Question
EBay is in the process of redesigning the Search and Browse pages. I strongly suspect that this redesign ties into Item Specifics and I also believe it reinforces my opinion that Item Specifics is nothing more than a way for eBay to increase their profits. I don't think it has anything to do with helping buyers to find items on the site.
It's all about KEYWORDS. Buyers will have to use the Product Finder to search for specific items - note the word SEARCH. They will have to SEARCH which requires keyword input instead of BROWSING categories which does not need keywords. Keyword data is highly sought after by advertisers and can also be used to compile a database composed of buying and selling statistics. KEYWORD marketing is a very profitable business.
On March 29, eBay is running a workshop entitled "eBay Keyword Program"
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jsp?forum=93&thread=410058926&modifed=20040 312155414
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Topic: eBay Workshop: "eBay Keyword Program"
Host: eBay Staff
Date: Monday 03/29
Time: 18:00 - 17:00 PST
Location: Workshop Board
Description: The eBay Keyword program is a great way for sellers to increase their sales by advertising on the highly trafficked search pages. The online workshop will give sellers the opportunity to ask questions about which keywords to select and how to use the free ad banner creator tool. In addition, we will highlight new product features and give sellers some ideas on how to best measure the success of their campaigns.
Regards,
Deirdre
eBay Community Development <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Then on April 1 eBay has a workshop entitled "Search and Browse Pages Redesigned"
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jsp?forum=93&thread=410058929&modifed=20040 312154306
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Topic: eBay Workshop: "Search and Browse Pages Redesigned"
Host: eBay Staff
Date: Thursday 04/01
Time: 13:00 - 14:00 PST
Location: Workshop Board
Description: In an ongoing effort to help users to find their desired items more quickly and easily, eBay will shortly be introducing new, redesigned Search and Browse pages. New features will help you navigate between categories, change your search, backtrack to a previous location, and so on; existing features will be organized in a cleaner and more consistent manner. Additionally, you will be able to customize personal display settings and features, and you'll have new ways to find items when your primary search returns a small number of listings. Join us for a workshop to show you how to make the most out of the new Search and Browse pages and answer you questions about the new designs.
Regards,
Deirdre
eBay Community Development <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
IMO, Item Specifics is nothing more than a manipulation by eBay to generate more income.
Blanche
Answer
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>IMO, Item Specifics is nothing more than a manipulation by eBay to generate more income.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Was there ever any doubt? http://community.here.com/infopop/em...s/icon_mad.gif
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Sort of an internalized response to the threat from Froogle.
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Never a doubt at all, Neil. http://community.here.com/infopop/em...n_rolleyes.gif
This could finally kill our business. For crying out loud, email is too complex for some of my customers. How will they ever figure item specifics out?
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I'm surprised my favorite search:
sxl* -sxlp*
...is considered so valuable. I'll sell it to them for free.
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I have a simple question -- will bidders still be able to use the basic title and title/description searches? It's my feeling that these searches are still the most popular method of finding items on eBay.
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The title search is still up on top..I haven't figured out the item specifics search yet and I've been on Ebay over 4 years.
My vinyl record sales took a hit for about 2 days then they have seemed to come back to normal...somebody must be smarter than me and has the search feature figured out.
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Some of Jay's comments about Item Specifics:
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jsp?forum=38&thread=410063833&message=41168 5692&q=
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>jayandmarie (166665 )(view author's auctions)
03/17/04 11:13 AM (# 49 of 176)
The basis for the 'Item Specifics' idea, they say, is to make it easier for buyers to find things on eBay. They say that trying to search items via the keywords and such that we use currently is inefficient.
I say this is hooey. This is another way, I believe, to create a system for auctions whereby results can be easily combind, analyzed, and sold. It is one further step toward homogenizing the site, and one further step toward the ultimate, fixed shipping-and-handling charges scale I envision before very long.
<skip>
The new elimination of all subcategories in Music will create giant, unbrowseable categories filled with hundreds of thousands of listings. Browsing will end. No one wants to thumb through 500,000 unsorted CDs looking for items. If you visit a music store you will find that CDs are organized by categories. There is a REASON for this.
Don't think your category wont be affected. eBay is moving, I believe, toward a non-category system where everything on the site is found by searching, much like Amazon.com. You don't 'browse' Amazon, but you DO 'browse' eBay. Most of what I sell, I believe, is found by 'browsers' and not 'searchers'. I believe this is a short-sighted, disastrous decision. I have been hoping and praying for months that whoever's son-in-law is running this program within eBay will lose his job or give up on the project, but it hasn't yet happened. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>jayandmarie (166665 )(view author's auctions)
03/17/04 11:15 AM (# 50 of 176)
A few hours later, I wrote this:
"Half.com becomes a choked and bloated sight filled with millions and millions of unwanted titles, worthless overstock closeout junk and phantom listings (CDs, DVDs etc that are listed for sale but are not owned by the seller; they will only be bought and resold to the customer if and when the customer places the buy order). The site does battle with Amazon.com, loses, and dies.
Now, the format is moving to eBay. EBay lowers the fees in its stores to 2c/month, becoming fairly close to the 'free' listing that Half.com sellers enjoyed. EBay lengthens the title line to 55 characters from 45 characters (done largely, I believe, to accomodate the thousands of pre-loaded Half.com listings whose title was being truncated). EBay encourages CD and DVD sellers, through the use of the 'pre-filled' information screens, to use the ISBN numbers or titles to list items now. These 'Pre-Filled' screens come with 'Pre-filled' Item Specifics boxes as well.
But, why? Half.com didn't work. If the site didn't work with millions of listings (that were free to the seller), why would it work at eBay (where the fee for a fixed price sale would be at least 2c/month, and possibly 35c or so for a regular eBay.com 7-day listing)? I'm trying to understand the thought process here.
I guess what they're telling me (and you Papier11, and you GlacierBayDVD, and you KMak333, and others)is that they're gearing up to bring very large dealers onto eBay. Maybe Best Buy, maybe Walmart, who knows? There may be some of the same lousy Half.com sellers with tens of thousands of phantom items, as well as national brand chains. These sellers will probably populate the eBay Stores with millions of CD & DVD listings. They will use bulk uploading programs using ISBN numbers and standardized descriptions etc, much as was done at Half.com.
This process cannot be good for the casual seller of anything. I have repeatedly voiced my opinion that eBay is only as good as its sellers, and as sellers become alienated or frustrated and die off then the site is weakened. eBay is now, what, 7 years old or so? Big sellers (and I mean biggggggggggg sellers) have not come to the site, and this is in spite of the best efforts of Channel Advisor, eBay's growing sales force, and others. This is a GOOD THING, not a bad thing.
I wish to the Lord God that eBay would take some young intern, set him up in a room with a computer and a stack of CDs or DVDs, and set him to work listing them. If eBay wishes, I will personally supply a 30-count box of items. Let this intern go through the rigamarole of listing these items, and let the clock run while he does so. At the end of the listings, see how long it took him, work it back to $12/hour or so, and then see how it can possibly be that a seller of such items can survive at eBay.com, or eBayStores.com, paying for this lister's time, as well as the stack of other fees and such that we sellers must endure.
I already know the answer. I have tried it myself, often. This intern will spend at least 3 minutes/item, or get 20 done an hour. This works out to around 60c/item of an employees, just to get the item LISTED. Remember, its not just the time it takes to click, and click, and click, and click. It's the decision making time and energy, over and over and over, deciding WHICH to click. Is this item New Or Used? Is it Full Length or Extended Play? Is it Pre 1970, 1970 - 1980, whatever?
eBay then will come back to us and say 'But, if you were to use a bar code scanner, and a database, and a server, and whatever the heck else, then you can list 1000s of items much faster'. That may ultimately be so for a seller like myself. But what about the small seller who does not have the bar code scanner? This guy probably takes 6 minutes to list a CD, not 3 minutes. His time is every bit as valuable as mine, but he is not counting his or paying himself. He lists some items, he sells a few, he quits. At half.com he would simply leave the item up there for sale forever. At eBay the listing will at some point drop from the site.
Without these smaller sellers the site, I believe, dies. I do not mean the guys over at half.com who list 10,000 items and sell 100/week. I'm talking about the guy who has a box of used CDs or DVDs he wants to sell. As we all know, eBay works only because of the ability of millions of individual sellers to overlook the cost of their OWN time in listing and running small eBay businesses. They work from home, they pay no insurance, they pay -some- taxes, they make sub-minimum wage but they are turning over a little money. If this move towards standardization continues then I believe the site will wither.
Yes, I have known for months that Half.com was moving to eBay. I had assumed, however, that Half.com would change and adapt to eBay's ways. It seems instead that eBay wants to adapt Half.com's ways.
And, to repeat from my earlier post: don't think this is only a CD sellers problem. It's coming to your category soon.
JAY <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>jayandmarie (166665 )(view author's auctions)
03/17/04 11:19 AM (# 51 of 176)
Later, on February 5, I wrote the following:
"This whole thing is a variation on the experience we had with Turbo Lister.
<skip>
My point with all of the above was to illustrate the attitude at that time demonstrated to me by eBay's people. Now, these were not high-level people, but these were people who could have and should have been there for us. Their attitude was very clear: this is how it is going to be. If you have a specific need that is not addressed by this program then hopefully someone out there will develop and sell you a solution, or you can pay for someone to develop a solution. We don't reallly care what happens.
This Item Specifics thing is similar. Hopefully someone else will develop a workaround for bulk listers. So far eBay has not offered a viable solution for large sellers and it is unclear if they ever plan to."
JAY <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Comments from a buyer:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>jaben12 (424 )(view author's auctions)
03/22/04 8:39 AM (# 63 of 74)
As someone who was buying a lot of records on ebay, I can definitely say the new category listing system will adversely affect the amount of vinyl I buy on ebay (good for my bank account, bad for my record collection).
I usually check listings at work, in between crises. I would start by clicking on an item from my watch list, and then click on the jazz record link in the listing category string that used to run above the item. From there I would click on "new today" which is now gone. Newly listed isn't the same thing.
The way categories are now. It's more difficult to move from genre to genre, and from newly listed to ending soon. It might be possible to find what you're looking for, but it takes more time and effort, without the string of category links. Ultimately, that's got to mean less bids are made. I know that's certainly been true for myself. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Blanche
Answer
The bottom line is that the eBay model can support only so much business a year. Main problem is existing eBay sellers' ability to increasingly list more items. I guess eBay view the small guys as roadside kills. Instead, here comes the big trucks with the mega sellers.
Of course, eBay controls the market when there are only small sellers. If eBay relies on big sellers, then eBay itself may face some control issue. For any mega seller can setup a fixed price website and leave eBay.
Question is, will buyers stay with eBay if it turns into another Amazon. I doubt it.
So, time for a real major launch of an alternative auction site. It will take someone will millions. But, in a year or so, it should have a shot at getting a portion of existing eBay sellers.
Answer
Please keep in mind that my comments that follow are made with absolutely no listing experience with Item Specifics, and I do not agree with this move by ebay. In fact I may not understand Item specifics at all.
BUT
My experience with listing using catagories has me:
1:Laughing at the idjet who comes up with them.
2:Wondering how any bidder can keep up with the changes in catagories. (A listing I made about a month ago, no longer had a current catagory and we had to recatagorize it. On free listing day, HALF of my time spent was correcting catagories)
3:Come to the conclusion that catagories (in my field anyway) mean SQUAT. I have polled customers on how they search, used a counter that told me how the auction visitors searched, and ran a few test auctions. My firm belief is that I can list a item in the "proper" catagory, and one in a "improper" catagory and get the same bid, because bidders search by keyword.
4:Spend too much time looking for the "right" catagory and curse when there is not a proper one, because I don't feel like I am being a good seller listing in a bogus catagory.
If you agree with my theory, which I know a lot of you will not, is there a big deal with the item specifics? Isn't Item specifics basically keywords? If so, I am already using item specifics but just calling it keywords. I carefully try to include all keywords that I can that are related to the item I am listing.
To me it does not sound like that big of a change for ME as a buyer or a seller.
I am sure that the "filled or canned" item specifics will be about as lame as the catagories now also. http://community.here.com/infopop/em...n_rolleyes.gif
Hope I was able to articulate my thoughts here adequately.