Auction Business Frank Ross on 10 Oct 2006 06:53 pm
eBay - Who’s Customers are they Anyway?
I have been following the story of Randy Smythe formerly of GalcierBayDVD. He was one of the top eBay powersellers and had to close his business earlier this year due to a variety of reasons which are too numerous to go into here.
But one thing he does mention in is his post mortem revelations is that he wishes he would have started selling in other channels outside eBay sooner than he did. He did actually have a website, but according to him it was too late to dig the business out of its hole.
Anyway, he is back and thankfully willing to talk about his experiences over at Associated Content. In this article, he talks about how eBay threw him out of the seller forums for discussing the need to get the eBay customers to buy outside of eBay. One of the things he said was:
Sellers should be able to promote their outside eBay business in light of the reduced visibility in stores.
Indeed they should, in light of other things too — such as sky high eBay fees and overhead. The tradeoff of fees used to be worth it, just enjoying the flow of eBay buying traffic. But it’s no secret that eBay buyer patterns are changing and that the eBay selling landscape has become more competitive.
The bottom line for eBay, whether they like it or not, is that in order for sellers to build a truly profitable and growth oriented business, they will need to use their eBay buyer list for external marketing purposes. As just about any marketing expert can tell you, it’s more profitiable to sell to an existing customer than to sell a brand new one.
But as Mr. Smythe discovered, it’s a subject best not discussed under ‘the eBay roof’.