Analyst Bob Peck of Wall Street firm Bear Stearns hosted a conference call with Scot Wingo (CEO of ChannelAdvisor) and Steve Grossberg (Internet Merchant Association and eBay seller) on Thursday to discuss recent changes at eBay and their impact on the third quarter and beyond.
Peck wrote in his report, "Our overall takeaway was that since many of the changes eBay has made are relatively recent and are still being tested, we think it is too early to make a call on the impacts to ASPs (Average Selling Prices), conversion rates, Listings, and ultimately buyer activity improvements."
eBay is testing new search technology, dubbed Finding 2.0, which is expected to roll out site-wide soon. Peck wrote that Finding 2.0 awards top-performing sellers. He wrote that according to Wingo, some of its features, while satisfying "Convenience" buyers, could annoy core auction ("Windorphin") buyers.
Peck said Grossberg urged eBay to remove the "Shipping Fees" criteria in the new Feedback 2.0 system and replace it with "Will you buy from this seller again?"
Peck also wrote that both guest speakers believe eBay's Gallery option should be free "as it is an integral part of today's eCommerce buying experience" and reported that eBay lacks a well-developed recommendation feature, which his speakers believe account for a significant part of ecommerce.
The participants also discussed the competition from Amazon and Google. Peck reported that Wingo believes Amazon is very methodological in cherry picking and recruiting top eBay sellers onto the platform.
Analyst Bob Peck of Wall Street firm Bear Stearns hosted a conference call with Scot Wingo (CEO of ChannelAdvisor) and Steve Grossberg (Internet Merchant Association and eBay seller) on Thursday to discuss recent changes at eBay and their impact on the third quarter and beyond.
