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eBay took users by surprise over the past 2 weeks by rolling out controversial changes to feedback pages, making no announcement about its' move to take away some of the transparency into buyer behavior. EcommerceBytes surveyed readers to find out how sellers viewed these changes and asked them for the reasons behind their answers.

The majority of seller respondents said they used the various features - now missing - to research buyers and said the changes that eBay made this month that result in bidder anonymity actually hurts them.

When asked if eBay should allow users to see the items a buyer has previously purchased by viewing the buyer's feedback page, 95% of sellers said yes, and only 5 percent said no. 76% said they frequently use that information and 21% said they occasionally use the feature. Only 3% said they never used the feature.

In the comments field, sellers said they used the feature to evaluate buyers before sale was completed if the buyer asked for anything special or asked questions that raised red flags. "Researching a buyer's legitimacy and history is imperative to trust," wrote one seller. Another wrote, "When I have a problem buyer I like to check to see what others have said before I block them."

It's not only for the seller's protection, however - one seller explained, "I like to be able to see what the buyer has been interested in so that I might tailor some of my products to them. It helps me to make them aware of certain items they may not have known were available through my store." Another said he used the feature to see if his prices were in line with his competition or to determine whether they should accept an offer on an item. Another seller wrote, "Wanted to see what the buyer was interested in buying so I can upsell them more items." Additional comments included the following:

"There are many reasons to see what they have bought. I sell cosmetics and I like to know if they have purchased this brand before, their shade choices, if they liked the products. I often check when some body asks me a question about a product, to see if they have bought a similar item that I can compare it to help out a buyer. If a buyer has complained in feedback about a product I'd like to know what product it was that they did not like. I like to see if they have tried to return used cosmetics, feedback often reflects a customers satisfaction or dissatisfaction."

"It helps me evaluate a buyer or potential buyer for bad buyer behavior related to fraud and scams."

"This was helpful for cases where a buyer says something is damaged and wants to return it. You could then see if the buyer bought the same item in worse condition and was keeping yours."

"I use it to research and better learn how and what to sell on eBay.. a necessary practice since it's harder every day to figure out what might take to make an item sell on eBay these days."

eBay took away the ability for sellers to see what items buyers had recently purchased, and it also removed the ability for sellers to view buyers' identity on seller feedback pages. When asked if eBay should allow still allow sellers to view buyers' identity, 92 said yes, 8 said no. 67% percent said they used the feature frequently, 26% said they used it occasionally, and 7% said they never used the feature. (eBay sellers can continue to see the identity of the buyers with whom they are engaged in a transaction.)

When asked, should eBay users be able to search bidders in Advanced Search to view the current auctions on which they have bid, 93% said yes, and 7% said no. 51% had used the feature frequently; 39% said they used it occasionally, and 10% said never.

Respondents were more split when it came to the question, "Do the recent changes eBay has made this month that result in increased bidder anonymity help or hurt buyers?" 43% said it hurts buyers; 27% said it neither helped nor hurt buyers; 22% felt it helped buyers, and 8% said "don't know."

But when asked if the recent changes eBay made this month had resulted in increased bidder anonymity help or hurt sellers, the majority (92%) said it hurt sellers.

We asked sellers what impact eBay changes that increase bidder anonymity would have on the eBay marketplace (answers were not mutually exclusive):

Users will be hurt by shill bidders: 74.9%
Buyers will buy more on eBay knowing they have greater anonymity: 9.4%
Sellers will be hurt by scam buyers: 88.2%
Sellers will have a harder time dealing with complaints and open cases 85.%

When asked, did you ever provide eBay with input requesting increased buyer anonymity or requesting any of the features referenced above, 98% said no, and only 2% said yes.

Comment on the EcommerceBytes Blog.

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About the author:

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com.

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