Important Price Changes

[sapana@ebay.com]

Dear Members

At eBay, it has been our constant endeavor to improve our buyer and seller experience. Some initiatives we have recently taken in this direction are a new Home Page layout, Feedback 2.0 and improving feedback adoption through promotions like Cricket Mania. The new Home Page layout helps us showcase interesting inventory like 1Paisa auctions, whereas Feedback 2.0 is a result of frequent community feedback to incorporate more details in the Feedback system.

Providing our users with better value is also a key focus area, and we have tried to address this through introducing new features like "Markdown Manager" using which sellers can run discounted promotions in their shops, thus helping sellers showcase their offerings better and helping buyers find good bargains.

To achieve our twin objectives of better value and improved user experience, we are introducing a new Fee Structure for all categories.

Key changes are:

• All listings created on eBay India will be subject to new Listing Fees, revised Final Value Fees, revised Feature Fees and Seller Tools Fees. These new fees shall be applicable to all listings in all formats (i.e. BIN, Shop Inventory format, and Auctions) created on or after 11:59 PM IST on 31st March 2007

• Listing fees shall apply to all listings by sellers who have listed more than 20 listings on eBay

• No Gallery Fees will be charged, however sellers will need to select Gallery while creating the listing to avail the feature

• Listing Fees will be credited if your item does not sell successfully (including Unpaid Item) for the first time, but is successfully sold in the 1st re-list instance

• Fees associated with Services & Real Estate and Cars & Bikes categories remain unchanged

We understand that our sellers may need to make changes to their current business plan to accommodate these new fee changes. So, we encourage you to check the Managing your eBay Business Strategy, download the Fee Calculator, attend our Online Workshop on 23rd March, or use our Customer Support Resources to help you understand your overall listing strategy.

To learn more about these Fee changes, read our FAQ section. Your suggestions & comments are valuable to us and we encourage you to share your feedback with us on this thread.

We are aware that, as a seller, you have a choice of outlets through which to sell your products. We appreciate that you choose to do business with eBay. We will continue to work hard to ensure that our sellers and buyers continue to have great eBay user experiences.

Regards,

Sapana

[sapana@ebay.com]

Hi,

Thanks for your suggestion on more advertising via print and TV ads.

I have an interesting piece of statistics, which I think our sellers might find interesting. On an average, in 2006, everyday 7 news articles were published on various aspects of eBay. These articles were featured in a cross section of newspapers across the country in various languages like English, Hindi and regional language.

In fact during the recent launch of Cricket Mania promotion by Mandira Bedi, close to 120 news articles on the topic appeared in various print, TV and online journals. Many years ago (Before I had joined Baazzee) I had read a news article on Bollywood dresses being sold on Baazee. I still remember the article and the curiousity it had generated in me to visit the site. While this is not traditional advertisement as we know it, it is a powerful way to remind users of the ebay brand and all that the brand stands for. The best part is that it is from a third party and therefore the credibility is far more higher than an advertisement. Besides, this is more advertising than a company can budget for 🙂

Besides media coverage, we have been doing focussed marketing activities at unconventional channels and have seen good returns from the same. We will continue to focus on them to get more quality buyers.

On the onsite marketing front, promotions on the home page, like 1 paisa free shipping have generated lot of interest in the buyers.

Our sellers can also help us increase eBay's and their products visibility by applying Natural Search optimisation technique on their listings, About Me page, Shop page etc. My colleague will be conducting an Online discussion on this topic on this thread. We will be looking
forward towards your participation.

Regards,
Sapana

[sapana@ebay.com]

Hi snrama,

I do agree with you that the increased fee will not be justified until there is an increase in sales.

To be honest, while assesing the impact of listing fee on sellers and their business, the topmost thing that was in the teams mind was how will our seller increase their business to accomodate the new listing fee.

Sellers selling in the 2000-10000 ASP bucket will benefit with reduced final value fee. However for low value product selelrs the best way to accomodate the change was to increase their business.

I believe that selelrs who specialise in their categories, i.e., know them well, have a price advantage to offer will do very well in the category. They might need to withdraw from other categories where their domain expertise is not strong. For example, I as a selelr have good sourcing and knowledge of apparel category. However, i do not have a good sourcing or knowledge of camera category. However, since listings are free I put up some listings in the camera category to see if they sell. By virtue of my limited knowledge and bad sourcing the product and the lsiting quality is unattractive for a buyer. By listing in camera category, I am not only wasting my effort, I am also blocking shelf space for another seller's products.

Thus when non-serious sellers will quit a category, quality listings from a good seller will get more exposure and therefore the chances of selling the same.

Regards,
Sapana

[sapana@ebay.com]

Hi solitaireworld,

I appreciate your concern that the listing fee will impact the variety that you are abble to offer to your sellers. However, based on my expeerience in jewellery categoy, I always used to notice that certain designs used to sell on a more regular basis than others. For example, I beleive solitaire diamond rings are always in fashion and thus always in demand by the buyers.

If I were a shop owner, I would make sure that my regular running items are up on the shelf, while the products that sell once in a while are stocked at less visible place, which I can acess as and when a customer demands for the same. You may evaluate following a similar strategy for your listings as well.

Also, please allow me to assure you that your sucess on site is as much our concern as is yours and we will make the best possible effort towards the same. Your account manager shall remain in close touch with you to provide you any possible help that you might need.

Regards,
Sapana

[sapana@ebay.com]

Hi shreelaptop,

Thanks for the detailed example. I think it is a good example to show how sellers can maximise the use of promotions to benefit a large number of listings instead of just one lsitings.

Taking the same example: If i had a product which I were promoting using features like homepage, feature plus, gallary image and bold, I will ensure that i get maximum bang for the buck by cross promoting more relevant listings in that listing. This will not only spread over my promotion cost, in case there is a UPI, I will still be able to recover my costs because hopefully I would have sold more products to the buyers who have landed on that listing.

Elaborating with an example - If I list a Camera and promote it heavily, I will also ensure taht the camera description has HTMLised links to my other related listings or via the cross promotion feature. Some other relevant listings in my mind will be memory card, camera ouch, other brands of camera in the similar price range etc. The idea being that once a buyer has entered my listings he should find all he needs in my shop itself (or listing itself as the case may be). Ibeleive net gives a vvery powerful medium to lay out products in a manner by which we can lure a customer into buying more products. We can leverage this functionality more effeciently.

Please do not hesitate to post your thoughts, concerns or even disagreements 🙂

Regards,
Sapana

[amitava123gems]

Hello new members,
I want you to tell you about my experience .I started with just 11 items and Rs2400 in hand.After about one and a half year I made 3 fixed deposits.I have sufficient cash in hand.I have accumulated assets of about 5 lakhs in salable goods stashed in my steel almirah.
And,mind you, I dont list in any other sites.
I was talking to my buyers about this one buck increase. They said:::'DADA ,WE SHALL GIVE YOU A RUPEE MORE'.
Now I have decided not to give it much thought. If the buyers accept,what can I say!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DEAR EBAY: JUST GO AHEAD.
B L E S S I N G S.
Thanx,
Truly,
Amitava

[shivarth]

Dear Members,

On the eBay nobody care about sellers:

1. WHY NOT EBAY RETURN PROMOTION FEES IN UPI CASES?
2. WHY NOT MORE PAYMENT GATEWAY ADDED WITH EBAY?
3. Who EARNED MONEY IN 1 rs. Auction + FREE SHIPPING PROMOTION? eBay or SELLER?
4. WHAT ABOUT FIRC IN INTERNATIONAL SELL?
5. If someone having 100+ listing what is the procedure to end all listing in a click for upload new revised listings?

In my last 1 rs. Auction i sold my 80% of items in loss. If you are serious seller you are bound to send item to buyers in loss. If you think that same buyer returned for another BIN or SHOP inventory. Forget it.

Definitely the eBay cluttered free due Listing Fees. But it should be justified. And also full promotional fee refunded in UPI cases.


Regards
Siddharth

[pc_gaming_store]

Hi Sapana,

Please answer our questions:

1. Why has eBay not worked on re-introducting ABN AMRO payment option? In fact even today when you go to PaisaPay to make a payment it says:

"ABN AMRO is currently available. Please try again later"

Please try again later? It signifies a temporary shut down like 2-4 hours or days. It gives an indication to the buyer that he can come back later and the option will be available. Why is eBay not honest enough in just removing that sentence instead of misleading buyers?Could you please define better your meaning of the phrase, "Please try again later"?

2. Has eBay worked on re-introducting UTI payment option?

3. What has eBay done for faster PaisaPay Verification? (Facts & figures if possible)

4. What has eBay done to make available other Payment options such as accepting Kotak Mahindra, Punjab National, ITZ?

[brand.deal]

Hi!

There seems to be some mistake in reply post no 57 of 66 where in the link is
not working properly.

You can check the link below

Leveraging Markdown manager to get more buyers

Regards
Shuaib

[3dcollectibles]

Hello Sapana,

This is my 3rd posting regarding the Listing fees and more Advertisement on Media.

I would like say that printing Articles on Newspaper is not enough to lure buyers on ebay.in -

ebay should lure buyer to their site by making Media Coverage on TV mostly (most famous channels such as News, Music, Movies, etc) with Attractive Advertisement where it is mentioned about the 1paisa auction, Free Shipping, Discounted, Wholesale items.

I would point again that Printing articles do not make buyer aware of ebay.in for shopping. Only Attractive Advertisement for BUYERS would increase the selling.
Ebay should follow at least the pathway of BAAZEE (Baazee got famous by this in a year itself)

Thanks

Deepak

[vedika_diamonds]

Dear Sapna Ji,

I am a new Seller at Ebay and I am Very dissapointed by the Rates introduced by Ebay.

I think these fees tend to discourage new sellers at ebay.

All old sellers are power sellers and are able to sell items on a daily basis and will hence be able to cover the Listing charges. As they Know their costs and they know their revenue.

While in the case of new sellers who do not have any idea at ebay of 1) what sells, 2) how many items to list
3) how many times he has to relist. 4) a new seller may not be able to convert listings into sales that easily. leave alone the success rates over listing you are talking about.

I think if Ebay wanted to Achieve was to discourage Fraudlent sellers.
But What i Think this will only help discourage new Honest Sellers, fraudlent sellers will easily list only 5 - 10 items and do their frauds. they won't mind the listing fees.

Verification of Sellers and Keeping a refundable Security according to items listed would have been a better way of defeating fraudlent buyers and sellers.

But One thing i am pretty sure this listing fees of ebay will certainly discorage me and a whole lot of new sellers.

Thanks
Varun Kohli