eBay Clothing Sellers Get New Competition - from eBay

by: baconsdozen
Web Site

It really is a pointless exercise trying to make sense of anything ebay does. It seems to have a death wish.

by: Massachusets Howler

Puffery on split day.
mh

by: quirkyantiques

Well I guess since Ebay has the VERO shills squarely in it's pocket they should be able to eliminate most of the legitimate competition. Wanna bet on the following outcome? Ebay Designer valet-zero VERO interference. Competing Mom and Pop small clothing sellers-VERO interference increase.

by: Troy Stiffler

Oh wow!  I've followed Twice for a long time!  I love their operation and used it to model some of the things I've planned.

One one hand, good for them!  On the other hand, I would never "get into bed" with Ebay.  I view Ebay as a toxic business.

Also, that's really cruel to do to their regular "used clothing sellers".  I would be PISSED right now, if I were in the business.

Just another reason to create your own ecommerce identity, instead of being "a guy who sells on Ebay".

by: moto-science

"Just another reason to create your own ecommerce identity, instead of being "a guy who sells on Ebay"

True that.....

I already do 8x the biz on
moto-science.con that I do on stressbay

by: pace306

Wait .... Im mean - ITS IMPOSSIBLE!

eBay screwing its very own seller? NO WAY (just ask some of the eBay chearleaders here)

eBAY WOULD NEVER do such a thing? Lie ? Steal? Cheat? We are just a VENUE?   (there they lied to the court in France)

Nothing new to see here - just another day of eBay hurting its sellers - nothing much to see here.

Oh - and QUIRKY is %1000 correct. GARAN-DAMN-TEED there will be no VERO abuses heaped upon the Twice group who has all this brand name stuff "just lying around".

I mean - you know - just to make sure since eBay sellers are pond scum - Im SURE VERO will abuse a few vintage clothing sellers "just to make sure" - but not at ANYONES behest of course .....

by: Philip Cohen
Web Site

"Twice" must have been becoming as desperate as eBay clearly is; regardless, methinks the Twice people who are initially taken on by eBay will soon enough be discarded by eBay; soon enough, those Twice people will realise (as did Craig’s List) that eBay is not an "ethical partner" in any sense of the term ...

The eBay executive suite—where the incompetent mingle with the disingenuous, the malevolent and the outright criminal, and the just plain stupid … http://bit.ly/11F2eas

by: Basset

I'm not worried... No longer enough stake in eBay to be worried. It is more like an amusement these days.  Stuff sells - then it'll be flat. Why max out inventory.  

Can I send my stuff that doesn't sell to their Valet? (or Varlet, as Jethro would say) Or will they consider that is has already been residing in the halls of eBay.  


As a buyer - we'll see.  Some of the eBay consignment sellers I've looked at through the years are way over my head and price range.  Other large scale operations were such a bad buying experience I've had to find a way to screen them out of search results. My best experiences have been and still are with SMALL SELLERS.  

If eBay the Seller sells in the high dollar range (might have to since a middleman is involved) - I doubt I'll be much of a customer.


btw - 2 local thrift stores tried this - cherry picking the clothing and putting it on eBay.  Both bombed AND PO'd regular customers.   Their eBay feedback rating got progressively worse.  They now keep a few things listed - stuff I would never be interested in.  

This endeavor may be more successful in other categories, but I doubt it.

by: aim04744

Go ahead Ebay. There is another site who is courting your used clothing sellers and is also raising funds needed to make itself a major player. I have moved inventory there and love the way they talk to and treat sellers.  

by: gizmo

Ill stick to offloading a 30 year collection at the swap meet. The larger items Ill put on choice venues. Im making money even though its hot.

I dont need to make all the money , there is a lot. A million items that 3 years ago, would be listed on the bay. I dont have time for their bull.

There really is no traffic , or sales on deadbay , so I guess they need to dabble in used items , to look good to stockholders. Makes no since. Little they do makes since.

Very little lookers , or watchers. Traffic on deadbay , is dead.

Good luck to all who call themselves ebay sellers , & congrats to those who dont.

Ill make a pile of clothes & sell them for $1 , better than dealing with losers.

by: Basset

Looks like the laid-off Twice employees  (per Sarah Perez Tech Crunch 7/20/15)
can get together with the laid-off eBay employees and compare notes.



AND, will the changes to RETURNS for fall affect eBay the Seller right along with the rest of sellers?  


A bullet-point quote from Jordan Sweetnam, Vice President of Seller Experience at eBay (from eBay for Business Blog):

'' Lastly, I’ve heard loud and clear that returns are not working in a way that respects the vast range of verticals and business models on eBay. Working closely with sellers we’ve identified a series of changes that will streamline the returns process to help you efficiently manage returns based on your specific business needs. We’ll start with our first set of improvements this fall and will continue to enhance this into next year.”


Oh dear. The winds of change are blowin'. Again.

by: maxmad

the guys from Twin are going to learn how fast ebay will destroy their once valued company, hope they cut a good deal,

Attention ebay clothing sellers, Have no worries, ebay will eventually fail at this, just like every thing else they try to do, but unfortunately while they fail at it completely, they will destroy your business in the process, favouring their listings instead of yours, be prepared for it.    

by: Russ

Maybe next will be TIAS or Ruby Lane or both for antiques and collectibles.

Thought your listings have been invisible for such a long time recently....hmmm.

''Valet'' the antiques and collectibles, throw in a VERO-like entity (pretty much already in place with all the self-titled ''expert'' sellers on the site) and bam...your collectible and antiques business on eBay is on its way...

by: Rexford

More evidence of Wenig re-connecting with small sellers.  LOL

And Maxmad is correct--how many of these schemes have eBay toyed with, failed, and moved on.

by: serioussellers

In light of the current invisibility of many small sellers' clothing items (as well as many other types of items) in search results, does this mean that this new Clothing Consortium (together with the Chinese sellers) will have eBay all to themselves?

@aim04744 - Perhaps you would be so kind as to share your information with all of us --- or at least with Ina (for a future article on the best current venues for vintage/used/new clothing).

Certainly many sellers have noticed that in the last few days, phone calls & emails from eBay have dramatically escalated.

Allegedly, if we pay for promotional ads or upgrade to a higher store level (or lock in the rent for an ''invisible'' store at an annual rate), eBay magic will somehow fix things for us & all the other small sellers with no business. Our clothing items, our collectibles, our vintage furniture, etc. allegedly will start appearing & will start selling if we just take their wise recommendations to spend more.

Certainly no one is believing this nonsensical PR/marketing. The CS people think they also have to send out bizarre helpful emails to give refresher courses to all of us who have somehow simultaneously lost our business abilities & skills.  Apparently none of us are selling because we have unfortunately forgotten how to properly take photos, write titles & descriptions, etc.  The inane (& insane) suggestions from eBay about how to remedy our failings are truly bizarre.

After several recent calls to eBay we even got an email in which they confirmed their astounding phone suggestion -- that when our items are not shown in search results ... we should try to encourage sales by providing the item numbers to people we know who might be interested in those types of things. Their position is that the items can be located & eventually seen by potential buyers who have the item numbers. So it is supposedly the obligation of the sellers with hidden items/stores to encourage some type of eBay treasure hunt with item numbers.  

Recent CSRs confirmed what we know from several past situations (& revelations from CSRs in recent years) with frantic customers in our B & M store who were about to purchase an item available only on our eBay store -- but then could not since it did not come up when they searched a second time (& we confirmed that it had not been purchased by anyone else).  The CSRs confirmed (what we knew) that if one of our items is invisible, it will usually not come up in search results even if searching with the EXACT listing title -- but it will magically appear if searched by item number.

So all the frustrated buyers & sellers whose search results come up empty (when they know that the same search should show dozens or hundreds of results -- or at least the results they saw when they did the same search a few minutes earlier) now just need to hire a person or service with magical (ESP) psychic abilities that can reveal the needed item numbers!!!

So if your search for J. Crew black leather size 10 skirts suddenly shows zero results (instead of the 10 it showed five minutes earlier), just find someone with clairvoyant abilities who can give you the item numbers of the ones you liked best.

So, isn't it absolutely such a relief to know that with the item numbers in hand the frustrated buyers can finally locate items on eBay?  WHAT BUYER/SELLER IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD EVEN DEAL WITH THIS ??

eBay's position is that so many sellers are failing or have failed because they don't know how to run businesses. Astute business owners can't succeed in an environment of manipulation, theft, coercion, deceit & insanity (& a virtual total lack of basic common sense).

Maybe eBay will start offering special Clairvoyant Treasure Hunting Search Services. For a fee they will show you the listings that are just periodically hidden/buried, and for a larger fee they might just show some of the ''good stuff'' that they have kept invisible for days, weeks or months!      

by: maxmad

Have they announced who is going to model their ''Worn Socks'' category ?

by: sells-a-lot

I'm not too worried about it, pretty sure that the prices will be just high enough that people will still buy from me.

Of course, Ebay will give their overpriced listings more exposure which doesn't help.

All the more reason to list more and more of my items off Ebay. They are missing out on more and more FVFs from me these days when stuff sells elsewhere. Of course, Ebay will probably just end up buying out those companies too and shutting them down.  

by: Tiffee Jasso

You have to wonder who will pay the two-way postage for returns, Ebay or consignee? Or will there be no returns for items sold by Valet? Return rate on clothing is much higher than for other items, barring electronics and games.  

by: BargainzBabylon

I suspect most of the takers for the eBay Valet program will be casual sellers who are just as happy to ship their stuff off for eBay fulfillment for a cut of the profits and not hassle with it. The rest of us will continue to cut out the middleman and sell directly. Eh - whatever.  

by: Rexford

July 2011: Five more senior executives are leaving Thomson Reuters Corp in a shake-up of its Markets division, which has posted disappointing revenue growth amid slow sales of a key new product.

The departures follow that of Markets chief Devin Wenig, announced on Thursday and reflect the concerns of the board and the controlling shareholder, Canada's Thomson family, about the performance of the division.

So how exactly did someone from an information company end up at an ecommerce company? What was the vetting process?