it impossible for the small seller to compete and that is the reason for the continuing decrease in growth and eventually it will be nothing more than Wal-Mart.

 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.

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.

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.

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?