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eBay's Angry Sellers
- The New York Times, Tuesday, December 18, 2007 11 AM
Sellers no longer need eBay like they once did. They're finding more success at their own sites and third-party retailers like Amazon.com. Meanwhile, eBay has raised its seller fees, angering
sellers, who have increasingly become "disenchanted" with the online auctioneer. Last week, the NYT said Amazon should buy eBay.
"EBay has gone from the channel of first
resort to the channel of last resort" for merchants, says Scot Wingo, chief executive of Chanel Advisor, a company that helps large firms sell through eBay and other online retailers. Sellers simply
aren't making as much money as they used to as other retailers offer competitive prices. And since eBay charges both for listing an item and selling it, sellers are making less money. Moreover, the
percentage of items that sell is also going down, which means listing them is a waste of money. Sellers say that fear of fraud is another major concern, as eBay scams have become more sophisticated.
All this adds up to an unhappy seller environment. Amazon, on the other hand, has won over eBay merchants by allowing them to list products through its Amazon Marketplace at no charge. Sellers pay a 15 percent commission on sold items, which is slightly more than the 12 percent merchants on average kick back to eBay, but sellers like Amazon better because it's "less risky."
