Small Business Owners to Participate in International Independent (R)Etailers Week

Several members of the Pheebay online forum have begun organizing a sort of International Independent E-tailers Week in order to educate and inform online shoppers that there is a lot more to shopping on the web than just browsing eBay. For years eBay has been touted as the "world's largest online marketplace," but that position is gradually being diminished by the formation of many small online niche shops and stores - many of which were founded by former eBay sellers. These independent online retailers are being invited to join in a global week of marketing and education this June from the summer solstice to the blue moon (21st - 30th) called the Midsummer Madness Grand Summer Fayre.



The goal of this promotion is to educate online shoppers about web retailers who offer quality products and services on websites that are easy to navigate and browse, but most importantly, sites that offer much higher levels of customer service and safety than eBay. Many "St. Elsewhere" stores (as they are sometimes referred to by former eBay store owners) were created because of fundamental flaws in the eBay Stores system. These flaws included poor exposure of listings, inaccurate search results, glitches in the infrastructure of eBay and eBay databases, high fees, poor customer service and rampant fraud that was beginning to give all sellers on eBay a bad reputation. Many St. Elsewhere store owners started making the move at the end of last summer when eBay raised store insertion fees from 2 cents to 10 cents per month for many items. Many St. Elsewhere owners realized that they could save thousands of dollars per month in fees by leaving eBay while not suffering much of a drop in traffic (even after the initial move). More importantly perhaps, these sellers found they could have complete control over their inventory, payment methods, design and customer service. One seller said, "I can now list cap guns without orange plugs and other eBay regulated items without risk of anyone removing my items. It may not seem like a big deal, but with thousands of items in inventory the lack of "Big Brother" trying to micromanage my sales saves me lots of time, effort and a lot of headaches."

Many sellers and buyers alike feel that the exodus away from eBay by some of the top sellers is starting to show, and the effects are not good for eBay, but are great for those sellers who have left. eBay listings in the US have once again fallen below the 11 million mark, which is the lowest pre-summer figure since 2003. eBay traffic this week hit a six year low, and eBay's rank has fallen to #19 on the list of most visited sites in the world (from a high of 5th in early 2006). While eBay is faltering in the amount of shoppers visiting the site and slowing in number of new users, other sites that showcase independent retailers items are gaining steam. One site, Bidhopper, that gathers inventory from sites based on an OSCommerce shell has seen a marked increase in number of items in their search inventory. Microsoft's Expo Live, a site that gets both feeds from independent sites as well as classified ads directly, is gaining in traffic and rank (as well as inventory) at a very brisk pace, and has passed eBay in both the amount of traffic it receives and the number of users visiting the site. Many sellers who want the ease and convenience of selling online without the work and maintenance of their own website have been choosing to list their items in free eCrater stores. eCrater has seen a very rapid growth in the past two years, due in large part to eBay management's stance of eBay Stores - a stance that many sellers believe involves the dissolution of Stores and at least the hiding of inventory in favor of other eBay products (namely eBay Express items).

For our part in this Independent Etailer Week, www.firemeg.com will continue to take submissions for our Off-eBay Success Stories page. And while you won't see any actual anecdotes on this page, you will see a list of many successful former eBay store owners' new independent web stores that are a success story in themselves. Please email Firemeg.com through our site to add your store to the list, and then we recommend visiting Pheebay to get a copy of the promotion banner to add to your site. If you are a buyer or a habitual eBay shopper, we encourage you to take a week or so at the end of June (or start now for that matter) and search some independent websites when shopping online. If you love eBay, you just might find that you love shopping outside of eBay as well, after all, many of the online stores on independent websites and online malls are filled with inventory from former eBay store owners.

For a list of some independent online retailers, visit our Off-eBay Success page as well as our homepage for links to numerous online shopping malls with multiple sellers.

eBay Engineers $%&# Up.....Again!

Anyone trying to list items on eBay today via Turbo Lister might be having some problems with the shipping section. Despite having a month or more to prepare, eBay engineers failed to include anywhere for package dimensions in the updates. It seems to be allowing sellers to list their items, but the correct shipping cost will not be showing in the listings. How this will affect the shipping calculator and labels printed through Paypal is anyone's guess. I'm glad I use Endicia! Too bad I don't use another listing tool....maybe it's time to change?

Below is a conversation I had with Live Help about the issue. Notice the total denial of any problem and how the rep tried to get me to update TL. Then he tried to act like it was working properly. Finally, after I told him I did the updates and I know how it is supposed to work, he admits to there being a problem. My wait time was around 20 minutes before I got a rep from Live Help on my screen. How many people are being told by eBay that they just need an update? Or that everything is working properly?

FIREMEG: when on earth will TL be updated to comply with the USPS changes? I updated TL,
thinking eBay might possibly have made the proper changes being that eBay has, what, $4 billion in liquid cash to pay for some competent engineers and all.

FIREMEG: There is no place for me to put in the dimensions of the package.

FIREMEG: judging by the average 16 minute wait time, I'm not the only one having an issue with
this. If eBay HAD hired competent engineers, they would have made out better considering all of the lost revenue they will have today because they can't get a simple bit of coding accomplished!

Eric: Hello! Welcome to eBay Listing Tools chat. My name is Eric. I apologize for your wait.
Please give me one moment while I read over your question.....

Eric: According to an e-mail that was sent to us over the weekend while I was out of the office,
the new shipping methods should be available in Turbo Lister now. So please have your Turbo Lister check for updates:. 1. Under the Tools menu, select "Check for Program Updates." 2. If updates are found, click the Continue button to download them - allowing as much time as necessary for it to finish.

FIREMEG: I did an update

Eric: And after you select "Calculated - Cost varies by buyer location", do you see a Package Size pull-down menu where you can select "Package", "Lg Package", and so on?

FIREMEG: yes, just as before, but the USPS isn't using the large package thing like UPS does. I'm sure, being a TL specialist, you know that that drop down has always said that. I need a place to put in the dimensions of the box.

Eric: We had another member asking about this earlier today. So this may be part of the change that wasn't fully implemented. We'll be in contact with the Turbo Lister developers to get clarification from them on this.

FIREMEG: You've got to be kidding!

Eric: What makes you say that?

FIREMEG: eBay knew about these changes for MONTHS!!! On our own dot com stores, my wife fixed the shipping HERSELF this morning on three sites to comply with the USPS' new rules, and eBay can't get it right given a month and cooperation with the USPS??!?!?!?!?

Eric: I can certainly understand your frustration. There were parts of the changeover that I personally thought could have been handled better, But since I don't work on the programming end, all I can tell you is that you're correct - those options are not currently available in Turbo Lister. If entering the specific dimensions of your package is a requirement for you, it will be necessary to list your items directly though the Sell Your Item form for the time being. I'm very sorry for any inconvenience.

FIREMEG: Does eBay plan to make an announcement about this? Or just let everyone contact you guys in Live Help all week long or however long until it is fixed?

Eric: If this is an intentional change on the part of the Turbo Lister developers [and that's what we're contacting them to find out], it will almost certainly not be announced anywhere. If it's part of the transition that was left unfinished, that would be mentioned on the System Announcements board depending on the size of the impact it has on the sellers at large. That's located here:

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/announce.shtml

FIREMEG: Oh, OK, so if it intentional, you'll let hundreds of thousands of sellers wonder WTF is going on, leave them wondering why eBay has been "preparing" sellers for a month about this change, yet can't even manage to prepare themselves.

FIREMEG: OK, I'll just check for updates tomorrow again. I don't want to waste any more of your time, as I'm sure you have many many many other sellers waiting in line to ask the same question.

Eric: All right then. Thank you for using eBay Live chat. I wish you luck in all of your eBay transactions.