It seems a number of eBay sellers have improved their public-relations skills over the years, and reporters are listening. As fallout continues from the fee increase and accompanying decreased exposure of eBay Store listings, sellers around the globe are getting their point of view across in articles like the one in Tuesday's Australian IT. That article reported almost 800 Australian store owners have walked out on eBay due to the fee hikes (http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,20353434%5E15306,00.html).
Others are using "Web 2.0" techniques to bring their message to the masses. A group calling itself CORE - the "Campaign Of Rebuffed Ebayers" - has produced a protest video, which it posted to Google Video in the UK (http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=8639852684273716185). The video calls for a 4-day "Clean Up Ebay" protest from September 14 - 18, requesting that viewers refrain from buying or selling on eBay on those dates. CORE issued a press release in which it revealed little about its membership other than it is "Derived from the original Fee Protest Group which organized the high profile listing strike in August,..." and says it has attracted over 1,160 signatures to a petition on eBay's discussion forums. The video is getting attention at sites like PowerSellersUnite.com, a website created to protest last year's fee increase by eBay (http://www.powersellersunite.com).
Some sellers created a thread on an eBay discussion board to decide what to do in reaction to the fees. When the discussion turned to ways to draw attention to their plight through letter-writing campaign to magazines, broadcast media and Congress, "trolls" appeared and disrupted the conversation with nonsensical posts. A frustrated seller who wrote to AuctionBytes to complain about the disruption blamed eBay. "I thought you might just like to see what Ebay does when it feels we (the peon sellers) are becoming a threat," she wrote.
When asked, "What's the general game plan of the sellers in that thread, in terms of their online businesses," she said about 25 percent want to "stay and fight and, to quote several, get our ebay back the way it was. Others are consignment sellers and they have no choice but to stay and list their clients' items. I'm estimating that about 75% of us HAVE closed or will be closing our stores (some relisted everything the day before the fee hikes went into effect, thus gaining another 30 days to try to reduce inventory)." As for herself, she said she has decided to stop selling online, taking a "wait and see" stance.
While it is likely that a majority of sellers are unhappy with eBay and have adjusted their selling strategy, it seems unlikely the majority plan to abandon eBay Stores - or eBay - at least not yet. Some say are waiting out the fourth quarter holiday shopping season. Others admit that they have no plans to move - and are not encouraging other sellers to stay - because, "the more sellers that move on, it means less competition for me. And for the time, Ebay still has the buyers, regardless of where the sellers move on to," in the words of one seller.
eBay will have a chance to address sellers' concerns on Wednesday evening when it has scheduled a "Town Hall" meeting. eBay North America President Bill Cobb will answer questions in an audio and online presentation (http://pages.ebay.com/townhall).
