This week, we're running a survey of readers to take a pulse of the online-auction industry. There's not a lot of data out there for people to hang their hats on, so please take a few moments to fill out the survey. We will report the findings in an upcoming issue of AuctionBytes-Update. In 6 months, we'll do the survey again to see what changes have occurred. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=757012536982
Lately, it seems like an episode of "Survivor" watching the Internet giants Yahoo, Google, eBay and Microsoft make alliances, even as they compete with each other. In May, eBay partnered with Yahoo to provide contextual advertising on its U.S. Site, and last week, eBay announced that it was entering a similar deal with Google for eBay's international sites (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m08/i28/s00). As I blogged (http://digbig.com/4mqpb), I don't think these deals are good news for eBay sellers, since it means more ads on eBay to drive customers away from listings. I suspect there will be more intriguing "alliances" forthcoming, and will likely bring some consolidation in the ecommerce industry.
On August 24, CNBC Squawk Box did a segment on the eBay Store fee increase and invited me to discuss the issue on the air. I did my best to report what I had been hearing from sellers, you can watch the video clip on AuctionBytes.TV (http://digbig.com/4mnrh). eBay is holding a "Town Hall Meeting" on Wednesday, I'm sure they will address the Store fee increase at that time (http://pages.ebay.com/townhall).
It's Labor Day on Monday in the United States, which typically brings an increase to online shopping activity. I know that David has already started his holiday shopping, and we're getting anecdotal reports that merchants are beginning to see more sales over the past week or two in their online stores. So while many people are enjoying beaches, barbecues and family get-togethers this long weekend, online sellers are likely to be found in front of their computers loading inventory for sale! Here's to a great holiday shopping season during turbulent times.
Thanks for reading.
About the author:
Ina Steiner is Editor of AuctionBytes.com and author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). She has a background in marketing and research in the high-tech and publishing fields. If you have story ideas, comments or questions, send them to ina@auctionbytes.com.
You may quote up to 200 words of any article on the condition that you attribute the article to AuctionBytes.com and either link to the original article or to www.AuctionBytes.com. All other use is prohibited.
