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stevew8975
Power Member
Joined: 22 Sep 2006
Posts: 186
Location: Staffordshire
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 Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 10:30 pm Post subject: eBay Live in Chicago... |
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It's the eBay Live conference in Chicago at the moment, and as much as I'd like a jolly out there to schmooze with some of the big cheeses, I'm unfortunately having to count my cotton buds in the bathroom... Anyway, A fair few interesting points have been raised and mooted during some of the keynote speeches given by the eBay Inc leadership team, and luckily Tamebay and Auctionbytes both have their cotton buds in order so have been able to attend.
Lorrie Norrington - President of eBay Global Marketplace Operations - A new way for buyers to withdraw feedback left for sellers would be introduced by the end of this year. The announcement was exceedingly short on details of exactly how the new mechanism might work and the timing of its introduction: I rather got the feeling that eBay have decided that something will be done, but haven’t quite decided the details themselves yet.
- In addition to the discounts, they are rolling out more perks to Powersellers. In July invoices, 20% discount on FVF for 4.9+ DSRs on all DSRs. 16% of all powersellers qualify for this new tier.
- There is a new Diamond PowerSeller level in the US. This new level is for sellers with a $500k/mth and 4.8 minimum of all four DSRs. Diamond PowerSellers will benefit from packages which will include pricing tailored for their business model. Specific requirements will also be included which could include criteria such as free shipping, despatch time or other service levels appropriate to the category.
Brian Burke - Director of Global Feedback Policy - session key points.
- 10% of sellers were negatively impacted by the feedback recalculation, or as Brian chose to express it 90% saw no change in their feedback percentage. Of PowerSellers 10% saw their feedback percentage drop and 11% dropped below 98% The average drop in feedback percentage was 0.5% The rate of low DSR ratings left by buyers (1 or 2 stars) has increased very slightly but not significantly. 85% of positive feedback gets 5 star DSR ratings. The overall percentage of non-positive feedback left by buyers hasn’t changed, but more negatives and fewer neutrals are being left by buyers
- An interesting future possibilty thrown out by eBay was to ask how sellers would view eBay automatically debiting a buyers PayPal account then an auction closes. That would at a stroke wipe out non-paying bidders if PayPal was offered as the only payment option and would be welcomed by the sellers present.
- Several questions related to buyer communications, with the general consensus that eBay My Messages and the Dispute Console need a revamp. Feedback extortion is taken seriously, but if via email rather than My Messages is difficult to prove. Also it was agreed that a process to force communication prior to leaving non-positive feedback makes sense giving the seller an opportunity to assist the buyer.
Scott Thompson - PayPal’s President - PayPal have announced improvements to both buyer and seller protection for users in the US. The cap on buyer protection is being removed for most transactions, so that buyers have unlimited protection against items not received or significantly not as described, whatever the purchase price from Autumn this year.
Adam Trachtenberg, Director of Product Management for Platform & Services - Sellers will be able to list variants of the same item: by colour, size, memory, material etc., compressing multiple listings into one single listing offering buyers a range of options. Interestingly, this was presented as enhancing the *buyer* experience by cutting down near-duplicate listings.
- Sellers will be able to specify more than one email for message-forwarding: for example, customer service emails from buyers can go to one address, and eBay invoices to another.
- Emails between sellers and buyers prior to a sale are being anonymised: buyer email addresses will no longer be visible on ASQs, though “reply” will still work as eBay will handle mapping between the anonymised email and the buyer’s actual email. Post-sale, both parties will be able to see each other’s email addresses. They should also note that it will no longer be permitted to display an email address within the body of a listing.
- eBay announced it would phase out third-party checkout by this time next year. Third-party vendors help sellers list on eBay, and some offer sellers use of checkout systems to up-sell and cross-sell items to buyers. For example, a buyer who purchases a laptop computer from a seller and is taken to Checkout to pay for the item might be exposed to offers to buy a laptop case or other accessories to increase the size of the order.
Credit where it's due - http://www.tamebay.com/ & http://www.auctionbytes.com/ |
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| Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 10:30 pm Post subject: Recommendation: Auction Selling 101 |
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