Comment Here on AuctionBytes Shopping Survey

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

December 15, 2007

Comment Here on AuctionBytes Shopping Survey

By: Ina Steiner

Sat Dec 15 2007 12:00:15

AuctionBytes is conducting a survey to learn more about online shopping. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey. Once you have finished, it will take you back to this blog post where you can leave comments.

Spread the word, we want to get a lot of people to take the survey and share information about how they find and research products, and what factors are important to them when shopping online. (It doesn't matter if you sell online or not, we've found most online sellers are also buyers.)

We will publish the results in January. (We will aggregate the data and will not identify your individual results.)

Note - please take the survey before reading the comments. Thank you!

Comments (16) | Permalink

Readers Comments

Comment Here on AuctionBytes Shopping Survey

by: jsicolts

Sun Dec 16 07:07:04 2007

Interesting survey. We liked it. Too much mention of Amazon and not enough on Alibris, Biblio, Half other smaller and better sites.

Comment Here on AuctionBytes Shopping Survey

by: bodang

Sun Dec 16 08:02:56 2007

I felt obligated (but in a good way!) to complete the survey since I rely so much on AuctionBytes for information. Quid pro quo, so to speak.

Comment Here on AuctionBytes Shopping Survey

by: Jim F

Sun Dec 16 13:15:13 2007

Anyone doing any kind of online buying or selling should subscribe to auctionbytes. The info is much needed. Needs to have more info on small auction sites, as well as ebay. Also, mostly because of ebay, ebay's discounted rates get published too slow.

Comment Here on AuctionBytes Shopping Survey

by: Ed Glaze

Sun Dec 16 13:19:04 2007

More useful questions might be to chose a $ range of what is expected to be spent online this holiday or how many people will be receiving gifts you bought online.

Comment Here on AuctionBytes Shopping Survey

by: Quidnunc

Tue Dec 18 12:05:39 2007

I left a detailed comment but was bumped back because of an error in entering the code. Closer inspection revealed an almost impossible to see number in that code. i am not going to retype my entire lengthy comment that was erased when I hit the back button as directed. Suffice it to say that there were numerous factors that I believe lessen the validity of the results from the survey.

Comment Here on AuctionBytes Shopping Survey

by: Helen

Thu Dec 20 13:52:29 2007

Hi Ina,

This is a good survey - looking forward to seeing the results. Dealio.com is a great comparison shopping, deals and coupons website, perhaps next year, it'll be an option in your survey.

Best,

Helen

Comment Here on AuctionBytes Shopping Survey

by: Janet

Fri Dec 21 14:05:12 2007

Love your newsletter, no e-retailer/buyer should be without it!

Now about the survey, I would suggest more focus on the independent/alternative auction sites as well as marketplaces. Ebay has really lost ground to all these other sites with their lack of customer service and protection for the casual buyer.

Comment Here on AuctionBytes Shopping Survey

by: SELG

Tue Dec 25 22:20:28 2007

Ina, You may be "Preaching to the choir" with this survey. The people you asked for comments about their online buying experiences are a)already online, and b) already buying or selling online.

Comment Here on AuctionBytes Shopping Survey

by: Beth

Mon Dec 31 07:23:51 2007

Nice survey.
I would love to see a future survey about online security provider companies (thawte, Verisign, etc), that rates users' experience with them, and what they would like to see added/improved about them.

Thanks as always for all your work!

Comment Here on AuctionBytes Shopping Survey

by: mauricio

Sat Jan 5 19:28:07 2008

I did find it odd that there was not enough mention of some of the minor sites... What about Comparison Shopping Engines such as http://SaveOnAtoZ.com ? They let you compare across Half.com, Ebay.com, Amazon.com, Shopzilla.com and many other major comparison engines.

Comment Here on AuctionBytes Shopping Survey

by: gaz

Sun Jan 6 08:18:43 2008

Is it just me spotting it, or did page 2 of the survey results show a substantial drop in the amount spent both on and offline by sellers?

Surely this is indicative that online sellers are having a tough time, and although the two reasons of eBay condition changes, and the sub-prime fall-out, are too easy to blame, the overall conclusion must be that if sellers are spending less, it is because they are selling less - and that is a strong indicaor of overall market health.

Gaz

Comment Here on AuctionBytes Shopping Survey

by: Randy Smythe

Sun Jan 6 12:19:23 2008

Ina, I thought it was quite telling that 45% of buyers that do not sell online shop at eBay. While 65% of those who do sell online shop at eBay.

That difference is eBay's problem. Regular online consumers prefer Amazon to eBay 55% to 45% while online Sellers appear to be the biggest customers segment on eBay.

When eBay squeezes their sellers they also sqeueeze a huge number of buyers and you get the result that Gaz mentioned " Is it just me spotting it, or did page 2 of the survey results show a substantial drop in the amount spent both on and offline by sellers? "

When eBay sellers are feeling good about their business again those numbers should improve (if eBay hasn't already burned that bridge).

Comment Here on AuctionBytes Shopping Survey

by: tula

Sun Jan 6 18:42:14 2008

To add to what Gaz and Randy Smythe have mentioned, I noticed also that those who sell online seem less concerned about security than those who don't. That's probably due to simply having greater experience online (which is necessary to sell effectively, anyway). I do agree with the previous conclusions that sellers are perhaps having a more difficult time of it and are spending less.

It will be interesting to see how these numbers change in the coming year (provided there are future surveys).

Comment Here on AuctionBytes Shopping Survey

by: tula

Sun Jan 6 19:16:12 2008

One more thing... TIAS has just put out their annual survey and has noted a sales volume increase of 19% for December 2007 over the 2006 numbers. In their discussion, they mentioned some interesting speculation about the recent downturn in the antiques and collectibles business. They make mention of a "significant" downturn that has occurred in the last 3 years -- interestingly, this is roughly the same period where people's eBay sales seem to have slipped substantially (according to commentary from this site and others).

Here's part of their post:
"Many Internet based antiques & collectibles merchants have reported
significant decreases in online sales volume over the past 3 years. The
December 2007 increase is important because it is the first significant
sign the antiques and collectibles market may be recovering. At the height
of the online market for antiques and collectibles from 1998 to 2004 there
appeared to be a "gold rush" attitude about making money online. It seemed
that everyone was dumping merchandise onto the Web, hoping to make a quick
buck. This worked for a while, but as the market became flooded with
inventory, on-line and off-line merchants were forced to lower their
prices to compete."

It will be interesting to see if this upturn in sales volume continues and if it's reflected on eBay. I have noticed that in areas where I have purchased in the past, the number of sellers and available items in those categories has dropped drastically. Perhaps the worst is over and the number of sellers has been pruned to a more sustainable level? Only time will tell. I have recently noted a slight increase in my own sales of vintage items. I can only hope this trend will continue.

Comment Here on AuctionBytes Shopping Survey

by: skylar

Mon Jan 7 11:27:35 2008

Intersting survey, I think most people don't realize that there are online bargain hunting websites out there designed to save consumers hundreds of dollars. One site is www.dealtaker.com. This site has thousands of coupons and great deals posted on the hottest items of the season. DealTaker truly helps shoppers save hundreds of dollars.

Comment Here on AuctionBytes Shopping Survey

by: DOC

Mon Jan 7 18:20:36 2008

Nice Survey, Ina.

It was real good reading, thank you for taking the time to do this.

Ed Koon

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