Another U-turn – eBay US reverses visible listings Qty

By Ed | November 20th, 2008 | Category: eBay US | No Comments »

In a very brief announcement on eBay.com, Jeff King, Senior Director of Finding has announced that the mid-summer introduction of showing a single listing from identical listings of the same seller is to be rescinded, but that the policy of displaying a maximum of 10 from the same seller will remain in place.

My take on this is that it is not that the multi-item, long-term Fixed Price listings are working, but that eBay have seen a massive and sudden drop in earnings (listing fees) because of this policy. I’m also of the opinion that Best Match is still not working as advertised, and this is reinforced by my own personal interpretation of why Raghav Gupta left the company without public acknowledgement from them.

Annoyingly, Jeff’s announcement still clings to the current eBay cause-celeb of offering “free” shipping, which after two months of experimenting during the peak pre-Christmas season, I can confirm does not work for me (other than attracting the fee reductions from eBay promos).

Despite implementing all the tactics eBay staff are recommending, sales volume is continuing to fall and I now average 6 days a week with zero sales, whereas even one day per week, without sales, was something that was completely unknown in the last four years before John Donahoe took over as CEO.

You’ve broken it eBay - now fix it, time is running out.