Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, eBay (EBAY), Marketing and advertising
Last week I wrote a couple pieces on the current seller strike over at e-commerce giant eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY). The strike was supposed to last until today, but now it has been extended another week. Initial data is showing that the current eBay strike has lowered the items listed for sale on the site by an impressive 13%, so you can be sure that eBay is paying attention.
As most of you are already aware, the current strike is the result of frustrations by eBay users over a couple new changes that the site has introduced. While the site lowered its initial listing fees for items, it raised its completion fees. This has been seen by power sellers as a direct attack on the more successful eBay sellers. In addition, eBay has decided to keep sellers from leaving negative feedback on buyers, a move that has infuriated sellers who claim that feedback is their best defense in avoiding dead-beat bidders. The final straw came in the decision to hold certain PayPal payments for up to 21 days.
The strike, which started last week, has had a couple of impacts on the e-commerce world. One result that I analyzed last week, was the increase in traffic and users to some smaller e-commerce sites that historically have had a hard time breaking into some of eBay coveted traffic. Now we’re starting to see just how hard the strike has been hitting eBay itself. According to reports, the site has seen a 13% drop in its auction listings.
Data that has been compiled by medved.net and dealscart.com indicate that there are now “only” 13 million items available on the site. eBay users have started to smell the blood in the water apparently and have decided to extend the current strike in hopes eBay will begin to give in to some of their demands. After what they considered to be an effective first week, sellers are now extending the strike by one more week, stretching it out until March 3.
We’d some great reader feedback on our posts last week over the current strike, and it seems like most of our BloggingStocks readers agree that the current changes eBay is imposing are unfair. Several of our readers are avid eBay users, and let us know that they had indeed joined in the sellers strike and were looking for new alternatives for their on the internet auction business. I’m curious to hear if these eBay users will continue to boycott the site for another week, or slowly return to business as usual on the site. Let us know your intentions, and what alternatives to eBay you’ve found (if any).
Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the on the internet investment advisory service Investor’s Observer.
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