Showing posts with label eBay News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eBay News. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

eBay Reduces Fixed Price Listing Fees 70%




The following was taken from the eBay website:


eBay supports sellers with 70 percent reduction in fixed price listing fee.

  • Starting Sept. 16, we are dramatically reducing up-front risk for sellers of Buy It Now™ fixed price items by lowering our listing (insertion) fee to 35 cents – our most competitive pricing ever. For more information on Basic Fee Changes, please click here.
  • Listing duration for Buy It Now™ fixed price items will be extended to 30 days (up from seven), saving sellers time and money.
  • In the extremely competitive media categories (books, movies, music, games), we are further lowering listing fees on Buy It Now™ fixed priced items to 15 cents (5 cents for catalog-based listings).
  • We are shifting fees to the back end with final value fees, which sellers only pay if they’re successful. However, we are reducing final value fees for consumer electronics, cameras and computers, which are among the most competitive categories on the web.

Buyers will find more bargains faster through a streamlined shopping experience and improved search.

  • Starting Sept. 16, buyers will be able to spot bargains faster through our improved search function that serves up auctions and fixed-price items in a streamlined view.
  • “Ending soonest” remains a key factor in search results for auctions items. So if a seller’s item is in auction format, the item will at some point come up in search results. In Best Match – eBay’s default sort method – there are many different weights which determine the sort order. On fixed-price items the most important determinants are DSRs and item relevance.

We’re encouraging sellers to offer free or reasonable shipping.

  • To lower shipping costs across the site we’re establishing reasonable shipping & handling limits in one of our biggest categories — media (books, movies, music & video games). This means that sellers must offer one domestic shipping option that’s under the limit or opt to use the eBay shipping calculator.
  • This holiday season, eBay is also providing incentives to offer free shipping, including increased exposure in search and other discounts. PowerSellers can receive double their final value fee discounts — up to a 40 percent savings on their final value fees.

Paying on eBay will be faster and more reliable than ever.

  • Starting this fall, we’re moving to a fully electronic checkout process that’s faster and more reliable for buyers and sellers. As part of this move, checks and money orders will no longer be accepted on eBay as of October 2008, although buyers can still use these payment methods for item pick-up, at the seller’s discretion.
  • It’s clear why we need to make this change. Today, items paid with check or money order are 80 percent more likely to result in a customer complaint than those paid with credit card or PayPal. Also, buyers who pay with check or money order are twice as likely to leave negative feedback than those who pay with electronic methods. So starting in late October 2008, we are moving to 100 percent electronic payments.
  • This means that sellers will still be able to offer credit card payments through their own merchant accounts, and payments through ProPay and/or PayPal, with all payment methods integrated into the checkout process on eBay. And remember, for those buyers and sellers who use PayPal, we’re backing every transaction with our buyer and seller guarantee.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

eBay LIVE 08 .... or was it eBay DEAD?

eBay LIVE 08?

or ... eBay Coma ... eBay Dead ... eBay Wake...?

(...these are all terms I've read from people who attended)

First off, let me start by saying that I have only been to one eBay Live and that was in Orlando in 2003. I remember it was crazy crowded, standing room only at many of the classes, lots of exhibitors, sellers, buyers and eBay employees. It was exciting, entertaining, informative, educational, exhausting and fun.

I've tried to find statistics for each year, but I've been able to come up with solid numbers to share with you. There were 10,000 people there in 2003. From what I understand, each year those numbers have declined. However, from what I can tell from all accounts of this years eBay Live as well as previous years, the numbers were considerably lower. I've read the number of vendors was about half and the number of attendees was at least down about 25-30% (maybe more).

Although I didn't attend the conference, I have been reading all the blog entries, watching the videos, reading the tweets and news articles from everyone from eBay employees, pro-eBayers as well as those who are terribly upset with eBay.... trying to get a feel of what it was like this year.

The truth is, pretty much everything I read has expressed some disappointment in eBay Live 08. Some of what I have read was nothing but negative. Photos and videos showed nearly empty classes, few people on the exhibition floor, reported no lines for registration, etc. When I went in '03, as I said, it was crazy crowded and there were long lines for everything. The vendor floor was always busy and it was hard to get to most of the popular counters. This apparently was not the case this year.

Next years eBay Live 09 was already canceled and it makes me wonder if eBay Live 10 will happen or not.

To be fair, I have included several links below if you care to read or watch some of what is out there about eBay Live 08, so if you didn't go, you can form your own opinion.


I would love to hear from any of you who went to eBay Live 08 (or previous years) who would like to express your opinions.... positive or negative.

  • Do you think eBay is on the decline and will some day lose it's status as the #1 online auction site because of all the changes they keep implementing?
  • Do you feel eBay is unfair and catering to certain sellers and businesses?
  • Do you feel no matter what, eBay is still a viable place to make good money online?
Leave your comments below.

Thanks,

Robbin

Friday, April 11, 2008

Important eBay Digital Download Workshop TODAY

Make eBay's New Digital Download Policy Work For You

Host: eBay Staff
Date: Friday 04/11
Time: 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Pacific time
Location: Workshop - Board
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum.jspa?forumID=93

Description: The recent change in the Digital Download policy has many sellers of items delivered by download confused and concerned about the viability of their businesses on eBay. Have no fear! Sellers of "delivery by download" merchandise now have an excellent opportunity to adjust their selling and marketing to increase their visibility and their potential sales. Brian Burke and Jim Griffith with be available during this workshop to provide tips and advice to all sellers of downloadable media on a range of related topics including:

  • Exploring and highlighting the policy details
  • Taking full advantage of the Classified Ad format
  • Utilizing effective marketing and promotion of your content items
  • Offering content on physical media to boost sales
  • How to make sure your all you digital content listings are in full compliance with eBay policy
Brian and Griff will also answer any question or concern you might have about the recent policy change.

I'm sure this is an important (and HOPEFULLY informative) workshop for anyone affected by this new policy.

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On another note, a DON'T miss the New Greedy Giveaway for your chance to load up on some great products from top marketers for FREE!

... http://tinyurl.com/6o6qx2

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Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Ebay Declares War On Internet Marketers - How You Can Profit From This Move

Ebay shocked the internet marketing world when it recently announced that it will no longer allow the sale of digital download products. This move effectively shuts down an income stream for many sellers of eBooks, software, and digital video that relied on the instant download support provided by Ebay.

Many sellers of information products see this as a blessing in disguise as they turn to companies like ClickBank which can also provide a huge stream of cash-in-hand buyers along with the ability to provide instant downloads to their customers.

Sellers on ClickBank have known for years that their products on ClickBank sell for more, and their customers are more loyal than Ebay customers. This is because customers from Ebay are bargain shoppers and like to buy for pennies on the dollar and will rarely pay fair market value, especially for information products.

By using ClickBank's massive base of built in affiliates, the top sellers on ClickBank make over a million dollars per year just in ClickBank sales. This far exceeds what anyone on Ebay was earning from their digital download auctions.

However, ClickBank does not give us easy access to its 100,000 active affiliates. But there are some quick and easy ways to tap into this sales army with the system used in Scott Stamper�s ClickBank Stampede.

ClickBank Stampede reveals back doors and loopholes used by top ClickBank sellers. It�s the fastest, easiest and most efficient method of making money with ClickBank.

To learn more visit ClickBank Stampede at:
http://tinyurl.com/4mahdu

So if you were a former information product seller on Ebay, don't agonize. Instead use it as motivation to change your business plan to make even higher profits.

Spencer Johnson sums it up best in his best selling book "Who Moved My Cheese?" - "That's life! Life moves on. And so should we�"

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

eBay's New Affiliate Program

Have you signed up for the New eBay Partner Network yet?

You've probably heard by now that eBay was going to discontinue the use of Commission Junction to handle their affiliate program. If you want to continue to be an affiliate of eBay, you have to register with their new in house affiliate program, the eBay Partner Network.

I have just signed up for it and am going through everything trying to figure out how to use implement it and use it on my sites and blogs.

This is going to be a HUGE endeavor for many people. There are thousands of websites that run solely using eBay affiliate links. The owners of these sites will have to completely reimplement all of their eBay links. I don't envy them! There are also developers who have been scrambling to recode and redesign their automated scripts and websites that run the eBay affiliate program.

If you are interested in building an eBay affiliate website, Build a Niche Store is the absolute best solution!

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Digital Downloads on eBay to Be Restricted

It appears that eBay is going to be instituting a new rule effective March 31st that will affect anyone who sells anything that can be digitally downloaded. All digital downloads will have to be listed using the Classified Ads format. eBay's reason for this is because digital goods are often reproduced at very little or no cost to the seller and this creates the potential for Feedback manipulation.

Using Classified Ads, sellers get 30 day listings at a fixed price. This solution will allow us to continue to sell our downloadable ebooks on eBay, but no feedback will be able to be exchanged.

I haven't used Classified Ads yet although I've heard of people getting great lead generation by using them. I tried to list my first item in Classified Ad format a couple of weeks ago and had a problem getting approved by eBay. The system told me I was eligible at the same time it told me I wasn't. (I should be, I met all the requirements) Customer Service told me they were dealing with a problem so perhaps it had something to do with them switching over to the new rules. I'll see what happens when I go to list something in Classified Ads again.

Of course, if you want to continue to sell your eBooks on eBay without using the Classified Ads section, then you will need to offer them on CD's or diskettes and actually mail them to your buyers. (does anyone use diskettes anymore?!)

I'd love to hear any of your comments about your experiences with Classified Ads.

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Get Digital Products to Sell on eBay & Watch Over
Dave's Shoulder as He Shows you How to Sell on eBay
http://auctionriches.com/go/daves
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