Card Sellers: AuctionBytes Survey Views Early Results Of Stores-In-Core

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AuctionBytes Survey Finds eBay Stores-in-Core Impacts Sales

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
May 02, 2010
AuctionBytes Survey Finds eBay Stores-in-Core Impacts Sales

eBay's latest changes are having an effect on sellers' sales, but according to an AuctionBytes survey of over 1,200 sellers, they may not be having the effect eBay was hoping for. On March 30, 2010, eBay eliminated the Store Inventory format and converted sellers' Store listings to regular Fixed Price listings. AuctionBytes surveyed readers and found 69% of the eBay sellers surveyed said their sales had decreased overall since March 30; 15% said their eBay sales increased overall, and another 15% said their eBay sales remained stable.


Of the respondents who did not have an eBay Store, 80.6% of them said their sales had decreased since March 30 - an indication that core listings may be overwhelmed with the number of listings that flooded search results.


The survey asked sellers if they had made any changes to their business due to fee and/or policy changes that went into effect on March 30. Six percent said they opened an eBay Store, 25% upgraded their eBay Store, 5.1% closed their eBay Store, and 0.8% downgraded their eBay Store.


In addition, 13.8% said the listed more items on eBay, 29.6% said the listed fewer items on eBay, 4% said they stopped selling on eBay, and 25.4% made no changes.


The survey also asked sellers what changes they planned to make to their eBay business after seeing the effects of the fee and policy changes that went into effect on March 30;


15.4% said they would list more items on eBay, and 38.8% said they would list fewer items on eBay;

0.3% said they would open an eBay Store, 5.5% said they would close their eBay Store, 1.6% said they would upgrade their store, and 3% said they would downgrade their store;

10.3% said they would stop selling on eBay, and 15.7% said they would not make any changes.

Here's a bit about the respondents:

76.5% were PowerSellers in April 2010

57.8% were Top Rated Sellers in April 2010

31.8% had a Basic eBay Store; 44.0% had a Premium eBay Store; and 0.9% had an Anchor eBay Store

37.6% had gross merchandise sales on eBay (annual) of up to $10,000; 37.1% had sales between $10,000 and $50,000; 12.7% had sales between $50,000 and $100,000; and 12.6% had eBay sales over $100,000.

The biggest categories were Collectibles; Clothing Shoes & Accessories; Books; Home & Garden; Jewelry & Watches; Crafts; Potttery & Glass; Music; Toys & Hobbies; and Antiques.

In addition to whether they had a Store or not, we looked for other patterns to determine what type of seller was most likely to experience increased sales under the changes - for example, by category, sales volume, PowerSeller status, etc. There were only two common threads we could find:

As mentioned above, a higher percentage of those without an eBay Store said their sales had decreased since March 30.

And those with a Premium eBay Store were more likely to report increased sales and less likely to report decreased sales (61.9% compared to the 68.5% of all respondents and 69.3% of those with Basic eBay Stores).

It's possible eBay is giving listings from Premium Store owners a boost in search. eBay won't reveal its Best Match algorithm (the factors that boost a particular listing in search results) and it has stated that it makes continual tweaks to Best Match.

While PowerSeller and TRS status are likely factored into the algorithm, PowerSellers and Top Rated Sellers reported only slightly better sales than those who were not. (eBay also displays TRS badges in search results, which may also get the attention of shoppers.)

Note that there are barriers to opening a Premium Store on eBay. The monthly subscription fee ($49.95) excludes low-volume sellers, even though the listing fees are lower; and eBay now requires sellers meet higher performance standards in order to qualify for a Premium Store.

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TonyC

I am definitely one of the guilty parties who is listing fewer items on eBay; before the switch, I used to have 2000 items in a basic store. Because I have a premium which is $50 a month, and the fees jumped from three cents to five cents, I've pared my stuff down to 1200. Considering I have fewer items though, my April wasn't too bad.

SDavid

Interesting.

Can't wait to see their next "solution."

MULLINS5

I list fewer items too and focus more on BIN w/ and w/o OBO -- add shipping and fees into equation and advertise shipping as free as well as requiring buyers to pay automatically w/ BINs -- still the best way to sell IMO.

But with eBay, I watched an MSN documentary on their company and it seemed like their number one goal was to increase in profits each year by much more than the previous year, so their constant fee restructuring makes sense to me from their point of view. I think the CEO left eBay recently; maybe she saw future profits going down and walked out to save her business reputation? idk.

ShawnyD

they just recently announced earnings and they were poor. stock tanked. They are running it into the crapper.

earlycalguy

first quarter numbers were actually very strong. it was the guidance for remainder of 2010 which brought the stock down

brumbach

I'm still plowing ahead with my less-than-sane set up, up to 2400 items now and still shooting for 3000 but people keep buying cards, go figure. My listings and store categories are set up to simultaneously capture set, player, and team collectors. I upgraded from Basic to Premium back in March and the biggest change for me is to factor in the increased fees into my budget. Last invoice, the first since the changeover, I went $50 over and had to use non-eBay funds to cover, so the new set up is cutting into my buying power. Other than having to adjust my spending to account for the fee increases, I'd put myself in the "no change" department.