Small Businesses Feel Short-Changed By eBay

By Chris Crum - Tue, 10/28/2008 - 3:31pm.

Many Are Losing Their Accounts

Some small businesses are having a hard time using eBay to sell these days. Earlier this year, the online auction site made some policy changes that took away the option for sellers to leave feedback on buyers, but still allowed buyers to leave feedback on sellers.

Many of the sellers are frustrated about this because they feel it is unfair for a variety of reasons. First of all, they don't feel like the ratings system supplied by eBay is explained thoroughly enough and when users don't give sellers the highest possible rating, the seller's stores can eventually get shut down and even labeled a security risk. See the link above for a look into this at BusinessWeek.

Some sellers have also complained about a deal eBay made with Buy.com, which has led to merchandise from that site being prioritized by eBay over smaller businesses. People also don't like paying the fees that that they must to use eBay as their selling platform.

I've seen complaints about sellers not being happy with the audience they are reaching with eBay as well. They tend to feel like the average eBay buyer is a "bargain-hunter," and is just out to find cheap goods, and that those businesses offering quality products that can't afford to make them super-cheap don't have much of a place on the site.

Many sellers appear to be flocking to other online auction and shopping sites, as they are apparently fed up with eBay's antics, though some still seem content to continue selling through eBay. Buyers are likely to continue looking to eBay this holiday season because it's a brand they know. The average buyer probably does not care about the woes of sellers, and probably doesn't even know about them anyway. I still expect eBay to be a big destination for consumer holiday shopping. Everybody's a "bargain-hunter" when they're affected by the economy. Look for more on this at WebProNews soon.

News Tags: eCommerce, online shopping, Holidays, online business, eBay, eBusiness

About the author:
Chris is a content coordinator and staff writer for SmallBusinessNewz and the iEntry Network. Subscribe to SmallBusinessNewz RSS Feeds.

Comments

By I hate Ebay (SBN reader) - Sat, 10/25/2008 - 8:26am.

Ebay frustration

Ebay is great if you happen to be selling unwanted items from around the house (if you can be bother to pay the fees that is). Personally, I agree with the sellers who state that

QUOTE: the average eBay buyer is a "bargain-hunter," and is just out to find cheap goods, and that those businesses offering quality products that can't afford to make them super-cheap don't have much of a place on the site.

My experience of ebay is that buyers are not even interested if the item is listed at more than 50% of the recommended retail price.

I understand that in these hard financial times people need to find cheap goods but selling, say an ipod, on ebay for only $5 more than you pay for it is ridiculous and this is exactly what it has come to with sellers trying to undercut one another.

The only advice I can give to anyone who wants to sell on ebay is to "FIND YOUR NICHE!" If you can find a niche with little or no competition then you can make it successful

By Mitchie (SBN reader) - Sat, 10/25/2008 - 10:51am.

eBay

It's all of what you make of it. If sellers didn't wait for the buyers to leave feedback first this change would have never happened. It's a sellers sole desire to accept a price for goods offered on eBay. If they don't like it open a store front and pay high rent and utility costs and hope and pray that you get some traffic. I sell on consignment (sell other peoples goods) and it works out great for me. What it all comes down to is taking advantage of the right situation and eBay is right for me.

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By Brian (SBN reader) - Sat, 10/25/2008 - 11:02am.

eBay and Buy

I think the Buy.com deal really hurt sellers a lot. Buy is a known name now with the Howie Mandell commercials running all the time. So, if a buyer is looking to buy on eBay and they see Buy selling the same thing as me, they'll probably just get it from Buy.

By Selectrobot (SBN reader) - Sun, 10/26/2008 - 8:53am.

Ebay is no longer a good plateform

Let me tell you on my experience with ebay. A while ago I tried selling some stugg through drop ship sites. It was simply a disaster, I just end up paying commission with out selling the stuff. The fact is that, the items were available at ebay at a price cheaper than my supplier's price ( I used doba.com) and for the same reason I am not recomending any of these companies. Stay away.

SelectRobots
Rightrobots

By PocketSquareZ com (SBN reader) - Mon, 10/27/2008 - 11:09pm.

Ebay PocketSquareZ com

What are the best sites to sell on? Ebay seems to get the most traffic.

PocketSquareZ com

By bgnagn1 (SBN reader) - Wed, 10/29/2008 - 5:38pm.

Ebay Losing Sellers

They started losing sellers over 2 years ago and I was one who closed both stores and went elswhere.

With all the changes since January I'm so glad I did. Ecrater has been a very good fit with me. It was slow but traffic is picking up and so are sales. Ebay may be the best known but it is by no means the only known one anymore. Google helps a lot and all items are fed to Google for you.

There are too many radical changes at ebay but IMHO the DSR's, the Fees, the No Negative Feedback for buyers, and the Best Match are at the top of the list. But, I don't have to stress out anymore and I'm much happier at eCRATER.com or the moon as we are called.

Try any place other than ebay quickly!

By dd4goods (SBN reader) - Thu, 10/30/2008 - 8:09am.

Feebay

I agree, Feebay is a losing battle for those of us that want to sell quality items. I tried and as someone mentioned before, buyers are looking for something for little to nothing there. I too sell on ecrater and business is picking up. My niche is e-mail contact. Without the face to face contact with a customer you really have to up your customer service skills. Respond to questions, be personable and make the customer feel their orders are important; that they're not just a number. Will I get rich? No, but I enjoy selling online and it supplements my income.

By ex frequentbuyer (SBN reader) - Sat, 11/15/2008 - 11:40am.

Ebay sellers blocking AuctionSniper

I used to buy a lot from Ebay. I don't have time to play the silly "winner" games and monitor who is outbidding who and stay up late to get my bid in last. I simply like to place my highest bid and let auctionsniper make it for me. The last two bids I made were "far" higher than the price the products were sold for. However, my bids were blocked. I'm done. Goodbye Ebay sellers.

By brucecarrast (SBN reader) - Thu, 11/20/2008 - 1:50pm.

who needs em

i sell very high end vintage audio and managed to keep a near perfect feedback score , the 98% and above needed for the 2k paypal buyer protectection stayed the same after the new fedback changes took place . bad sellers just started extorting me for money off with threat of bad feeedback . who needs it.! why cant google start freebay .

By HDTV Review (SBN reader) - Sat, 12/06/2008 - 6:44am.

Selling on ebay

Ebay is an auction site and the users are definitely bargain hunters. But there are many cases where a user on ebay paid more money that it costs on amazon.
So it is essential that you do good research and testing to find the right products to sell on ebay. You won't be able to sell a brand new HDTV on ebay but you can definitely sell a used notebook on ebay.

Small Businesses Feel Short-Changed By eBay

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