Mass Layoffs at Alibaba's 11 Main, eBay Tools to Continue?

by: Philip Cohen

Whatever they say, you can always tell when a corporate spokesperson is being disingenuous—their lips are moving ...

by: ajeweler

they will soon buy freebay anyway and it will become either skybay or alibay however it cannot be as bad as it currently is, soon we will discover the lay off is ebay based somehow more than likely because of the tools used are the rights of freebay

by: sasikat9

Hope all the useless Ebay Customer Service morons are taking note.

I would be looking for another job soon if I was  one of them.

Good Riddance

by: pace306

Most of the 11main sellers (any of the bigger ones) are being called (like I was) to "be chosen to participate" in Opensky's advertising program.

I passed. Im not paying them the insane percentages they want OR $500 for their advertising campaign.

Going to Openskys site revealed that %99.9 of the items are no name Chinese junk.

Me ? Im staying far far away.

As for 11main .... I did $6,000 with them since I was approved. I would have dont $25,000.00 more - except the sales were all fraud. Some were caught by me, some by them. I had to fight to get them to pay me for the ones that slipped through.

They have no marketing or advertising planned so unless a miracle happens - they are doomed.

by: FIERCEI

11main is completely useless!

The site backend is user friendly but the sales are nonexistence.

I cancelled my account after 1 month.

Opensky is a joke...

by: Ebay Seller-Ebay Buyer

This doesn't relate to this news story, but maybe Ina Steiner and others would be interested to know that Paypal has now replaced ebay in the S & P 100. ebay is now out of the S & P 100 after the split and is moved backward into the S & P 500.

Highly embarrassing for John Donahue and all those who have been higher ups in Ebay the past 10 years.  This never should have happened.  

by: WOODJUNGLE! ON EBAY

The ONLY thing that 11 Main should have taken from Ebay was its ease and simple to use listing process.  The system that 11 Main implemented was an absolute headache and confusing as hell.     Websites/an interfaces should be made so that a user can navigate and complete tasks with little question or confusion.  11 Main completely screwed that up.  They've basically done nothing right, hence, they are where they are now.

by: laurengrace

I also had very high hopes for this company, but they had their hand in everything from the start much like eBay. They had to approve or disapprove everything listed and decide what items would sell. Well, they accepted my phone cases, but would not accept my vintage posters which is by far my best seller and money maker. Still, i had a real good Christmas with them but dead since then and before then. I agree that their forced sign up and approval process was a BIG MISTAKE. My items are still listed there. Have not closed the  account as of yet since i have had no sales in the recent past it has not been neccessary. Cutting advertising though doesn't bode well. Makes you wonder WHY they bought it.

by: pace306

The buzzards must be circling. I just got this email concerning 11main.

Hello,

As you may have heard, 11Main is undergoing some changes in conjunction with OpenSky.  As a result, we would like to welcome you to sell with us over at Rakuten.com.  We are a merchant-centric marketplace that doesn’t hold any inventory or compete with our merchants.  

Please visit http://www.rakuten.com/sell to register for a seller account, which only takes a few minutes to complete.  If you register for an account this month, we are willing to give you a free month of membership to help you get started.  If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me back or call my team’s direct line.

Business Development Manager Rakuten.com
85 Enterprise #100, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656

 

by: ignatz

Alibaba is successful in China because it is backed, and hand-picked for success, by the Chinese government.  No company is successful in China without the government's backing.

The debacle called 11main doesn't represent some brilliant strategy.  It represents how a company can screw up when a) it enters a market it doesn't understand, and b) it is NOT hand-picked for success by the host government.

It's likely that Jack Ma's only chance for success in the US is to acquire eBay.  

by: The End

If they had Dumped PayPal and instead used Stripe, THIS NEVER WOULD HAVE HAPPENED.
Idiots.

by: Tiffee Jasso

I hope investors are paying attention. Alibaba ripped them for a billion dollars and then took a hike and the money back to China. I worry about folks pension funds due to the bogus hype that is spewed out by CEOs and brokerage houses. Congress needs to get involved. Point this out to your Legislatures. PERs in California has sunk a lot of money into Ebay. (You noticed I stated "sunk.") How much they invested in Main 11, I haven't heard.

by: Eric Saeger

Well that sucks. I put a lot of work into our 11Main listings. It really looked they were going to make a run at it, what with all the discounting.
Yuck. eBay and Amazon again. Etsy is completely worthless.

I got Rakuten's "buzzard" email too.

by: The Grey Fox

Have had one sale on 11Main since April 15 and none in 45 days. They aren't even trying. And that 3000 shops and 2.5 million products claim is a load of hooey. The only places with that number of products are eBay and Amazon. Haven't closed my store yet because it costs me nothing to keep it open, but after looking at the crap on OpenSky I can tell my collectibles are not a good fit. Had high hopes for 11Main because of the Alibaba connection, but they've done little right since opening and have made so many no-brainer blunders that I doubt even committed new ownership can save it. I do hope they don't screw up Auctiva.

by: digger

Also received the letter from the Japanese-based Rakuten. I have NO interest in signing up with them ! 11 Main was a total con job ! Disgusted.  

by: Barbbie

I actually had a good number of sales at 11main. It was a lot of work but it seemed to be going well.
I will not be going with opensky, I may try rakuten eventually but very limited and will not put the work in I did with 11main. I feel very irritated over what happened here, it took months of work to get that site right and the items listed. Now for what was a complete waste of my time that could have been placed elsewhere.