Open House with Ambareesh Murty, Country Manager - eBay India, 8 Oct 4–5 PM

[sapana@ebay.com]

On Ambareesh's behalf:

Hi Everyone

This is Ambareesh Murty, Country Manager of eBay India and I’d like to invite you to an Open House discussion with me on Thursday, 8th Oct 2009 from 4-5 PM IST.

At the outset let me say a big thank you to our buyers and sellers for your enthusiasm and commitment towards making eBay a great place to buy and sell; it is through the efforts of our members like you that eBay India has consistently been chosen India’s most preferred online shopping destination.

You’d be happy to know that our motto of providing Lots of Safe, Easy, Deals has resulted in strong business growth, some of the key steps in 2009 towards improving our user experience and growing our community further have been:

1. The marketing team has been busy driving new buyers to eBay India through partnerships with exciting high profile celebrity events like auctions linked to ‘Tere Mere Beach Main’

2. The effective use of eBay India coupons has helped generate trial thus helping us convert many more of our visitors into buyers

3. High impact marketing promotions have helped us deliver great value to our buyers, thus ensuring that an ever increasing part of a buyers overall spending is now on eBay

4. The recent launch of Global Easy Buy has further helped us increase variety for our buyers; Global Easy Buy gives our buyers access to a large pool of international items delivered conveniently at their doorstep

5. We’ve always believed that the key to having happy buyers is having happy and successful sellers; this year we’ve invested in our sellers’ success by enhancing our Category Management activities; the Category Management team has successfully ensured that they reach out to more and more sellers to help build a great business on eBay

6. To broad base seller success we initiated pricing changes like the removal of max cap; this change helped us increase visibility for the more sellable items. Further, to improve the return on investment for our shop sellers, we’ve made product changes to ensure that their shop listings get greater visibility in core search results.

7. Feedback disputes were a concern area for most of our members; to provide a fair dispute resolution process, we launched Community Court last year and as many of you might have already experienced, Community Court has successfully achieved its objective with more than 85% of cases getting resolved successfully

That said, we continue to seek areas of improvement so as to provide and deliver to a seamless marketplace experience for our buyers and sellers. I look forward to discussing your suggestions towards further improving our user experience and also answer your eBay related questions during the Open House discussion. You can post your questions in advance on this thread, or join me on 8th Oct at 4 PM for a live discussion.
See you on the 8th!

Regards
Ambareesh Murty
Country Manager – eBay India

[ambareesh@ebay.com]

Hi Samim (rajawadu)

I agree with you that a rapid pace of change could create flux for members and therefore we try and limit changes as far as possible while giving members time to adjust to the changes.

On international sites, we have begun consolidating changes into two or three major releases per year, with a minimum 60-day advance notice so you have time to adapt.

Regards...Ambareesh

[ambareesh@ebay.com]

Hi mixwelgavhane

Thanks for your suggestion on Global EasyBuy. GEB has lower functionalities as an international reseller buys the item on your behalf.

The Ask seller Question link can go only to the international re-seller as he is the one from whom you are buying. You can still check directly with the US seller by using the ASQ on eBay.com for that item.

As mentioned earlier, PaisaPay fee includes components such as Operating costs, Chargeback risk provisions, Seller protection costs, Continuous investments in product improvements etc.Therefore in my view, PaisaPay services are priced right.

PaisaPay not to be mandatory: One of the key barriers to online shopping is lower trust due to the early stage of eCommerce in India. We therefore introduced New PaisaPay to help buyers get greater comfort while transacting with unknown individuals and paying in advance for the same. Over the last 2 years, we have seen marked increase in the number of new buyers on eBay, which further signifies that it was a move in right direction.

Our sellers have the option of offering other payment methods and the buyer is the one who chooses the option he wants to use [>75% buyers today choose PaisaPay].

Regards...Ambareesh

[ambareesh@ebay.com]

Hi Kotias

Global EasyBuy was launched to fulfil the need of Indian consumers to buy items that are not easily available in India. As not many US sellers ship to India and due to varied customs formalities the need was for a service to enable cross border purchases.

Therefore we launched GEB where Indian buyers can see great items from US sellers, an international reseller pays for the item and gets it delivered at the buyers’ doorstep.

This is completely aligned with our basic fundamentals which is providing a great member experience and variety/choice at great prices.

To your specific questions:
1. Negative feedback CAN be left for the international reseller
2. Item not received & Item not as described protection is offered to buyers
3. Items can not be returned but the same is also the case on some listings on eBay India

Hope this helps!

Regards...Ambareesh

[shivamemory]

Dear Murty sir,


the one thing i want to add to this discussion that :

Till today , many people don't have the knowledge of ecommerce. they don't even know what the online shopping is. Can Ebay participate in INDIA INTERNATIONAL TRADE FARE, which is from 13th Nov to 27 Nov. Every Year in New Delhi. this way new buyers / seller be intoduced with ebay. Millions of people visit the IITF during this period. is This possible that EBAY participate in this Year's Trade Fair ?


With Regards,

Joginder k.

[ambareesh@ebay.com]

Hi Umang (indconcepts)

I will answer your questions in two parts:

Q. Global EasyBuy taking away the business from eBay India sellers:
Like I had mentioned above, the objective of GEB is to give access to Indian buyers to products that are not easily available in India. If an item is easily available in India, then the cost of buying from US site would be prohibitive. Buyers seek value as a rule and therefore the chances of cannibalization on regular products should be low.
There is also an opportunity for Indian sellers to source some of the unique inventory through GEB.

Indian Sellers doing illegal business on Cross Border Sales
I dont understand what you are referring to; business done on eBay is duly recorded and so is the payment flow for the entire process through official banking channels. The policies/help pages provide information on eBay cross border sales and mention the logistical and legal requirements from sellers.

Regards...Ambareesh

[ambareesh@ebay.com]

Hi punditji2009

Congratulations on your first feedback star! I hope you will see many of these in future.

I accept your suggestions on service improvements; while we've made significant improvements over the years we can still do better.

On your question on list of banks included in PaisaPay for a seller:

My apologies for the inconvenience caused to you! We are constantly in the process of adding more branches to the current list of 18,000 branches.

Also, going forward, every three months we will add more branches based on user feedback. This should ensure that members do not face such difficulties in future.

Regards...Ambareesh

[ambareesh@ebay.com]

Hi Prasanna (ppchatufale)

Thanks for joining in!

Let me clarify how PaisaPay works: While it is mandatory for sellers to offer PaisaPay to buyers along with other payment options. Only sellers with less than 20 life time listings can only offer PaisaPay as the only mode of payment.

Thus if a buyer is buying from a seller with more than 20 life time listings, he has an option to pay with any mode of payment including PaisaPay as long as the seller has chosen to offer the option.

To your question of having more banks in PaisaPay; I am happy to share with you that Buyers can now use their Debit Cards to pay on PaisaPay and we continue to expand our serviced bank network.

Regards...Ambareesh

[ambareesh@ebay.com]

Hi drbz28

Our sellers strive to provide the best deals to buyers across a wide variety of products on eBay India.
eBay further improves the value equation for buyers through promotions and coupons from time to time.
Trust you'll find what you need at a price suitable to you on eBay India soon.

Regards...Ambareesh

[ambareesh@ebay.com]

Hi Kopal (adhyaa_sarees)

It was great meeting you in Delhi a few months back.

Your suggestion on adding the product attribute for ‘need custom stitching’ is an interesting one and we'll explore the same.

On Non Paying buyers:
The non-paying buyer rate has come down to very low levels over the last couple of years.
In an auction listing, sellers might occassionally face such issues, on fixed price items, our sellers can choose the PaisaPay only option which eliminates UPI.
As eBay India, we have processes including fulfilment outcalling to buyers who have won auctions to minimize non-payment.
I expect such instances to come down further over time.

There are challenges with integrating PayPal on the India site, that said in order to get the benefit of PayPal payments from international buyers my advice will be to list your products directly on international sites like eBay.COM/UK.

Regards...Ambareesh

[ambareesh@ebay.com]

Hi Dawn (dawncher)

Thanks for joining in!
As you might be aware, buyers can now pay on eBay using their debit card and let me assure you that we continue to look at expanding payment options.

Regards...Ambareesh