Update: eBay says the Store issue was a “glitch”, that eBay has not replaced the Store Inventory module with an eBay Express module, and that eBay is “committed to increasing the value of eBay Stores and the Store Inventory listing format, not decreasing it.”  For the full text of eBay's response to Scot Wingo's blog entry, see http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000485642

http://ebaystrategies.blogs.com/ebay_strategies/2007/04/ebay_testing_re.html

Sellers are reporting that eBay either has some unusual bugginess or they are doing some A/B testing on store discoverability.  On eBay search engine results pages (SERPs) you typically have two places for consumers to find store listings:

The Post Office, like eBay, routinely raises its rates and will do so again on 5/14/07.  Shipping and handling charges have long been controversial on eBay- sellers often argue that buyers do not realize the cost of packing supplies like bubble wrap, packing peanuts, etc. and that business owners are allowed to set their own prices; buyers often argue that sellers overcharge on shipping and use “handling” as an excuse to earn extra “profit.”  Like most “hot button” issues, both arguments have merit and the happy medium/truth is somewhere in the middle.

Upon examining the latest postal hikes, it appears to be unevenly balanced.  For example, for items mailed by first class, sellers 2-5 ounce items face rate hikes of 33%-92% while sellers of 6-11 ounce items face rate hikes of 3%-25%.  Items sent by first class mail that are 12 ounces are increasing by $.01 and items sent by first class mail that are 13 ounces are decreasing by 2%.  Sellers who send items by priority mail that weigh 1-3 pounds face rate hikes of 14%-24%.  The flat rate box rate (currently $8.10) is increasing by 13% ($9.15).  Sellers of oversized items (16x16x16 inches and 20x16x14 inches) face rate hikes of 69%-171%.

Whenever eBay raises its fees, one of the first thing many sellers do is raise their shipping and handling charges.  Although eBay is cracking down on excessive shipping and handling, there do not appear to be any clear guidelines about what is “excessive” and enforcement seems to be sporadic at best.  I think many sellers have hurt themselves and the eBay selling community at large by gouging on shipping and handling charges.  If a significant % of a seller's business profit comes from shipping and handling, perhaps that seller needs to reevaluate his/her business plan.  This latest postal hike may exacerbate the “gouging” issue, create a “balanced marketplace” by weeding out sellers who are “excessive gougers”, or have minimal to no impact on buyers’ purchasing behaviors.

If you sell on eBay, how will you respond to the new postal rates?  If you buy on eBay, do you think your purchasing behavior will change after the new postal rates?  How much do shipping and handling charges weigh on your decision to buy from a given seller?

eBay sellers have complained about ‘glitches’ for at least the past 6 months if not longer.  These ‘glitches’ range from newly listed items taking unusually long before showing up in search, search results not returning all available items, eBay stores ‘cycling through’ different servers and seemingly being ‘invisible’, PayPal payments not showing up via email, etc.  It appears that these glitches happen around the same time eBay introduces a new feature..leading many eBay sellers to call them ‘glitch-hancements’.

I was searching my own listings recently and noticed 3 new ‘glitches’:

# of Items Listed Incorrectly: Currently, I have 203 items listed.  When I go to ‘search by seller’ or try and view my items from my feedback page, the # of items listed, varying from a low of 145 to 203.  I wonder if potential bidders are seeing the same thing?

# of Items With Bids Listed Incorrectly: This glitch appears to be in ‘My eBay’ and like the “# of items glitch”, at different times, the # of items with bids varies.  If I use ‘search by seller’ and scroll through all the pages of my listings, I can see the items that have bids on them.  However, if I use ‘My eBay’, I get a different # of ‘items with bids’ nearly every time I click on it.  This glitch does NOT appear to impact bidders or the $ totals of sold items.

Inability to Place Bids: This glitch has happened 2x in the past 2 weeks when I was trying to bid on an item.  After going through the steps to place the bid and clicking ‘bid now’, I got an error message that said “page unavailable.”  The items I was bidding on were ending in a few minutes and despite hitting refresh multiple times (and closing/reopening my browser), I was unable to place my bid.  This glitch may have been due to eBay’s weekly maintenance, but I wonder if it’s a ‘cycling’ glitch like some of the others.

Has anyone else experienced these or other glitches recently?

Blogging can be invaluable to online sellers, allowing individuals to interact with each other through the click of the mouse, letting online sellers “take a load off” from business to release their creative energies, and also serve as a way to further brand your business.

eBay offers several options for customizing your blog, much like they do for customizing your eBay store.  If you want to use the blog templates eBay provides, go to “customize” and select one of the styles.  You can also customize your eBay blog with a stylesheet if you know HTML.  To do this, create your stylesheet, log into your eBay blog, choose “customize” and then “advanced”.  Paste your stylesheet into the code window that appears, click “save”, and refresh your blog to see the new changes.

For those who may not know HTML (but do know how to copy and paste), here is an easy to use site that provides blog templates that you can use to customize your eBay blog: http://www.isdntek.com/tagbot/blog.htm

When you think of Amazon, Bidville, Overstock, and Yahoo, what do you think of in terms of products?

Do you routinely buy on Amazon, Bidville, Overstock, and Yahoo?  If so, what do you buy?  Why do you buy on Amazon, Bidville, Overstock, and Yahoo?  How does your buying experience on Amazon, Bidville, Overstock, and Yahoo compare to eBay?

Do you routintely sell on Amazon, Bidville, Overstock, and Yahoo?  If so, what do you sell?  How does your selling experience on Amazon, Bidville, Overstock, and Yahoo compare to eBay?

This is what I woke up to on Easter morning.  Mama duck, her mate (they’ve been coming here for a few years), and 15 baby ducklings that finally hatched after the mom sat on them for about a month.   W/all the development in California, the ducks have resorted to nesting in homeowners’ yards.  In fact, there’s another duck couple that’s been hanging out in the pool/fishpond..wonder if they’re going to lay eggs.

The babies are quick learners- today a few of them were diving underwater and using the duck ramps I built them! 

It will be interesting to see how this plays out as the 9th Circuit is known for some "unique" decisions.  In fact, the 9th Circuit is the Circuit that is most often overturned.  While I'm not a fan of eBay banning Google Checkout and eliminating buyer-protection for non-PayPal transactions, I'm not entirely convinced that this is a "slamdunk" for the Plaintiff.

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m04/i06/s01

Michael Malone filed an antitrust class-action lawsuit against eBay this week under the Sherman Act, alleging eBay "utilizes its nationwide monopoly of the on-line auction market to monopolize the available forms of payment that sellers can use on eBay." eBay controls which payment methods sellers may advertise in their listings, and this year, it eliminated buyer-protection for non-PayPal transactions. eBay owns the PayPal payment service.

The lawsuit alleges that "Sellers who would otherwise accept only money transfers must also accept Payment Card transactions." Some sellers have expressed the desire to use PayPal with the ability to reject PayPal payments funded by credit cards, which they may not do under eBay's current policy.

Malone, who resides in Texas, sold a pair of Sansui SP-2000 speakers on eBay for $200 in December 2005. eBay charged him $10.38 in listing and final value fees, and PayPal charged a $5 processing fee. Malone's lawsuit states he had requested of eBay that he be able to use his personal PayPal account to receive the winner's payment, but says he was forced to use his Premier account, requiring him to accept PayPal payments funded by credit cards.

eBay instituted a "Safe Payments" policy, later renamed "Accepted Payments" policy, that prevents sellers from advertising certain payment methods in their auctions. One of the banned methods is Google Checkout.

The lawsuit also references PayPal management's alleged threat to file an antitrust lawsuit against eBay for engaging in an illegal bundling strategy when eBay owned a payment service called Billpoint, before it had acquired PayPal. And it cites the demise of PayPal competitors Citibank c2it, Yahoo PayDirect, and BidPay (now under new ownership with a different payment model).

Malone initially filed suit in Texas in March and refiled his lawsuit this week in California, where eBay is headquartered.

Store promotion boxes are a great (and FREE!) way to upsell your items to potential buyers as well as to maximize your branding.  To create an eBay Store Promotion Box, go to Manage My Store and:

• Select Promotion Box Location
• Select type of listings (example: On Sale items) to be featured
• Select the Promotion Box Display Type.

eBay recently introduced two new Promotion Boxes display types for sellers to use on your Auction-style or Fixed Price listings:

• Slideshow – The Slideshow Promotion Box cycles through the Gallery pictures of your selected listings, letting you easily feature them all in one spot. It's snazzy!
• Countdown – This animated Countdown Promotion Box does exactly that – it helps you generate buyer excitement by counting down the time left in the listing.