Open House Discussion with Rathin Lahiri, Head of Marketing, 27th Apr 5 PM

[sapana@ebay.com]

Dear Users,

We are pleased to announce the next session of our Open House Program where users get an opportunity to chat with the eBay India Team.

Join Rathin Lahiri, Head of Marketing for an online discussion on marketing initiatives of eBay India. Rathin will update the members on the impact of various marketing initiatives that were undertaken in past 5 months. He will be also happy to answer questions if any.

Rathin will be available on this thread on Friday, the 27th of April, 2007, from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM IST, for an interactive discussion with our community members.

You can submit your questions before or during the event by clicking on Post a reply link on top of the thread.

See you on the 27th at 5:00 PM!

Regards,
Sapana

[rathin@ebay.com]

Dear sree krishna gems ,

Our focus is on growing visitors / buyers and grow them faster than anybody else in online shopping but if the choice is between purely growing visitors and spending money on intiatives like we have taken with Reliance world for example to incentivise buyers , iam sure you will agree that buyers are more important . But we are testing a radio ad in bombay and delhi and it has shown pretty good results so watch out for some action going forward -)
warm regards

Rathin

[rathin@ebay.com]

Dear ShashwatG ,

In the Reliance world pilot a buyer could only pay through paisa pay and it had a big impact on transactions and these are facts . You must appreciate that in trying to change a shopping habit we have to constantly experiment various models and then figure out what works best . We are always learning and always improving and would love ideas from you and feedback too to make the whole experience better
warm regards

Rathin

[rathin@ebay.com]

Dear satish shakya ,

We take a lot of steps to ensure that buyers and sellers have a good experience on ebay One of these measures is buyer protection . All your purchases on eBay is protected upto Rs 50,000 if paid via PaisaPay and upto Rs. 10,000 by other mode of Payment.
warm regards

Rathin

[rathin@ebay.com]

Dear satish46203 blue ,

eBay is an ideal platform as it has the largest collection of buyers and sellers . You would need to be judicious in deciding which products would sell well online . As I mentioned earlier, we have a team of people who can help you list your product. I have forwarded your request to the training team. You can expect to hear from them shortly.
warm regards

Rathin

[rathin@ebay.com]

Dear baaniya_online,



You are charging to Rs. 1,3 or 4 from regular seller who is selling more items and the new sellers who are selling below then 20 you are being charged nothing.. You want the old sellers to go???


Absolutely not! We value your patronage and will want to retain you at all costs. On your question on no listing charge for sellers up to 20 listings, the idea is to generate trail for eBay. As a marketplace it is critical for us to continue to get more new buyers as well as more new sellers. New sellers bring new products, better pricing and a fresh perspective to the site which further attracts more buyers. This network effects benefits the old sellers as well as the site.

2. On ebay USA and ebay UK, sellers are permiited to porvide theie contact information the listing, Why are we denided the same..



This is an interesting question. There are both merits and demerits of opening up contact information on the site. Internally as well we are debating on the topic and taking opinions from both schools of thoughts. While the policy stands as of now, we shall keep you informaed of changes if any.

3. The fee structure can encourage sellers to create a new id on eBay and can try to save listing fee. Sellers will be able to save money, and might even not pay the final value charges, or the ebay listing charges, once they recive the invoices.



I think a seller who will create new ids just to save fee will be like a person opening a shop in a trade fair with little or no stability. This is a strategy that no genuine seller will adopt if they wish to achieve success in long run. A seller who keeps on opening new ids will not be able to benefit from the feedback that he would have accumulated in his earlier ids. I really don’t think any serious seller will consider this strategy.

4. Why do Sellers have to pay, extra for listing multiple quantity??



The listing fee is charged on the start price. For example, if your product starts at rs 100, you can list 20 quantities of it for re 1 (as long as start price is 2000, you will be charged Re 1 only). However, if the start price is more, the fee is charged accordingly.

5. Ebay makes around 8.5% (5 % final value charges, and 3.5% credit card payment on paisa pay(which is most comman).. Why does not ebay allow the sellers to charge the paisa pay charges from buyers, which can increase our profits.. and we continue to do business on ebay..

We have been having this debate since Baazee days. In my mind, any kind of surprise charge is a bad experience for a buyer and is best avoided. You would have personally experienced the bad taste in mouth if your credit card company charges you extra under conditions apply norm.

6.. When will the option of "immidate payment required" will be available on ebay india..

I think this is a great feature and will help our sellers tremendously. The team is already working on the same, and we expect the same to go live on site by next quarter. We shall keep you updated on the same.

Hope you will answer this ques, so that i can decide, if i should continue with ebay india...

I hope you will find my answers useful, and we will be benefited by your continued patronage.
warm regards

Rathin

[rathin@ebay.com]

Dear guna6680,

I agree with you that ecommerce in India is at a growth stage. Therefore it is even more important that we provide best in class service to our buyers. The idea of having listing fee is to ensure that sellers list genuine products on site with improved listing quality. This not only helps in improving buyer experience for they find quality products, but also helps in giving more exposure to all products thus increasing sales. Thus ultimately both buyers and sellers benefot from the same.

I understand that this change will also mean that you as a seller will have to be more judicious in your lsitings and will also have to do some trial and error to figure out the right strategy. However, I feel that ultimately, the resutls of listing fee will bebeneficial for all involved.
warm regards

Rathin

[rathin@ebay.com]

Hi bbhai_nb,



Indian buyers can buy from international sites. We know of buyers who buy internationally on continuous basis. There are some customs and shipping issues involved. You will be able to find more details on this thread: - http://forums.ebay.in/thread.jspa?threadID=500000759&tstart=0&mod=1175625369215
warm regards

Rathin

[rathin@ebay.com]

Hi coolbrasco,



I noticed that you sell mostly in apparel category. Off late the category has picked up really well and the sales in the same has increased. We are also doing various targeted promotions to the buyers in the category. I think you would have seen a corresponding increase in your sales as well.



I think promoting with FM radio is a good idea. In fact we have already run a successful radio campaign in Delhi and Mumbai. You can listen to the radio campaign here: http://shopping.ebay.in//files/wma/eBayJingle.wma. Do not forget to forward it to as many friends as possible J





The idea of No parking board is really cool! I will share this with my team for evaluation and execution.



Thanks for sharing your ideas. Really appreciate the same!
warm regards

Rathin

[sapana@ebay.com]

Hi All,

Thanks for your participation and a even bigger thank you for some of the wonderful ideas that were generated in this Discussion. Rathin is excited to be here today and has taken some good learnings with him.

We shall be concluding this discussion now. The discussion will be archived for future reference.

Once again thanks for your participation!

Best Wishes,
Sapana