Question
Sellers have high expectations for eBay Express
Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service
10/04/2006 08:10:59
The full article is here.
Expectations for eBay Express are running high among experienced eBay sellers, who view the upcoming specialty site as a potentially significant new channel and have their fingers crossed that the company will build and market it properly.
EBay Express, due during the second quarter, will feature only fixed-price items, most of them new, from experienced sellers with outstanding track records. On eBay.com, many items are used and sold via auction, and many sellers are novices.
Context: 98% positive feedback = "outstanding track record" - This is an understandable assumption for someone not familiar with the Ebay culture, but 20 neg's per one thousand transactions on Ebay usually reflects a much higher dissatisfaction rate, as many users are not comfortable giving neg's because of the fear of retaliation affecting their own reputation.
Although excited by the impending launch of eBay Express, some veteran eBay sellers also say they feel some trepidation, as they wait anxiously to see how the site actually works. If it's not truly quick, easy to navigate, intuitive to use, safe and aggressively marketed, eBay Express will go down in history as a great concept that was badly implemented, sellers say.
David Yaskulka, founder and CEO of Blueberry Boutique, a shirt and tie online store, thinks eBay should tighten the eBay Express seller requirements. Right now, eBay's plan is to only allow items on eBay Express from sellers who have been rated a minimum of 100 times by other buyers or sellers, with a minimum 98 percent positive feedback. Yaskulka would like eBay to require a minimum of 500 ratings, and that all of them be from buyers. He also thinks sellers should be forced to accept returns, which right now eBay doesn't plan to require.
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This will not work.
Why would anyone want to buy the common goods from someone when they can go to Amazon or other large established internet sites with free or reasonable shipping, live customer service, no question returns, etc... Why deal with hundreds of sellers, each with different TOS. Would one rather deal with Amazon or a seller with 98% positive feedback?
If collectibles, would one have time to frequent this site as well as eBay? Maybe at the beginning. But once the stock becomes stale, visitors for collectibles will be few.
I see no advantage the eBay name offers in this market.
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A brilliant concept with such flawed operational design that the odds are 4 to 1 it won't last 90 days.
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Originally Posted by commentary
I see no advantage the eBay name offers in this market.
I actually wonder if the ebay name isn't detrimental.
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Sellers have high expectations for eBay Express.
Must be new folks to ebay.
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Originally Posted by Mag
I actually wonder if the ebay name isn't detrimental.
In the Seller Central thread, when Pinks answered questions about Express, they were asked "why not leave out the Ebay name?" They never answered.
It makes no sense to say you are targeting buyers who don't or won't DO Ebay and then name it Ebay Express.
I opted-out as soon as opt-out was made available and I plan to just sit back and watch the train wreck and congratulate myself for not being involved.
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Originally Posted by inquiringminds
I opted-out as soon as opt-out was made available and I plan to just sit back and watch the train wreck and congratulate myself for not being involved.
I'm ashamed to say I haven't been paying as close attention to this hoopla as I should, but what exactly did you opt out of and where did you find the setting to opt out of it?
ETA: Nevermind, I found it. Even though I meet all the criteria ebay says this when I try to set my preferences. LOL
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