Big Changes at eBay
What are they and how will they effect you?
The changes that are coming or have come into effect on eBay can really be broken down into 3 different parts.
1) Feedback changes that have taken effect and they are NOT exactly what we were all expecting.
2) From May 21st 2008 all sellers will be required to offer Paypal as a payment method - whether they have a merchant (their own credit card facilities) or not.
3) From June 17th 2008 Paypal will be the ONLY payment method allowed on eBay Australia, with a couple of small exceptions. Cash on pick up will still be allowed, though you must still offer Paypal as well. Real estate and car sales will not be effected, as they are not actually completed over the internet and they have separate legalities attached to them.
Let's start with feedback.
We have talked about it in depth before, but the thing that has gotten sellers (and some buyers) riled up when the changes actually took effect was that when looking at a sellers percentage for the last 12 month, ebay have in effect made neutral feedback count as negative feedback.
This means that a seller who received 100 pieces of feedback in the last 12 months, one of which was a neutral will now have a percentage of 99% instead of 100%.
If you read eBay's own policy, it clearly reads that a neutral feedback is just that ,neutral and that it has no effect on the overall feedback percentage. Who ever arranged the new calculations, obviously didn't read their own policy page first, perhaps it will be updated at a later stage.
When eBay announced the changes they did not make it at all clear that they would be calculating things very differently and alot of sellers have had their percentage drop dramatically. This obviously stings, especially for those who have NEVER ever had a negative in their entire eBay career and now have a percentage of less than 100%.
So, why would eBay want to make sellers look less credible on their site?
Well, one could be cynical and suggest that it could have something to do with the fact that eBay offer buyer protection of up to $3000 if the seller has a feedback percentage OVER 98%. If the seller has feedback percentage less than 98% this amount drops to only $400. By making neutral feedback count the same as a negative against your percentage, it makes it increasingly hard to keep above 98%, this means that eBay will be able to limit their buyer protection to only "up to" $400 on a much more regular basis.
Considering, I have personally received neutral with comments such as "fast postage", it seems that alot of buyers have little idea that in eBay's book anything less than a positive is seen as a negative.
This change is going to make it very hard for even the best seller to keep up their percentages, especially since eBay have also removed the ability to mutually remove feedback after an issue have been resolved to a buyers satisfaction.
The other issue with feedback, that wasn't made clear when eBay announced their changes, is that now when a buyer goes to leave their feedback for a seller they get a pop-up with this message "Sellers cannot leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers anymore so leave honest feedback.", this can be interpreted by some as encouragement by eBay for buyers to leave neutral or negative feedback.
I know that I am normally the first person to see the silver lining with every change that eBay make, but I am sorry, these really aren't going to help anyone very much. If customer service wasn't a top priority for you before now, it had better be now.
Paypal for all listings.
Now I use Paypal, so you would think that I would have no problem with this one at all. Problem is that not everyone wants to have to accept credit cards to be able to sell a few bits and bobs on eBay.
Accepting credit cards is a major business decision and eBay/Paypal themselves will tell you to read the product disclosure statement, before deciding to accept it. With Paypal being made compulsory for everyone, you will have sellers accepting Paypal, when they do not know or understand the implications or responsibilities involved with doing so.
Hopefully all of you will understand the need to only send items via a secure postage method if accepting Paypal. The old attitude of "I offered registered postage in my listing, it's up to the buyer to request it", just won't cut it if you get a buyer claim that their package didn't arrive.
Also I hope that you all are aware that if you do find yourself at the other end of an unsuccessful Paypal dispute, that there is more you can do about it. If know that the buyer received it and are just trying to scam a refund, you should contact the police in their area. Ok, the police aren't normally interested in small internet sales disputes, but generally the sort of person that try's to scam an ebay seller is the same sort to scam in other areas. They will most likely be known to police and you never know, the police might be happy to get something on them, even if it is only small.
Paypal Only.
Well, where do I start with this one. Paypal only, will be bad for sellers, bad for buyers and bad for everyone, except for eBay/Paypal, who are in effect doubling their fees - or double dipping.
Paypal is not safer than other methods and buyers will be turned off in droves if forced to use it to buy on eBay.
The only good news here is that the ACCC are investigating this move and big hitters like the Reserve Bank of Australia, ASIX, B-Pay and many more have all come forth and added submissions against eBay being allowed to do this within Australia.
I personally severely doubt that eBay will get away with it. Again being cynical, one could think that they are doing this to draw attention away from the fact that they are making Paypal compulsory for all listings. Forced Paypal as well as other payment methods looks positively grand compared to Paypal only.
It is also worth noting that eBay have just announced that they are "not even mulling over" the possibility of making the US site Paypal only. It seems that eBay Australia has become the "guinea pig" for all of eBay's grand plans. It seems to be a market that they are willing to sacrifice if need be.
So what can we do about it?
Well, as I said, it is not like me to be negative when faced with changes, but these changes are dozeys. Short term, you need to focus on your customer service. You need to make sure that you follow up all communication with buyers to make sure that they feel comfortable bringing a complaint to your attention, so you can fix any issues before they become poor feedback.
One thing I like to do is to send an email approximately 2 weeks after the sale, thanking the buyer for their business. Not only is this polite, but it opens the lines of communication with the buyer. You would be surprised how often that a buyer will reply with "since you emailed, I haven't received my parcel yet", or similar.
If you don't have a second eBay account, start one now. Buy and sell a few things on it to build up some feedback. In the event that you get targeted and your feedback percentage drops unfairly, you will have a backup ID to switch your sales onto. Look into other auction sites.
At the moment the best and biggest Australian alternative is OZtion (pronounced OZ-shun), they have come a long way since they started up a couple of years ago and with a mass exodus of disgruntled eBay sellers heading over there, the amount of listings, and the traffic for the site is expanding at an incredible rate. You can check it out here.
Long Term, you will need to start planning your businesses long term future. Do you want to stay online? Do you want to branch out into a bricks and mortar store? If you want to stay online, have you started planning your own website? View eBay is a stepping stone or an extra channel of traffic for your own site. Long term, you want to be keeping most of your profits for yourself, not giving large chunks to another company.
If you have your own website, but it needs help, or you want your own website but have no idea where to start, then I can personally recommend you take a look at the Internet Marketing Company. They really helped me to move beyond eBay for my main source of income, and create my own business that I can control. Make sure you sign up for their own free newsletter, it is one of the only ones I actually read each fortnight and it a valuable source of free information.
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