eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

Subscribe to our 2 FREE Newsletters!

Web AuctionBytes

Home

Subscribe

Blog

Letters to Editor

Podcasts

Forums

AuctionBytes TV

ABU Back Issues

Sponsor

COOL TOOLS

Calendar

eBay Fee Calculator

Collectors' Links

eBay Promo History

Bookshelf

Fraud Resources

Auction Site Fees

Auction Management

Payment Services

Storefronts Chart

Sniping Chart

Consignment Services

Drop-Off Store Laws

Ecommerce Resources

Photo Tips

Marketing Inserts

Yellow Pages

Classifieds

AUCTIONBYTES

Our Writers

Write For Us

Partners

Press

Advertising

About Us

Link To Us

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: Fed Up

Mon Jul 2 20:36:20 2007

Cowbell, you're dead on target.

One of the biggest flaws with eBay is that the company has very little to gain if an item sells. Oftimes the relist fee is more than the potential FVF!
Why should they care what the sell-through or ASP is? They make their money no matter what!
Compare that to Amazon, where they don't make money unless the sellers do. Which company do you think is more interested in the seller's health and best interest? On eBay sellers are simply a replaceable commodity.

Another huge flaw is that they give the same weight to poor sellers - those who spam the listings, those who list fakes and "vaporware", those who sell knockoffs, and those with lousy customer service. They desperately need to have a "preferred seller" program, open to everyone who becomes verified, maintains a minimum TOS and certain performance levels. Those who opt in would gain preferential search placement. This way, the market would give weight to the higher quality sellers, instead of the "survival of the worst" that we have now.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Fruity

Mon Jul 2 20:37:38 2007

Dear David,

Maybe everything blows because Ebay is a marketing drive company pretending to be a technology company. In their pursuit of the brand, they forgot about the secret ingredient. Buyers & dedicated merchants.

When you start changing the user experience at every log in and you start hiding inventory by not communicating and educating buyers how to find it, it shouldn't be any surprise that people are disgusted by the current state of ebay.

It's not about ebay telling buyers how they should be more efficient. Or continually blaming store sellers for their sucky GMV because they are too damn greedy to bust a cap into those who are filling core with crap. They need to start behaving like a venue instead of being our employers.

Where is the leadership to communicate to the membership. It is not there. Everything about ebays success is based on happy invested and dedicated merchants. When you start holding their livelihoods over a barrel and designing features that put them against the wall. It's not about enhancing anything except a bigger share of wallet and exploiting the merchants to be the worlds biggest sweatshop.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Fruity

Mon Jul 2 20:41:11 2007

and those blogs wikis and other user generated content. That's because ebay are a bunch of cheap bastards they dont want to pay for targeted quality traffic. So instead you get this passive traffic. Ebay probably doesn't want sellers to know that if they are generating this content and duplicating it on their personal websites, it will actually start affecting your external websites page ranking. Duplicate content is a recipe for spam. Go check out the google boards, you'll see. Ebay wants us to be their labor camp of keywords.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Mary

Mon Jul 2 20:41:13 2007

Thanks for a stellar article; you hit it right on the head, as have the comments from readers.

Over time, I have been much more a BUYER than a seller, and completely agree that eBay is just NO fun anymore (on either front). I HATE HATE HATE the wikis, blogs, reviews&guides, new feedback, myWorld, eBay Express, messed up searches (where things disappear and reappear mysteriously - how maddening!). And I really hate the Ads from Elsewhere, too. It all combines to make a cluttered mess that equates to a collosal waste of my time. I can honestly say I've probably read 100 or more guides and blogs, and found maybe 2% were actually useful. And yes, their ''customer service'' has become an oxymoron.

What I really liked was finding funky, unique, one of a kind stuff, and it just isn't there to the degree it once was. I'm sure the flight of smaller-volume sellers explains that. I also really enjoyed being able to follow other bidders around the site (found some GREAT sellers that way!), as well as being able to do research on what items were selling and how much they'd been selling for... Ahh , the nostalgia - - didn't one used to be able to look back 30, 60 and 90 days? Anyway, I know it was longer than just the three weeks you can look back now.

The atmosphere there has completely changed; it just feels like there is bad juju on the site (whether buying or selling). In part, I think it's now so rule-intensive you feel like one wrong move and you're going to get booted. Sort of like being shadowed in the aisles of the department store by a glowering security guard when you're buying, and having Big Brother BossMan looking over your shoulder when you're selling.

I hadn't heard until reading the comments that the lowest 2% of sellers were being summarily dismissed. What a shame, and what a way to discourage anyone from trying out the seller role...

I hope that eBay finds some way to breathe some life back into the ''experience.'' If they don't, it's just going to morph into some ugly giant with absolutely NO charm and even less personality. And bad breath. Really bad breath.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Chris

Mon Jul 2 20:58:34 2007

OMG, are you kidding me. I hate when sellers blame others for there failures. Industries are always changing. Technology changes, ways of business change.

Its up to YOU to change with it, now complain when your business goes down when you fail to attend the problem. Its always easier to blame someone then yourself. And thats exactly what these merchants do...big and small. Pathetic!

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Duane

Mon Jul 2 21:10:03 2007

Chris...you didnt read the facts? What is your experience/feedback level? Essentially your resort to name calling rather than offer an argument. The data? Many of the comments are from long time users? But you are right...it is up to us to change it and many of us will by leaving because it is broken! When the very people that sell what buyers really WANT -leave ebay, you will definitely see the change in what is available to buy on Ebay...brand new plastic trinkets from China and repopped Sponge Bobs. OMG....indeed.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Peter

Mon Jul 2 21:32:20 2007

Chris, when I pay $25,000 per year to a venue to provide me with traffic and a proper infrastructure, I believe I have a right to criticize that venue's management when they do not deliver what I paid for. That does not mean that I do not look for alternate sales channels to continue my business at. In fact we are working on a mall venue to share with our competitors.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Matthew

Mon Jul 2 21:40:27 2007

Great article!

I've been on eBay since the beginning, and I have several, related, theories.

"Community" means nothing if it's not genuine. It becomes a slap in the face. eBay used to be community oriented, but those days started vanishing once it went corporate. The boards are still active, but there's no longer an eBay voice on them. There's no customer service. There's no way to talk to eBay and, even if you managed to, eBay tends to be insulting.

Stores were a horrible idea, but one that eBay spoon fed to eager sellers who saw them as an alternative to eBay's unrealistic core fee increases. You can't drive auction prices higher if you have fixed price items in the same venue. If a person thinks a listing is gone forever after 7 days, they bid more. That experience disappears once they're able to find 50 identical items at fixed price. That being said, however, eBay may have realized that mistake but they handled it wrong. The decision should have been to either end stores, immediately, or find a way to fully support both venues, instead of starting a balancing act by punishing store sellers.

The new initiatives will prove to be yet another disaster. It's only common sense that punishing sellers over unexplained rules and discretionary guidelines only creates more animosity towards ebay which they can't afford anymore.

And I think that's eBay's BIGGEST problem. They don't understand the animosity which they've created on their own. Treat customers like garbage, and the customers will respond appropriately.

When I started on ebay, I used to spend $15,000 plus a year. Last year it was under $500. The decline in my spending has nothing to do with getting ripped off, but rather my sincere disgust and hatred for eBay. Everytime they come up with a new initiative it only increases tenfold. I don't like it anymore. I don't trust eBay corporate anymore. They are not friends, and they're not interested in helping me. And that's why I think fixing eBay is an uphill battle without 100% management change.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Joanne

Mon Jul 2 21:44:42 2007

When eBay tried to close Half and start Stores, I stuck with Half. Then eBay said they were going to promote Stores in auctions searches. So I joined up. I put a lot of effort into designing my store and listings. I even bought inventory in my niche that I could sell for profit only in Stores. It was great! I was making money. I was enjoying it and thought eBay Stores would be my next sales channel. Then they pulled the advertising and sales plummeted. Then they announced they were raising fees. I left and never looked back. I wasted a lot of money on inventory that was now of little value. And I wasted an incredible amount of time learning eBay, new inventory management software, and site design. What a complete waste! My overall impression is that they suckered people into Stores and then screwed them. I'll never sell there again.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Alex

Mon Jul 2 21:53:18 2007

I won't bother to re-hash the many real and pressing issues facing eBay. Most have been addressed at length in Ina's article & the responses written here to it. I will just say one thing. ALL of these things are related in one clear manner. They are all the result of eBay top management forgetting they are a SERVICE business - not a technology company. All of the reactionary changes to prop up their sagging stock, just makes things worse. While waltzing their way through all the cash they have raked in, they have failed to provide an acceptable level of service to the guy that ''brought them to the dance.'' One thing is very clear. Any company that has this many glaring & continuing problems needs a complete change of management & direction. Now, not later....

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Mike Knight

Mon Jul 2 21:58:28 2007

Rather than broken, a better word might be misguided.

Rather than looking at stores in search, a better place to look might be at management itself. ie: The emergence of John Donahue. The departure of a number of long-time ebay staffers documented on auction-bytes over the last 3 years.

Consider the negative press (well deserved) ebay has received in the last few years and the patent suit that was well publicized at the beginning of the decline.

My business has been relatively flat though items available have doubled in the last 12 months.

I rarely run auctions anymore due to the lack of bidding.

As a buyer, I have become less enthused because the number of items listed in which I am interested has declined while the ''clutter'' has increased. Hundreds of identical items listed one after another by the same seller (against ebay policy).

You seem to focus on seller dissatisfaction. I would suggest that the real problem is BUYER dissatisfaction and Ebay's inability to address buyer issues.

It's not just fraud or poor seller service. Express's search is a disaster for buyers. I NEVER go to Express because I can not find anything I am looking for but find all sorts of stuff that I am NOT looking for.

Now they want to roll that search tool out to the main site. Why?

The revision of Ebay Motors search offering has made the site more difficult and confusing. As an experienced user, I have finally figured out how to filter my results to a meaningful degree but it has been a source of frustration and it is still more time consuming than the previous interface.

My only conclusion is that someone in a high level position simply does not understand the average user.

I can only hope that, whoever that person is, the Board of Directors takes note and corrects the problem.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Peter

Mon Jul 2 22:10:47 2007

Matthew, 'Community' is actually the evil that is destroying our venue, just like in the real world socialism destroys trade. What we should be holding proudly in our business banner, is an independent rational selfish entrepreneurship. Sellers should be able to act as independently as possible on Ebay and so do buyers. Everyone should again be responsible for his own acts, his selling and his buying, instead of calling for mob rule, which is what Ebay's 'Community' is. Promoting 'Community' as the hghest ideal in a venue instead of individualism, is the same as saying 'don't think for yourself', go with 'the group'. That is what is makes Ebay worse every day.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Richard

Mon Jul 2 22:12:19 2007

Can't believe I waded through all the whining to finally get to Chris's entry...with which I whole-heartedly agree.
I'll be happy to resort to name-calling. I see a bunch of whiners and complainers.
I don't often frequent auctionbytes, but was engaged in some research tonight on a new angle and stumbled upon this discussion.
I've been selling fulltime on eBay since 1998 and my feedback is approaching 10,000. I've worked hard to discover what works on eBay and I alter my procedures whenever I feel it necessary. You gotta roll with the market.

Don't complain that nobody will buy your bowling balls because the shipping is too high.
Don't complain that a seller in China can undercut your price on MP3 players.
Don't complain about blogs and wikis and then spend all your time writing blogs and wikis.

Focus, Focus, Focus.
My business is good. June was good. July will be good. Because I say so.

btw, I first noticed the decreasing Alexa scores for eBay last summer. Some concern, but here's the rub, Alexa scores are percentages and not absolute numbers. As the web universe grows its understandable that eBay's percentage of the total will drop. It's a smaller percentage of a bigger pie.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Matthew

Mon Jul 2 22:50:02 2007

Peter,

Perhaps I'm not explaining what I mean by "community" well enough.

It's the relationship that eBay USED to have with it's buyers and sellers. When you had a problem, you could actually talk to ebay. When you had a question, it would be readily answered by someone actually connected with eBay. They were real people. They answered questions and they participated in the forums with their real names.

That personal interaction is what I'm talking about. Not the semi-mediocre nonsense that gets posted on the boards these days.

That is what's missing, but eBay still talks about their great community while they've intentionally avoided participating in it. The talk is phony and it's glaringly obvious.

The marked difference is that eBay's replaced it's former proactive and "friendly" interaction it had with users with a system of canned responses which usually amount to nothing more than bad news over some discretionary interpretation of an ambiguous rule.

And I'm not proposing that as a substitute to entrepreneurship or individual decision making.

It went a long way. eBay's biggest supporters were SAHM's and sellers, both of which ebay has consistently shafted since it went corporate.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Les

Mon Jul 2 22:56:00 2007

I started to sell on eBay about 4 years ago. My record in that year was over $20,000 a month in sales, which gradually declined to less than 25% of that amount.

There are a number of problems facing a seller, and not all are caused by eBay - Internet fatigue, greater seller competition, and increased shipping charges. Unfortunately, Ebay's arrogance and mismanagement make selling on eBay even worse. From what I hear from sellers and buyers alike, eBay is one of the most hated companies, but they still enjoy the position of a monopoly. When an alternative auction and store venue appears, eBay will collapse much faster than any Internet company in history.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Matt Price

Mon Jul 2 22:56:12 2007

The problem with eBay and like all other online venues is that you have manufacturers and distributors as well as retailers in the channel. What this does is put the retailer in a pickle, the distributor in a pickle, and the manufacturer in hog heaven.

Why?

Because if the manufacturer can send out the door the product at a retail, not wholesale price, why have a middleman?

While there are many who are in china and many who are going through china for product, more and more retailers will focus locally leaving eBay.

I see the problem as a multi-pronged problem:

The markets are flooded with everything.

eBay's marketing has been weak at best

Manufacturers are selling the the same space as retailers, not giving retailers the same price that they are selling the items on eBay.

Drop off stores are shutting doors faster than they can count, and can not vertically complete in markets already taken by others.

People get sick and tired of overpaying, fraud, and the "too little too late" mentality of trust & safety.

Sellers are POed becuase they get jettisoned off eBay because of honest mistakes, rather than warn them and correct issues - they hit the whack-a-mole button and NARU the seller.

Sellers and Buyers are sickened by the mentality of Paypal and eBay support, which when you do get someone to assist you, you have already had to report them to the BBB. (I reported PayPal three times to get my issues resolved.)

The overall novelty of eBay has worn off, and now is looked at as nothing more than where the sneaky petes and crooks hang out.

eBay makes decisions that hurt sellers sales, and then when they don't list as many items, they jack up the prices to appease the stockholders.

eBay is finding out very quickly that the "customer experience" sucks, and they are taking their business elsewhere. Both buyer and sellers.

Because I am an auctioneer, I am selling and seeing more buyers at a live auction than I do on eBay, it used to be the other way around.

At the end of the year, we are switching from eBay and eBayLive Auctions to Proxibid. Plain and simply, I upload an excel spreadsheet, and the auction is on. No having to spend an hour per item on a listing.

Those are just my honest opinions. eBay has sent sellers packing, focusing on their happy puppies of Powersellers, leaving the others out in the cold who rely on auction listings, and smacks buyers in the face with all kinds of stupid requirements.

It is one of those things where "People will do this one thing in order to do this to make us happy" scenarios, where one thing leads to 100 things, and anything past 3 clicks is a lost sale.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Todd

Mon Jul 2 23:26:48 2007

Wow...amazing that eBay had not acknowledged any of the problems that are continually repeated by thier community of buyers and sellers.

For some reason, they feel they can abuse, insult, take sanctions against and outright violate thier sellers. A recent conversation with eBay T&S and our account manager has really brought me to an understanding. eBay is a socialist venue (communist in the modern day) and that they have one leader, one way. If you do not like this way, well dont let the door hit you on the way out. When Pierre stumbled upon this remarkable success, I dont think that he had this mentality in mind. His initial vision of community, cooperation and treatment of everyone as being ''pretty much honest'' is so long gone that it will not and cannot ever be grasped again. When eBay tells a seller with 99.1% feedback out of over 7000 transactions that they are a bad seller and do not want them on thier site, I think this is when you can really see that they are clueless. What they forget is that all transactions need a buyer and seller - they want to closely guard and protect the buyer but what happens when the sellers are gone?

Customer service is nothing more than flow chart reading phone operators. They remind me of Paypal in thier early days (which is not the case any longer). They would tell you no, transfer your call and tell you no..regardless of who you talked to the answer was no....and they were not allowed to say otherwise.

What will correct this ''broken status'' of eBay? Who knows, but I dont think they have touched even closely on anything that will assist in correcting it.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Blake

Tue Jul 3 00:00:42 2007

I applaud you for your insightful and spot-on article, David.

It's both gratifying and alarming to see the majority of the responses here - people who don't know one another and have no relationship - speak in virtually one voice. To theirs I add my own, as I too have experienced most everything written here by so many others, and have come to the same conclusions.

I have sold continuously on eBay since 1999, and I am a Powerseller, although unlikely to remain one for much longer, as my sales for last month inexplicably, suddenly dropped lower than at any time in all 8 years I have been selling on eBay. With NO changes made on my part.

Yes, something smells of fish at eBay.

Your friend was right. When eBay 'rolled back' search and removed store listings from search, it was not a mere rollback. I don't know what changes they made, but I do know the effects. Others here have commented on them too.

Shortly after the 'rollback,' sellers began noticing their listings were not showing up on the site in searches. Then people began experimenting and found their items could only be found by others in various regions, and not in others.

Sellers also began noticing their sales would be clustered by region of buyers - far and away out of the realm of what could be realistically considered coincidence. Sales in general, in addition to watchers and Ask Seller A Question emails, began coming in clusters, followed by flatline periods. People began referring to it as 'the faucet effect' - turned on by eBay (somehow), and then turned off.

Most likely it does relate to the new item numbers, which were rolled out not too long after store items were removed from search. At least the geographic/regional element. As someone else noted, these item numbers which were once assigned semi-randomly and relating to the time an item was listed, began being assigned to sellers.

Why? I wrote to 'customer support' numerous times asking that question in June of '06. As per usual, what I received were responses that dodged my question, claimed the item numbers were assigned randomly (obviously they are not), or the response was completely irrelevant to my question. Stonewalled again. What else is new?

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: e r

Tue Jul 3 00:05:12 2007

People forget that ebay started out as a place to trade collectibles & used items and it was quite sucessful at that. Once it became a place to buy new wholesale items is when it went down hill for most buyers.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Barbara

Tue Jul 3 00:27:33 2007

I agree with Richard and some of the other minority about the disenchantment, whining and complaining.

I'm not getting rich, but I've been selling on eBay since 1996. I make a full-time living at it. I don't have a husband bringing home a paycheck so I can dabble at eBay.

I am part of the small percentage of sellers left who sell antiques & collectibles. No matter what time of year, what the fees are, or what bells and whistles eBay insists on adding to the site (which I agree are unnecessary for the most part), if you have something unique that more than one person wants, you will do well. Don't try to sell junk and then complain.

As Richard said, adapt. If the Sell Your Item form is a piece of junk (which I agree it is), find a batch lister to use - you shouldn't be wasting your time filling out those screens over and over. Goodness knows, there are enough batch listers out there, and many are free.

I also agree with another post that said perhaps people spend less time on eBay because they have streamlined ways to find what you're looking for. The favorite search emails that come straight to your inbox when your item becomes available are great. Those users who spent hours and hours poring over the categories rather than using a quick search finally figured out how to do it right.

eBay may have problems, but I still consider it the best place to go on the Internet to find something. I wouldn't sell anywhere else.

If the USPS rates are too high, try FedEx Ground or UPS.

Finally, customer service is there if you look for it. Live Help, Powerseller direct lines, even emails of employees are available if you go to eBay Live and talk to them.

I'm here for the long haul, just like those people who buy stocks and don't jump ship the minute the price looks shaky.

Click to view more comments
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 [Next Page]

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives


Site Index Copyright 1999-2009. Steiner Associates LLC. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy.