ebay, downward spiral?
Discussion
We have been lucky and made decent money on the ebay platform over the years, I don't think it could be done now from a fresh start?
This weeks changes enforced managed returns, defects, lots of bad publicity to name just a few hurdles that need jumping as me thinking unless they change things and soon then they (eBay) will never recover to what they (the platform) once was?
This weeks changes enforced managed returns, defects, lots of bad publicity to name just a few hurdles that need jumping as me thinking unless they change things and soon then they (eBay) will never recover to what they (the platform) once was?
Potted history, we opened our eBay store in 2008, at that time 100% of our sales where eBay, since 2008 our total eBay sales have just passed the £2m mark.
Today around 40% of our trade is via eBay (reducing) 30% Amazon (increasing) 20% via our own website and the rest through the door, we are based in a unit on an industrial estate don't advertise and walk in trade is all word of mouth.
eBay probably takes up 90% of our time, Amazon takes up very little we haven't really pushed our website, its live and that's about it.
We have an excellent record on eBay, been TRS since inception and currently 100% feedback which for relatively large sales is no mean feat, I like to think the customer service we offer is as good as or better than I would expect myself, this is where the eBay problems start, they have gradually taken over any customer service we can offer over time to the point a customer cannot contact us without opening a defect giving case. For instance yesterday a savy customer contacted us, 1 of the 8 products he purchased from us failed, we replied bin it replacement on its way, had he gone the eBay route we would be left with a defect on our account also if we played by eBay's own rules the customer would/could have up to a 10 day wait for a response from us let alone a solution, they (eBay) say this makes for a better buying experience.
Im all for weeding out bad sellers on eBay but we should all be given a chance to resolve a problem before eBay step in with their sledge hammer, the customer above replied this morning praising our service saying he would be back, according to eBay if a buyer as to contact a seller with a problem they are unlikely to return to eBay, personally I think if a buyer as to go through the new returns procedure then that will for sure put them off returning to eBay.
Back to my original post, I think a small business like ours would struggle if they tried to do now what we did in 2008, they would soon become demoralised by eBay's draconian sledge hammer methods that make it all but impossible to offer a decent service on their platform, Amazon on the other hand, they must be laughing all the way to the bank, they may charge a little more upfront but the bottom line is bigger, their fair but firm guidelines are easy to work within and stress free.
That's my little eBay rant over, was just time filling really whilst awaiting a call from our amazon account manager so we can book in our next FBA shipment.
Today around 40% of our trade is via eBay (reducing) 30% Amazon (increasing) 20% via our own website and the rest through the door, we are based in a unit on an industrial estate don't advertise and walk in trade is all word of mouth.
eBay probably takes up 90% of our time, Amazon takes up very little we haven't really pushed our website, its live and that's about it.
We have an excellent record on eBay, been TRS since inception and currently 100% feedback which for relatively large sales is no mean feat, I like to think the customer service we offer is as good as or better than I would expect myself, this is where the eBay problems start, they have gradually taken over any customer service we can offer over time to the point a customer cannot contact us without opening a defect giving case. For instance yesterday a savy customer contacted us, 1 of the 8 products he purchased from us failed, we replied bin it replacement on its way, had he gone the eBay route we would be left with a defect on our account also if we played by eBay's own rules the customer would/could have up to a 10 day wait for a response from us let alone a solution, they (eBay) say this makes for a better buying experience.
Im all for weeding out bad sellers on eBay but we should all be given a chance to resolve a problem before eBay step in with their sledge hammer, the customer above replied this morning praising our service saying he would be back, according to eBay if a buyer as to contact a seller with a problem they are unlikely to return to eBay, personally I think if a buyer as to go through the new returns procedure then that will for sure put them off returning to eBay.
Back to my original post, I think a small business like ours would struggle if they tried to do now what we did in 2008, they would soon become demoralised by eBay's draconian sledge hammer methods that make it all but impossible to offer a decent service on their platform, Amazon on the other hand, they must be laughing all the way to the bank, they may charge a little more upfront but the bottom line is bigger, their fair but firm guidelines are easy to work within and stress free.
That's my little eBay rant over, was just time filling really whilst awaiting a call from our amazon account manager so we can book in our next FBA shipment.
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