Ebay vs Craigslist with new Kijiji classified ads

Look out Craigslist! Apparantly, Ebay has opened up it's free classified ads site Kijiji here in the US.

EBay Launches Kijiji Classifieds in U.S.

Unlike its category-killing sibling companies PayPal and Skype, Kijiji, which means "village" in Swahili, is one of eBay's least-known brands since its 2005 launch, in part because it did not have a U.S. presence. The site gives no indication that it is an eBay property, offering no "About Us" link or corporate information. The Kijiji Canada site does however contain a link to eBay Canada. Its China site clearly displays an eBay logo at the bottom of the page.

I really wish they would just fix what is broken on plain old EBAY, instead of launching new projects, threatening more changes than we've ever seen before, and ignoring us sellers. OK, vent over..............for the moment!

EBay's Whitman Says Changes Needed to Placate Sellers...huh?

EBay's Whitman Says Changes Needed to Placate Sellers

You'll see more changes in the next 12 months on our site than you've probably seen in the last three or four years,'' Whitman said in an interview. ``EBay was so successful that we did not keep up with the user experience that was required.

My worst nightmare come true.......more changes!

EBay doesn't allow users to pay through Google Inc.'s rival Checkout service on its sites because only one in seven Checkout users were ``pleased'' with the service, Whitman said, citing an EBay survey. ``That has to get higher,'' said Whitman. ``We will continue to look at Google as a payment mechanism on the EBay marketplace.''

I just can't see this EVER happening....would also love to know how many people took the survey.

Last, there is some discussion about how there are "too many listings" and buyers can't find what they are looking for. One example they gave in the article was this:

"Buyers have a tough time finding what they want. If you're looking for an Apple iPod, you're going to get 5,000 search results, and most will be accessories."

To address this, EBay last year imposed higher fees to reduce the number of fixed-price listings because buyers couldn't find the items. The goal was to increase the number of completed sales, boosting revenue for the company and its sellers, Whitman said.

I can see how this could be a problem for buyers. I truly can. I've had a similar thing happen looking for Gameboys and wanting the system but finding too many games and accessories listed in the wrong catergories to wade through everything.

I think that Ebay's way of addressing the problem though, is wrong. They need to enforce the rules that they have in place for sellers. Instead of enforcing the rules, they count on the community to enforce them. This is not how society works, I don't understand why they think they can make it work for their company. They need to focus on usability issues, and some of these can be addressed just by creating a task force to enforce the rules. Ban those sellers who continually Keyword Spam, list more than 10 duplicate listings or charge exorbanent s/h to bypass the fees. By doing this, not only would it make the buying experience better, but it would also benefit those sellers who play by the rules. Happy buyers, happy sellers = higher bottom line for Ebay.

Is Ebay "Broken"? A telling tale:

I just came across this article on AuctionBytes that talks about the theory that Ebay "broke" sometime in the spring of 2006 when they implemented Stores in Search and then took it out again. Check it out here: Data Points to Problems on eBay.com Be sure to check out the blog discussion that follows here.

I have to agree with this article. It is dead on. My sales were at an all time high the year of 2005, and peaked when they placed Stores in Search. When the took them back out again, my sales have never been the same.

Someone in the blog discussion mentioned that it was also around this time, that they implemented Ebay Express. This was not mentioned in the article and it very well could be a part of what is "broken". I don't know what the hell is wrong, and I think too much time has gone by for even Ebay to know what the is wrong. All I know is that I agree with many other sellers, that something in Ebay's system is broken, and they need to figure it out. If things don't pick up for me this fall, it may be time to call it quits for me there and time for me to go out and get a real job.

Busy Back to School time soon

I'm gearing up for Back to School time sales on Ebay. My sales in the past and this year again, have been pretty dead since the end of April through June. I'm hoping for things to really pick up this month. I'm hoping that Ebay's announcement of adding a Store Tab to the top of the header, will also help with sales.

I've also decided, it is time for me to close up shop on Wagglepop. I truly hope that they do succeed. But I have been paying them $9.95 per month for unlimited listings for a year now, with a total of 6 sales. :-( I can't afford to keep hoping. I do think their site shows a lot of promise, and I think you can even do well there right now, if you have a real niche type of store. But for me, who sells a little of this, a little of that, the traffic just isn't there yet. Perhaps with Googles new programmable search, it will have better success.

Google vs Ebay: the battle continues

Apparantly, the battle is not over between Ebay and Google. In my previous post, Ebay pulls Ads off Google, I mentioned how the two companies were feuding in Boston during Ebay Live. Then, it was announced, that Ebay will run "limited" ads on Google once again. Now, it seems that there is a complete Cyberspace Showdown: Google vs Ebay, the results of which could completely change the world of online retailing.

This will be extremely interesting to watch playout. Both of these companies are such monstrosities, that I do believe things may change way beyond what you and I can imagine in the near future.

All I know is, Ebay is not what it used to be, and with battles like this one to fight, no wonder.

EBay Moves to Recharge Its Auctions

From the NY Times today:

EBay Moves to Recharge Its Auctions

EBay is also testing new ways to deliver search results. Instead of heading each list of results with items whose auctions are about to expire, the company will in the coming months give users the option of seeing search results headed by items the company predicts will be most appealing to buyers — a measure determined in part by how well sellers have been rated by other buyers on eBay.

This should be very interesting! I have almost 5,000 feedback, 100% rating (lavender-haze). Hopefully I will not be lost among the bigger sellers with 5 digit feedback and higher. For those just starting out or with low feedback that is not stellar, this could be very bad. I think the potential is there for scammers to try even harder to steal some hard-working sellers ID info.

Good news for Ebay store sellers?

I'm really really hesitant to even hope that this may be true. But rumor has it, that it was announced today at Ebay live, that they will be placing an Ebay Stores tab back near the header on all the Ebay pages. There was quite an uproar from store sellers awhile ago when any link to stores was removed when the new header design came out.

Ebay pulls ads off of Google - bad news!

This can't be good news for Ebay sellers. No matter what you typed into Google's search before, SOME type of Ebay ad would come up!

EBay Pulls Ads From Google's U.S. Ad Network

Ebay's stand: "an instance in a continued experiment eBay does to determine the best allocation of its advertising and marketing budget."

Google's stand: "an angry reaction by eBay's management to Google's decision to hold a protest party concurrent with the start of eBay Live, the company's annual conference for merchants. Google has been reaching out to media to promote the party, aimed at eBay merchants who are upset that eBay doesn't allow them to use Google's Checkout online transaction system."

If I had to choose, I'd have to say I'm leaning toward Google's stance. It's not like Ebay has a money shortage and needs to trim their budget or anything.

eBay Seller Joins Chorus of Complaints over Search

Very interesting article on Auctionbytes regarding the flaws in Ebay's search tool that have been talked about for almost a year now and never acknowledged before to exist publically. There can be no denying by them any longer that there does indeed seem to be a problem! It will be very interesting indeed to see what happens next. We can only hope and pray that they will eventually see the light and put the Ebay store items back in search.

Latest $15 rebate offer from Paypal

If you are a Paypal user and plan to be doing any shopping anytime soon, be sure to sign up for their latest $15.00 rebate. This is good for ANY site that takes Paypal, not just Ebay. Here are their terms and conditions:

Receive a $15.00 USD rebate by registering for this offer on http://paypal.promotionexpert.com/greatshopping/signup/index.html and using PayPal to make a purchase of at least $30.00 USD or $34.50 CAD.

To qualify for this offer, purchases must meet the following requirements: Registration. You must first register for this offer on http://paypal.promotionexpert.com/greatshopping/signup/index.html using your PayPal account's primary email address.

Single Purchase: Once registered for this offer, you must use your PayPal account to spend at least $30.00 USD or $34.50 CAD on a single purchase on an eligible website.

Eligible Website: You must make a purchase on www.eBay.com, www.eBay.ca or any United States or Canadian website that accepts PayPal. Purchases on www.eBay.com and www.eBay.ca must be made through the eBay checkout flow via the eBay website and must not be made through the PayPal Send Money tab.

Promotion Period: Purchases must be made between February 8, 2007 12:01 AM PST and March 31, 2007 11:59 PM PST.

Excluded Transactions: The following transactions are excluded from this offer: Send Money transactions, payments to Personal Accounts, eBay payments made to Personal Accounts, donations, PayPal Mobile transactions, payments for services, Virtual Debit Card payments, PayPal ATM/ Debit Card payments, payments made when you are not logged into your PayPal account, and PayPal Plus Credit Card payments not made through your PayPal account.

Rebate Payment: The $15.00 USD rebate will be deposited into your PayPal account by May 28, 2007. If you made your purchase in Canadian Dollars you will receive the Canadian Dollar equivalent of $15.00 USD at the day of the rebate payment.

Limitations: Limit one registration and one $15.00 USD rebate per PayPal Account. Offer available for a limited time. Offer is limited to PayPal users in the United States and Canada. PayPal account must be in good standing prior to and throughout the offer period to qualify.

Happy shopping!

Productive at last, new Ebay listings done

Well after a week or so of not being very productive on Ebay, with my efforts focused on the blogosphere instead, I kicked it up a notch yesterday and got focused. Happy to say, I have a bunch of listings up for this next week. It's very strange, it seems to take me forever to actually start listing. That's my biggest hurdle. Once I actually start, I can whip them out in no time!

Today I have some packaging and shipping to do, 11 items in all. I also need to look at what I have listed on Wagglepop and consider moving some items back over to Ebay, and I have some stuff that didn't sell on Ebay, that I want to move over there. So those are my plans for today. If I get all caught up with those items today, tomorrow I will tackled the bookeeping before I get too behind.