Free Postage & Competing with CHINA

[organjumper]

Why are we competing with Chinese ebay sellers flooding ebay China with product that has free postage?  Postage that is paid for by the Chinese Communist Government?  Is this a fair system?  NO NO NO  China floods our market with product, yet how can we compete on cost if ebay insist on ripping us off by charging fees on postage?  No profit for AUSTRALIAN  sellers on AUSTRALIAN ebay because of bad policy, no protection from markets that don't even try to do the right thing.  Rant OVER.

[davewil1964]

I don't.

I compete with Australian sellers of the same goods I have for sale.

However ALL sellers in Australia compete with foreign sellers - it's a matter of degree. And a result of many Government's policies.

[phonebite]

I don't think whinging really helps.

What we really need is an online UNION that represents all of us on what we need and actually do it.

As an individual we can be picked off easily 1 by 1 and it won't matter a thing. We need an enity that can attain massive power and will cause eBay to actually listen.

We live in a digital world where sellers are treated like **bleep** like the employment system 200+ years ago.

Someone has to stand up and represent, someone has to create subscription where we can all apply and if they tell us to stop selling to hurt eBay at the same time then they should try and do it.

But at its current form now, we can only allow ourselves to be pushed and shoved around like idiots individually. We can whinge 1 at a time and the results will be the same.

SO who is going to be the next Martin Luther King of the online world?

There are already modern day unions that actually push to increase our wages and all.. So we need the eCOmmerce Union to push down the fees all the time and be a massive pain in the ass to the eBay upper management.

[davewil1964]

Ha ha ha.

Please explain how individual businesses can unionise. Please explain how the 97% of eBay sellers who don't visit the boards could be contacted. Please explain how you are going to persuade them to stop selling on eBay. Given that they would not be selling on eBay if it didn't make economic sense.

[i-love-my-sheep]

A lot of the stuff I am offloading is readily available from China for a much cheaper price than my starting price. I don't have any trouble selling most of my things. I believe that is due to the fact that they can pay $10 and get it off me in less than a week or they can pay $2 from China and wait 2 months....with a much higher risk of it getting lost on the way. Most people choose the higher price and the quicker delivery option. I guess it depends on what you are selling though, but that's how it is for me.

Items that can go into a padded bag are offered as 'free' postage, with the postage being factored into the start price. Larger items have a postage cost attached to them that the buyer pays.

[digital*ghost]

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@dvd_555 wrote:

Why are we competing with Chinese ebay sellers flooding ebay China with product that has free postage?  Postage that is paid for by the Chinese Communist Government?  Is this a fair system?  NO NO NO  China floods our market with product, yet how can we compete on cost if ebay insist on ripping us off by charging fees on postage?  No profit for AUSTRALIAN  sellers on AUSTRALIAN ebay because of bad policy, no protection from markets that don't even try to do the right thing.  Rant OVER.

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I sell jewellery and craft supplies, something a million and one sellers in China have at dirt cheap prices and with free shipping.

I chose not to compete with them, and TBH I can't really complain about international sellers being visible on a worldwide marketplace - I even direct customers to them to help them find what they are looking for. If I wanted to keep my customers ignorant of all their choices, I personally wouldn't choose eBay as my selling venue. 

The Chinese seller's products might be in the same category as mine, but I also provide different kinds of product choices, and often - with smart buying - I can still actually be more than competitive with similar items. Specific products aside, they generally can not offer the same things I do to Australian buyers (arrival in a matter of days rather than weeks, cheap and easy returns, if necessesary, to name a couple). Some sellers in China have actually started to make similar products to me, and they still can't really compete on price - which is saying something (i.e. being able to provide "free" postage isn't the be all and end all of retail competition, nor is the lowest price). 

[chameleon54]

I,ve tried not to join the race to the bottom price wise. I try to offer customers a large range of good quality products with honest, reliable & prompt service. I also offer specialist product knowledge that many of my casual seller competitors cant match. This allows me to charge much higher prices than many similar sellers and still achieve good sales. Like all things on ebay it depends on what you sell and who your buyers are, but many people dont just base their purchasing decisions on price alone.

[digital*ghost]

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@chameleon54 wrote:

I,ve tried not to join the race to the bottom price wise. I try to offer customers a large range of good quality products with honest, reliable & prompt service. I also offer specialist product knowledge that many of my casual seller competitors cant match. This allows me to charge much higher prices than many similar sellers and still achieve good sales. Like all things on ebay it depends on what you sell and who your buyers are, but many people dont just base their purchasing decisions on price alone.

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I recently read a series of articles focussing on the big "A____n" site, which made for some interesting food for thought. They haven't turned a profit for the entire time they've existed, and are currently operating at a loss due to things like their incentive programs; most of which are geared towards being the lowest price out there.

The industry experts, whoever they are, say that their strategy is to amass a huge, loyal customer base now, make profit later, but I see one glaring problem with the way they're amassing that customer base...

How loyal are people who are largely price-driven buyers?

eBay, by comparison, isn't "worth" anywhere near as much as the A-site, yet they do turn a profit... I reckon, if eBay focussed a little bit more on genuinely encouraging service standards rather than punishing sellers over buyer's subjective opinions, or for not conforming to their "encouraged" business model, they'd be a much more formidable opponent. Of course, getting site features and apps to function correctly would help a bit, too. 

[phonebite]

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@davewil1964 wrote:

Ha ha ha.

Please explain how individual businesses can unionise. Please explain how the 97% of eBay sellers who don't visit the boards could be contacted. Please explain how you are going to persuade them to stop selling on eBay. Given that they would not be selling on eBay if it didn't make economic sense.

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Having a union also have its disadvantages like having to do what they say even if you don't like their opinion. 

Given that they would not be working at their workplay if it didn't make econmic sense but yet people do go on strike and risk their jobs and pay through mass power. 1 person can stop working and they a company can still move on smoothly. However stop a huge number of workers doing it and it will cause damage.

The question is, how do gather all eBay, Apple, Google indie devs etc.. into one place and work as an entity? I don't know how and probably hasn't been worked out yet but if someone or something can manage it then it can bring out new possibilities.

Things change and new things happen, failure to adapt and its comments like these that people will remain a babyboomer really

[shepherdsrule]

Most of this thread has confused me somewhat, none of the OP's complaints are really 'exclusive to eBay', it is across the retail board - Local made competes with Chinese Imports - but I guess it all boils down to one thing:

If Aus workers were willing to take a paycut of over 97%, we could complete with Chinese imports, but I don't see that happenning any time soon, so the Aus sellers provide the best local service they can, and I for one buy local to the best of my ability (and wallet).