At eBay's recent Developer Conference, eBay released information regarding its buyer research. While it is important for sellers to focus on issues like profitability, product research, managing expenses, etc., it is equally important for sellers to understand buyer behavior. For the full PDF of eBay's buyer research, see http://pages.ebay.com/devcon/Resnick_LessonsfromeBayBuyerResearchFINAL.pdf. For more PDFs from this conference, go to http://pages.ebay.com/devcon/

Some of the highlights from eBay's buyer research are:

Several Distinct Buyer Personas

These eBayers shop 2x as often as other shoppers. Focusing on your target buyers' needs will likely provide a greater opportunity for sellers and a better experience for buyers,

Shopping driven passionates

Convenience driven enthusiasts

Price driven bargain seekers

Price driven value finders

Current eBay Buyer Experience

eBay comes to mind first (preferred by 10 points more than the next best competitor and 1.3 times more likely to be considered a "favorite" than other online shopping sites) and the brand is unique and well-loved. However, buying on eBay comes with some issues and some of these issues have significant implications.

What makes eBay someone's favorite?

High ratings on price, selection and entertainment

Offers the best deals available

Has anything you could be looking for

Fun and entertaining

Makes me feel excited when I find what I want

Great way to research purchases

Great place for new, used, and/or hard to find items

Buyers use eBay for fun (e.g., general browsing), but only as it relates to buying and selling- most aren't aware of the other content/features on eBay today

Buyers are more likely to buy on a site that they feel offers a fun shopping experience. However, many buyers comment that the fun of eBay has worn off. Auctions provide a buying experience that is more fun.

Buyers think the general design of the site makes it hard for them to find any other content on eBay (blogs, guides, MatchUps, reviews, etc.)

Ease of use and simplification is buyers' top concern

Site that is easy to navigate and/or use

One that has updated information

One that loads quickly

Site that has relevant content- i.e., content that relates to why they are on that site

Few distractions like banner ads and popups

Variety and visually interesting content- pictures, sound, text, and video

*Little awareness of content not related to shopping on e-commerce sites. The only content noted repeatedly among buyers included FAQS, recommendations, and reviews. Amazon provides easy access to reviews AND proactively offers recommendations.*

Buying on eBay Comes With Some Issues- Shipping/Deals

Deals don't seem to be as good as they used to

2/4 segments are price driven

Significant number or recent online shoppers don't purchase on eBay because shipping costs were too high

Unfair shipping costs have a direct impact on word of mouth and is one of the main reasons recent eBay buyers are not willing to recommend eBay to a friend.

Most Common eBay Buyer Complaints

Item was late

Shipping was too expensive

Item was not as described

Seller was unresponsive

Item was never received

Item was damaged/defective

Item was poorly packaged

Received undeserved negative feedback

Item was listed as genuine, but was actually fake

Seller asked to complete eBay transaction off-site

*Buyers hold SELLERS responsible for the majority of bad eBay experiences*

Bad Experiences Harm Buyer Relationships

Reason for leaving

Bad experiences

Financial limits

Personal

Consideration

Pricing

Reason for buying less

Consideration

Financial limits

Bad experiences

Personal

Pricing

What One Thing Would You Suggest eBay Focus On?

Shipping

Feedback

Ease of Use

Safety

Seller/Buyer Conflict Resolution

eBay and PayPal announced several promising changes for both buyers and sellers at this year's Keynote.  In fact, this year's Keynote has been one of the most (if not the most) jam-packed in terms of sheer number and scope of announcements.  For those who could not attend eBay Live 2007, you can listen to the Keynote here: http://www.mapdigital.com/events/keynote_june_2007/

Temporary Reduction in Final Value Fees: From 6/19/07-8/5/07, the first tranche of Final Value Fees ($.01-$25) are LOWERED from 5.25% to 4.5%. This applies to auction, auction BIN, or pure fixed price format listings.  For a $50 item, this works out to approximately a 10% FVF savings.

No July Fee Increases: eBay's fee hike last year ignited a lot of controversy and in this year's Keynote, Bill Cobb indicated that there will be no increases in selling fees this July.  Some sellers are hoping this means there will be no fee increases for the rest of 2007, but eBay has made no promises regarding that.

Increased Stores Visibility: Within the next 30 days, eBay will add an eBay Stores tab to the newly designed header that appears at the top of every eBay page.  While this does not replace the loss of Stores in Search, hopefully this change will restore some of the visibility Store owners lost with the removal of Stores in Search.  However, this change may not be enough to lure back those Store owners who closed their eBay Stores as a result of last year's fee hikes and loss of Stores in Search.

Seller Quality Reflected in Best Match Search Results: Instead of generating Best Match results strictly by relevance based on historical buying behavior, eBay will take seller quality into consideration.  This means that eBay will give preference to listings in Best Match sorts by PowerSeller status and selling track record.  eBay has not released specifics about what makes up "selling track record," but speculation is that the newly rolled out Detailed Seller Ratings/Feedback 2.0 will play a role.

eBay Stores Design Center: eBay now has free Stores designs templates as well as examples of eBay Stores that underwent "extreme makeovers" and a list of design Do's and Don'ts.  To learn more, go to http://www.ebay.com/designcenter

eBay To Go: eBay's recently launched eBay To Go widget is now available for Stores.  This lets you share your eBay Store's listings and Store's look and feel on your blog, website, social networking site, or just about anywhere else on the web.  Buyers can bid on and purchase you items directly from the eBay To Go widget.  To obtain eBay To Go, click http://togo.ebay.com/ or http://www.ebay.com/storestogo

UPS Discount: UPS is offering eBay sellers savings (up to 31% for Ground and up to 22% for air).  To get the UPS savings, go to http://www.ebay.com/ups

New "Price and Shipping" Search Option: Over the past year, eBay has really stepped up its enforcement of excessive shipping charges/sellers who use low priced Buy It Nows and excessive shipping to avoid fees (ex. $.01 BIN/$49.99 SH).  As part of this ongoing effort, eBay is testing a tool that would show the total price and shipping in results.  While this may not stop all shipping gougers, perhaps it will make it easier for buyers to determine the "real" cost of an item before purchasing.

PowerSeller Program Changes: This fall, eBay will introduce new eligibility requirements for seasonal and high-volume/low average selling price sellers.  eBay did not go into great detail about this change, but it appears that PowerSellers may be able to meet the requirements by having X# of items listed or by meeting the PowerSeller $ amount ($1k/month or $12k/year) over a period of months or the entire year rather than having to meet it every month.  Starting on August 1, 2007, PowerSellers will get a rebate on unpaid item feature fees for core listings when they accept PayPal and specify reasonable shipping and handling charges.  Lastly, Bronze PowerSellers will now have telephone access to customer support.

New eBay Homepage: Over the past few months, eBay has been testing several new homepage variations.  The goal is to make eBay's homepage better organized and easier to navigate through the use of "visual navigation" (eBay To Go and My World are examples of this) rather than a strict "table of contents" format that eBay's used for years.

PayPal Security Key: This is a small electronic device that fits on your keychain and generates a unique 6 digit security code every 30 seconds.  If someone tries to access your eBay or PayPal account without the code, they will be locked out.  The PayPal Security Key is now out of beta testing and is available to everyone.  To get your PayPal Security Key, go here https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_order-security-key

Payments Review/Increased Seller Protection: In August 2007, PayPal is launching payments review.  PayPal will highlight transactions it suspects may pose a risk and hold those transactions as "pending" while PayPal investigates them.  Sellers who wait to ship eBay items until PayPal "signs off" on the payment will be protected 100%.  The only potential foreseeable drawback of this new program is that there may be delays in PayPal "signing off" on a payment and buyers (who may not be aware of the Payment Review process) may ding sellers for slow shipping if sellers choose to wait for PayPal to okay a payment.

New Risk Tools and Filters: eBay will introduce new risk tools and filters to allow sellers to make better decisions regarding PayPal payments.

100% Confirmed PayPal Addresses: Over the past year, PayPal expanded the number of confirmed addresses in its system by 50%.  Eventually PayPal plans to make every address confirmed.  Whether this plan is feasible (particularly for international addresses) remains to be seen, but at least it is a step in the right direction.

More Value for Anchor and Featured Stores: The monthly subscription fees of Anchor Stores has been lowered by $200 to $299.95.  Anchor and Featured Stores (soon to be renamed Premium Stores) will receive eBay Marketplace Research for free.  Featured Stores will now receive 24-hour support.  Anchor and Featured Stores will now be able to send more emails per month (7,500 for Featured Stores and 10,000 for Anchor Stores).

Win Money With Windorphins: During the Keynote, eBay mentioned that it wanted to restore the excitement and fun to the buying experience.  For example, eBay mentioned that the more buyers win, the more their endorphins flow.  From now until July 1, 2007, if you go to http://www.windorphins.com you can have a chance at winning up to $1,000 in eBay gift certificates.  I've already won $10!

eBay Countdown and New Bidding Tool: When eBay first launched, it used to have flames appear next to items that had a high number of bidders as well as next to message board threads that had a lot of replies.  As part of its plan to lure more buyers to eBay, eBay Countdown will use a clock and "price ticker" tool to remind buyers of items they have saved or are bidding on.  This fall, eBay will introduce a fast new way to bid in the last 15 minutes of an auction.

On various boards, I see people say things like

Ebay should lower our fees

Ebay should offer tiered fees- e.g., list more, fees are less

Ebay should use google adwords more

Ebay should offer ‘real’ benefits

Ebay should bring me buyers

And other things that seem to indicate that sellers expect something more from ebay other than ‘centralized, secure listing venue’

What do YOU expect from ebay?