Question
eBay Creates Content
By Rick Aristotle Munarriz (TMFBreakerRick)
October 10, 2005
With little fanfare, eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) has launched a new area on its site for registered users to provide product reviews and user guides. In exercising my right to review an area that consists of reviews, I'll say that so far the area has been neglected, and it's easy to see why.
Last week, I posted a review of one of the three top-selling CDs singled out in the area. Yet despite the area's beta launch two weeks ago, I remain one of just four members to lend an opinion on The Killers' Hot Fuss. The problem? When I searched for copies of the CD for sale, the reviews weren't integrated into the auction pages. Review pages on a site like Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) work so brilliantly because they are fully integrated into the online store.
Transforming user reviews into site content is obviously a spectacular concept. Similar to how Tom Sawyer tricked folks into painting the fence, letting your community create the content that may bring in more visitors as the pages are disseminated through search engines is genius. This is a very good move by eBay, even if we are just a couple of weeks into the beta testing process, and even if there are some bugs remaining to be worked out.
It's also another case of eBay trying to legitimize itself as a traditional retailer. Once a pure consumer-to-consumer auction site to hawk old junk, the company has focused its latest marketing campaigns on new (or nearly new) popular items that can be found on the site. The television ads and print catalogs in particular have tried to drive that emphasis home, while the "Buy It Now" option has helped buyers approach eBay as if it were a bona fide online retailer like Amazon or Overstock.com (Nasdaq: OSTK).
Like Amazon, eBay has more than doubled in value since being recommended in the Motley Fool Stock Advisor newsletter three years ago. Clearly, those companies are doing something right. Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) is another winning Stock Advisor pick that has used customer reviews to beef up its sticky database.
Testimonials have always been an effective form of advertising. Even though I had my doubts when I saw Amazon.com try this years ago, fearing that negative reviews would dissuade sales, my initial instinct was wrong. Bad reviews only solidify a site's sincerity. That creates customer dependability to the point where visitors feel that they don't have to surf elsewhere to confirm their purchases. So the question isn't whether this move will work for eBay. It will. The question to ask is why eBay took so long to get here.
Answer
eBay is trying to twist a useful shopping feature to fit its agenda. That agenda has nothing to do with helping the buyer or seller, and everythinig to do with eBay's image and profitability.
It's not working. It's poorly thought out. What else is new!!!???!!!
I doubt eBay will let poor reviews stand, though this is the reason the Amazon feature is so successful. There are many items on Amazon with scathing reviews, and buyers like me just move on to another (and often similar) product. Also, many sets of reviews are mixed, and reading them is truly helpful.
There are reviews on Amazon that criticize the Amazon staff for their selection of merchandise. An example that I remember is broiler pans. Several potential buyers lamented the poor quality of the few items offered.
eBay is also wrong in that it is not the "popular" items that need the reviews. It is the lesser known products that people thirst for feedback on. Like many here, I buy all manner of exotic and esoteric items, and the more I can learn before buying, the better. Good information can also get me to increase the budget for the goods too, especially if a review is specific about why a more expensive item is worth it for the extra features, durability, back up services.
If ever there was a site that could bring all the individualistic buyers together in one place it is eBay. But by focusing on the "popular" eBay is proving once again that it just does not get it. Who the heck wants to read yet another review of the latest pop cd? Especially when I can go to Amazon and listen to chunks of it!
But eBay will bumble along with this new feature and they may eventually figure out how to make it useful to their audience.. But considering it has taken years to get the stores to barely acceptable functioning, I am not holding my breath.
eBay does not lead any more....it follows. In fact, it trails behind, mostly.
Larry
Answer
Originally Posted by litlux
eBay does not lead any more....it follows. In fact, it trails behind, mostly.
Larry
Exactly. You have to accept criticism and use it to better yourself. They choose to ignore it and it's starting to catch up with them. It's just a matter of time.