eBay is in for some changes in 2008.

As sellers we all know change is inevitable and required for sustained growth in any marketplace. The changes which are reported in the article quoted below by: Richard Waters in San Francisco, which seem to be coming in 2008 may help established sellers on eBay yet hinder the newer sellers on eBay.

In Summary this is what you can look for in 2008

• Major Revamp of eBays Core Business
• More of an e-Commerce look and feel of the site (already in the works)
• Testing of a new "no listing fee" model (Where have you heard about that before?)
• Priority in the general search will go more towards "the most reliable sellers".
• "Weeding out" of fraudulent and inefficient sellers

eBay definately needs to make some changes so I think we should all take a wait and see attitude. Of course if you are one of the fraudulent or inefficient sellers your view may be different. As a honest and efficient seller you should applaud the idea of getting rid of dead weight. eBays core revenue structure has always been bouyed by those same inefficient sellers however. eBay never really cared if your item sold the first time listed or not, because they make money either way. With a change to a no listing fee model, this will change the goal of eBay drastically. eBay will be more involved with making sure every listing is successful. This can only lead to more exciting promotion of our products by eBay.

I say stick with eBay and look forward to some exciting changes in the future. If these adjustments are actually made and done well, 2008 could be a very good year!

Tinkering with the core mechanisms of the world's busiest e-commerce site is not to be undertaken lightly. Yet John Donahoe, head of Ebay's marketplace division, is preparing an overhaul for early next year that amounts to a major revamp of Ebay's core business.

Who is John Donahoe?

• Current President at eBay
• Past Worldwide Managing Director at Bain & Company
• Education Dartmouth College

Public Profilehttp://www.linkedin.com/pub/4/1b/368

If successful, it could revive the company's flagging growth while also strengthening his own standing as the likely eventual successor to Meg Whitman as Ebay's chief executive.

A former managing partner of Bain, the consulting firm, who joined Ebay nearly three years ago, Mr Donahoe has cast an outsider's dispassionate eye over some of the site's practices and found them wanting. During an interview at Ebay's headquarters in Silicon Valley, he talks with the clear and untroubled certainties of the consultant, and he has the prescriptions to match.

"A year ago, we had 14 per cent of global e-commerce, we are the largest e-commerce provider, and our home page still looks like a flea market," he says. "The world around us had changed. In particular our buyers' experience hadn't kept up." Continue reading “eBay Changes Coming in 2008 – Are you an inefficient Seller? No Listing Fees?” »