Dear Mr. Mehra,
Everybody is complaining about low sales. As per the eBay Marketplaces Fast Facts - As of of June 30, 2007
notice - there are only 1059 sales per day for most of the major categories combined. Its lower than a single super market sales and even lower than the sales of many specialised stores in various cities. We must have at least 10 times of this sales figure.
I have a few suggestions. Dont know whether these have any values to ebay.
First, for international listings thru ebay.in, let us choose a .com category after choosing the international destination. This can be optional. Unless we choose a .com category, the listing is often done in a wrong category in .com and the number of views is less than 40% than a direct listing in ebay.com the numbder of bids are way far behind.
Without Listing fees, many serious buyers, like me, used to find attractive items at the time of need. I have bought lots of good moderate valued items from ebay. But now-a-days these slow moving selling items are hard to find. The listing fee have not reduced the gimmick based Re.1 item listings, which mostly attracts new buyers, on contrary it has drastically reduced thenumber of good quality items of moderate values. Sellers are listing less and less of those slow moving good items to reduce listing expenses. In my opinion, the buyers will only return if there are varieties and quality in the listing, not only low cost listings for gimmicks. After all, the Indian net community is not comprised of only a bunch of fools and illeterates. We need to improve the quality and variety. Let us allow to have a 30 day listing time for items with higher price ( higher than the sub-category average price) for the same listing fee. On receiving any bid it should come down to 7 day listing automatically from the time of receiving the bid. Those watching the listing should get an email notification regarding that
Let ebay.in search be global (a single click easy to find option). It will allow the buyers to see the price of similar items being sold at international markets. Normally we, at ebay India, have advantage of less delivery charges than International sellers and our prices are also low for most of the items. Let's take the challange and be truly global.
If your policy allows then give extensive ads in ebay.com and other ebay sites worldwide.
Let the buyer sort as per lowest Price + shipping like ebay.com
The new feedback system is nice. It will prevent the seller from putting retaliatory feedbacks. Twice two sellers tried to cheat me with fake gems but I could not put even neutral feedbacks to save my profile. Now -ve FB from buyers may become more common but it will portrait a more realistic picture of the seller. Only, please ensure that buyers who have not paid are unable to put any FB.
In PaisaPay, rather than forcing the sellers to adhere to autocratic & impractical international delivery schedule, let the schedule duration be based on the mode of shipping. Let the seller committ the delivery schedule while listing and putting the delivery charges.
Let the members of ebay India get automatic links to use in their personal sites to promote ebay India sales. The linked ad should display featured items with option for easy bid. Pay the member displaying the ad for forwarding thru the link, on successful sales. I know ebay.in have some such arrangements but its currently too cumbersome to be a part of it. Make it friendly.
Lastly put ads in TVs and News papaer not only to high light the low cost items but also highlighting the comfort to buy from house / office; to buy at leisure not by rushing to accomodate shop owner's schedule; to buy with refund guarantee.
Hope you will find some suggestions good to discuss. That will be enough to justify my time to write those.
. .
Best Regards ๐
Swarup
Kolkata
Everybody is complaining about low sales. As per the eBay Marketplaces Fast Facts - As of of June 30, 2007
notice - there are only 1059 sales per day for most of the major categories combined. Its lower than a single super market sales and even lower than the sales of many specialised stores in various cities. We must have at least 10 times of this sales figure.
I have a few suggestions. Dont know whether these have any values to ebay.
First, for international listings thru ebay.in, let us choose a .com category after choosing the international destination. This can be optional. Unless we choose a .com category, the listing is often done in a wrong category in .com and the number of views is less than 40% than a direct listing in ebay.com the numbder of bids are way far behind.
Without Listing fees, many serious buyers, like me, used to find attractive items at the time of need. I have bought lots of good moderate valued items from ebay. But now-a-days these slow moving selling items are hard to find. The listing fee have not reduced the gimmick based Re.1 item listings, which mostly attracts new buyers, on contrary it has drastically reduced thenumber of good quality items of moderate values. Sellers are listing less and less of those slow moving good items to reduce listing expenses. In my opinion, the buyers will only return if there are varieties and quality in the listing, not only low cost listings for gimmicks. After all, the Indian net community is not comprised of only a bunch of fools and illeterates. We need to improve the quality and variety. Let us allow to have a 30 day listing time for items with higher price ( higher than the sub-category average price) for the same listing fee. On receiving any bid it should come down to 7 day listing automatically from the time of receiving the bid. Those watching the listing should get an email notification regarding that
Let ebay.in search be global (a single click easy to find option). It will allow the buyers to see the price of similar items being sold at international markets. Normally we, at ebay India, have advantage of less delivery charges than International sellers and our prices are also low for most of the items. Let's take the challange and be truly global.
If your policy allows then give extensive ads in ebay.com and other ebay sites worldwide.
Let the buyer sort as per lowest Price + shipping like ebay.com
The new feedback system is nice. It will prevent the seller from putting retaliatory feedbacks. Twice two sellers tried to cheat me with fake gems but I could not put even neutral feedbacks to save my profile. Now -ve FB from buyers may become more common but it will portrait a more realistic picture of the seller. Only, please ensure that buyers who have not paid are unable to put any FB.
In PaisaPay, rather than forcing the sellers to adhere to autocratic & impractical international delivery schedule, let the schedule duration be based on the mode of shipping. Let the seller committ the delivery schedule while listing and putting the delivery charges.
Let the members of ebay India get automatic links to use in their personal sites to promote ebay India sales. The linked ad should display featured items with option for easy bid. Pay the member displaying the ad for forwarding thru the link, on successful sales. I know ebay.in have some such arrangements but its currently too cumbersome to be a part of it. Make it friendly.
Lastly put ads in TVs and News papaer not only to high light the low cost items but also highlighting the comfort to buy from house / office; to buy at leisure not by rushing to accomodate shop owner's schedule; to buy with refund guarantee.
Hope you will find some suggestions good to discuss. That will be enough to justify my time to write those.
. .
Best Regards ๐
Swarup
Kolkata
