eBay Rumored Ready To Cut 10% of Workforce
In an article published last week in Barrons Weekly based on a report from Wedge Partners, Reuters today published a very short article on the rumors. 10% of eBay’s worldwide staffing would peg the number of layoffs at approximately 1500 staffers. eBay has not responded to requests for comment on this report.
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.
WSJ Article About Problems with eBay Spurs Large Response From Readers
An article published yesterday by the Wall Street Journal references Scot Wingo’s eBay Strategies blog as to some of the main concerns voiced by sellers on the eBay site. Scot Wingo is the CEO of Channeladvisor.com an ecommerce marketing solution provider, focused on increasing business using multi-channel marketing. Scot has indepth insight into the ecommerce marketing world and in his blog, highlights 4 main concerns for eBay sellers.
Tremendous Reader Response
The WSJ article focuses on the reasons eBay seems to be losing popularity amongst sellers and why the sellers are seeking addiitonal marketing venues. In response to the article readers comments are decidedly anti-eBay. When I reviewed the comments at 12 Noon today there appeared to be well over 40 comments, some long, some very short, but nearly all seemed to voice concern and displeasure with the direction the eBay site has taken in the past 12-18 months.
Related Story
In a related story, Randy Smythe author of MyBlogUtopia.com an ecommerce business blog, writes yesterday regarding the continuing decline in eBay sellers according to information published on the Seller Dome website and blog.
As sellers that no longer fit into the eBay business model seek other venues to market their products, sites such as Bidtopia.com, Onlineauction.com and others are seeing an influx of new members. The major hurdle that these other venues face is traffic, or rather the lack there of. As online marketing sites such as Onlineauction work hard to increase traffic, the users of the sites are demanding more be done to promote the sites. As website executives as well as members work hard to draw attention to these other venues I fully expect that we will see a new leader in the online auction format in the next year.
eBamazon?????
As eBay seems intent on creating a site to rival Amazon, ecommerce marketers are asking themselves “Does the ecommerce world really need another Amazon?” I really don’t know the answer to that question though I do believe that competition is a good thing.
I do know that when a business forgets it’s roots, and what made it strong, the mighty oak falters and falls.
Just food for thought!
Listen to ebay & Beyond: Basics to Business each Saturday 10 AM to Noon ET at www.basicstobusiness.com
ebay & Beyond: Basics To Business with Paul St. James of Bidtopia and John Lawson 3PO
This weeks show features guests Paul St. James CIO of Bidtopia.com and John Lawson reporting from Rocketplace/AsWas conference in Las Vegas.
[podcast]http://www.ecommerce-marketing-radio-network.com/Podcasts/09-13-08.mp3[/podcast]
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