A recent survey of over 1,600 eBay sellers found that 90 percent of respondents plan to make some changes to their business due to the fee and policy changes that eBay announced on January 29, 2008. While 10% of survey respondents said they would not make any changes, 23% said they would stop selling on eBay.
All Respondents
Percent of all
respondents (answers not mutually exclusive)
I will list more on other sites
55.9%
I will list fewer items on eBay
43.8%
I will sell more through offline
channels
26.7%
I will stop selling on eBay
22.7%
I won't make any changes
9.6%
I will list more items on eBay
7.2%
Since a significant amount checked the box, "I will stop selling on eBay," we took a look by characteristic to see who was most likely to express this intention. One thing jumped out: the greater the annual GMV (the value of all items sellers sold on online auction sites), the less likely they were to say they would stop selling on eBay. Conversely, the lower the GMV, the more likely they said they would stop selling on eBay.
However, the following chart points out that while high-GMV sellers won't stop selling on eBay, 53% said the would list fewer items on eBay, and 60% said they would sell more through offline channels and list more on other sites.
Sellers with over $1
million annual GMV
Percent of all
respondents (answers not mutually exclusive)
I will list more on other sites
60.0%
I will list fewer items on eBay
53.3%
I will sell more through offline
channels
60.0%
I will stop selling on eBay
6.7%
I won't make any changes
0.0%
I will list more items on eBay
6.7%
Sell Through Rates (STR), which indicate the average percentage of listings that end with a sale, also played a role in listing intentions. Of the sellers with STR greater than 66%, 28% said they would stop selling on eBay. Of the sellers with a STR less than 34%, 19% said they would stop selling on eBay. This is not too surprising, since under eBay's changes to the fee structure, it costs less to list but costs more when items sell.
Sellers with ST Rates
between 67%-100%
Percent of all
respondents (answers not mutually exclusive)
I will list more on other sites
54.2%
I will list fewer items on eBay
44.3%
I will sell more through offline
channels
29.5%
I will stop selling on eBay
28.0%
I won't make any changes
7.4%
I will list more items on eBay
4.1%
Finally, of the sellers who said feedback changes would have the greatest impact on their business and that the impact would be negative, 29% said they would stop selling on eBay.
As for listing more items on eBay, 7% of total respondents said they would list more items on eBay. Of the sellers with between $25 - $100k annual GMV, 9% said they would list more items on eBay, and of the sellers with Sell Through Rates of less than 34%, 9% said they would list more on eBay.
A recent survey of over 1,600 eBay sellers found that 90 percent of respondents plan to make some changes to their business due to the fee and policy changes that eBay announced on January 29, 2008. While 10% of survey respondents said they would not make any changes, 23% said they would stop selling on eBay. 
