ebay & Beyond Basics to Business Blog

IMA Refuses To Comment On Published Reports Of Strife

David White — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:46:57 GMT

As several blog sites including AuctionBytes.com, TradingAssitant Journal and AsWas.com have been reporting, there appears to be a significant internal struggle within the IMAMerchant.org group.

I called the phone number listed on the IMA website and spoke with the person who answered the phone. He identified himself as Steve Grossberg Founder and President of IMA. Steve refused to comment on any disciplinary actions taken by the board against any member of the group, including actions against Officers or Board Members saying IMA will never divulge this information to it's members or the media. Steve went on to say that this is in accordance with the associations by-laws.

Steve did say that the membership has the right to overturn these by-law restrictions, and added that if this was done, all disciplinary actions against ANY member would be public.

Regarding the reports of possible disbanding of the association, Steve said that no steps had been taken or started towards that end as of the time we spoke, and that he was confident the association would be stronger and more vibrant after this situation is resolved.

Steve also stated that the situation was a result of a lack of communication though he refused to provide any details. As to the reports that the President (Steve) had been suspended, his response was "Well I'm talking to you aren't I?" and would not discuss any further information. He did say that the situation was under investigation and that was all he could say regarding the matter.

I appreciate his answering the call and though I agree that disciplinary actions against individual members may in fact be a private issue of the association, it is certainly my feeling that actions against or regarding an officer or board member of the association should be public knowledge. Maybe the details of such action should be kept private, however the results should be public!

This is for the good of the group and it's members.

In full disclosure, I am a member of ECMTA.

eBay Reaches Out To Shoppers With Communispace

David White — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:33:42 GMT

is reporting today that eBay has reached out to the shopping community using Communispace to create a Shopping Community.

This is an invitation only offer and apparently refers to special offers and prizes and will be limited to 500 users.

While buyers and sellers have been offering their comments for years, this appears to be a much more direct effort by eBay to communicate with buyers and learn what is really happening.

While it is important to do this, I wrote a blog on one of my other blog sites regarding who actually owns the buyer information. As it turns out in most cases it is the selling venue, and not the actual seller. What this basically means is that in an effort such the one eBay has embarked on, the information will be used by the site and not really provided to the actual sellers, at least not in it's entirety, and then only the information they want you to see.

The "Black Hole" of Trust & Safety, eBay MUST Close It Now

David White — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:08:48 GMT

Our associate Scott Pooler of iBusinessLogic.com and his client Cornerstone Supply have become just one of the latest victims of the BLACK HOLE of eBay's Trust and Safety department. In his Trading Assistant Journal blog, Scott details his experience in the past few days with eBay's Customer Support.

The "BLACK HOLE" of eBay's customer support and more importantly the Trust & Safety department is legendary and notorious. The canned responses that come from CS and T&S leave the user few alternatives. There is no phone number to call unless you are a PowerSeller, no reliable immediate way to resolve issues that effect peoples livelyhood. This BLACK HOLE simply tells users that their issues will be addressed usually within 24-72 hours. Quite often it take much much longer.

I brought this exact issue up with eBay managers in a "Bloggers Meeting" at eBay Live in Chicago. I told those attending that when eBay T&S contemplates or takes action against a seller, there MUST be a way for those affected to deal with the situation, get an explanation, and correct, if they can the problem IMMEDIATELY! The 24-72 hour response is simply not acceptable in todays ecommerce environment. In this meeting I asked why, if T&S has a concern can they not contact the seller by phone prior to taking action? In it's current form, T&S acts as judge and jury without the chance for a defense or explanation. Whatever happened to due process? Are eBay sellers considered guilty until proven innocent?

I completely understand the need to move quickly when there is a perceived threat to protect the buyers on the site. I commend eBay for their efforts to make a safer buyer experience. I understand that there needs to be a balancing act, protecting the buyers, but they also must do everything in their power to ensure that actions taken against a seller are fair, just, and more importantly expediously dealt with. When eBay takes a unilateral action that effects or limits a person's or businesses livelyhood, there MUST be immediate recourse for those affected.

Lorrie Norrington implored the attendees in one of the eBay Live sessions to "give us a chance". (paraphrasing)

What remains to be seen is what if anything eBay will do to fill the 'BLACK HOLE" of CS and T&S and how fast they will do this.

POST SCRIPT: A reader left several comments here in a manifesto that was also posted for a time on Randy Smythes's blog MyBlogUtopia. I too have decided to remove these comments as there is no credible evidence to the claims made. Let me state that this blog is an opportunity for me to share my thoughts and news on ecommerce and factual incidents that are relevent. My readers can provide comments based on their feelings or facts.

Jay Berkowitz To Be On ebay & Beyond: Basics To Business 6-28-08

David White — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 07:24:55 GMT

Fresh from eBay Live 2008 in Chicago, where his presentation was very well received in a packed room of ecommerce sellers Jay Berkowitz author of The Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing will be our guest this Saturday. Listen in as Sparky and I interview Jay about his new book, his experience at eBay Live and the trends in ecommerce marketing.

Be sure and register to win an autographed copy of Jay's new book by going to www.basicstobusiness.com and click on the Contest Page tab!

Jay Berkowitz, CEO Ten Golden Rules

Jay Berkowitz is a small business internet consultant with more than 20 years of marketing experience. He has been behind the marketing for Fortune 500 brands: McDonald's and Coca-Cola, developed online and offline strategies for AT&T, Sprint, and managed the marketing department for leading health and fitness website eDiets.com.Mr. Berkowitz is the CEO of Ten Golden Rules, a B2B internet marketing agency based in Boca Raton, Florida, specializing in internet advertising and marketing consulting services.

Mr. Berkowitz is the Past President of the American Marketing Association South Florida Chapter, a Founding Board Member of the South Florida Interactive Marketing Association, and was a member of the Toronto International Film Festival Board of Directors.

He is a popular presenter at conferences and events such as: The Association of Internet Marketing and Sales, The Direct Marketing Association, The American Marketing Association, The Affiliate Summit, Ad-Tech, The CEO Roundtable, The Washington Weight Loss Marketing and Obesity Conference, and The Global Benchmarking Council.

eBay Closes Doors on eBayLive

David White — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:54:07 GMT

As eBay closes the doors on eBayLive 2008, reportedly the last eBay Live event until 2010, they continue to keep the doors closed to many reporters and other media outlets.

When ebay & Beyond: Basics to Business requested media credentials for the event the credentials were granted. We received an email confirming the credentials and included in that email was the following:

To discuss interview opportunities, please contact:

Millie Lee

Corporate Communications

eBay, Inc.

2145 Hamilton Avenue

San Jose, CA 95125

The email contained a phone number as well as email contact info. Well, as was the case last year for eBay Live 2007 we submitted NUMEROUS requests via email, and at least 2 voice mails indicating our interest in interviewing eBay management.

As you probably guessed, we did not receive any response to our requests. So, for 2 years ebay & Beyond: Basics to Business was shut out of any opportunity to interview ebay management. Now, I really did not like being shunned the first year, and was more than a little miffed when we did not even receive a No Opportunity Available response.

Why would a company such as eBay make such an offer and then not respond to the requests?

When ebay & Beyond: Basics To Business arrived Thursday morning to begin setting up for our broadcasts, we were told by security at the vendor entrance that we would need to be ESCORTED by eBay staff to be allowed into the event. So off Sparky and I went, back to the Public Relations Office and Millie Lee advised us after some discussion (apparently) with higher ups, that we would be assigned an escort (Chris, who was fantastic by the way) who would accompany us. So we had a shadow, following us as we set up our broadcasting equipment, and then sat in the background while we made our first broadcast.

It apparently became clear that we would not be trying to overthrow eBay with our broadcasts, and Chris, though available to us, did not feel the need to shadow us the entire time.

I saw one situation where a vendor requested to bring in a videographer to video the vendors booth and that request was denied.

Except for the cell phone videos taken clandestinely during some of the break-out sessions, and authorized eBay videographers, we did not see news media taping on the Exhibit floor as we have in past years.

It is our perception that eBay was concerned over possible unrest amongst the members attending the event and worked very hard to restrict access to media on all fronts. While this may not have been the case, one of the oldest marketing sayings hold true here,,,,,, Perception is everything!

I do want to say that we were invited to attend a "bloggers meeting" attended by the likes of Randy Smythe, author of MyBlogUtopia and Chris Dawson and Sue Bailey from the UK's very own TameBay. This was attended by eBay staffers including Richard Brewer-Hay author of the eBayInk blog , Usher Liberman, eBay spokesperson as well as Brian Burke and Dinesh Lathi among others. The meeting was informative on a few issues, but lacked any real breaking news that the general seller could look forward to. I want to thank Richard for inviting us and all the panel members for sharing. It was one of the few bright spots from an interview standpoint with eBay.

We will discuss this issue and much more this week on ebay & Beyond: Basics to Business so be sure to listen live every Saturday morning from 10 AM to Noon EDT by logging onto www.basicstobusiness.com.

Brief Reflections of eBayLive 2008 It Truly Feels Like We Have Lost A Friend

David White — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:02:12 GMT

It was a very long drive back home to Western New York. With over 8 hours on the road, I have had a chance to reflect on the friends with which I reconnected, the new friends I met, and the one friend I fear is gone forever. I have had the pleasure of attending 6 or the 7 previous eBayLive events, and since it has already been announced that there will be no such event in 2009, I fear that the announced 2010 eBayLive in Orlando will not happen, or if it does, it certainly will not be the event as I knew it, much like eBayLive 2008 was certainly not anything like the 6 previous conferences.

It was defintely sad to see the dramatic change in the atmosphere in this year's event. One eBay employee that I spoke with said that there were 7000 registrations prior to the start of the event, yet I and many of the vendors and attendees that I spoke with felt the number of actual attendees was significantly lower. One indication of this I saw was at the Gala on Saturday evening when over 25 large boxes of eBayLive 2008 shoulder bags, the bags given out when attendees picked up their badges, were placed out on the Gala floor for the taking. In addition, we noticed that all of the tables at the Gala had several extra bags on the chairs.

Another sign that all was not good at the event was the very noticeable presence of a large security force. Now there has always been security, but not in the numbers and not as visible as at this years event.

The most obvious indication of the concern of eBay members was the mood. From the opening of the exhibit floor on Thursday, the mood of the attendees was in my humble opinion, depressed. The large number of eBay booths on the exhibit floor with large numbers of eBay employees staffing them, were often nearly empty. I witnessed the employees huddled together talking because there were no customers crowding around their booths as in years past. The attendees were subdued, and the exhibit floor was quiet.

When talking with vendors and exhibitors, they all mentioned the change in the demographics of the attendees. In previous years, there was a healthy mix of new users and experienced PowerSellers. This year there appeared to be far fewer newer users and the general feeling is that the vast majority of attendees were more experienced users looking for information on multi-channel marketing. This indicates to me that sellers are looking to move away from eBay to other venues.

The one thing that really glares to many experienced eBayLive attendees is that eBay usually makes at least one major announcement during the event. This year, with the exception of the PayPal changes, and the opening of the eBay API to third party developers, there was no BIG announcement. Many attendees are worried that the usual major announcements will be made in the days or weeks to come via the eBay Announcements Board and email because eBay did not want to risk a major confrontation with the users at the event.

Well, that is just a brief synopsis of my reflections of the event. I certainly will post more as I digest and review my notes and the 10+ hours of podcasts that we recorded and will be available later today on our website www.basicstobusiness.com. Just click on the Archived Programs tab on the navigation bar. Be sure to listen in on Saturday from 10 AM to Noon ET to our weekly live internet streaming radio show ebay & Beyond: Basics to Business as we recap the eBayLive 2008 event and remember to register for our contest and win an autographed copy of Jay Berkowitz's new book The Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing!

It's The Economy Stupid! eBayLive 2008 Might Revive This Phrase

David White — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:51:07 GMT

eBayLive 2008 is 7 days away. Thousands of "community members" will be desending on Chicago to attend this years event. It has already been announced that this is the conference will take a one year hiatus and the next scheduled eBayLive will be in 2010. ( I will not hold my breath)

As Sparky and I prepare to make the trip to Chicago, I have deep reservations. The US economy is in turmoil. Gas prices over $4.05 per gallon, milk prices equal gas prices, airfares are sky high (sorry for the pun) and eBay has raised their fees.

Along with the fee hikes, there are rumors everywhere on the internet regarding what John Donahoe and or Lorrie Norrington will announce at eBayLive. I am not going to speculate or proliferate these rumors here, but with the proposed PayPal only rules on eBay Austrailia (UPDATE: PAYPAL ONLY ON EBAY. AU IS ON HOLD AS OF THIS MORNING), regulated shipping and handling fees in Germany, and the no links policy scheduled here in the good ole USA, one can only speculate what new changes might be coming to light.

I have been speaking to several eBay sellers over the past few days about attending eBayLive 2008. A few have said they are not attending due to travel costs, more have said they would not miss this event for anything. During these conversations, one thing has become glaringly clear. The cost of conducting business on eBay is more than just monetary. Sellers are concerned about losing control of their businesses. Being told what is best for their businesses, that business owners do not know what is best for themselves (see eBayInk blog video interview with Pierre Omydiar) is infuriating large numbers of sellers.

Ecommerce is changing. I understand that internet buyers are dictating what ecommerce sites do and how they do it. eBay has to make changes to meet these demands and challenges in order to remain a viable venue on the internet. However, what is also evident is that smaller sellers are leaving the site. Being disadvantaged in Best Match searches, being told to lower their shipping and handling fees, limiting the sellers ability to promote their own businesses, and not being able to deal with Non Paying Bidders or control the feedback extortion make for unhappy sellers. When the "Big Box" sellers on the site control categories because of advantages in Best Match searches, they will then control pricing, suppy, and thereby demand. This will create artifical or perceived limited supplies. This will eventually create the "Retail Experience" eBay exec's talk about.

Bill Clinton had it spot on! It's The Economy Stupid!

PESA / ECMTA Community Roundtable - Product Sourcing in Difficult Times Broadcast on June 12 2008

David White — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:40:17 GMT

PESA / ECMTA Community Roundtable - Product Sourcing in Difficult Times

Join us for a Webinar on June 12

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/412801620

Registration via the above link is required to view the slide presentation, and you can listen to the webinar streaming live on the internet if you don't want to listen by telephone by going to ebay & Beyond: Basics to Business by going to www.basicstobusiness.com.

Worldwide Brands are the What to Sell and Where to Get it Experts! Join us for this webinar to learn about how you can beat the recession with eCommerce using the best techniques in product sourcing and market research. Knowledge is power and Worldwide Brands will be sharing some of the research that they’ve been conducting on the recession and the impact to eCommerce.

Questions covered in the Webinar:

What is product sourcing?

Why is product sourcing so important?

Using multiple sourcing techniques. Why is that so important to an Online Seller – what does that do for their E-Biz?

Is eCommerce being impacted by the recession?

Tips learned from suppliers and merchants

Where to go to further your Education to be a step ahead of your competition

More information is available at: blog.worldwidebrands.com/?kbid=20807

Title:		PESA / ECMTA Community Roundtable - Product Sourcing in Difficult Times

Date:		Thursday, June 12, 2008

Time:		5:00 PM - 6:00 PM EDT

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.3.9 (Panther®) or newer

Live Broadcast From PESA/ECMTA Pavilion At eBayLive 2008

David White — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 12:07:42 GMT

ebay & Beyond: Basics to Business in cooperation with our friends and fellow members of PESA/ECMTA is pleased to announce that our regular Saturday program on June 21st will be broadcast live from the PESA/ECMTA Pavilion at eBayLive 2008 in Chicago.

If you can't attend this eBayLive event (the last until 2010) you can hear the latest and greatest information from our live internet streaming broadcasts. We will be talking with attendees, exhibitors, and eBay staffers live from the convention all three days!

As always, our listeners can call in on our toll free number or join us on our live chat board during the broadcasts to have your questions answered.

To view our broadcast schedule and list of scheduled guests go to www.internetauctionnewsradio.com. Remember you can always send your questions for our guests to dave@internetauctionnewsradio.com via email.

If you are attending eBayLive 2008 be sure and check out the PESA/ECMTA Pavilion and don't forget to RSVP for the PESA/ECMTA 5th Anniversay After Party Gala which is open to all eBayLive attendees but again you must RSVP via the link.

ECMTAMerchant

iBusinessLogic.com Offers $499 Website Design Package

David White — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 10:25:17 GMT

One of the ways we suggest ecommerce marketers divest themselves is by creating their own website. Often times this can be a painful and costly venture for many. Trust me, I have been frustrated and disappointed several times over the recent several years with companies or individuals claiming to be professional website designers.

Knowing what you as an ecommerce seller want, and more importantly NEED for your business website can be confusing as well as extremely time consuming. Scott Pooler and his staff at iBusinessLogic.com have the experience and knowledge of the changing climate of ecommerce to work with you to develop your website into a true ecommerce marketplace.

Whether you sell on eBay, Amazon, or any of the other venues, your business needs it's own website to offer your customers the very best in their buying experience. iBusinessLogic.com is offering a special website design including a full year of hosting package for those businesses interested in creating a professional website.

If your business is looking for the competitive edge that a complete ecommerce site can provide, give iBusinessLogic.com the oppotunity to speak with you regarding your needs.

The eBay Giving Works Business Model Webinar PeSA/ECMTA 6-04-08

David White — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:30:12 GMT

ebay & Beyond: Basics to Business in association with PeSA/ECMTA will broadcast the newest webinar on The eBay Giving Works Business Model Wednesday June 4, 2008 at 4:00 PM ET.

We'll discuss low-risk ways to use the eBay Giving Works as a "cause marketing program in a box," review best practices, explore ways to acquire, convert and retain customers, and the new "eBay Giving Works 2.0."

Led by David Yaskulka, president of Blueberry Consulting. David is a consultant to the eBay Giving Works program. As an ecommerce retailer, he was featured in a dozen books, including Internet Riches and Secrets of the eBay Millionaires. Joining David will be Jennifer Ibarra, Marketing Manager, eBay Giving Works.

You must register for the webinar to view the slide presentation by going to https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/841863079

You can listen to the presentation from your computer with our live streaming at www.basicstobusiness.com

Who Is Attending eBayLive 2008 In Chicago? We Want To Talk With You!

David White — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:21:13 GMT

Are you planning on attending eBayLive 2008? We would like to talk with you, before, during and after the conference. ebay & Beyond: Basics to Business is the only Objective, Informative and INDEPENDENT internet radio program for eBay and all ecommerce sellers will be broadcasting live for 12 hours direct from the conference.

We will be speaking with vendors, exhibitors, and attendees about the newest inovations and products for ecommerce sellers, newest news from eBay and what and how eBay sellers are dealing with the ever changing marketplace. If you are planning an event at the conference, let us know and we will try to cover it!

Join us every Saturday as we talk live on streaming internet radio about ecommerce and how to best grow your business on ebay & Beyond: Basics to Business 10 AM to Noon ET broadcasting live from www.basicstobusiness.com. Live call in radio program and or chat with us on our chat board while we are broadcasting!

Ecommerce Is Truly Survival Of The Fittest, Scot Wingo Predicted It Years Ago

David White — Tue, 27 May 2008 11:56:52 GMT

Quite often while doing research for our radio program I like to re-read books in my library that provide insight, concepts and theory to ecommerce marketers. As I was re-reading Scot Wingo's eBay Strategies over the long holiday weekend, I could not help but take serious note of the first few pages of the book and how prophetic Scot's thoughts have become.

Within the first 15 pages of the book, Scot makes reference to the "80/20" rule, or the "90/10" or even the "95/5" % rule. What this means is 20% of the sellers account for 80% of the sales. In the ecommerce environment that rule can be extended as Scot say to the 90/10% or 95/5% rule. (Scot refers to eBay but I am expanding this to all ecommerce).

In todays ecommerce environment those that cannot be competitive will fall by the wayside. The quote at the bottom of page 15 in the book says " The bottom line is that if you do not grow your eBay business into one of the top sellers in your category, the chances of your survival are relatively low." Keeping in mind the significant changes that are happening on the eBay marketplace, these words are proving to be so very true. With eBay in mind, I wonder what will happen when the 5% of sellers that sell 95% of the product push out the bottom 95% of the sellers. That will leave the remaining 5% to fight it out reducing the number of sellers to a handful in each of the categories at best.

This is simply the truth of business. Defeat the competition, outlast them, and you (the business) then will control the marketplace and in turn be able to control supply and thus demand and finally pricing. This is true not only on eBay but across the board in ecommerce. (This is not just an ecommerce truth, just take a look at oil prices!)

The question then arises, what can the "little guy" do? The truth is there are very few options. Carving out a niche is tough. There are several ecommerce sites attempting to attract the "little guy" but currently these venues are seeing little traction. Low traffic, lack of advertising, and most importantly I think is the fact that most auction or inventory management software available do not work on these sites. The inability for small and medium sized businesses to efficently place items into inventory across a wide variety of the newer venues tend to cause these sellers to become frustrated and close up shop. Unless developers bring software or programs to the marketplace to work on smaller and newer sites, I fear these too are doomed.

I truly believe there is room for new venues to emerge to accomodate lower volume and one of a kind sellers. I just hope they do it quickly!

Ref: Scot Wingo's eBay Strategies

PayPal Glitches Continue To Plague Buyers & Sellers

David White — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:40:33 GMT

The problems with PayPal continue to plague users of the eBay product. There seems to be a glitch with e-check payments where these transactions apparently are taking way too much time to clear. Normally the e-Check transactions (BTW I hate it when a buyer uses this method) clear in 4 BUSINESS Days. Many readers of our blog and listeners to our radio program have told us that this process has been taking weeks instead of days.

On the PayPal discussion board on eBay, many reports of this problem are being brought to light. In addition, I personally have attempted to add an email to my account, for which PayPal sends a confirmation email to the account administrator to ensure that this was legit. I am still waiting for this email 36 hours later.

Next, a client paid us for a project not associated with eBay and I never received email notification for this transaction. The only way I found out about the payment was by chance when I happened to log into my account to check on the addition of the email address.

During the eBay TownHall event on Monday, a caller asked about the problem and the panel was at a loss. Griff, on his weekly eBayRadio program said he spent 2 hours in a eBay chat with PayPal and still was not completly clear on the nature of the problem or the anticipated fix date.

Meanwhile, eBay sellers will no longer be able to opt out of accepting the dreaded e-Checks. This was announced early on in the revamping of eBay policies to better enhance the "Buyer" experience. eBay in their infinite wisdom again has decided to take control of our businesses and tell us how we can get paid.

While this is all going on, buyers are upset with sellers because their items are not be shipped even though the money has been deducted from their checking accounts. Sellers will not ship the items because the payments still have not cleared according to PayPal, and who can blame them?

Finally, eBay still states "uncategorically" that they have no intention of requiring PayPal as the only payment system in the US.

Just my feedback.

eBayInk Has Become Another eBay Whipping Post

David White — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:04:24 GMT

I really had high hopes for this endeavor. I had high hopes for eBay and for Richard Brewer-Hay. I have met Richard and think that from our brief discussions, he is really trying to provide a unique perspective into the eBay inner sanctum. I had hoped that eBay would really allow Richard to speak freely. It was eBay's opportunity to really be transparent.

Ultimately, my hopes have been dashed. eBay is truly not allowing Richard to speak without recourse, and there is no transparency. The blog is littered with a dozen or so regular commentors that do nothing but pick apart whatever Richard or one of the visiting exec's from eBay post. The vast majority of the comments are truly just exactly what is found on the eBay Discussion Boards.

I am sure that eBay expected this, and if not they should have.

We all know that major changes have and will be taking place on site over the the next several months. What might not be apparent is the significant number of managers and directors that are leaving eBay. After the changes at the top, there is some expected change but the top people in Trust & Safety are leaving, as are many others. One has to wonder if this is normal attrition, or does it show that some staffers are not happy with the direction eBay taken.

I know after talking with Richard that he has a tough hide. I just hope that he wears leather protective clothing because he certainly has become eBay's whipping post.

Just my feedback.

So,,,eBay Rolls Out More Policy Changes To Remove Links To Websites From About Me Pages

David White — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:43:56 GMT

So, again, eBay has decided to put HUGE roadblocks in the way for multi-channel marketers. One of the only ways eBay sellers had to promote their own websites was to place a link on the About Me page provided by eBay to each user. The purpose of the About Me page as I understand it was to provide sort of a biography type page allowing users to kind of describe themselves and in the case of sellers, they could explain and elaborate on their businesses.

So, in his announcemnt today on the eBay Announcement Board John McDonald Sr. Director of US Trust & Safety explained the change to the Links Policy:

Updated Links Policy
Starting in July, an updated Links Policy will take the place of links guidelines that were previously covered in several policy areas. Under the updated policy, only specific types of links are allowed in a seller's listings or other content on eBay, including eBay Store pages, About Me pages, eBay Blogs, Reviews and Guides, and forums. Allowed under the new policy are links to:

Any page on eBay or an eBay property including PayPal, Half.com and StubHub.
Photos of the item for sale, as long as the page displaying the photos does not offer, or link to, a site that offers a product or service for sale off eBay.
Embedded videos within a listing, as long as the content and format comply with all eBay policies for videos.
Third-party solutions and services directly related to the particular listing.

So, While eBay acknowledges that sellers are making the move to multi-channel marketing, they clearly do not want to enable this migration. So this is change means sellers can no longer put a link to another marketing venue or channel including their own websites. So eBay can still dilute the sellers listings by placing off eBay links to paying advertisers.

So, again, eBay changes the rules to their benefit, and certainly not to any benefit of the users.

Overstock.com Suspends Affiliate Program in New York State

David White — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:05:49 GMT

In a letter to those websites that are registered to New York state businesses participating in the Overstock.com affiliate program Geoff Atkinson Vice President announced the hopefully "temporary" discontinuation. Cited in the letter is the recently enacted NYS tax law regarding internet businesses.

Earlier this month, Amazon.com filed suit challenging the new law. "We are challenging the constitutionality of the recently enacted legislation in New York," Amazon spokeswoman Patricia Smith said.

In essence, the NYS tax law recently enacted seems to imply that any company that has a representative doing business in NYS is required to collect sales tax on any item sold to a NYS resident. In this case the State of New York is saying that if you sign up for Overstock's (or any other internet company's) affiliate program, you then become a representative of that company and in turn that company must then collect sales tax on all internet sales shipped to NYS residents.

This law could have significant impact on affiliate programs world wide and drastically reduce income for large affiliate websites. As states try to find ways to generate income for their general funds, they will continue to search out ways to circumvent the federal statute which exempts interstate internet transactions from sales taxes.

Though the email to NYS affiliates was received today, there has been no official posting on the Overstock.com website or blog.

eBay Often In A "No Win" Situation

David White — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:10:38 GMT

Before you all get riled up over this post, give it a minute to sink in.

During the past 11 years (with nearly 2 of those years as an instructor at eBay University) I have watched and read a very large number of articles and blogs regarding eBay. Certainly the overwhelming majority of them have been to complain about something eBay has changed.

I have reported for the past 16 months on these changes from the microphone of my radio program eBay & Beyond: Basics to Business. Many of these reports have included criticisim of the changes. My blogs and articles often are critical. Even though I criticize, I have held one principal to be true. eBay has changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, changes for the better. Some time ago I wrote a blog that said I love eBay. I may not like them alot sometimes, but I have always loved the site.

A friend of mine reminded me of something today that I have recently forgotten. "It's not personal"

eBay is doing what it's leadership feels it needs to do to remain profitable and viable in today's every changing ecommerce marketplace. John Donahoe, Lorrie Norrington and all of the executive team at eBay are doing what their research and analysis tells them they need to do.

No matter what eBay says or does, they will not please everyone. Large sellers want better visibility, lower fees etc, small sellers want the same things the big sellers get, and buyers want the product for free. Very simple.

No matter what eBay says (or doesn't say) or does (or doesn't do), some element of the foodchain, from sellers to buyers, investors to the news media, will not be happy with something.

No matter, eBay is consistently in a No Win situation with the foodchain, but one thing is evident, they are still one of if not the most visited sites on the internet today, and that equates to profits for them and in many cases sellers who do it right.

I am not defending eBay, they can do that for themselves much better than I can. What I am saying is that eBay is doing what it needs to do to be profitable, just as you as a ecommerce seller should be doing.

"Small Sellers: Our Competitive Edge" But eBay Policy Changes All But Push Them Out The Door

David White — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:57:33 GMT

eBay's Lorrie Norrington, President, Marketplace Operations today weighed in on the deluge of comments readers have posted on the eBayInk by Richard Brewer-Hay. In an attempt to dispell the loud cries of "foul" by the small and casual sellers, Lorrie stated

"Let me be clear: eBay has always believed that small and casual sellers — “the little guys” — are eBay’s most important competitive advantage … These sellers created our community, bring a human touch to the marketplace, and continue to make eBay a truly one-of-a-kind shopping experience."

Sadly, I really think she and many of the other top eBay executives truly believe this. The very unfortunate reality is that recent policy changes and those to come belie their statements. I honestly think that Lorrie and John and all those involved may actually think that buyers coming to the site to purchase items from the likes of the Buy.com's in the world will stick around while they are there and buy from "the little guys". To date no evidence has been provided by eBay or anyone else to give credibility to this.

Certainly eBay must do what is best for it's survival in the very competitve ecommerce marketplace. Regrettably eBay has allowed itself to become embroiled in a marketplace that is heavily weighted to "big box" marketers which will totally destroy "the little guy" much the same way B/M big box entities have affected the Mom & Pop businesses this country and world was built upon.

eBay Feedback Changes Kick In May 19th - Most Sellers Have Just 3 Days to Make Buyer Happy!

David White — Thu, 08 May 2008 08:29:07 GMT

While most members have been contemplating the changes in policies eBay announced in late January, the vast majority apparently were not prepared for the additional changes announced yesterday by Brian Burke, eBay's Director, Global Feedback Policy.

The additional details posted yesterday regarding the amount of time that a buyer is required to wait before leaving negative feedback will only benefit the approximatley 200,000 eBay PowerSellers. (The number of PowerSellers is only an estimate as eBay does not publicly release detailed user numbers)

Here is a portion of the announcement posted on eBay's Announcement Board:

In January we mentioned that we'd block buyers from leaving negative or neutral Feedback for 3 days for sellers "with a track record." Since January, we've made the decision to increase the wait period to 7 days and define "track record" as active PowerSellers who have been on eBay for at least 12 months.

We studied the factors that increased risk to buyers the most and found there are three: a) a seller's Positive Feedback percentage and DSRs, b) the volume of a seller's Feedback – both in total and on an ongoing basis and c) length of time a seller has been on site.

We selected PowerSellers who have been on eBay at least 12 months in order to minimize risk to buyers, because:

a. PowerSellers have to meet quality thresholds for both conventional Feedback and, starting in July, for Detailed Seller Ratings

b. PowerSellers have to meet volume requirements – both in total and on an ongoing basis

c. One year on-site proved to be an important predictor of lower risk

All three factors prove important to predicting the risk to buyers – removing any one of them would increase risk to a level we are not currently comfortable with at this time.

We will watch all aspects of the new Feedback system very carefully, studying how the marketplace responds and we will make changes as we see appropriate.

This policy allows buyers to leave negative or neutral feedback 3 days after a purchase from Non-PowerSellers and 7 days after a purchase from a qualifing eBay PowerSeller.(Remember eBay says a neutral is not a neutral at all. In fact a neutral is weighed as 2/3 of a Negative)

New buyers with little or no experience often are more apt to leave negative feedback as they frequently do not read the TOS posted with the listings. Sellers must strive to better set expectations of their customers in order to try to avert problems.

Several posts I have seen ask why new buyers are not required to contact the seller prior to leaving negative feedback. Many sellers believe ALL buyers should be REQUIRED to contact the seller prior to leaving a negative.

Requiring contact between buyer and seller prior to negative feedback would be a good thing!