eBay Sellers' Boycott Forces Company to Rethink Consumer Control Model

amp160eBay is no stranger to strikes There have been a handful of boycotts since the late 3990s but to little effect First of all the seller community itself is far from a monolith Many longterm PowerSellers who have been able to become fulltime eBay39ers close to a halfmillion in the US alone believe that they primarily quotpay eBay for the trafficquot and that eBay is a publicity tool first and foremost For them there was no alternative but to make dueBut in the blink of an eye times have changed In the last year we have numerous examples of consumer uprisings that would have been unthinkable five years go Sony backed down after its buyers learned of the quotroot kitquot it installed on its CDs Apple began selling replacement batteries for its iPod after its customers caterwauled Diggreversed its position on publishing the encryption code to HD DVD software stating that it39d rather be sued into oblivion by the AACSLA than defy its base Facebook backpedaled on its Beacon launch after its community squawked over privacy issues NPR commentator Bob Garfield39s Comcast Must Die blog is an example of individuals airing their beefs online Even WalMart has sanctioned a candid blog fronted by their staffers who diss Vistaand praise ElmoWhat does this have to do with eBay Everything An eBay seller insurgency that could never have taken hold during the heyday of Web 10 was launched on February 19 as a oneweek boycott of eBay sellers Based on its perceived success it was extended another week Organizers are now working to build a statebystate infrastructure targeting an extended May 1 strike against the marketplaceThe tools that allowed the public leverage against Sony Apple Digg and Facebook included YouTube MySpace Facebook and blogs These videos chats and postings were then picked up my mainstream media from The New York Times to CNN Faced with a public relations nightmare these corporations felt that they had no choice to reconsider their policy In this boycott Web 20 communications platforms are not only being used as a megaphone but to organize Incoming CEO John Donahoe struck the wrong note in declaring small volume sellers as quotnoisequot an epithet in the ears of sellers many of whom are simultaneously buyersUsing Blogger Delphi39s forums Flickr and yes even within eBay39s Seller Center irate sellers discuss media strategy at a level of sophistication that would make Carville and Matalin blush They have asked and received pledges from their first 1000 PowerSellers to start their alternative to eBay and to press for another strike aptly on May 1st International Workers39 Day One YouTube strike video has been seen over 150000 times it is one of dozens uploaded by angry sellersWhile USAToday published some listings data from analyst Mike Medved assessing that volume had fallen some 13 percent during the first week of the February strike eBay spokesperson Usher Lieberman maintains quotThey have their numbers wrong Let39s just say at worst the traffic was staticquot What does Medved himself think quotThey do show a significant drop from high in auction counts The high though was there because of a promotion that eBay was runningquot Strikers believe that these promotions as well as quottest listingsquot allowed eBay to pad their results during this boycottquot Medved is quick to brush off Lieberman quotThe numbers I track come from eBay39s web site itself I just look at the category pages example httplistingsebaycomW0QQfromZR4QQsacatZ20081QQsocmdZListingItemList take the number shown at the top of the list of auctions for that category and add it all up across all categories The data cannot be 39wrong39quotAuctionBytes describes itself as the Independent Trade Publication for Online Merchants Ina and David Steiner head the website and have been tracking the boycott closely While Ina tends to believe that the drop in listings was overstated by USAToday she points out that quotfrom a PR standpoint sellers have certainly got the media to pay attentionquot Five years ago eBay was the only game in town In addition to the impetus to start a new marketplace the following entities are vying for attention Gmarket UBid Blujay MyStore Wagglepop eCrater USiff Bidville iOffer eBid and OnlineAuction Overstockcom has been aggressively recruiting eBay39s Powersellers offering lifetime nofee listings while Amazon with its no nonsense secondary marketplace is growing leaps and bounds eBay39s changes if they are not modified will definitely move the focus of the marketplace from collectibles to commoditiesI know I39m taxing eBay spokesperson Lieberman that it39s above his pay grade to reimagine how a marketplace must evolve in the time of social networks and transparency But he39s a good sport and tries to tackle my questions quotWe have to take input from our community but we have to also manage our policies We have to manage our policies with the input of our community but we also have to act to preserve the health of our marketplace Not everything we do is going to be popular with all of our community It simply can39t be in our scale We have to do things that benefit the overall health of the marketplacequot With sincerity he offers quotI think that we do reflect our community and we do take a lot of their input in all of our decisions And we don39t take any of them lightlyquot This point however is subjective Policymaking within eBay is still commandcontrol despite the fact that not only its buyers but its sellers are its customerseBay has a credo one that it might be wellserved to revisit We believe people are basically good We believe everyone has something to contribute We believe that an honest open environment can bring out the best in people We recognize and respect everyone as a unique individual We encourage you to treat others the way you want to be treatedWhile eBay occupies a niche in the ecommerce ecosystem it anticipates how the mainstream consumer will evolve and the centrality of trust Whatever the eBay boycott outcome it underlines the delicate balance between creator and consumer First you cede control over content to the consumer Soon they39re going to want to look at your booksamp8230 sit in your board meetingsHow would you respond Post your comments below registration required at JackMyerscomAuthor Jerry Weinstein has had a relationship with eBay as both a buyer and seller alias lowbidder since 1999 Jerry comments quotLike many eBayers I am proud even protective of my 100 rating For a period of close to three years I mediated online disputes for SquareTrade the dispute resolution firm retained by eBay At first blush these relationships might suggest bias but I offer that my experience provides me with insight into all elements of the triad buyer seller and eBay itself By the nature of my SquareTrade work I dealt with some hairy issues of mistrust and fraud but overwhelmingly the conflicts were not around deception but rather simple miscommunicationquot

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eBay Sellers' Boycott Forces Company to Rethink Consumer Control Model

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Jerry Weinstein

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eBay Sellers' Boycott Forces Company to Rethink Consumer Control Model

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