hi guys,
thought some sellers here might be interested in reading this article from "the australian" which contains parts of an interview with jooman park, the CEO of ebay australia for the past 4 years.
it talks about the opening of amazon in australia and ebay's thoughts as a company on that. it's probably a lot of what we've heard before, or expected to happen - but mostly seems like a well-polished "we're awesome" piece 
it confirms what we've pretty-much always known, that the buyer is king on ebay.
@bigbrickshop wrote:
eBay’s online experience, too, will soon be enhanced. With the advent of virtual personal assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home, sooner or later a customer will be able to sit in her living room and say, “Okay Google, buy me a red dress that I can wear to the party on Saturday night.” From previous online transactions, eBay will know your size, your style preferences (long sleeves and a low bodice) and roughly how much you will want to spend. The red dress will soon be on its way.
You have to wonder if he has actually ever bought something on eBay. The buyer would probably end up with something like this 311943646378
Is that quote from a man? It must be. I can't imagine any woman just trusting ebay or any other system to pick out a dress or style, without wanting to see a photo before they click buy.
@digital*ghost wrote:
@lm-entertainment wrote:hi guys,
thought some sellers here might be interested in reading this article from "the australian" which contains parts of an interview with jooman park, the CEO of ebay australia for the past 4 years.
He speaks as though he has no idea what Amazon is, or how any of eBay's programs actually work... o_O
Well, he probably doesn't have a clue, and he probably hasn't ever bought or sold on ebay.
“The marketplace model is to partner with as many as possible,” he says, “so the invisible marketplace mechanism, versus one company – who’s going to win?”
I can't comment on this because it went straight over my head.
Uhhhh... eBay only does one of those things, Amazon does both, so acting like it's a given that the business that only does one of those things is obviously going to win out in the end on that basis alone, seems naively optimistic. (I don't think Amazon is going to destroy eBay, but offering the equivalent of "meh" on the subject is disconcerting).
I know nothing about Amazon but I've seen you mention that their fee is 20%, or starts at 20%. While I only pay 9.5% (+gst) in selling fees, by time I take into account the selling fees on postage and the store fee, my fees worked out on my item price are over 17%. It's way over 20% on my items that are sent as parcels so I'd imagine a few sellers might seriously look at using Amazon, depending on what other conditions they have to meet.
And then this:
"Australia’s vast size is an obvious disadvantage for consumers who have a “need for speed” and want the gratification of the desired item in their hands as quickly as possible rather than waiting days for delivery. Park has pioneered a strategy to overcome, at least in part, the frustrations of Australian geography. Called Click and Collect, it’s a partnership with Woolworths that offers customers the option of buying that red dress online from a fashion retailer and then picking it up from a nearby Woolworths supermarket. Then, if that red dress doesn’t fit or the style is not quite what you anticipated, there is a strategy for returning it with a minimum of fuss."
WHO has created this need for instant gratification? Ebay has! When I first joined back in 2004 buyers were a lot more patient and didn't expect instant gratification. They wouldn't expect it now if ebay hadn't trained them to expect it !!! It's all very well to try and corner the marketplace by promising the most efficient/quickest delivery, but you have to be realistic about it.
Instead of promising instant gratification they would have been better to concentrate on weeding out dodgy sellers so that people knew they'd get what they pay for, even if they don't get it tomorrow. The longer you have to wait for some things, the more you appreciate them when you get them.
They make it sound as though a buyer can pop on down to their Woolies straight away, when anyone who understands how that actually works, knows that it most definitely does not overcome - in any part - the issues of Australia's geographical size, and the delays caused by having things posted. Quite the opposite, so that's a bit of a "what the?" moment.
The free returns trial on fashion items was conducted a month or two ago, as far as I know (unless they are running it again now, it was definitely a while back as I received promos for it and suggested to a buyer they might like to take advantage of it when they asked for a change of mnd return). When it's fully operational, the seller will be providing / paying for it, if they opt in, but during the trial eBay was footing the bill.
They were advertising the free returns offer on all of my listings while the promo was running, and I saw no noticeable increase in sales (it was actually a below-average month for me, while sales since it ended have been very strong - not that that is something you can draw any real conclusions from, but still may be of enough interest to mention).
The buyer who used it actually asked for the returns before they'd even received the package, and I don't know if they were aware of the returns promo when they bought (though given it was advertised in my listings, there's a moderate chance that they did), sent as a large letter, returned as a parcel, and took ages because the aviation declaration wasn't signed, not sure who was responsible for that (I assume they have to be parcels under this scheme, so I have even less incentive to opt into it and pay up to $5 more for each returned package).
