David and I were watching ABC 20/20 on television Friday evening when a segment about eBay came on. The producers of 20/20 bought 16 new pieces of Tiffany jewelry from five different sellers; when they brought the items to Tiffany's experts, they found only one of the items was authentic (http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2719808&page=1).
What 20/20 didn't say is that eBay has just launched an anti-counterfeiting initiative. eBay has been selective in how it is getting the news out about the new program. They briefed AuctionBytes about the program in late November (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m11/i29/s01). eBay also made phone calls to some percentage of sellers. However, eBay never posted information on the eBay Announcement Board, nor did eBay send out a press release for the media.
The effect of this initiative is like many others on eBay. In the big-picture, it may be a good move - I would love to see the counterfeiters and scammers off of the Internet. But in terms of implementation, timing and communication, the initiative falls short, and negatively impacts some good sellers - right during the critical holiday shopping season.
I emailed eBay last week asking for an update of the program. In response to my query about how eBay thinks it's going and asking them to address some seller concerns about limits and implementation, I was told "It's way too soon to comment on our new initiatives."
Another change that's coming from eBay is a new feedback system. I imagine this will roll out early in 2007. Whenever eBay rolls out changes, there are effects ranging from minor ripples to full-blown Tsunami. I recommend sellers take a snapshot of their eBay feedback record periodically until the new system rolls out - just in case there is a glitch.
Overstock.com Auctions has been going through changes of its own, and now AuctionTempest is reporting that the site will add two new sections to its site: A Social Media Tab, and an Automotive Tab that will "show automobiles for sale by car dealers and allow users to express offers on those automobiles through our website to the dealers" (http://auctiontempest.blogspot.com). Never a dull moment in the online auction industry!
We launched a new "Critique My Site" feature in the last issue. True to form, AuctionBytes readers stepped forward and offered some great, thought-provoking and positive suggestions for our first case study. Other readers have stepped forward looking for suggestions on how to improve their site, and you can read all about it in today's article (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y206/m12/abu0181/s03).
Many of you have your own ecommerce sites, and many of you want to take that step but may not know where to begin. We'll be covering this more throughout the coming year.
This is the last issue of AuctionBytes-Update for 2006, and we'd like to take some time to thank all of our sponsors during the past year. They made it possible to provide our information to you free of charge. We're excited to say that our 2007 ad schedule is almost entirely sold out, with long-time sponsors returning and some interesting new services coming on board. Take the time to check them out, and see if any of their services might be a good fit for your business.
Have a joyful holiday season and a happy and healthy New Year! 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.
