eBay Announcement Bucket To Pour Out April 14th?
I Apologize To eBay
During the LIVE February 2009 eBay TownHall radio event several references were made to the much anticipated changes all eBay users anxiously await (or dread). These references all indicated that the first of the announced 2 buckets (eBay’s term) of announcements per year would be released “in the spring”.
I have been telling my listeners that in the TownHall event I heard that the announcements would be made in March. I was WRONG. The references I heard to “next month” were in fact the changes to the Seller Dashboard which of course was released in March. This just goes to prove the adage that we hear what we WANT to hear.
According to the March 31st episode of eBayRadio, the April 14th episode will be one of the most important days eBay has ever had, then Lee and Griff added, “this year”. So it looks like the announcements will be made on April 14th, but again remember that the changes that may accompany this announcement will not take effect for AT LEAST 60 days according to Dinesh Lathi. This will give everyone ample time to make the necessary changes or adjustments to their businesses.
Again, I apologize to eBay and my listeners for hearing what I wanted to hear!
Best Match Is The Small eBay Sellers Demise
eBay’s Best Match Favors Fixed Price Sales
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.
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