Changes to Buy it now and Shops
Aug-2008
Gosh it has been exciting day for eBay watchers. eBay has made fundamental changes to the way in which fixed price are sold on the site. The site is going to largely loose its time sensitive nature and the listing options simplified, with a single listing format replacing BIN and SIF.
The End of Shop inventory format and changes to Buy it now format
Shop inventory format is going to be phased out and replaced with a longer duration buy it now format. The new format will last 30 days (with a good til cancelled option) and will have a standard insertion fee of 40p no matter what the starting price is.
Shop owner will get a discount on the insertion fees, with basic shop owners paying 20p for a listing, featured 5p and anchor 1p per listing.
The End of chronological listings
According to the eBay announcement, best match will now longer present listings primarily in chronological order. Instead, the order will be determined in part by listing success, encouraging sellers to use one listing per SKU. Seller performance (as measured by DSRs etc) will also be a factor.
As eBay will still include the more time sensitive auction format, it is not clear how these will be displayed in the order looses it chronological nature. Will auctions take a back seat?
Comments
End of the level playing field
These changes are a further nail in the coffin of the level playing field. Larger sellers will not only benefit from lower final value fees, but also from cheaper insertion fees. The low insertion fees for volume sellers will encourage larger sellers to list a wider range of inventory.
Similarities with other online marketing platforms
In moving away from chronological presentation of listings and factoring in listing success, eBay will be becoming more similar to other online platforms. eBay’s new system will have aspects of both the Amazon marketplace (long duration fixed price listings) and Google Adwords (rewarding advert success)
Shops in search
The last time that shop inventory format was included with the core eBay was flooded with low quality listings. eBay combated this problem by hiking the eBay shop final value fees.
With the insertion fee being lowered, will this problem happen again with the overall quality of eBay listings suffering?
You make a point that hadn’t actually occured to me: these new 30 day BINs do take some of the excitement and anticipation out of eBay.. and that has always been a draw for people.
Yeah, I the new format is going to take time sensitivity out of the listings, making listing scheduling a non issue (I think). This will reduce the factors influencing listing success. Gaming the search algorithm will become more important. Sellers should watch the following factors
– Listing quality
– completion of item specifics
– Item titles