Comments on: eBay 2008 Q3 earnings call: A tough economic environment

By: ebuyerfb

ebuyerfb — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:17:21 +0000

@ # 13

This is completely off topic but on AuctionBytes someone just nominated you as JD’s replacement.

http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/comments/2008/10/1224177689.html

By: AL

AL — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:42:01 +0000

#11

I think JP Morgan have got it spot on when they say this.

“He goes on to say “the company has yet to deliver meaningful improvements in search functionality or user experience”

I’ll take your point about the conversion rate but when both buyers and sellers are complaining about all the constant changes and worst match, it has got to point out that something is very wrong.

The simple fact is, that JD has broken ebay and the share price is reflecting that. There are just too many people of every forum, Usenet and bulletin boards, websites etc (including ebay’s own forums) stating the negative things that have already been posted in this thread.

Even at $13.69 a share yesterday, I wouldn’t want to buy them. Pease don’t say it’s down to the Credit Crunch, as already stated, ebay should be doing better in the hard times and Amazon’s share price hasn’t dropped anything like ebay’s in the last 12 months.

By: Mean Machines

Mean Machines — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:36:49 +0000

More proof eBay is run by a complete idiot.
the highest rated sellers saw sales grow by as much as 26% in a year.

Yes, best match is shoving their items up to the top, ofcourse their sales will increase. I can pretty much guarantee that buyers are not basing the decision whether to purchase an item or not on the seller’s DSR rating being a 4.4 or 4.8. 4.whatever is excellent, and I would buy from any seller above 4.

The not so good news is that buyers are not spending more on eBay overall – that means keeping feedback DSRs high is essential for winning sales over your competitors.

And here is the proof that the new strategy by eBay management is absolutely fruitless in the sense that it in no way achieves what it was intended to address. Wasn’t the whole point of all this messing with eBay’s workings to get customers to stay on eBay and spend more?

It is not working, they are not spending more, and the only thing that has happened is that John has p*ssed off sellers and lost them as an income generator, as sellers paying fees and as buyers making purchases.

Sellers that ARE left on the site are left to play stupid games to try and get their DSRs up, so they can fight for the customer base which is not spending more but is rather declining as they are offended by the new policies, and leaving.

An entirely pointless exercise, which if anything, has damaged the eBay marketplace. I am not shy to share this with visitors of my new online store;

http://www.meanmachines.biz/store/about-us

Sales are starting to pick up bit by bit.. Google Checkout is up and PayPal will soon be eradicated as a payment method. eBay, you will get 0 from me, as opposed to a peak of 6,000 GBP in eBay / PP fees per month. It is not the economy. I am spending the same money with your competition, GOOGLE.

By: dave

dave — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:16:05 +0000

Surely its the job of Ebays advisers to meet with these analysts and explain the changes in advance.Ebay must have known the importance the Market places on Conversion data.
The conversion rate will continue to fall as the quarter progresses.

By: Bunchy

Bunchy — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:47:26 +0000

13# Both (unfortunately)

By: Whirly

Whirly — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:43:57 +0000

#12 “Just goes to show that people who don’t actively use the site regularly for buying and selling have no idea of the reality or complexity of the system”

Are you talking about eBay staff or city traders?

By: Bunchy

Bunchy — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:20:10 +0000

Just goes to show that people who don’t actively use the site regularly for buying and selling have no idea of the reality or complexity of the system and thus are not qualified to comment or advise. It’s just too embarrasing!

By: Chris Dawson

Chris Dawson — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:08:25 +0000

*groan*

Imran from JP Morgan really doesn’t get the new listing strategy. He’s downgraded eBay shares stating that there are a “number of critical issues that are dragging down results for the venerable online marketplace, including declines in the conversion rate despite gains in the number of listings”

He goes on to say “the company has yet to deliver meaningful improvements in search functionality or user experience, which we believe is evident in the inverse relationship between the listing growth rate and conversion rate”….. I really don’t think he understands that putting all of your inventory on eBay changes the relationship between number of listings and number of conversions dramatically.

Conversions HAD to go down when sellers start putting all of their inventory on eBay. I’m not saying he’s wrong to downgrade his opinion of the future performance of eBay shares, but at least do it for the right reasons

By: Chris Dawson

Chris Dawson — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:13:05 +0000

#9 You’re right – my biggest takeaway is that buyers aren’t spending more on eBay, they’re just spending more with sellers with high DSRs and less with sellers with low DSRs

By: Stuart

Stuart — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 10:40:23 +0000

Chris,

I agree sales are up 6% but it should be up alot more and booming, sales at some discount stores are up well in double digits in growth.

Second hand car sales have grown by 21% just latley its the new car sales that have slumped, so again ebay should be growing strongly in this area!!!!!!!! but they are not!

Our sales and profit have shot up since we were kicked off ebay in march, in 7 months we have bulit up the websites to sell more than we even did on ebay!

I really think they should be growing more and taking advantage of this time of downturn, but they are playing around to much.

Stu