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: Prentissg

Fri Jul 6 21:39:46 2007

As an eBay seller for 7 years, I usually adapt to the changes. However, one thing that has not been referred to from the unique items sellers - i.e. antiques, collectibles, one of a king items - is the effect of eBay Live Auctions. I have repeatedly let eBay AND any auction house I deal with know that the advent of eBay Live has seriously compromised the sales price of these items on eBay due to the poor pictures, non-descriptions, and presentation of these items in the auction house listings. In addition, this has virtually eliminated the eBay seller from the auction house floor. In most cases, not all, but most items sell on eBay Live for no more than they sell on the auction house floor - previously, they would sell higher from that individual seller who purchased it on the floor. PLUS the price of the item becomes an historical price on eBay EVEN WHEN PURCHASED BY A FLOOR BIDDER. This is ridiculous. The auction houses justify doing Live by saying it helps their obtaining estates, that approx. 15% of their sales are from eBay Live - but not that it increases their actual bottom dollar except for the additional fees they generate to post eBay Live. eBay Live charges their ''auction house'' listers much less - package pricing - and this cuts eBay's income also, so the little guy gets hit with the fee increases. They actually actively telephoned most of the auction houses in the country to encourage them to be ''an eBay Partner.'' So much for loyalty to their original core antique and collectible sellers.... Of course, this portion of eBay is shrinking - maybe due to the fact that many auction houses are no longer a viable venue to obtain product to sell ....

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: kissmyebay

Sat Jul 7 02:17:15 2007

I'm an 8th year eBay member and a frequent buyer/seller. My selling ID is over 4000+ feedback with 100% positive rating from buyers. I'm a powerseller. That said, I want to say that selling on eBay has been unprofitible for me over the last two years. Last year the business, which is incorporated and sells exclusively on Ebay lost $3000.00. This year we are down about $100 for January to July. The eBay fees average over 20% of gross sales. We've had to raise prices on our auctions but the result so far has been only to almost break even for the year. I agree wholeheartedly with the vast majority of eBayers and former eBayers who posted their insights and opinions on this message board. Ebay is greedy, shortsighted, arrogant and controlling - and those are the GOOD things I can think of about eBay. Furthermore they are crooked - all the things said about eBay's sneaky and illegal business methods mentioned on this message board are true. And yes, as one UK seller mentioned, if you complain about eBay on its own message boards you will be suspended from posting on the boards. To the so-called ''eBay insider'' who posted above I offer this: kissmyebay! You people don't have a clue about what is right or wrong, neither do you care. Search the Internet for ''Ebay monopoly'' and you'll find the truth about how eBay has bought out and shut down dozens of competitors, and how the entry cost to truly competing against eBay and its 94% marketshare makes it impossible for a startup company to make headway against eBay. Much like Microsoft and it's operating system monopoly, eBay holds a firm monopoly on the online auction market. When eBay raised fees for the 3rd year in a row in 2005 its CEO Meg Whitman received $42 Million dollars in salary and stocks (she has since sold the stocks). Is there a single eBay seller who has made even 1% of that amount in one year of selling on eBay? I think that says it all about eBay and its one and only true concern - making money for the managers and owners of eBay. In conclusion I want to say thank you for the sellers who've mentioned their personal success in creating their own web sites, or in utilizing the few niche auction sites that eBay hasn't yet purchased and closed. I'll be going the route of creating my own web site. While other auction sites will likely be bought and closed by eBay (or bartered out of existence by eBay as with Yahoo Auctions this June) I'll never sell out my web site. Thanks again to all who posted here. I no longer feel alone in my dismay and disgust with eBay.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: GB-IN-UK

Sat Jul 7 06:16:54 2007

to mindy above, ...........i have sent this link to pierre omidyar's personal email address (I have spoken with him breifly once before), wether he reads it and does anything is anyones guess, but its worth a try..............
Ebay, lets face it, stinks! but it IS repairable, but based on everyones experience, i am skeptical it will happen, but we shall see

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: J Bennett

Sat Jul 7 11:35:41 2007

I have come to dread the annual ''news'' that eBay has a new crop of MBAscoming on board.

5-6 months later all hell breaks loose with new ideas to change the system.

They constantly break whats not broke.

I almost wish the eBay economy was regulated like the Fed regulates the US economy.

By this I am really wishing they would recognize that this thing is no longer just a bulletin board for auctions. Its a dynamic marketplace and changes have consequences both intended and unintended.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: larryst

Sat Jul 7 16:02:25 2007

I have had to adjust my business plan to accommodate ebay's poor plan - I have gone from 75% ebay sales to 25%. Ebay does not listen to sellers or care about them so I support them with my ''feet'' - I go elsewhere. MY web sites, etc are doing great and sources of sales are 90% off ebay. Their idea of blogs, widgets, etc. totally misses the target audience. Ebay was fun while it lasted but it is an Enron waiting to implode.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Frank Ross

Sat Jul 7 17:20:52 2007

I wonder how much the increase in available Broadband ISP connections have to do with this? We are talking about time spent so the more Broadband the faster people are going to get in and out of there? Just a thought.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: suzy

Sat Jul 7 22:57:39 2007

eBay forgets the sellers they have upset with fee hikes, glitches and search issues are also buyers.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: kathy

Sun Jul 8 00:40:09 2007

In no particular order:

It's not the ''powers that be''....it's ''the powers that think they be''!!!

One of eBay's biggest mistakes....no intelligent, real-time customer support. Can you imagine Microsoft, IBM, Dell, JC Pennys, WalMart, DrugStore.com or any other online entity NOT having telephone support? Or a real-person response to emails?

2,000 folks looking for fraudulent listings? Where are they looking? Under their ''seats''?

Increased/additional fees every time you turn around.

Social networking on a site that IS NOT a social network.

Excessive shipping and handling that eBay does absolutely nothing about. Report a s/h powersell 100 times and they WILL NOT be shut down or forced to adjust their s/h.

Report a powersell for much of anything and absolutely nothing gets done. Ever. Excessive shipping and handling. Erroneous location information (auction lists US but seller in foreign country). Fee avoidance. Ad nauseum.

Corporate buying of online/real world entities just to spend money that is accumulating faster than freckles on a redhead in summer....and the failure of a large number of those enterprises. Wanna throw money away in an attempt to fool investors? Throw it at me!

Constant changes that are the result of urgings of the ''member community''....blogs, MY World, wikis, Skype. Hey! I'm a member of the community and I didn't ask for any of that crap and don't know of a single eBay who did.

eBay wants to be everyone's answer to every type of merchandise. They can't. And they shouldn't. They can't control the seller corruption on high-ticket items or protect their members from Nigerian scams.

eBay's Live Help that is totally useless. In fact, so useless that they send users to the 24/7 VOLUNTEER eBay Q&A Board for problem resolution.

A Help/Site Map that is more muddled than molasses in January. Try and find an answer to a question on the site map. No don't bother. Go to the Q&A Board.

Stores in Search. Stores outta Search. eBay Express.

No ID verification for ALL eBay users.

eBay has HOW MANY registered users? 17 kabillion??? I've got about 16.5 kabillion of those myself. Limit CREDIT CARD/BANK VERIFICATION registration to a set number of buying/selling/posting accounts. No credit card/bank account? Either get one or you can't register.

Wanna shill your own item? Set the price over $200 and no one will be able to catch you. We know eBay sure as hell ain't.

eBay won't get involved in much of anything because they are just a listing venue. My fat Aunt Fanny! eBay wants a gallon of my blood and my firstborn child. Well, they can't have either!

I started here almost 10 years ago with a sell-thru rate of 85%-95%. I always had multiple clear photos and detailed descriptions of each item including all dings and flaws. Yet suddenly my sales started slipping about 3 years ago. 60%, 45%. Now less than 30%.

100% positive FB of over 1900. I was doing something right at some point.

I used keywords....but didn't spam.

My s/h/i were exact with no gouging.

My packing is constantly mentioned in my FB as being superb along with fast shipping.

I used to use gallery until eBay started gouging the price.

I used to use BIN until eBay gouged that, too.

I had a store until eBay gouged the living beejeebers outta the monthly fee in one fell swoop and then took store items out of search.

I used to be able to contact my customers via email until eBay decided that en masse folks were making off-eBay deals and depriving them of much-needed income. Hey! If my item doesn't sell and I've already paid my listing fee and someone comes along wanting to buy it, I'll be damned if I am going to be forced to give eBay another shot at the fee. It's my item. I'll sell it to anyone who will cough up the $$$$$.

I used to sell on eBay.

I don't any more.

Meg is cashing in her stocks and getting ready for the ''big run''. I'm keeping my nickels and dimes. Meg doesn't need 'em.

Where's a good investigative reporter when you need one?

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: anonymous

Sun Jul 8 20:37:29 2007

Most people would quit walking into a particular room if they were hit with a baseball bat every time they walked into that particular room.

Who wants to spend long hours writing ads and having to pay to post them on top of that when they can no longer feel confident that they will sell what they are listing?

You can apply this theory to any of the aspects that we are discussing here and come up with a conclusion....DISTASTE.

People would rather be broke with time on their hands than to be overworked and broke.

Ebay based their claims of growth from the rewards they stole from the very people that built them.....the sellers. In the long run they are stealing from the buyers too.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: De-De

Mon Jul 9 10:17:00 2007

There is one thing I've not seen mentioned here, and it's something that affected me greatly. Certainly I'm not the only one... I'm a small scale seller - reselling great yard sale finds, occasional things picked up at auctions, odds and ends I no longer need, stuff like that. Over the course of the last five years, I've received several thousand feedbacks - all positive - buying and selling carefully and honestly. Because of my small ebay income, I was able to function just fine with a personal paypal account (limited to receiving just a few hundred dollars a month), accepting cash payments only. Two years ago in August, that came to an end when ebay announced that everyone who would accept paypal payments on ebay MUST accept credit cards or face suspension or worse, and they painstakingly closed every single loophole. (Found myself wondering if they would actually stage phony auction buys by employees to test whether a seller might mention the cash only option privately!) The problem with this is that the upgrade to accept credit cards meant that EVERY payment I receive on paypal is charged a transaction fee now. Can you imagine the uproar if a kid walked into your local grocery, bought a 50 cent candy bar, and the bank was able to claim a percentage of that cash transaction? Complaints to ebay/paypal were answered with comments that they were just trying to keep it from being so confusing for buyers - make everyone just alike. However, there is little doubt that the truth of the matter lies in the fact that ebay figured out how much money they were missing out on and wanted to get their share of that, too. If they wanted to really hurt the proverbial ''little guy,'' they sure did it with that move! I primarily sell for what I call ''butter and egg money'' - often making just a couple of dollars on an item - but it was fun. I met some really neat people and had the pleasure of making a lot of them very happy with my odds and ends. And I pretty much turned every penny I made right back around and into someone else's odds and ends. The change in the paypal rule has made a dramatic difference in how much I list, what I list, and how much I profit - and ultimately, how much I buy. It's also left me with a major pile of things that I used to be able to list and see fly out the door, but now after ebay sticks their hand in my pocket three times for the same listing, might easily cost me more in fees than I get as a closing bid - and if I don't offer paypal on the auctions, I don't get bids at all. And I don't think I'm the only person holding back on listing the little treasures, because I find the listings for such things very sparse these days, too. I'm not on ebay to purchase what I can easily find at Walmart (with less risk), and my pocketbook isn't deep enough for the high end stuff (sporting its new shill protecting ''Bidder 1'' status) - which I'd probably prefer to see in person anyway. I'm on ebay looking for the smaller, unique, ''wherever did you find that?'' sort of stuff, and quite frankly, there's just not near so much of that out there these days. My favorite search is turning up only a third of what it was showing daily two years ago. Apparently I'm not the only seller who has decided she can't afford listing stuff like that. I used to do ALL my Christmas shopping on ebay; last year, I did it all online and NONE on ebay. I just couldn't find the right stuff. The less I am rewarded, the less time I will spend on the site - and the less likely I will turn to ebay first when I'm looking for something. That hurts everyone selling. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I sort of thought that back in the beginning it was the small sellers who made ebay work. Now I feel more like I was just a rung on their ladder.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: anonymous

Mon Jul 9 14:02:22 2007

If Ebay doesnt want antiques and uniques on their site...then they should quit shutting down alternates and/or do a spinoff.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: ex-Powerseller

Mon Jul 9 15:28:15 2007

We are one of the top 10 sellers on eBay. We have experienced a dramatic decline in both successful auctions and price. eBay beleives the sellers come to eBay for the buyers. The fact is, the buyers come for the deals. Sellers are leaving at an alarming rate. The buyers will leave because the deals dis-appearing.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Ken

Mon Jul 9 16:31:42 2007

I am a small, but regular Ebay seller. Listing one or two antique or collectible items each week for the last four years. I have been wondering why my sell through rate and final sale price have steadily declined. Reading these comments, I now know why. My question is this, specifically what other auction sites are out there where people are actually having success at selling items?

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: anonymous

Mon Jul 9 20:35:24 2007

This question has been asked numerous times through this thread with no answer back....is that because there is nowhere else to sell? Who is having any luck out there?

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: gb-in-uk

Tue Jul 10 04:51:16 2007

dear anon, no, there doesnt seem to be abywhere else to sell. although it depends on WHAT you sell, as there are some specialist auction sites for certain types of items, but for the "mom and pop" seller (the basis of ebay, and the people that BUILT ebay into what it is, or was), there isnt anything, although if anyone finds something, please post it on this board! ...and I think this is the main problem, if there was somewhere else to go, people would abandon ebay in droves, and i hope they do. i no longer feel "good" about ebay and i know i'm not alone! Just like the chap above said, if you constantly feel that you are being ripped off an beaten about the head with a stick, how much longer do you stay? Does anyone think that google will open up an alternative? They are probbaly the only people who could possibly do this................

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: anonymous

Wed Jul 11 11:04:01 2007

T H E E N D ?

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Anonymous

Wed Jul 11 11:55:07 2007

anonymous: We havn't even started yet...

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Bill

Wed Jul 11 21:11:29 2007

Summation of over 150 postings.
Ebay has many, many problems.
Sellers have no where else to go.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: John

Wed Jul 11 22:27:55 2007

Bill,
I think you said it all.
Oh well. Ebay was a good run while it lasted. Some day we can tell our grand kids about the good old days when we used to make money by selling on auctions over the internet.

eBay Users Spending Less Time on Site

by: Alan

Thu Jul 12 03:58:42 2007

Many sellers that have left eBay are trying other auction sites in addition to setting up their own web sites. Though there is no site as large as eBay, sellers are determined to try something else (however small the site). Even eBay had to start somewhere…

Here is a list of some of the auctions from PowersellersUnite.com

1) http://tinyurl.com/hs6q4

2) http://tinyurl.com/2szbkb

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