And the EBay Hits Just Keep Coming!

Beginning in early 2007, eBay will add all Half.com listings to eBay search results. Chief Marketing Officer Gary Briggs made this statement during the recent Town Hall meeting announcing eBay's marketing plans for the 4th Quarter. I originally received confirmation from Catherine England of eBay that the quote was correct but my follow-up request for clarification has gone unanswered. It appears Catherine England did respond to Ina Steiner's request for clarification, and Ina included her response in a post on Scot Wingo's blog. Please follow the link to see the quote in context. I will comment on two statements that were made.

"… And early next year, we will be adding all Half.com listings into the eBay Search Results. So look for that after the New Year."

"We aren't providing additional details on adding Half.com listings to eBay search results at this time. We'll certainly let the community know once we have more to share on that front."

Wow! What can eBay be thinking? The reported motivation for the Stores fee increase was, and I once again refer to Meg Whitman's quote, "The marketplace has been overwhelmed with identical, poorly-priced items that have diluted the magic of the eBay experience."

Half.com is the "poster child" for a glut of identical and poorly priced items. Half.com sellers do not pay listing fees and have some of the worst feedback in the eBay system. So what is the reasoning for adding them to CORE search while keeping the revenue generating store listings in the doghouse. Am I crazy here? Do they think we can't figure this out?

According to Chris Tsakalakis, Vice President, Advanced Solutions in his March 28, 2006 announcement to the eBay community, regarding discontinuing Stores in Search:

"In the few weeks since we launched this new feature, it's become clear to us that it's had some unintended consequences. Many buyers have found that their searches are now producing too many results, and that search results overall are sometimes less relevant than they used to be. In addition, Auction-Style and Fixed Price listings are harder to find for buyers, so sellers of these items have unintentionally been put at a disadvantage.

So, let me get this straight, eBay is going to flood CORE with more of the same listings that caused all of that "buyer unrest" (eBay's phrase not mine). It appears the other shoe has dropped for CORE sellers (at least Media sellers). Apparently Media sellers did not move enough listings for eBay's taste so they are taking this further action to "rebalance" the marketplace. This looks like the beginning of the end for Media Sellers on eBay and apparently the beginning of the "New and Improved" eBay Shopping Portal. Media sellers will need to start making plans for their exit from the eBay Store format. The Half.com marketplace has even tighter margins than eBay.com.

Perhaps they think the added exposure for Half.com listings will make the transition less painful for sellers, I don't see how that can be possible as most of the large media sellers are already on Half.com and their sales are poor. Also, if I was a CORE seller in another category I would be livid that free listings were going to be added to CORE search. If you think Store sellers are angry just wait.

Just this morning Oct. 4th, 2006 Fortune Magazine ran an article entitled - Building eBay 2.0 where Meg Whitman is quoted as saying. "("It's okay to make mistakes as long as you fix them quickly"). In 2004 eBay tried to shut down Half.com and move sellers onto the eBay platform. A good many media sellers moved over to eBay adding to the competition on eBay, but the large Text Book Sellers would not move, so eBay "fixed that mistake" by keeping Half.com open. In February of this year eBay launched Stores in Search after spending the previous year promoting the Stores platform and signing up thousands of new sellers. Less than two months later they "fixed that mistake" by removing store listings from search and shortly thereafter-raising fees on Store owners to the tune of 150% to 500%.

In the meantime their fixes have ruined lives, not because the seller's business plans were poor but because the playing field kept changing to cover the mistakes of management. Businesses with a lot of cash would have trouble surviving in this environment let alone small sellers. The problem is eBay has told sellers they would do one thing and then changed their minds. Of course, those sellers who counted on eBay keeping its word were the worst off. I don't know any other way to say it. Please read both quotes above and try and make them jive with this decision. I can't do it. Can you?

Note to EBay investors: If you are reading these posts, the mistakes are mounting and the results of quick fixes are often worse than the original mistakes. With mounting problem with Store Owners, competition from Google, problems in the Asian markets and Skype how sure are you that these fixes aren't going to sink this ship? Would you bet your house on it? Some current eBay sellers may lose theirs.