Call it more of a sociological experiment rather than a scientific survey, if you will. Last week, we asked our readers, "Whose Customer Is It, Anyway?" and offered a sparse, 4-question survey asking respondents to whom the customer belonged across four different venues: eBay, Amazon, Etsy and Bonanzle.

Time to 'fess up. Having covered this industry for ten years, we had a pretty good idea how sellers would respond to the basic question, but what we were really interested in discovering was if there was any difference in perception of customer ownership from venue to venue. That's where the results get pretty interesting.

With respect to eBay, Etsy and Bonanzle, results were strikingly similar - only 12% felt the customer belonged to eBay, and even fewer thought that the customer belonged to Etsy (6.5%) and Bonanzle (7%).

But when it came to Amazon.com, results were quite different. Over 32% felt that even if a customer purchased an item from them on Amazon, the buyer still belonged to Amazon. Nearly 3x that of eBay and almost 5x that of the other two venues included in the survey.

We found it interesting that merchants - who are typically very territorial about customer ownership - felt that on other marketplaces, the customer belongs to them after a sale, but on Amazon.com, a significant number of the very same respondents felt the customer still belonged to Amazon. Amazon declined to comment on why they thought could account for this difference in attitude among sellers.

Several things jump out as setting Amazon.com apart from these other marketplaces:

1) Amazon.com handles payment processing and customer service, requiring much less buyer-seller interaction than on other marketplaces.

2) Amazon.com is a retailer itself, and has a history of being selective about which sellers to allow onto the site.

3) Amazon.com carefully monitors third-party sellers and has a "one strike, you're out" policy for merchants.

All of these factors no doubt play a role in how merchants define their relationship with Amazon.com and with Amazon.com shoppers. Let us know if you agree by commenting on the AuctionBytes Blog.

Marketplaces Weigh in on Customer Ownership Policies
What do the marketplaces think about sellers marketing to customers? We asked Amazon.com, eBay, Bonanzle and Etsy about their restrictions.

eBay: eBay's response was to ignore the existence of off-eBay marketing, and explain the ways it allows its sellers to market their eBay listings to buyers. However, eBay has a long history of placing increasing limits on buyer-seller communication to limit off-eBay transactions (anonymous buyer email is coming in January).

Amazon.com: You need a lawyer to interpret its Terms of Use, but to the untrained eye, it could read, "don't market to buyers, but if you do, don't mention Amazon.com's name."

Etsy: The clearest policy of the four: says you are not licensed to add any Etsy user information to your email or physical mail list.

Bonanzle: The youngest of the four marketplaces limits contact information between members to avoid possible spam, but classifies follow-up snail mail to a buyer as a gray area of "solicitation."

Specific Marketplace Responses

eBay
A spokesperson said, "eBay encourages sellers to market their listings to buyers. With the "Seller Marketing Newsletter", sellers can promote their latest listings and/or eBay Stores to buyers post-transaction. Buyers must opt-in to subscribe to a seller's mailing list. And, buyers can easily do this by adding sellers to their Saved Sellers list or clicking the "Sign up for Store newsletter" link on a seller's eBay Store home page. Sellers with Stores also get rewarded with 75 percent off their final value fees when they drive qualifying traffic to their Store from a location outside eBay. For more information, you can go to: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/email-newsletter.html and http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/promoting.html ."

Amazon.com
A spokesperson said, "Regarding sellers marketing to customers you can find all of that information here."

Section 14 is labeled "Use of Amazon Transaction Information," which states:

You will not, and will cause your affiliates not to, directly or indirectly: (a) disclose or convey any Amazon Transaction Information (except you may disclose this information as necessary for you to perform your obligations under this Agreement and provided that you ensure that every recipient uses the information only for that purpose and complies with the restrictions applicable to you related to that information); (b) use any Amazon Transaction Information for any marketing or promotional purposes whatsoever (except as permitted below), or otherwise in any way inconsistent with our or your privacy policies or applicable Law; (c) contact a Person that has ordered Your Product that has not yet been delivered with the intent to collect any amounts in connection therewith or to influence such Person to make an alternative purchase; (d) disparage us, our affiliates, or any of their or our respective products or services; or (e) target communications of any kind on the basis of the intended recipient being an Amazon Site user. The terms of this Section 14 do not prevent you from using other information that you acquire without reference to Amazon Transaction Information for any purpose, even if such information is identical to Amazon Transaction Information, provided that you do not target communications on the basis of the intended recipient being an Amazon Site user.

Etsy
An Etsy spokesperson said, "In order to make a purchase on Etsy, a person has to become a member of Etsy.com. The member provides certain information to Etsy, which is then used to help facilitate the transaction. Etsy's policies offer reassurance to our members as to how their personal information will be handled in the course of their use of Etsy's services. These policies apply to all members, both buyers and sellers." He referred to Etsy's participation in TRUSTe Privacy Program.

Etsy treats member information as a license, and users are not licensed to add any Etsy user to their own email or physical mail list, according to its Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, including the following statement:

As part of a transaction, you may obtain personal information, including email address and shipping information, from another Etsy user. Without obtaining prior permission from the other user, this personal information shall only be used for that transaction or for Etsy-related communications. Etsy has not granted you a license to use the information for unsolicited commercial messages. Without limiting the foregoing, without express consent from the user, you are not licensed to add any Etsy user to your email or physical mail list.

From Etsy's Privacy Policy:
As part of the buying and selling process, you may obtain another Etsy user's email address, shipping address and/or other information. Pursuant to Etsy's Terms of Use, you have a limited license to use this information. This information should only be used for Etsy-related communications or for Etsy-facilitated transactions. Etsy has not granted you a license to use the information for unsolicited commercial messages. Without limiting the foregoing, without express consent from the user, you are not licensed to add any Etsy user to your email or physical mail list.

Bonanzle
Bonanzle's founder said, "Our take on sharing contact info between parties is that we try to minimize it so that buyer and seller minimize their potential for future spam when they buy or sell on Bonanzle," and that while there are some exceptions to Bonanzle's general approach, in almost all transactions a buyer will not receive a seller's direct contact info, nor will a seller receive a buyer's direct contact info. "We don't have a specific policy on future use of mailing addresses, though we do have a policy of it being forbidden to harass or solicit our users; I think that follow up snail mail to a buyer is probably a gray area of "solicitation." We have not heard any complaints about if from our buyers thus far."

Let us know what you think.
Comment on the AuctionBytes Blog