Whether you are a seasoned business owner or just starting out, you’ll inevitably make one or more business mistakes.  Mistakes are like forks in the road- you can either let yourself be devastated or paralyzed by the mistake or you can stop, learn from the mistake, and figure out a recovery plan.  Sometimes mistakes are blessings in disguise.

What were some of your business mistakes?  How’d you deal with them?  What were some of your business homeruns?

For years, eBay's proprietary search technology has supported a marketplace that gets hundreds of millions of searches a day. In addition, my team has gained valuable insight from other new finding experiences that we've introduced on eBay – like eBay Express, our redesigned search results test (which we ran last winter), Best Match, and Motors 2.0. Your input and feedback on these projects has been invaluable, helping us figure out what works well and what does not.

The development cycle for projects like this requires lots of research, good design and development and, most importantly, ample testing in real market conditions. In the next few weeks, we'll be running a test of our latest Finding technology. For about six weeks, a small percentage of buyers (around 1%) will see a different search experience than what is currently available on eBay. This is project is similar to the "New Way to Shop" which we first tested back in 2005, although it has evolved significantly since then.

We think that this new technology will make eBay's search one of the most intelligent on the web, putting the right items in front of the right buyers more than ever before. In this new Finding experience, we'll still return listings where the item titles and descriptions match your search terms. And now we'll also use other elements of a listing as well (such as item specifics and category). This gives buyers the best chance of finding what they want without having to "guess at" all the terms the seller could've used in their item title.

As a simple example, if a buyer in the test searches for "red size 12 shoes," instead of looking just for listings with the words "red," "size," "12," and "shoes," the search engine will find all of the items in the shoe category that are size 12 in the color red. In the end, the buyer should see more relevant items. Plus they'll see a new way to narrow their listings results according to important details such as size, color, type, etc.

Because Finding is so important, you can continue to expect extensive testing like this as we work to ensure our designs and technology work for the marketplace. We expect this particular test to run about six weeks to allow us time to collect data and member input.

eBay first rolled out feedback 2.0 internationally approximately a month ago and has now rolled it out in the U.S.  Essentially, feedback 2.0 provides a more comprehensive profile of sellers by allowing buyers to rate sellers on a scale of 1-5 stars regarding:

Item as Described

Communication

Shipping Time

Shipping and Handling Charges

eBay message boards are filled with threads from sellers expressing displeasure with feedback 2.0.  Sellers’ dissatisfaction with feedback 2.0 can be summed up as follows (sellers’ complaints and then my responses in italics):

As usual, eBay is catering to buyers

Shouldn’t eBay cater to buyers?  They’re the ones who PAY sellers.  If sellers get paid, they are encouraged to list more which draws in more buyers and provides sellers with more money.

Feedback 2.0 does not allow sellers to identify which buyer left a particular rating

By making “detailed seller ratings” anonymous, eBay has finally provided buyers with an opportunity to rate sellers without fear of retaliatory negatives or unpleasant emails.

Feedback 2.0 does not allow sellers to respond and does not allow sellers to rate buyers

Sellers have plenty of opportunity to respond to buyers via traditional feedback and if given the chance to respond to feedback 2.0, sellers may use it to retaliate against buyers who rate them poorly.  While the idea of sellers rating buyers is intriguing, it's also puzzling.  How would sellers rate buyers and why should sellers get to rate their customers?

Feedback 2.0 reveals the price of items sold by sellers which may result in buyers making lowball offers.

Buyers could already see what sellers’ items sold for by clicking “completed listings,” so I am not sure revealing item sale prices in feedback 2.0 will impact buyer behavior.

Feedback 2.0 will cost sellers business because it is impossible to get 5 star ratings.

As a buyer, I am more concerned with: item quality, item price, shipping cost, combined shipping, seller’s feedback %, # of negatives, # of neutrals, and # of mutual withdrawals.  If a seller has the item I want at the price I want, reasonable shipping, 99.9% feedback, and few negatives, I am not going to refuse to bid simply because the seller has 4.8/5 stars.

Feedback 2.0 will inspire competitors to bid on sellers’ items simply to ruin their star rating.

As an eBay seller, I’m well aware of who my competitors are.  If I wanted to ruin their business (though I wouldn't and I doubt 1 person has the power to ruin anyone’s business), I could simply create a bidding account and leave a negative.  While I buy from my competitors (and they buy from me), I seriously doubt many eBay sellers are going to use feedback 2.0 simply to “bash” sellers via low star ratings.  On a karma level, trying to ruin your competitors may not provide you with the "reward" you are seeking.

Many sellers have indicated they will make their listings private so the item sales price will not show on their feedback

This may deter buyers from bidding as many buyers refuse to bid on private listings out of fear of seller shilling.  Additionally, buyers can still find out what items sell for by viewing “completed listings,” so if buyers want to submit lowball bids or offers, they can and will still do so.

Other sellers have indicated they will stop leaving feedback for buyers and/or include a note to the effect of “since eBay feedback 2.0 allows buyers to anonymously impinge sellers’ feedback, I will no longer leave feedback.”

I am not sure this is a wise move for sellers as it may end up costing them bidders.  As an eBay buyer, I do not want to read sellers’ negative comments about eBay, fee hikes, postal increases, past bad buyers, etc.  I want my item to be accurately described, reasonably priced, a fair shipping charge, and shipped promptly.  When you shop in a brick and mortar, store owners do not “unload” their business displeasure onto customers, and doing so on eBay may make sellers look even more unprofessional than many already do.

If anything, sellers should look at feedback 2.0 as a way to find out how to improve their businesses.   For example, if 99/100 buyers are giving you a low # of stars for shipping and handling time and charges, maybe you can find a way to expedite shipping and communicate better?  Better yet, why  not survey your customers and find out what they like AND dislike about their shopping experience with you and on eBay at large?

http://money.aol.com/special/canvas/_a/worlds-most-powerful-brands/20070501130509990001

I've read posts on various eBay boards from sellers saying that April sales are lower than usual and that Store traffic reports are much lower than usual.  Some sellers are speculating that the slowdown is due to a myriad of costs- decreased Store visibility (see last blog post), eBay glitches with items not showing up in search and users being unable to bid (see prior blog post), tax season, Spring Break, etc. 

Have you noticed a slowdown in April sales?

If you've noticed a sales slowdown, is the slowdown in your Core items, Store sales, or both?

If you've noticed a slowdown in April sales, what steps are you taking to combat it?

I haven’t tried this widget yet, but it looks like eBay is trying to lure in those who use Coogy, Film Loop, Auctiva's showcase, and other "picture widgets."  If you have blogs, MySpace pages, websites, etc., you now have another way to showcase your eBay items.  Rather than merely offering a hyperlink to a listing, eBay togo offers a visual display of items being sold.

http://www.e-consultancy.com/news-blog/363201/ebay-launches-widgets-for-syndicated-selling.html

The auction site has billed the move as "a fun and easy way for you to share the interesting things you've discovered on eBay and personalise your blog, social networking page or website".

Three types of widget have been made available:-

• One showing item information for an auction listing
• Another enabling a slideshow for multiple selected items
• And another showing multiple thumbnails related to keyword search queries

The widgets can be displayed on a website by any user and not just auction sellers. The auction house has unveiled a new togo.ebay.com site on which users can make the gadgets and gives examples on a demo blog. A viewer cannot bid without clicking through to the main auction listing, however.

Now that the web is host to hundreds of millions of blogs and social networking profiles, each of which can be edited by their creators, widgets are seen as an increasingly lucrative marketing opportunity.

eBay's roll-out suggests these fragments of syndicated, functional content may also be a radical new e-commerce channel.

See our recent interview with Ivan Pope of Snipperoo for his thoughts on widgets' potential role in both areas.

eBay To Go: http://togo.ebay.com/