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EBay: The Doldrum Years

by: Erick Schonfeld August 20, 2008 | about stocks: EBAY    

Erick Schonfeld

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Can anything put the wind back in eBay’s sails? The once-iconic auction site is making cosmetic changes to its fee structure and moving away from the auction model to emphasize more fixed-price listings. But it’s hard to get excited these days about eBay. It seems that the Web has moved on and eBay (EBAY) is stuck in still waters.

Don’t get me wrong. eBay is still a massive site and a cash machine. But once you reach 238 million visitors worldwide (comScore) and 26.4 billion pageviews a month, it’s hard to know where to go from there. Maybe that is why pageviews are actually down 15 percent year-over-year, and the stock is down 26 percent.

This is not about fixed price versus auctions. The main challenge eBay faces is that it is becoming easier and easier to find things to buy on the Web simply by searching for what you want on Google. During the early days of the Web, people needed a few big e-commerce sites they could trust and that could organize everything that was for sale online. That need was filled by Amazon and eBay.

But now people are comfortable trawling the Net for the best bargains, and eBay is no longer the first place they go. Partly that is because eBay has done such a good job creating a semi-professional class of online sellers, that it is harder and harder to actually find bargains there. So online shoppers are going elsewhere.


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This article has 7 comments:

  •  
    Aug 21 11:36 PM
    Erick,

    It is not about the Doldrum Years (VERY catchy, by the way), it's about the Idiocy Years!

    "This is not about fixed price versus auctions." Again, correct.
    It's about a BIG MESS!

    Ebay is aiming at Amazon and can't even hit Walmart. Which I can get in my car and drive to.

    Pause: You know, this makes the statement that Amazon is better than ebay. Does Headquarters not get associated message here? How pathetic?

    And again, you're right. "People are comfortable with trawling the net..." Yep! Ebay created such a mess, people went exploring! And discovered there's a whole BUNCH of new worlds out there!

    So even if some return, their attention has now been divided. Ebay has shot itself in the foot! And I think has somehow managed to hit an artery in the process!
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 21 11:38 PM
    Forgot. Good article. Google is my friend! :~)
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 22 01:41 AM
    Ebay has gotten really complex for sellers as well, everytime you turn around it seems they are changing their fee structure..
    Can't they just stick with 'SIMPLE' for awhile..
    It also seems that shipping/handling fees are out of control and look like an immediate turn off to alot of buyers, they sure are to me, its as if buyers are just wanting to earn money on those fees by themselves.
    (yeah..everyone knows about higher fuel costs but 4 bucks for a 1-2 lb. package seems like alot for bargain hunters)
    They must have hundreds of MBAs looking into how to turn this mess around..somehow they need to cut costs substantially to bring the masses back into buying(simple is better) if you ask me..
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 22 01:44 AM
    Correction: I meant to say 'sellers' are just wanting to earn money on those fees by themselves.

    sorry, TRY
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 22 01:55 PM
    Ever send a 2 pound package? I sure cant send one for $4 bucks ... I ship USPS priority and its no less than $6 up to $10 dpending on distance sent ... Ebay wants the sellers to pay higher fee's and pay the shipping? ... You know what that means? Higher initial prices, I mean the money has to come from somewhere ... I mean if you cant make money on Ebay it dies, the only reason the shipping has gotten higher was because of their increases in fee's every 6 months, besides natural selection kills off the overly high priced shipping sellers and leaves the ones that charge the correct rate ... now with the DSR's if you charge too much for shipping you lose all your search and all your discounts when the buyer dings your DSR's and now if you get a 4.3 or lower on your DSR's you cannot sell on Ebay and 4.3 out of a possible 5 stars pretty much means you better get 5 stars just about every time your sell something, Ebay does not give a buyer a choice and you cannot pick like 4.5 stars, its either 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. ... get 10 buyers that give you 5 stars and 1 out of the 10 gives you one star even if by accident you are now at 4 Stars and are kicked off Ebay, well not kicked off but you cannot sell anymore, but they will let you buy items, lol how nice of them.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 24 12:49 AM
    Ebay User: Still trying to copy Amazon. Amazon for the most part sets a shipping price in most categories and you must comply. Period. End of discussion.

    But the Amazon and ebay mentality differ and ebay has become crazed! They are out of their mind to instigate irratically radical changes.

    Such wishy washy-ness. If Wall Street had ANY IDEA of the machinations going on they would simply be agog with horror!

    For stockholders to continue to cling to their stock is now approaching the pathetic. Get a clue! Meg AND Pierre are dumping theirs!

    Reply
  •  
    Sep 16 11:13 PM
    Desperation, greed, pure incompetence. Ebay is doomed. Management simply forgot what Ebay was all about: regular people coming together to do some business. With all sorts of very high fees for sellers, Ebay is discouraging the big public to participate. There is nothing left in that company.
    Reply
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