Open House Discussion with Rathin Lahiri, Head of Marketing, 3rd Nov 5 PM

[rohit@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 discuss:
--Efforts to get new buyers for our sellers
--Other Marketing Initiatives and results
--How can our buyers and sellers help eBay's marketing efforts
--Your ideas and suggestions if any

Rathin will be available on this thread on Friday, the 3rd of November, 2006, 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 making a post on this thread. Click Here for help on using the discussion boards.

See you on the 3rd at 5:00 PM!

Thanks and Regards,
Rohit,
Community Development Team

[emailswarup]

Hi,

I read multiple Bengali and English newspapers. I have never seen any eBay ads in newspaper, at least in some of the major ones from Kolkata that I follow. I think some Ads in the newspapers / TV, at least during the special promotions (like free shipping / ICICI or other Credit Card Cash back offers), will increase no. of buyers immensely. .
Best Regards 😄
Swarup
Kolkata

[kritaant]

Hi Ratin
The only time i saw ebay on media was during style diva contest. Any further plans to get ebay on television ?

Cheers!
Vandana (Kritant's Team)

[zookmart]

Let me tell you about us, we wre a bunch of college students started selling in Baazee.com Dogtags !

We had 2 listings and single product !

We couldnt believe our eyes 😉 we were getting 20 orders a day for a single product, I remember Diwali of 2003 we sold close to a Lac Rupees for a single product satin shirt which we had launched for that diwali !

We thought we have found Utopia !

Then came eBay and our sales took a plunge! 😮

Now we have more than 250 Products and close 1100 listings and aggressive marketing mailers offers and STILL just 20 orders a day !

Where have all the Buyers have gone ?,

And the number of Fraud Orders... Oh my god !!!

This is where ebay India is going wrong !

eBay India's to follow ebay.com US marketing technique in saturating the internet advertising doesnt work,

You need good ads like baazee had in TV coz only a fraction of people use internet daily !

The model of ecommerce of eBay ..like commit to buy, No Options to choose size, color etc doesnt work here !

I have a poll, which is better Baazee or eBay ? PLease Vote.

http://snappoll.com/poll/141730.php

[mysalesoffer]

I am complete agree with sigmabazzar and nitro_fashon
Last dewali I was not power seller and only about 60 item to sell
Now I am power seller and more then 300 items for sale
Last depawali at opening I shipped 32 item in 1 day when courier services is open
And paid also good eBay fee too
And then listing policy and gallery fee come in
Now every day I pay about 100 items gallery fee but I never send that much item in a month what I send last depawali in 1 day to courier even after I have 5 times more item and less cost then last depawali
Even after paying gallery fee I don’t pay that much one year ago at dewali
EBay 5 limit in listing and gallery fee make my business 10%
Either make gallery free of make multi listing up to 7 so we can list item in auction for duration of 7 days when we paying for gallery
If I want to buy a watch I choose to go to rediff instead of eBay because in rediff every item is with gallery but in eBay?
What item you can search in other site in 10 minute you need 1 hour in eBay
Why?
Because you charging gallery fee so slow selling or less profit item we can not select gallery so buyer have to open all non gallery page and before he can find item get BORE and close eBay. in
wkae up before other site grow more then ebay and take advantage of ebay Weakness

[korecall]

I went through the posting of all members.

I think following steps are essential for ebay to survive/improve.

1. Reduce charges for high value sold items(i.e. more than 10k). Because as higher the price of product lesser the margins and that way people avoid listing their high value products.

For example for any high value product include paisapay charges + ebay charges + service tax then it comes to approx. 8-10% which is too high considering Indian competitive market.

In India the markets are open. one can easily inquire in market and get prices easily. For encouraging people to buy on internet is not easy except they get good bargain.

2. Some ebay seller list their product like Rs.1/= for product and Rs.450/= for shipping/couriers. This way they misguide people and finds unlawful priorities in search pages.

3. Advertisement on NEWSPAPER & TELEVISION. (This must start immediately before any other portal actively campaings that way.

4. Shop Inventory Items should be given equal priorities as regular listing in search pages.

5. Appointing Franchisee way like (Shaadi.com) has done by opening 'SHAADI Point' in major cities. That helps people to atleast know what it is, and helps educating people about net transactions.

6. Regular campaign like public display, banner on cross roads.

Many more.... I don't remember otherwise there are many.

Shall put some more later..

Anyway it's your choice. People are sticked to EBAY only unless they are having any better choice.

Mehul Shah

[shobhitg2006]

Have u ever tried to read the concern of the ebay user. I found most of them are cheated, these guys either recieved a wrong item and worst case scenario that they havent recieved there goods.
what i feel listening to such concern it will be a foolish act to pay for something untill and unless it is in u r hand and in working condition.

[snrama]

Hi Rathin,

Nice to see you again on boards. Diwali Offer was really great and had a lot of orders. Almost 90% sales from featured listings were successfull.

But I see a lot of buyers suffer with the delay in approving payments from PaisaPay team. This should be done fast though PaisaPay team is working all 7 days. This delay makes buyers not to come again.

Fresh buyers are always welcome. As Swarup suggested,
special promotions like Cash back offers will certainly click. ---------------
With Regards,
Navaneeth (snrama) 😉

[shamimanshu]

hi
Mr Lahri, i have a complain about u r company
i was deposite a cheque(no. 68512) favour of Mr bhasin dhruv amount is/2250 Rs dated 26/09/2006 still i didnt get any response about my product please take some needful action

thx
shmim

[sapana@ebay.com]

Dear Members,

Thanks for taking out time and posting in your thoughts on this discussion. While I saw some great points being made, I also came across some users who chose this forum to vent out their frustration instead of using it for constructive criticism.

eBay and its employees are open to constructive feedback, for this helps us make eBay a better place for you. However, you will also agree with me that this needs to be done while being courteous and respectful. Let us ensure that the debates on this forum are conducted without insults.

Also, to make the most of this discussion time, lets try and restrict the discussion to the topic. While the employee will be glad to help you in any manner, this might not be the most appropriate opportunity.

If someone is taking out time to visit the boards, let’s welcome them and give them a great stay, thereby giving them a reason to return back.

Regards,
Sapana

P.S: I am removing posts that contain unwarranted comments or are off topic. Those members may re-post their views relevant to this discussion.

[merrut_king]

Hi Sapna,
plz clear ur term about "Unauthorised Copies". Since u r sister concern of world's no. 1 online shopping portal "EBAY.COM" its ur responsibility to clear ur term here rather then telling usere to go to other weblinks..

i noticed that u have removed negative feedback post(s).
i was under impression that its a open house chat session.