eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

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AuctionBytes Blog
News and insight focusing on
ecommerce and the online auction industry
by Ina Steiner, Editor of AuctionBytes.com

July 02, 2007

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

By: David Steiner

Mon July 2 2007 15:37:49

A check of Nielsen/NetRatings shows that eBay users are spending less time on the site than in previous years. In 2006, eBay trumpeted in a Seller Central Report on how buyers use eBay that visitors spend more time on eBay than on other sites, and that time spent on the site is increasing year-over-year. It used data from December 2003 to March 2005 to prove its point. A look at more recent data, however, shows the time spent has gone down.

I was looking at the Nielsen/NetRatings report along with other data to see if anecdotal reports had any merit - you can see my musings in today's AuctionBytes Newsflash article here.
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m07/i02/s00

There's tons of data, I'm interested in hearing what readers have to say, please leave a comment below.

Comments (227) | Leave Comment | Permalink

Readers Comments

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: anonymous

Thu Jul 19 15:04:52 2007

I was just looking at the Q2 2007 report. Is it possible Meg is right and we are wrong? How come eaby was so successful while most of us reporting we have reduced our presence on the site as sellers as well as buyers?

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Les

Fri Jul 20 01:00:06 2007

Discrepancy between 2007 eBay reports and Seller's experience

I was also surprised by the increase in the total eBay revenue. I can think of following reasons:

1. Although many existing sellers are experiencing lower sales volume, there are always new sellers coming in, and some of them may be quite successful (at least in the initial stage of their market segment).

2. The international market is still gowing faster then the eBay.com, Canada, UK, Australia. Coupled with lower dollar value, this portion of eBay revenue has significantly increased.

3. Of course, Paypal which is used also on many websites, is doing very well, and this improves eBay's bottom line.

4. Skype - I'm not sure. It brings some revenue, but we don't know the related expenses and liabilities.

5. eBay ads, selling of the auction data, and some other auxilliary companies, are probably growing, too.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Katherine

Fri Jul 20 01:15:37 2007

I am so relieved to read these comments!

I thought I was part of an extremely small minority of disgruntled ebay sellers!

Reading this gives me hope that ebay will FINALLY get a meaningful competitor!

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: John

Fri Jul 20 19:29:11 2007

I've been buying and selling for 8 years. I think people spend less time on eBay b/c it hasn't gotten appreciably easier to do anything. With the option creep, it is actually more of a pain now. Hence, those who do eBay are getting tired of the effort. Those who have tired of the novelty aren't anxious to deal with the hassle.

I've recently discovered Craigslist and it's awesome. Everyone I meet (customers and seller) think it's the best thing since sliced bread. I've sold 20 things and bought 5 in 2 weeks...and there are no fees and no shipping/not complex to complete a transaction.

I love it. I can no longer say that about eBay.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: battybatty

Sat Jul 21 14:00:32 2007

Keep good service on your customers.

Some non sense tool. Would can sweep out?
They may reduce waste time on meeting in ballroom.
Blogs
EBay Express
eBay to Go widget
Markdown Manager for eBay Stores
MyWorld
New Auction Counters
Reduced Store Visibility In Search
Reviews & Guides

That not good idea to explained your self in front of Mirrors.
Many more useless help tools.
Market in Market strategy are diect to reduce maketshare on main auction site.

Reduce search items. Ebay.com has default to search only USA listing items.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: katie

Sun Jul 22 09:37:47 2007

Folks mention Craigslist. It works. And you can list all over the country and the world. I've begun experimenting with payment and shipping using PayPal on Craigslist and it's working!!! I'm selling all over the world again....for free. :)

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Frank

Sun Jul 22 09:57:39 2007

My two cents are this. This has been one scary summer. I sell clothing and shoes (new) in July 2005 I had $22,000 in sales. In July 2006 I had 14,000 in sales. This July I'll be lucky if I make $5000 in sales. This is a big drop-off. It's so slow that I've actually gone 3 days in a row without a single question from a buyer? It's like an atom bomb hit. I have 600 items listed,spread out in store and auctions. I even put ''Best Offers'' on loads of my store items. I thought I would at least be inundated with ridiculous offers nope. It was only 2 years ago if I had $22,000 in sales my listings were $2200 per month. Now my lising fees are $2200 for about $14,000 in sales??? Yes gas is $3 a gallon but it was last summer also? It's really bad I wish I had the answers. Help

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Clyde

Sun Jul 22 11:02:55 2007

Users are spending less time on eBay for two reasons in my opinion: (1) price, and (2) volume.

Prices are generally higher because the expense associated with procuring products, listing, selling and shipping have gone up. At one point, one could buy something for less on eBay as compared to brick and mortar stores. That has encouraged lower prices in stores via discounts and coupons on one hand, and on the other, S&H has increased as USPS rates have risen. All that brings the decision to shop in a "real" store much more enticing given the instant gratification of carrying the product home when one buys it. (2) Volume in terms of the total number of listings one must search to find what one wants. If often find that an item I offer for $.99 one week that doesn't sell, sells for several times that a couple of weeks later when I relist it for $.01 (actually that occurs for me 67% of the time and the average price sold is $2.57). What that tells me is a lot of people start out browsing for the lowest starting price and never get thru all the $.01 items before they log off.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Paul

Sun Jul 22 11:26:54 2007

The phenomenon of "Bidding Frenzy" is over. EBay keeps trying to build a fancier Hula Hoop but nobody cares.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Linda

Sun Jul 22 11:46:01 2007

I don't understand Ebay. When they saw the success of putting Ebays Stores in Search, business grew like crazy. People were happy and probably would list a ton more of stuff because of increased sales. Its funny to me as Ebay at the same time was also trying to develop a similar concept in Ebay Express, where people can just buy it now. But instead they dissapointed alot of sellers who now closed their stores or list less because of the higher fees and no search option. Auctions no longer work, or at least not like they used to in the past. They only work for collectibles that start off at an attractive low price. Fixed auctions is where its at. Rather than focusing on lowering Summer final value fees, Ebay should be promoting lower listing fees and doing it regularly so that more and more people get back to listing more stuff. Rather than preserving the past (Auctions) look at developing what the market is telling Ebay to do. The more stuff that people can find on Ebay the better for everyone. Imagine doing a serch for what ever interests you and it comes back with say 50 items. Then doing that same search and it returns 500 items. Would you not spend more time on Ebay looking at all of the 500 items of interest rather than reading wiki, blogs or discussion groups. The simple answer to Ebays issues is start listing to your customer.....Sellers. If you can make them happy you will in turn enhance the buying experience for buyers. Its a win win. I am not saying that this is easy and not with out challenges. But its the way to go. Instead Ebay focus is on changing the market to what they want it to be. Auctions, Stores but only with good items (Quality not quantity). Yes Ebay I know that the Stores in search mode will kill the auction theory that you so desperatly want to keep alive and well. But you need to find and develop new ideas that would make it work, rather than preserving the past with the onld concept of classic auction listings.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Nancy

Sun Jul 22 12:02:11 2007

I have been both a seller and buyer on ebay but mostly a buyer. Personally I stopped spending so much time on ebay after automated bidding became so pervasive. As a result of this, all significant activity takes place in the last few minutes of most auctions. What is the point in logging on to see what is going on when any bid will immediately be overbid. May as well wait until those last few minutes. This seems to have raised the prices paid for many items but has significantly reduced the time I used to spend on ebay browsing for interesting items after I made a bid. When I see something I like, I just make a note of when its auction will end and place my bids then.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Harold

Sun Jul 22 12:35:30 2007

Ebay killed their own success by trying to be everything to everyone. Auctions was the foundation to their success. Then someone at Ebay started to think about other ways to make more money. Stores, Express, Fixed Auctions, Buy it Now, Best Offer, Markdown Manager and so on. In that complicated array of offerings it caused one major error. It killed Ebays classic auctions. Ebay is always spending hords of money on what they call Marketing to enhance this and that to make the Buyer experience exceptional. Instead what they should do is to boldly go to the next generation of Ebay Sales. Put the stores back into the search engine. I know I can just hear it now Ebays executives crying.....''but that will kill our classic auctions''. As an Ebay Executive you get paid the big bucks to figure that out. Develope a new selling strategy to increase sales (more listings and more exposure to the items), make sellers happy (listen to them as they are the key and Ebays biggest reason for success and stock prices) Here is the big shocker ''Stop wasting time and money on the so called buyer experience''. Don't get me wrong I am not talking about promoting listings on TV or adverting. I am talking about the Buyer experience that Ebay talks about by limiting the search function, getting rid of the crap listed in stores, spending money and development time on Blogs, wiki, My world, Feedback V2....and so on. Leave the Buyers experience on Ebay to the sellers. Its their job and their customer not Ebays. Let me reapeat that.....Buyers experience is the job of the seller not Ebays. (Note I am not talking about site navigation) Ebays customer is the Seller. You need to focus on making the sellers happy. Ebays job is to figure out a way to make it happen and for it to all work. Yes its a tough tall order but if all of Ebays resources are pointed in that one common goal it can be achived. Formula: Happy Sellers with more listings = More Buyer time spent on site

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Linda

Sun Jul 22 13:30:24 2007

As a seller for 9-1/2 years, I can attest to the fact that Ebay was way simpler to use, and much more fun "way back when". Ebay's current attempts to add that "fun" back in just clutters the site and makes it more cumbersome and difficult. It would be more fun if they just went back to the "less is more" concept. They are trying to be all things to all people. That never is a very sound business plan. Niche marketing will beat it every time. They need to hone in on what they originally intended to be and leave it at that.

The downward spike began when they started messing with the search, and trying to make everything fit the Ebay Express mold. Trust me, Ebay Motors DOES NOT fit that mold. The current re-design of the EBM site, and specically the exclusion of the "search by title and descsription" was a huge mistake. Exclusion of the "Advanced Search", and "Completed Search" was also a bad mistake. Fortunately rather than roll it out permanently, they retracted it after a huge outcry from the motors community. They are working on a second "trial" phase, with hopefully some of those crucial elements of the site added back. But what remains is a site that requires many more clicks to hoepfully find the same things that previously (on the old site) could be found in one click. Why do they feel that they somehow have to "keep up with the Joneses" when THEY ARE THE JONESES! They are the leader of the pack, and set the standard. They should not feel the need to change when they have an efficient fast site with a great search. Most of us have had declining sales since we know for a fact that some of our listings are not showing up in EBM search. It is sad to me that a company will mess with their client's bottom line while they play around testing new (un-needed and un-requested)methods and tactics, resulting in less sales for the seller, and frustrated buyers because they no longer can find what they once could on the site.

I could go on about the Customer Service, (or lack there of)but I think they just have their head in the sand about needing to provide it. Until it severly affects THEIR bottom line, and they can prove that is the problem, nothing will change.

It used to be truly "a venue" for selling/trading in the community of users. Now it is a highly regulated, politcally correct, entity that does what it wants. If it has taught me anything, it is that things can change overnight that make your present Ebay business non-profitable,(through no change or fault of your own) so don't put ALL of your eggs in the Ebay basket!

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: John Marzy

Sun Jul 22 14:01:03 2007

I became an eBay member in 1998.

As I read these posts it reminds me of a loved one that we are concerned with.

If it were a pet, we would go to a vet.
A person, a doctor.

We have no vet or doctor to go to. We have all read hundreds of threads of issues with eBay. But no comment from eBay, no customer service.

My own short reply reflects my own overall apathy, that other then you my fellow buyers and sellers that eBay does not care.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Isabella

Sun Jul 22 15:00:04 2007

I'm a Power Seller who shares the general disenchantment with eBay. My two cents:

eBay has lost its novelty and those who like to spend lots of time online have moved onto MySpace, YouTube and other sites.

Buyers are getting tired of the auction format. They don't want to wait a week to see if they win the item, they would rather purchase immediately.

Because buyers are spending less time on the site, and logging on less often, 7-day (even 10-day) auctions are becoming a risky proposition for sellers. I've had many times where an item I've listed at auction has had no takers at a reasonable opening bid; I then put it in my store at a higher price and it sells rather quickly. Why would I want to pay more for an auction listing?

The perception of fraud is increasing. Buyers are increasingly reluctant to buy high-ticket items on eBay because they feel there's such a great likelihood of either never getting the item at all, finding it's not as misrepresented, or just being disappointed.

All of these coupled with a generally sluggish economy have made these tough times for eBay sellers.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Gary

Sun Jul 22 19:28:32 2007

One commenter hit it on the head when they said "eBay's conceit and arrogance are its downfall.". There are dozens, if not hundreds, of examples of this mindset, but it all boils down to a basic character flaw.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: VINCENT LIMONGELLI

Sun Jul 22 21:10:57 2007

BEEN SELLING ON EBAY SINCE FEB 1999 AND IN MY OPINION EBAY HAS RUN AGROUND! WHENEVER EBAY CAN IT HAS IT'S HAND OUT TRYING TO SQUEEZE EVERY LAST DROP OUT OF THE SELLER! I ASK, WHY THE SELLER! WITH EBAY DOWN LIKE IT IS AND WITH FRAUD EVERYWHERE'S, TRUTHFULLY I DO NOT EVEN KNOW WHO IS HONEST OR DISHONEST ON THE SITE ANYMORE, REALLY YOU CANNOT BE SURE, ALSO WHEN CAN YOU REMEMBER EBAY DOING A FULL BLOWN WORLD WIDE MARKETING CAMPAIGN TO ENLIST, SECURE AND GUARANTEE NEW BUYERS? WE NEED NEW BUYERS, NEW LIFE BLOOD!! EBAY, STOP TRYING TO BLEED YOUR SEASONED SELLERS, WHEN WILL THEY GET THAT CONCEPT, WHEN IT'S TOO LATE?

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Anna Lenihan

Mon Jul 23 02:49:38 2007

Been a member and selling since 3/99. With all of these new additions to the site such as blogs, wiki, reviews & guides, My World, etc. I can't help but wonder if they have a bunch of teenagers running things over there.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Fred Murphy

Mon Jul 23 03:46:20 2007

[quote]...and I know when it broke. The day that eBay announced Check Out and made it mandatory. After about three weeks they relented on the mandatory part, but Check Out was the first time that eBay said to its seller's "We are going to take control of a very important part of your business...and there's nothing you can do about it."[/quote]
When I attended ebaY U (about the time they rolled out stores) they said that they couldn't legally tell people what payment forms they could accept. They couldn't prevent people from accepting PayEnemy (which they didn't own yet) for example.

But they can now tell us we can't accept money (or google payments).

We had one of the first stores. We closed it after ebaY decided that they should make more money for moving a few electrons around than we did for taking all the risk and making all the investment.

Partcularly amazing was that while the costs of everything from computer parts to bandwidth nosedived, they felt they should get 20-5,000% increases every year. Not because they needed them to continue, simply because they could get them. An increase of $20 per unit in FVF for absolutely no additional help in selling that unit was the last straw. Big deal, save $4.75 in listing fees, but if you sell one, pay enough in additional FVF to list it for 40 days!

Equally amazing is that ebaY raised store fees because they were losing money on items that were slow moving. Yet Amazon would allow 40,000 store items plus unlimited Marketplace items for a flat $40 a month, which would only get you 800 store items on ebaY.

Is it any wonder that the top five stores collectively pulled over 3 million listings?

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Julie

Mon Jul 23 06:32:05 2007

hank you for writing eBay in regard to providing a suggestion to eBay.

I realize the importance of this issue and would like to assist you.

Please allow me to apologize for the delay in our response.

Please understand that eBay welcomes comments from members of our
Community, and we appreciate your suggestions. This type of
communication helps us improve our services and meet your needs.

However, our company policy doesn't allow us to accept suggestions
unless we specifically request them. We hope that you understand that
this policy can avoid future misunderstandings if new products,
services, and features developed internally by eBay employees seem
similar or even identical to a member's idea.

***Important***
Any comments or materials (including questions, technical or creative
suggestions, and ideas) that you send to us aren't considered
confidential or proprietary. To learn more about eBay's policy on
submitting unsolicited ideas, go to:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/unsolicited-ideas.html<
BR>
For more information about sending suggestions to eBay, go to:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/newtoebay/suggest.html

We are committed to making your eBay experiences pleasant and
fulfilling.

Sincerely,
Bruce H.

eBay Customer Support
_____________________________________________

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