Sellers Say Manufacturers Are Banning Sales on eBay

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com

Sellers are reporting that manufacturers and suppliers are barring them from selling on eBay over fears that sales on eBay damage their brand image. The issue came up during a "Town Hall" meeting held during the eBay Live conference in Boston last week. A seller with 28,000 positive feedback, who said he did not do black market or gray market sales, reported that in the last 6 months, suppliers have modified their policies making it impossible for him to sell those products on eBay. He said it has cost him $300,000/month in sales.

eBay's head of Trust & Safety Rob Chesnut said eBay is working with industry groups. eBay's head of auctions Phillip Justus said manufacturers understand their customers are coming to eBay, and the problem won't be solved overnight. President of eBay Marketplaces North America Bill Cobb said eBay has had some success directing manufacturers to experienced PowerSellers.

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Auction Giant Plans Major Overhaul

By Brian Bergstein
June 15, 2007 11:06AM

"Our user experience has always been fantastic, but it didn't keep up, in my view, as well as it should have," CEO Meg Whitman said in an interview Friday on the sidelines of the "eBay Live" user celebration. "You will see more changes to eBay's buyer experience in the next 12 months than you probably have seen in the past three or four years."

When Pierre Omidyar founded eBay 12 years ago, he wanted to build the world's most efficient marketplace. At the very least, he launched the most comprehensive one. Today eBay Inc. is a conglomeration of Web sites where people sell everything from car parts to carp arts. (What den couldn't use a watercolor of a fish?)

But with $60 billion worth of goods changing hands on eBay's worldwide sites this year, all that stuff has a downside: It can be a drag to pick something to buy. If you were browsing for a video game system, how would you begin to choose among the 1,342 Nintendo Wiis listed on eBay one day this week?

And so with eBay entering something resembling middle age, with growth slowing and the stock price in a funk, the company is undertaking a crucial overhaul. The goal is to make buying things easier, more entertaining and more like shopping in the physical world -- three counts on which the company has fallen behind.

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EBay Moves to Recharge Its Auctions

BOSTON — In 1998, eBay’s chief executive, Meg Whitman, changed the background color of the site’s home page from gray to white. Rather than simply switching colors overnight, though, Ms. Whitman directed eBay’s engineers to bleach the gray over the course of 30 days. At the end of the month, the company asked users if they noticed anything different. No one did.

At eBay, subtle change is about to become a thing of the past. Under pressure from analysts and investors to jump-start growth in its core auctions business, eBay is making a series of upgrades intended to make the site more friendly to buyers. In so doing, it may have to endure a torrent of criticism from more than 700,000 sellers who rely on eBay for their livelihoods and who have firm ideas of their own about how best to serve buyers.

“We have to make sure our old users stay with us, but we’re going to be more bold around product changes than we’ve been in the past,” Ms. Whitman said in an interview last week in Boston at eBay Live, an annual conference for the site’s sellers. “I think people expect more from eBay.”

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EBay store owners voice concerns

eBay store owners are concerned about company policies implemented to boost auction listings over their inventory.


MIAMI (06/14/2007) - When Sandy Scarce began selling apparel on eBay Inc. three years ago, she planned to use the company's marketplace as her only sales channel, but today, deeply discouraged, she is moving away from it.

Upset at what she perceives as misdirected policies and clunky services from eBay, Scarce this week opened up her own online store. She's also moving inventory to a rival marketplace from Amazon.com Inc., whose operation and sales climate she finds superior.

"I'm transitioning away from eBay," said Scarce, ranked as an eBay Silver PowerSeller, which means her Sandy's Closet eBay store generates between US$3,000 and $9,999 in average monthly sales and provides a high level of service.

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eBay bans cross-border ivory sales

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Online auctioneer eBay on Tuesday sided with conservationists by banning international sales of ivory.

"It's the right thing to do," said eBay vice president of policy management Matt Halprin.

People trying to sell ivory products without crossing international borders must prove the offers conform to local laws, according to eBay spokeswoman Nichola Sharpe.

The restrictions take force by the end of this month.

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