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Julia Wilkinson AuctionBytes Blog
Covering auctions, collectibles and marketplace selling.

Julia Wilkinson is Editor of the AuctionBytes Blog and is author of the "eBay Price Guide," "eBay Top 100 Simplified Tips and Tricks," "My Life at AOL" and numerous ebooks about selling online. You can also find her writing on Yard Salers.
Mon Dec 14 2009 22:58:59

Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags

 By: Ina Steiner
Sponsored Link
Unique visitors to eBay dropped in 7.72% in November 2009 compared to November 2008, while Amazon.com's unique visitors rose 5.57% for the same time period. It looks like Amazon.com is on track to have a very good December.



Last year, eBay relied on couponing and participation in Microsoft Live Cashback program during the holidays. This year, there was a greater focus on its Daily Deals and on an integrated marketing campaign that included television advertising.

It's not certain the exact effect of eBay's search outage on Saturday, November 21st on traffic and if it had a lingering effect on consumer traffic.  

Looking at the 5-year trend line for eBay page views and unique visitors shows the visual story of eBay's traffic. You can view those graphs and read more about eBay and Amazon.com's traffic in Tuesday's AuctionBytes Newsflash.

Reading AuctionBytes Blog: Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags
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Readers Comments

Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags   Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags
by: joe
       
Mon Dec 14 23:34:38 2009

The NEWS FLASH...

Wait till eBays December traffic is reported...I see it down 10% plus.

The Eyes have left eBay...

Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags   Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags
This user has validated their user name. by: Pete
       
Tue Dec 15 00:02:39 2009
eBay is doing massive promotions on reduced fee, or zero fee to get the listing counts up for the q4 report...sadly the items being flooded are NOT what buyers are looking for so the buyers are taking their cash elsewhere...well done to the eBay management you got your wish a whole lot of nothing and finally got rid of those irritating sellers (who also buy)
Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags   Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags
by: gotta love it
       
Tue Dec 15 01:01:07 2009
You bring up a very good point there Pete. Ebay underestimated exactly how many sellers they alienated that were also buyers on the site.

And needless to say that Best Match serves no purpose other than to hide items. Especially when one has to wade through page after page of the same exact item. It just makes no sense. Imagine going to a brick and mortar store and finding they have aisle after aisle of the same item.

I have also seemed to notice that eBay is giving preference to items that are located in China. Heck I have even been receiving emails from Paypal telling me that I should be looking at Eastern Asia sellers. And these are not spoof emails.
Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags   Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags
by: ebay Nonsense
       
Tue Dec 15 02:22:03 2009
ebay is clueless!
Instead of letting their members decide what sells they had to tinker with the search, shuffle listing placement around according to a few buyer "opinions" and look where it got them. Nowhere!

You'd think for the money some of them earn that they'd have a few good brain cells between them to know better than mess up a good thing.  

Meg had it right when she said a monkey could run ebay. That's not saying much for JD and the way he's running the show (into the ground).
Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags   Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags
by: g
       
Tue Dec 15 08:44:46 2009
I doubt that this data will be news to sellers on eBay.  I believe that the vast majority of sellers have experienced this drop in viewers this season and their sales reflect the problem. (Yes, I know some sellers are doing quite well and I am happy for them, I just don't think they represent the smaller sellers.)

There are a lot of reasons for the drop in visitors.  And it's not just the economy! The constant missteps by eBay management this year, poor product exposure, and site instability have contributed greatly.

eBay has shot itself in the foot so many times that I am afraid that the leg will have to be amputated!

My plans for 2010 call for greatly reduced reliance on eBay.  It's not that I do not want to sell on eBay, it's just that I cannot rely on the site's management any more.  I have know that eBay management does not have my best interests at heart for a number of years; now I'm not sure they even have eBay's best interest at heart.

I do expect that eBay will be a solid topic for business courses for years to come.
Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags   Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags
by: Marvin
       
Tue Dec 15 09:18:10 2009
Please people for your own good do something before it's to late. Opportunity is knocking. Answer the door.

This is the busiest time of the year for e commerce yet despite the promotions and TV commercials ebay is running they are still going downhill and have been all month. ebay site count dropped over one million this morning, eCrater has been increasing all month so has Amazon. If ebay can't draw the buyers and sellers now, when the holidays are over and the commercials stop. What then? Things will only get worse.

eCrater is the site if you want to run your business your way without interference. Amazon is an outlet to sell through but you have to play by their rules. Between the two there is far, far more potential than will ever be possible on ebay again.


Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags   Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags
by: MsFish213
       
Tue Dec 15 09:50:47 2009
Seller here.  Sales are way down, and page views are almost non existant.  I did 99 percent of my Christmas shopping online this year.  At Amazon. I tried to use Ebay, but the site is sooo slloowww, I couldnt find what I wanted with the new improved search (what a joke THAT is).  At Amazon, prices were unbelievable, the site was super fast and I had shipping info within 3 hours of purchasing.  Even as a seller, I am spending more time on my other sites/venues....Ebay just isn't worth the time or the hassle either as a buyer or seller.  
Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags   Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags
by: Ebay's Stats Make my Holiday
       
Tue Dec 15 10:09:31 2009
You have to love these numbers. Any seller who spent time back in 2005-6 telling Ebay they were heading in the wrong direction has to take great satisfaction in seeing these stats. Looks to me like Bill Cobb was wrong when he said my Ebay store was ''diluting the magic'' of Ebay and raised my fees by 600%.

My holiday wish this year is for John Donahoe to realize what Ebay could have accomplished if Ebay had learned to work productively with ALL Ebay sellers. Ebay has failed to harness the power of small and midsize sellers who are the true backbone of Ebay. Why are small and midsize sellers excluded from participating in Daily Deals and other special ventures? Then add in the mess of one sided feedback and the added insult of TRS and what do you have? A selling site mired in constant chaos and anger which does not translate into a pleasant buying experience for Ebay's buyers. Now Ebay where oh where did all your buyers go?

I am sold out on Amazon. This has been one wonderfully profitable holiday season thanks to Jeff Bezos's wise business acumen. Ebay you have just earned every single miserable stat. Merry Christmas Meg, Bill, and John.
Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags   Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags
by: Harriet
       
Tue Dec 15 10:22:16 2009
I have had most excellent sales on eCrater.com this holiday season. I truly didn't expect much, but geared way up on eCrater for the Christmas season anyway, just hoping for some traffic.

The newly cemented alliance with Google has worked very, very well. I have between 200-300 views per day in my store, and sales are just going great.

I am also getting many new customers which will help in the off season too, I hope.
Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags   Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags
by: No More
       
Tue Dec 15 10:27:37 2009
X eBayer here, only reason I go to ebay now is for product research and ID'ing (Glass, Pottery). It is becoming harder and harder to find products to research. During my research I come by some items I would have bought or bid on, but the killer is seller's high shipping rates. As a seller, (on eCrater) I know shipping rates, I came across many many listings of old pottery, glass, and porcelain I would have bid on but only to see the shipping cost to be 2-3 times what it should be. Sellers your shooting yourselves in the foot with these high shipping costs, $12.99 for Parcel Post that weights less then a pound, I can ship that to you in half the time for less, $4.90 Priority Mail, come on people!!
Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags   Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags
by: Brenda
       
Tue Dec 15 11:04:35 2009
I still buy on eBay for some things, but I've been on the site for a long time and know how to navigate.  I've already mentioned on another post how I had to go through 40 pages of cheap Chinese junk to find a watch I wanted.  Well, I was looking for a specific aquarium filter the other day.  I set my search to price + shipping =lowest first.  There were three solid pages of a particular part for said filter, the exact same listing over and over by the same seller at staggered times before you even found anything else.  Needless to say, this was an Asian seller, undoubtedly a seller who doesn't pay listing fees and therefore has no reason to limit his listings.  And he does this with eBay's blessing.

How many people are going to wade through this sort of junk?  Millions more listings does not equate to quality offerings.  Until eBay limits this duplicate listing flooding of the site, they're going to continue to lose buyers, particularly first-timers, who will come, take a quick look around and decide there's nothing of interest.  And they won't be back.

I too have received PayPal's promotion of Asian sellers and I find it very offensive, particularly at a time when so many Americans are hurting.
Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags   Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags
by: Ebay's Stats Make my Holiday
       
Tue Dec 15 11:26:24 2009
Brenda take comfort in the fact that it's got to be bad selling on Ebay today. When even Ebay's beloved diamond seller Buy.com returns to selling on Amazon you know Ebay sales are poor. I thoroughly enjoyed myself using a special 10% off Buy.com on Amazon promotion coupon to purchase a gift. In fact I returned the favor to Amazon for great sales and purchased all my gifts on Amazon. This is a concept that Ebay doesn't understand- it's called loyalty and Buy.com just provided Ebay with a second great example.
Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags   Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags
by: Die Ebay Die
       
Tue Dec 15 11:34:18 2009
Even Buy with everything tilted in their favor, only managed 10.8% Sell Thru on the last 1000 items. 108 out of 1000. Pititful. I always had 50% or better STR until DUMMYHO came along.
Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags   Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags
by: gotta love it
       
Tue Dec 15 12:28:47 2009
One of the single worst decisions for the buying experience was to allow sellers to list an unlimited number of quantity by flooding the search with the same item over and over. Ebay is not a traditional website as it was built on auctions. Anyone from back in the day could have told you that when an item is overstocked that it would be worthless. Would it be so much to ask these spammers to instead list quantity on one single fixed price listing when they have 10 or more of the same exact item.

I am not sure who these executives are kidding, but it is very difficult to find items on eBay in the year 2009. You can't tell me that they actually try to use their own site to purchase items.
Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags   Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags
by: Just me
       
Tue Dec 15 13:03:13 2009
It's even more pitiful when you consider the obscene amount of listings now on ebay.
Donahoe has to be worried, he looks it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmUcgEBl2FU
Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags   Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags
by: buck efay
       
Tue Dec 15 13:22:01 2009
Both these last 2 posts adress one of the biggest problems Ebay has. Since they are trying to build numbers they allow drop shippers & Chinese junk merchants to list the same item for free over & over & thru Best Match manipulation, they make this crud show up higher in search then our paid listings. Donho sibsrcibes to the "quantity is quality" school of selling, whereas Ebay was always about the Wow factor! Gotta have it, rare one of a kind. Even after the collectibles was kind of flooded, at least it was cool stuff. Now there's millions of listings for screws, staples, toilet paper, etc. Who is buying that kind of stuff here? Not my kind of buyers
Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags   Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags
by: Ron
       
Tue Dec 15 14:24:16 2009
You know, I keep on seeing the same valid points on this blog that explain why eBay is experiencing trouble.  By now, I've probably seen the same points made many dozens of times, and they are all absolutely right.  So my question is:  When is eBay's management going to realize that they've been wrong about most everything?  I guess that it must be difficult to admit to oneself that one has been wrong.  Still, all that they would have to do is read this blog, fire the consultants, who never understood eBay's value proposition, and really listen to the community who were the source of eBay's original success.  I mean, it must take one over-the-top ego to take one of the most successful business models ever created, and institute a program of "disruptive innovation" to fix it!  When is the eBay board going to wake up?
Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags   Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags
by: Patricia
       
Tue Dec 15 14:50:41 2009
Message to John Donahoe:

All together now

      ''WE TOLD YOU SO!!!''

How much longer will this farce continue?  Until there is just no more Ebay?  I knew this was happening during the last month because the majority of sales I was getting came from people I know on the site and people I talk to in the groups and on the discussion boards.  NO REAL NEW TRAFFIC!  FEW BUYERS I DIDN'T KNOW!

Get it John?  Please...pack your bags and show Ebay a bit of mercy!
Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags   Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags
by: Patricia
       
Tue Dec 15 14:57:42 2009
The one bright spot in all this is that obviously Donahoe's Ebay has to hit dirt floor bottom before anything will be done.  I'm sure by now he knows his half baked business model(s) aren't working.  So now he's playing it out and prolonging the inevitable - at his rate of pay wouldn't you?
Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags   Amazon Holiday Traffic Soars while eBay Lags
by: STRYKER
       
Tue Dec 15 16:11:43 2009
The only suprise to the tens of thousands of remaining ebay small to medium sellers is that the drop is that small, most sellers seem to agree they are off by far larger percentages

 With triple the amount of merchandise, a  drop like this takes on even greater meaning

 It is key to remember that a large percentage of ebay visitors  are being funnelled via best match to the diamonds and platinums, meaning the drop in views/sales for the vast majority of ebayers is far greater then then the single digit drop for the site  .


uNFORTUNATELY, As right as most of the posters who observed it is the new direction causing the decline  are, they simply do not understand the ''Bubble Think'' Inside the ebay hothouse .

 If you read the obvious Planted posts and responses by ebay ''cheerleaders'' on various forums, you will see that the ebay mindset is as follows :

''We are brilliant,  our decline is due to bad sellers, thus we need to weed out the bad sellers''

With every further decline the mindset is ''our changes are brilliant and we have saved the site, we just have not moved fast enough '' In other words every decline leads to harsher restrictions, more defections by the sellers that buyers really want to see, and thus more decline.
This is what is known as a ''death Spiral'

 Unfortunately the ebay sales site seems locked into this ''death spiral'' By that i mean the management believes poor sales are NOT due to the changes, but rather due to the ramining ''unprofessional'' mass of loyal die-hards still posting, despite the best efforts of management to excrete them .

  In other words the more views/vistors decline, the more the management blames the old time sellers and the greater the effort to expuunge them, the more these sellers leave, the more  the site drops , it is a loop leading to a constant downward momentum and the management shows no signs of relenting. If they did, they would have to admit that porly timed, poorly thought out and poorly impleneted policies have nearly ruined what was once considered the rock of Gibralter of e-commerce.

And I must say the determination and drive with which the management is speeding toward the cliff is truly amazing,

 schoizophrenic and inconsistant management direction combined with

poorly thought out changes combined with

A search engine designed to push consumers into a specific direction, rather then provide actual service have provided relentless body blows to a once great site..

Now consider the  Poor timing, tryng to turn ebay into a retail site at a time when major retailers are pushing harder then ever to establish an online brand(see latest reports on wal-mart). It is hard to think of any succssful company in history, who stopped dead in its tracks, turned 180 degrees around  and tried to imitate  it less susccesfull competitors

 Finally I think two examples indicate the poor quality of contemporary management : who in heck thought up their holiday ad campaign ?

'' the same stuff for less??'' wow, how inspiring,   truly embaressing...,


Next  the last minute implementation of ''cross promotions'' or planting competitors live listings on sellers postings..  offensive, badly thought out, badly timed, badly implemented.

Finally to those who think this will be a wake call to management, remember the high salaried execs really could care less, they make millions regardless, and will golden parachute out of the wreckage before before admiting to their mistakes and turning around.


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