ebay dying? whats the solution?

[phantomchris1984]

FACEBOOK = FREE

GUMTREE = FREE

EBAY = APROX 20% FEES INCLUDING FORCED PAYPAL FEES AS OPTION NO ONE WANTS.

IS EBAY DYING? IS IT THE NEXT BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO STORE? IRELEVANT?

WITH AMAZON COMING TO AUSTRALIA THEY WILL BLOW EBAY OUT OF THE WATER.

IM NOT SAYING EBAY HAS TO HALVE ITS FEES, IM SAYING IT MUST!!!!!!!!

SEEING A COMPANY SIMPLY PRETEND NOTHING IS WRONG AND TO NOT LISTEN TO THE SELLERS CRYING OUT LOUD IS VERY SAD. ITS JUST LIKE BLOCKBUSTER, THEY WERE OFFERED THE CHANCE TO BUY NETFLIX BACK IN 2000. BUT THEY CHOOSE NOT TO AND DIDNT WANT TO FACE REALITY AND THOUGHT IT WAS A FAD, NOW EBAY IS BEING FACED WITH THE NETFLIX TAX, THE IRONY. REALITY IS COMING.

LOWERING FEES IS A START, WHAT ELSE HAS TO HAPPEN TO GET EBAY BACK ON TRACK?

[lyndal1838]

No need to yell at us....and it is hard to read.

Who says paypal is a system nobody wants.  There are plenty of sellers and buyers who will not use anything else.

Amazon is not the be all and end all.  It is most unlikely to "blow ebay out of the water".

They are going to have the same business expenses as any other Australian business so we will see how cheap they are in 6-12 months after the loss leader prices expire.   They are not just going to be able to convert their US prices to AU$ you know.

The Netflix Tax applies to all businesses providing digital delivery goods/services.  It will no doubt apply to Amazon also.

[chameleon54]

I actually quite like paypal. Sure I pay a fee to use the service, but its integration with ebay makes it very simple to track which sellers have paid, do refunds when required and keep track of my accounts for tax purposes.

Once buyers want to direct credit my bank accounts, things start to get messy. I have to keep a watch on the account waiting to see if and when funds clear and if I sell two or three of the same item, it makes it more difficult to work out who has actually paid as the deposit is for the same value., basically its just a pain in the but.

I think you are making the mistake of thinking that the ebay platform in Australia is as important to ebay as it is to you. Ebay Australia is very small beer for the global company and the entrance of Amazon into our local market is just another small pot hole in ebays road.

Sure there are many things that I think ebay could do to improve and stay relevant in a changing market, but halving fees aint one of them. The company is not making huge profits now and the simple truth is if ebay drasticly reduces fees it would go broke and be placed into recievership within months. That would not be good for ebay and would be a disaster for the small sellers who rely on ebay for their livelihood.

[phorum_junkie*]

What makes you think nobody wants Paypal? An awful lot of us have used Paypal for many years, long before it was available in Australia and I would say a good 65% of all the companies I have bought from on line in the last year offer Payal as a payment option. In this day and age do you honestly think many people would pay by bank deposit?

Yes there are places you can advertise without fees but on how many of those platforms can you actually sell anything? FB and Gumtree are reasonably successful for local sales but not for blanket coverage of Australia and certainly not for the overseas market.

Have a look at the cost of selling on Amazon in the UK, I think you will get a bit of a shock plus their returns policy is much more buyer orientated than ebay's.  I don't sell now when I am in the UK but if I did no way would I choose Amazon over ebay for selling, great for buying though, do you think that doesn't come at a cost?

Ebay is not in decline, it is evolving, it may no longer be as good for small time and hobby sellers as it seems it is concentrating on getting large companies and labels on board and unless you can buy a majority of ebay's shares so you call the tune they will continue to do as they think best to keep their shareholders happy. That is there only remit.

[springyzone]

I like paypal & use it wherever possible for buying on other online sites. It saves me from having to give out credit card details.

If things go wrong, with paypal I have a back up to claim for item not received, which actually saved me about $80 once when one of the companies went into liquidation.

Back in about 1999 when ebay started here, it was about the only online player in town (there was also a site called SOLD for a while, but that closed down).

I don't know that Amazon will blow it out of the water. I just think the retail world is changing. It's changing a lot. Just about every retail srore or chain sells online too now. Service/delivery has ramped up.

The main change I am seeing compared to say, 4 or 5 years back, is delivery. Some of the big online sellers then (not thinking ebay here) worked on the premise 3 weeks from order to delivery was okay. In most cases, that won't be tolerated now. They are generally much quicker off the mark. Even things that need to be personalised/printed are generally making it within the week.

So ebay has had to change with the times-hence their attempt to make expected delivery dates clearer to buyers.

I think they have a good chance of staying in business-as long as they don't make it too hard for sellers of second hand items.

That's a huge point of difference between ebay and others. others usually sell new, ebay is one of the few doing second hand/vintage, and at present it is more secure than facebook, with postage available etc

[x3n0m]

ebay dying? whats the solution?

let it die .. no use pumping air into this bloated carcass ..

[enigmabear]

Not screaming at people would be a good start

[Anonymous]

Well let's just hope OP doesn't have a crystal ball.
Listing an item on ebay is like a gentle breeze compared to the

gale force hurricane of red tape that Amazon throws at you.

If anyone has ever tried FBA USA and succeeded then I say jolly

good luck to you.
I will certainly take FBA Australia out for a spin but FBA USA justs

keeps slipping off my desk into the too hard basket.

Maybe it's just me but dealing with Amazon is like dealing with

a government department.

[porcelain_dolls_by_me]

Not sure where you get the 20% cost from as I pay a total of around only 12%

I take the vierw of comparing the fee to sell on EBay to that if I was t have a physical retail shopfront.  The outgoings (rent etc) for a retail shopfront, as a percentage of sales would be considerably higher - around 20%.  Makes the Ebay charge look prettty good?

[fred_foofighter]

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@porcelain_dolls_by_me wrote:

Not sure where you get the 20% cost from as I pay a total of around only 12%

I take the vierw of comparing the fee to sell on EBay to that if I was t have a physical retail shopfront.  The outgoings (rent etc) for a retail shopfront, as a percentage of sales would be considerably higher - around 20%.  Makes the Ebay charge look prettty good?

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With B&M the outgoings (Rent) are usually a fixed cost, with eBay they are a variable cost - BIG difference.  You double your sales in a B&M shop the rent stays the same, double your eBay sales and your FVF double.