When David and I began AuctionBytes in 1999, the most common question people would ask us was, "How do I start selling on eBay?" Today, the most frequent question we receive is "How do I diversify?"
That trend is hard to ignore.
Many large sellers who "cut their teeth" on eBay have already begun selling on multiple channels and smaller sellers are following suit. The next few years should be an exciting transition for online merchants as they branch out to other venues. It's cheaper than ever to set up an ecommerce site - the cost of web hosting, storage and merchant accounts are a fraction of what they were just a few years ago. Bandwidth has increased, making it faster and easier to maintain and update a site, and provide rich content. New challenges are looming in the form of legislation to regulate ecommerce and collect online sales tax. And of course, the questions will be endless - where and what should I source; where can I learn HTML; should I use Adwords to advertise my site...
So where does a publication that has its roots writing about auctions and eBay go from here? The same direction that you're headed, of course! We are poised to take on a new challenge that will help us deliver content to help you expand your selling channels. In the fall, we'll be launching our third newsletter publication, EcommerceBytes Insider. (Yes, it will also be a site, and no, it's not live yet, so stop looking.)
In order to make sure we understand your needs, we want your input. We've designed a survey for you to tell us about your online business and what kind of information you need to grow. Once you've taken the survey, you'll be taken to a page where you can learn more and sign up to receive the EcommerceBytes Insider newsletter.
AuctionBytes will continue to bring you all the industry news and will remain the independent trade publication for online merchants. We believe in our mission more than ever - to support small sellers by providing useful, compelling content as they navigate ecommerce channels in good times and in bad.
And times are indeed challenging for small businesses. Government regulators continue to scrutinize online sellers, with new legislation introduced last week in the US House that would make marketplaces like eBay more accountable for stolen goods listed on their sites, and could also have a serious impact on sellers.
And if you feel like you aren't getting the prices you used to get on eBay, you are not alone. In eBay's conference call with Wall Street analysts and investors on Wednesday, eBay said Average Selling Prices were down 6 percent in the second quarter (April, May and June). eBay blamed it on three things:
Specific promotions in Germany that attracted lower-priced inventory
Enhanced safety & reduced fraud that removed bad higher-priced listings before they convert to GMV.
Slowing economy in the US and UK in particular that caused consumers to trade down to lower priced items.
Lower ASPs along with a rapid decline in vehicle sales impacted overall Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV), which grew 8 percent. You can read more about eBay's financial results for the second quarter 2008 in AuctionBytes Newsflash.
And if you've been on vacation during these wonderful summer weeks, catch up on eBay's latest changes with this article that details the latest news on eBay's Feedback changes, Links policy and Specified Shipping policy.
Please remember to take the survey. 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.
