AP – August 20, 2008
NEW YORK – Popular online auction site eBay has recently been introducing changes to help make the site more attractive. However, recent changes have had the opposite effect and frustrated those using the site to sell products.
Changes in the fee structure, search results and feedback system are meant to achieve the objective of getting more buyers to use the site. The compulsion to make these changes was due to a worrying trend showing a slowing in the growth of active users. Recent quarterly figures indicate that the number of active users increased only 1.4 percent to 84.5 million.
In January, eBay altered its fee structure to get sellers to put more items on sale so it could encourage more activity. Commission rates were set higher if the auctioned products were sold for less than $1,000.
Sellers have also not been happy seeing their ability to leave negative feedback on buyers removed. The buyers can continue to leave negative feedback as before. Sellers feel this can leave them at the mercy of some dodgy buyers.
However, while trying to appease buyers, sellers feel hard done by. They feel that eBay no longer provides a level playing field to all sellers and its ‘Diamond PowerSellers’, merchants with the high-volume sales can end up paying lower fees. This pandering to larger sellers also indicates a shift in eBay preference for fix priced formats rather than the traditional auction one.
There are more changes planned including setting a much lower price for unlimited fix-priced listings for up to a month. Despite the criticism, eBay believes it is making these changes to protect the market place and keep it dynamic.
Related links
This article is the property of http://www.iguides.org/
Copying and publishing any article from our site is strictly NOT allowed