Great article. Odd they didn't mention the millions that contribute to ebay's bottom line via the recent inclusion of shipping fees as part of the final value fee charged by ebay.
The motive was presented to sellers as a means to thwart excessive shipping fees that some sellers were charging, i.e. making a profit on shipping.
It's still rampant, it solved nothing - their posture being if that's the case then we need to satisfy our shareholders (which were screaming for more money) by getting a piece of the pie. What's sad is that even sellers that charge actual shipping costs, not to mention use a Flat Rate box which the price is set by the Post Office, get charged this fee, which in my humble opinion proves profits are more important.
Happy to see the rally, just don't make people doll through the 10K just to see the "Other" income without disclosing truthfully where it came from.
This article was faxed over to Fortune by the eBay Spin Department and printed verbatim.
The only people making money on ebay are those running the company, just ask the sellers and most will tell you business is slow, plus with all the fees ebay & pay pal charge, plus high cost of shipping & buying items to sale, most are just making ends meet, not a lot of money. Oh and i forgot you now how to pay taxes on top of that, so unless your a top rated seller with daily sales, don't even sale on Ebay.
I sincerely appreciate all the words in the article and applaud growth but as Inplus points out, there is always the option of "screwing the little guy" to make money. That isn't an innovative idea, but yes it is an effective one. Donahoe is not a Nazi, name calling is ridiculous. He is a guy who doesn't think out of the box....Smartphones made him innovative...squeezing out the small business in lieu of bigger cooperate. Cut them breaks while taking more from the little guy, innovative, you're laughable. Ebay is back? No ebay is catering to big business to be Amazon.
I left eBay in November, 2012, to change over to etsy....It was the best move I ever made in my life. I was one of those small sellers that Donohoe keeps saying he wants to retain but keeps creating "change" that undermines that intent.
Never been happier. My sales jumped 300 percent and my fees dropped to a fraction of what they were on eBay...plus I don't pay fees on shipping AND I can use direct check out so PayPal not needed.
Keep on spinning, Mr. Donohoe.WWII dog tags are allowed on etsy as well.
No mention of how small sellers are treated like serfs at best. Why could that not manage the recent USPS Parcel Post change? It worked seamlessly at Amazon. Due to this snafu alone I've moved fully 90% of my listings to Amazon in the past month. They refer to sellers as "Partners". Sellers see it as an abusive relationship.
An Auctionbytes poll recently had Ebay rated 5th overall by sellers. Well below Amazon. Second year running too. If sellers don't like ebay they can leave. We are.
There is a thread about this article on the eBay Seller Central Discussion Board.
The company moderators are working feverishly to delete all Donahoe critical posts.
And greed prevails again? Throw out little seller, in with Walmart!! eBay is a shell of what it use to be!!
eBay have proved their resilience over what has been a testing period for them. I knew their payments business was a massive contributor, but I'm quite surprised that it now accounts for 40% of their revenues. I predict that they acquire a mobile payment provider, someone like iZettle perhaps who are making waves, as I think Square will hold out and go it alone. Love that Donahoe shadows other CEOs and finds value in the differing ways they do things. Refreshing to see a CEO without such a high opinion of himself vs. others.
Great job John D. Keep up the great work.
LOL that's all I can say.
Ebay is made to be great in this article but I feel it has taken a serious turn for the worse I agree with the comment about esty! I'm going to begin selling there because of ebays neglect of the small time seller! They continue to make fee's look less but when you sell an item you have at least a third profit removed I go on Craig's list and deal local I sell in a matter of days and its free with much less inconvenience! I think this article is bogus and one of the major things ebay did that makes me disgusted with them is removing the ability to give negative feedback to a seller! This allows buyers to manipulate the seller very readily and I've been on ebay since 2005 when they were good and now they suck because of that and the no chat and no links to live costumers support chat the whole site is poor at best to the seller and many sellers I've seen are gone now and moved to another site mostly pawn shop owners any more selling on ebay. It's worse then bi-lo buying Winn-Dixie with this guy running things mark my words this trend will fade soon enough! And when you call them it's like some bunch of foreigners in another country answering question so they can act like they can understand you! put some Americans to work dude full English speaking Americans disgusting Blah! The buyers are going to eventually run it in to the ground with what there allowed to get away with! It's like MySpace all people want with MySpace is for it to convert back to its original form not the stupid revamp these investors screw things for there financial pleasure POOP IS EBAY!
Amazon has and will continue to lead the way because of their R&D, eBay remains in catch-up mode, a Web 2.0 wannabe. They were smart to pickup PayPal, but M&A will not beat the creativity of their #1 competitor. Transformation? No hard evidence.
Great story of transforming a company and not resting on its laurels. The world is always evolving and to be successful, you need to always be cognizant of those changes to make sure you are delivering products/services that are current and valuable to the target audience. We are trying to do that with our newly launched beta site at Flash Purchase.
Very odd there was no mention of Magento or the whole X.commerce side of things.
Either you love it or you don't. If you get tired of ebay, try Locanto Classifieds. No meddling in between.
