eBay Live! 2008 - Day 2 Review and The eBay Keynote speech by John Donahoe
June 20, 2008
Day 2 of eBay Live! 2008 is over. Today I met some amazing people from all over the world and it really shows how diverse the eBay community is. Today, the big event was eBay’s keynote speech that was present by both John Donahoe, President and CEO of eBay, and Lorrie Norrington, President of eBay Global Marketing.
I think everyone had really expected some big announcements, especially since the Detail Seller Ratings(DSR) have really been a thorn in PowerSeller’s side. Instead, it was very uneventful. The big theme was about making the eBay Buyer’s experience a good one and how eBay views “..people as basically good”. That’s wonderful, except buyers are taking advantage of that and causing problems for sellers.
So, what were the “big announcements” today? In a nutshell:
- New enhanced seller protection to all US sellers - Whenever Paypal is used, sellers will be protected. There is no cap on this coverage and it covers all 190 countries that Paypal is used. Additionally, now all addresses are confirmed.
- New enhanced buyer protection. Now all transactions made by eBay buyers that use Paypal are protected.
- New powerseller discounts of 20% off of FVF for those PowerSellers that have a 4.9+ on all DSR’s.
- A better discount for UPS shipping for Powersellers. Now receive an additonal 23% discount. (If you need to signup, visit http://www.ebay.com/upspowersellersavings
- and…… that’s it… woohoo
Not so exciting.. at least that’s what most people thought and I tend to agree.
I’m still disapointed at the overall experience of eBay Live! 2008 in Chicago. The city, people and eBayer’s have all been wonderful, but this event looks like it was thrown together. I still get more out of networking than any of the classes or meetings that have been put on.
Today I had the pleasure of meeting some great PowerSellers, and those new to eBay. I’ve learned something new from each person I’ve met, whether they are a new seller or Platinum Powerseller and I’d like to think they’ve learned something new as well.
Tomorrow is the last day and I’m looking forward to some surprises and announcements at the Gala and Powerseller’s breakfast. Finger’s crossed that there will be something.
Jeff
eBay Live! 2008 Chicago - Day 1 Review
June 19, 2008
Day 1 of eBay Live! 2008 has come to an end. Chicago is a great city with plenty to do and see and eBay couldn’t have picked a better venue their last Live! location until 2010. It appears they put a lot of thought into the city selection. Maybe not so much thought into everything else.
I really haven’t been impressed so far with this eBay Live!. Maybe it was because Boston was my first and I was overwhelmed, but as I heard many say, it was very “underwhelming”. I hadn’t officially received my Powerseller status at the last Live!, but other PowerSellers at Boston raved about the PowerSeller’s Lounge, the gifts, the food, the attention.
Today I walked into a nearly empty PowerSeller Central. Nearly empty in every way. No people, no features, no real eBay giveaways (unless you count my $.25 Powersellers mousepad). It was just…boring.
The PowerSeller orientation was good, and there was no big announcement, but I believe they are saving that for the Top Seller dinner and the Keynote tomorrow morning.
I had a good chance to look around at all the vendors and I will be posting about my best/worst list later this week. I do have a favorite so far, but I won’t say just yet.
Until tomorrow.
eBay Live! 2008 Starts today.
June 19, 2008
I’m getting ready to head off to the shuttle for eBay Live!. The city is packed with eBayers and there is a genereal buzz in the air. I’m fairly excited at what they have planned, but we will see. I’ll be posting some updates later today.
I do want to mention that I had the opportunity to sit next to a long time eBay Powerseller on my flight out here. We chatted the entire 2 hour flight and I was extremely encouraged by what I heard. I shared my ideas for the 2 new products I had been working on and she immediately wanted to contribute. I’ll be announcing these products later this week, but as just a hint. There will be 2 products; one will be a quickstart quide, the other something more behind the scenes. Both will provide the information that 70% of new eBay sellers are trying to get their hands on. The other 30% is information they SHOULD be getting their hands on.
Very exciting stuff indeed.
Will eBay Live become a huge slugfest?
June 17, 2008
I’m pretty excited about eBay Live this year for many reasons. Other than the fact that I get to meet up with all of the great eBay buyers and Sellers and do some networking, everyone will hopefully get to hear some amazing news coming from the eBay camp.
However, there are plenty of things to complain about. Last year, eBay Live seemed to be all about the PowerSeller. How important they were, how much they were needed, how changes to the eBay platform would make PowerSellers lives so much better. Then there came the eBay Slap. Nothing says “We love you PowerSellers” like a change to something as critical as how feedback is collected and applied.
Since it is now quite apparent that eBay is now trying to smooth things over with buyers, they are neglecting to look at how changing some “as little” as the removal of negative feedback towards buyers is impacting us PowerSellers. Through the feedback interface, it’s almost as if buyers are encourage to leave neutral feedback without any repercussions.
How does this affect PowerSellers? I had a 100% feedback rating over a few hundred sales with 1 neutral over 6 months ago. One day I woke up and I’m at 99.5%. Sure, no big deal, I’m still above my required 98% to be a PowerSeller. How about all of those people who are now dropped below that threshold because of an overnight decision to count neutrals.
I’m sure there will be plenty of vocal PowerSellers in the meetings this week telling eBay exactly what they think. I plan on doing the same. This is one of the many reasons why PowerSellers have begin selling in different venues ie Amazon. It will definitely be interesting to see what happens.
If you haven’t already, I’d recommend signing up for my TopSeller guide. It is going to provide some behind the scenes info I obtain from eBayLive that won’t be published until later on my blog.
You can find the top seller guide here.
Jeff
