eBay's constant system and policy changes imposed by neophyte CEO John Donahoe are responsible for the steady year/year sales decline the company has been experiencing over the last two years.

With a first time CEO who has essentially no experience as a company leader or as an eBay buyer or seller, changes imposed by Mr Donahoe miss the mark and are driving small and medium sized sellers from the marketplace.

To build a successful business, sellers need a platform that is solid, stable and successful. Under CEO Donahoe, eBay has become anything but. Constant changes to policy, systems, and search, coupled with fee increases serve to make the eBay platform uniquely unstable and inconsistent. The result is an ever increasing numbers leaving eBay.

The problem is compounded by Mr Donahoe's ignorance and disregard for eBay's past. History proves that eBay's most active buyers also happened to be eBay sellers. Constant policy and system changes continue to alienate sellers and as those disgruntled sellers leave, they also cease buying as well. 

Mr Donahoe once publicly dismissed unhappy eBay sellers as "noise". The statement fully illustrates the disregard and disdain Mr Donahoe holds for his own fee paying customers.

This alienation and erosion of sellers fully explains why eBay sales are steadily declining while other sites like Amazon have seen consistent and significant increases. Previously Mr Donahoe has dismissed eBay's declining sales on the state of the economy. Mr Donahoe's excuse is no longer valid as eBay seems to be the only online retailer that is seeing traffic statistics decline and gross sales shrink.

The problems at eBay have been created from within eBay and come from the top. The problems at eBay continue because eBay fails to see the site's issues have been self created by a CEO that grossly disregards the essential fundamentals that enabled eBay to become the one time online sales leader.

The company is in desperate need of new leadership and management.