eBay Sees Slow Down In '08

By Mike Sachoff - Mon, 03/03/2008 - 10:41am.

Slower growth in top markets

eBay cautioned in its annual report that it will be challenging to win back former customers while also trying to attract new users to its properties.

The online auction site recently experienced its first major sellers revolt with customers boycotting the site after unpopular changes were made to fees and policies. At the end of the week long boycott eBay saw a 13 percent decrease in auctions

"If these changes cause sellers to move their business away from our sites or otherwise fail to improve gross merchandise volume or the number of successful listings, our operating results and profitability will be harmed," eBay said according to Reuters.

eBay admitted that its auction business will see slower growth in each of its most profitable markets. "We face challenges in the U.S., U.K. and Germany, which are our three largest markets, as growth of listings, active users and GMV on the eBay.com platform in those countries has slowed," the company said in the regulatory filing.

GMV stands for Gross Merchandise Volume, the total value of items and services sold on eBay sites. The company also said its 2008 revenue is on track to grow just 12 percent below the 18 percent analysts had previously predicted.

News Tags: Technology, ecommerce, eBay, Online Auctions

About the author:
Mike is a staff writer for WebProNews.

Comments

Submitted by Guest (WPN reader) on Sat, 06/21/2008 - 6:11am.

Sick of this greed machine that is ebay

Ebay is over...they treat sellers like crap...they pushed all the digital sellers out with no notice and then allowed buyers to manipulate sellers by taking away negative feedback rights that sellers had before. Its a disgusting company and they deserve everything headed their way.

Submitted by boycott-ebay.net (WPN reader) on Fri, 04/18/2008 - 1:48am.

may 1st 2008 World eBay Strike

I urge all buyers and sellers on eBay around the world to take a stand against the greed that has set in to eBay' headquarters.

May 1st 2008 is the next worldwide eBay Strike day, join in and let eBay know now before it's too late. In 5 years people will be talking about the site that was "eBay".

eBay! What's eBay?

Make some NOISE!

www.boycott-ebay.net

Submitted by boycott-ebay.net (WPN reader) on Fri, 04/18/2008 - 1:32am.

may 1st 2008 World eBay Strike

I urge all buyers and sellers on eBay around the world to take a stand against the greed that has set in to eBay' headquarters.

May 1st 2008 is the next worldwide eBay Strike day, join in and let eBay know now before it's too late. In 5 years people will be talking about the site that was "eBay".

eBay! What's eBay?

Make some NOISE!

www.boycott-ebay.net

Submitted by Guest (WPN reader) on Sat, 03/15/2008 - 10:46pm.

eBay feedback on iRipoff.com

I noticed a site, http://www.iripoff.com that is now allowing people to leave ebay feedback on their site anonomously. eBay has opened up to allow everyone posting on the internet and not on their site. Although I am all for iRipoff.com and the other sites out there, I can't say that I am for eBays new feedback system.

Submitted by Guest (WPN reader) on Wed, 03/05/2008 - 10:35am.

No One is Buying anymore

Besides having a two week problem with my account which eBays Trust dept. and live help (contacted 7 times) couldn't help with I finally figured out how to fix my account.

The last time I listed I probably had around $300.00 dollars worth of 20 items and only made $80 No one can afford to buy or collect anymore because of food prices and especially gas prices. And it's not going to get better. Not eBays fault but I can't afford to waste money on listing fees for unbought items.

Good luck in 08 everyone because we're going to need it!

Submitted by Guest (WPN reader) on Thu, 06/26/2008 - 12:39am.

I've seen a slow down in

I've seen a slow down in sales too. I guess it is the economy.

And the changes eBay is implementing ... loads of changes to feedback, prices, My eBay, you name it ... seem to be injurous to sellers.

They are even forcing some sellers to use the new My eBay beta in a test pilot.

I don't know. My business can't afford a test shoved down my throat.

I don't know what the hell eBay is doing anymore.

Submitted by Debi Pieraccini (WPN reader) on Tue, 03/04/2008 - 12:01pm.

Boycott..

I see the self-destruction of ebay...

They lost my business when they refused to bend on the new rulings, they refused to "listen" to the base of their market, the Seller...

They tried to implement a huge fee increase by introducing it to the Seller as a decrease... Did they not think that we would read the fine print???

Not a good move... It caused anger and

They have decided that the buyer, "my customer", belongs to them.. They've made it so that feedback is the deciding factor on my ending selling fees...

In doing that, they have made it so that I can not comment when a buyer doesn't pay in a timely manner, or when they decide "after" the sale that they don't like to pay shipping charges, which gives them a lever to hold over my head, such as: "you take off the shipping charges or I will leave you a negative comment", meaning higher fees... It is not the proper way to resolve a feedback system... It sets the Seller up for failure, which of course, puts money in ebays pocket...

The beauty of the new rules at ebay is that it has caused me to look online for other avenues of selling... There is a wealth of awesome sites who don't gouge the seller and have protective measures for both the buyer AND the seller...

I am free to choose my payment methods which includes the google checkout and other payments rather than just using ebay's own paypal system which is owned by them...

I found out that the grass is indeed GREENER on the other side...

And I was buying anything I could on ebay, I would check there before purchasing locally, in support of the ebay community... That's about 500.00 a month going to another venue now...

I chose onlineauction.com as my new selling home...

It's reasonable in price and a much more friendly site to deal with...

so, I will continue to BOYCOTT EBAY VICTORIOUSLY!!

Submitted by Debi Pieraccini (WPN reader) on Tue, 03/04/2008 - 12:01pm.

Boycott..

I see the self-destruction of ebay...

They lost my business when they refused to bend on the new rulings, they refused to "listen" to the base of their market, the Seller...

They tried to implement a huge fee increase by introducing it to the Seller as a decrease... Did they not think that we would read the fine print???

Not a good move... It caused anger and

They have decided that the buyer, "my customer", belongs to them.. They've made it so that feedback is the deciding factor on my ending selling fees...

I am free to choose my payment methods which includes the google checkout and other payments rather than just using ebay's own paypal system which is owned by them...

I found out that the grass is indeed GREENER on the other side...

And I was buying anything I could on ebay, I would check there before purchasing locally, in support of the ebay community... That's about 500.00 a month going to another venue now...

I chose onlineauction.com as my new selling home...

It's reasonable in price and a much more friendly site to deal with...

so, I will continue to BOYCOTT EBAY VICTORIOUSLY!!

Submitted by Guest (WPN reader) on Mon, 03/03/2008 - 11:38pm.

Stupidity

Seeing that almost all the seller are BUYERS..EBay has doomed themselves. They chase away the sellers with allthe ridiculous changes and then say it will be hard to bring back former buyers? What are they smoking?

Submitted by Great News. (WPN reader) on Mon, 03/03/2008 - 9:11pm.

Well Deserved.

And there was some journalist on this site saying that the impact of the boycott was nothing. Now, promote another boycott in 15 days and you'll see the giant begging for your forgiveness.

Submitted by Susan Lyall (WPN reader) on Mon, 03/03/2008 - 3:06pm.

Subliminal to Get over ebay...

Everyone, including myself, is leaving ebay. High prices, bad service and lack of customer service is the reason im leaving.

The SubliminalMp3s.com website, a website that gives away free subliminal programs on everything under the sun, stated in a press release a day or so ago that they were developing two subliminal programs titled:Getting Over eBay and Life without ebay

Change of times?

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