eBay launched its new 30-day fixed-price format last week. There were a few surprises when sellers learned that all fixed-price listings would be pushed to the bottom of "Time Ending Soonest" search results and that fees for optional feature upgrades were higher for multi-quantity listings. People also had some difficulties with eBay's Turbo Lister listing tool last week. You can read some feedback about the new format on the AuctionBytes Blog.
The rumor mill was in full swing, with Barrons citing a Wedge Partners report that said eBay's business was "deteriorating" and that the company was readying layoffs that "could affect 10% of the company's 15,000 employees." Another rumor stated eBay is trying to sell StumbleUpon, which it acquired last year for $75 million. And the Wall Street Journal reported that eBay will acquire additional classifieds sites. Meanwhile, readers passed around a link to eBay's entry on GlassDoor.com, a site that lets employees rate their companies.
An editorial posted yesterday on an eBay seller's blog called TheBrewsNews struck a nerve with readers. The message was about sellers taking back control of their businesses. TheBrewsNews blogger wrote that he felt empowered by diversifying onto other channels.
The blog post is a reflection of the trend we've observed, particularly in this year of change and uncertainty at eBay: an acceleration of sellers exploring additional venues on which to sell. As we previously reported, 63 percent of you said you were multi-channel sellers in our August reader survey.
The trend toward multi-channel selling, even among very small sellers, is the reason we launched the EveryPlaceISell.com merchant directory last month. Now you have a way to tell the world where you sell online and what promotions you're running. Shoppers can see at a glance where you sell and can click through to any or all of your storefronts and venues.
We announced the beta launch of EveryPlaceISell.com (EPIS) just four weeks ago and have been busy collecting merchant feedback as we put the site through its paces. I'm happy to report things have gone extremely well, and there are close to 500 live merchant listings.
On Friday, we upgraded the site to make it an even more robust and scalable platform that will handle growing traffic and new features that we plan to roll out in the future. We also added some significant new features along with the upgrade:
The ability to appear in multiple categories; the ability to list all the payment options you accept on your different selling venues (a big plus for shoppers); a new keywords field to help shoppers find your listing (it will also populate the meta data, making your listing much more search-engine friendly); and a Preview Page to make it easier to submit your listing.
We also added new Searching and Browsing options, including an "Alphabetical Directory" for people who may be looking for a specific seller but who can't remember the exact user name. We've also added an announcement blog to EPIS, so now you can keep track of what's new on the site. We'll use it to report on marketing initiatives as well.
I love to peruse the listings to see what people are selling, and where. It's fascinating to see so many people selling on large marketplaces like eBay and Amazon.com AND on smaller niche sites. If you don't believe in the reality of multi-channel selling for small sellers, just take a look at EveryPlaceISell.com.
David and I welcome you to create free listing for your online business on EPIS, and thank those readers who have already done so. And we encourage everyone to support independent merchants and put the fun back into online shopping by utilizing EveryPlaceISell during the holiday shopping season!
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.
