Question
Ebay, here are some suggestions for increasing your income without raising fees the way that you have.
1) Provide better support for sellers. As it stands right now the focus is on the buyer.
2) Train Ebay employees better. Canned answers are bad enough but when a great number of your employees cannot acurately explain or enforce policy there is a problem that stalls the selling process.
3)Stop the sensless massacre of canceling auctions in error. Employees who cancel too many auctions in error should be dismissed.
4)Stop suspending people without a thorough investigation. Generally, feedback and reputation are good indications that a claim of an illegal association might be false.
5) Faster response time to reinstatement requests whether for canceled auctions or suspension.
6)Make all policy that pertains to memeber available to members. Secret policies, inforced ignorant employees is great way to loose trust with your customer ie: Sellers.
7) Lower listing fees which will increase the number of listings by current members and the new ones you will attract.
8)Read something or hire someone who is aware of quality management principles. I suggest that someone there read a book about the Deming method. After all the father of the Japanese post-war industrial revival can't be all wrong.
9) Listen, really listen to your customers (the sellers not the buyers)!
10) Do not allow any employees who have the authority to cancel or suspend to sell on Ebay and include family members of the employee in that restriction.
Remember your customer is the seller. Safeguards for safe trading are already in place. As a venue, Ebay is not responsible for every issue a buyer may have so stop trying to provide for all of them. Easy to reach links to reporting agencies is sufficient. Those mega sellers do the biggest damage to trust & safety with buyers. Find another way to manage them since the feedback system does not have the impact on them that it was intended to do.
A telephone number to call for assistance and support would be ideal and should be available to all, free of charge or at the very least as a subscription. However, if you are to charge for this service then you must insure that the person answering the telephone is very knowledgable and will return telephone calles or email researched information within 24 hours.
Ebay, I understand that $$ were down last quarter but what did you expect? No free listing days. The arrival of mega sellers who flood the market with massive numbers of product at very low prices lowered the bottom line for everyone. Also, the slaughter of honest quality auctions which started in August or maybe even earlier, eliminated not just auctions and quality descriptions that lead to higher closing prices but also caused sellers to leave.
I know there is more but I leave that for others to reveal. LISTEN EBAY LISTEN. Don't be so defensive or hard headed that you cannot learn.
Answer
11) Simplify the on-site listing process. A seller that can list quickly and easily will be more productive, and produce more listing fees and final value fees.
12) Understand that competitive bidding in auctions is a good thing. Policies that make it difficult for buyers to find an item, reduce the values of the items and reduce final value fees.
13) Understand that the buyer needs to know what they are actually buying. A detailed description of the actual item is not key word spamming or search manipulation, it gives the buyers confidence that they know what they are buying, and encourages bids and sales, thus increasing final value fees.
Answer
11) Simplify the on-site listing process. A seller that can list quickly and easily will be more productive, and produce more listing fees and final value fees.
this one needs repeating, over and over and over..........ebay really needs to pay attention to this thread....MEG, are you reading this
i would bet that that listing process they use costs them 25% in lost revenue, if they streamlined it and made it quick, then even I would use it, then they would get more fees out of me too....but now I pay third party fees for some stuff I don't need to just because listing through ebay gives me an anxiety attack. Ebay does not bond well with my internet connnection.
Answer
Hi Kevin! You are so good! #13 states what I could not express. My esperiences have made me paranoid on the KWS subject and sometimes I fear that my perspective is tainted which makes it a little difficult to be concise.
Answer
After WW II, Deming turn Japan around within 4 years which was 1 year early. These points taken from the site with the link above can apply to Ebay and are what most members are asking for.
1. Constancy of purpose
Create constancy of purpose for continual improvement of products and service to society, allocating resources to provide for long range needs rather than only short term profitability, with a plan to become competitive, to stay in business, and to provide jobs.
2. The new philosophy
Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age, created in Japan. We can no longer live with commonly accepted levels of delays, mistakes, defective materials, and defective workmanship. Transformation of Western management style is necessary to halt the continued decline of business and industry.
3. Cease dependence on mass inspection
Eliminate the need for mass inspection as the way of life to achieve quality by building quality into the product in the first place. Require statistical evidence of built in quality in both manufacturing and purchasing functions.
4. End lowest tender contracts
End the practice of awarding business solely on the basis of price tag. Instead require meaningful measures of quality along with price. Reduce the number of suppliers for the same item by eliminating those that do not qualify with statistical and other evidence of quality. The aim is to minimize total cost, not merely initial cost, by minimizing variation. This may be achieved by moving toward a single supplier for any one item, on a long term relationship of loyalty and trust. Purchasing managers have a new job, and must learn it.
5. Improve every process
Improve constantly and forever every process for planning, production, and service. Search continually for problems in order to improve every activity in the company, to improve quality and productivity, and thus to constantly decrease costs. Institute innovation and constant improvement of product, service, and process. It is management's job to work continually on the system (design, incoming materials, maintenance, improvement of machines, supervision, training, retraining).
6. Institute training on the job
Institute modern methods of training on the job for all, including management, to make better use of every employee. New skills are required to keep up with changes in materials, methods, product and service design, machinery, techniques, and service.
7. Institute leadership
Adopt and institute leadership aimed at helping people do a better job. The responsibility of managers and supervisors must be changed from sheer numbers to quality. Improvement of quality will automatically improve productivity. Management must ensure that immediate action is taken on reports of inherited defects, maintenance requirements, poor tools, fuzzy operational definitions, and all conditions detrimental to quality.
8. Drive out fear
Encourage effective two way communication and other means to drive out fear throughout the organization so that everybody may work effectively and more productively for the company.
9. Break down barriers
Break down barriers between departments and staff areas. People in different areas, such as Leasing, Maintenance, Administration, must work in teams to tackle problems that may be encountered with products or service.
10. Eliminate exhortations
Eliminate the use of slogans, posters and exhortations for the work force, demanding Zero Defects and new levels of productivity, without providing methods. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships; the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system, and thus lie beyond the power of the work force.
11. Eliminate arbitrary numerical targets
Eliminate work standards that prescribe quotas for the work force and numerical goals for people in management. Substitute aids and helpful leadership in order to achieve continual improvement of quality and productivity.
12. Permit pride of workmanship
Remove the barriers that rob hourly workers, and people in management, of their right to pride of workmanship. This implies, among other things, abolition of the annual merit rating (appraisal of performance) and of Management by Objective. Again, the responsibility of managers, supervisors, foremen must be changed from sheer numbers to quality.
13. Encourage education
Institute a vigorous program of education, and encourage self improvement for everyone. What an organization needs is not just good people; it needs people that are improving with education. Advances in competitive position will have their roots in knowledge.
14. Top management commitment and action
Clearly define top management's permanent commitment to ever improving quality and productivity, and their obligation to implement all of these principles. Indeed, it is not enough that top management commit themselves for life to quality and productivity. They must know what it is that they are committed to—that is, what they must do. Create a structure in top management that will push every day on the preceding 13 Points, and take action in order to accomplish the transformation. Support is not enough: action is required!