Well, if you don't know it by now, here's whats really been happening.
For the past couple years eBay and Amazon have been going toe-to-toe in the major online markets. While eBay is more auction based, Amazon is more direct purchase based. eBay was in the lead up until a couple years ago when there was a new CEO, and I won't say his name. I could write a book on the negative impact his decisions made on our beloved eBay, but I won't. Soon, even with Amazons higher and more direct fee's, they pulled ahead and have been doing better than eBay for some time now.
Meanwhile, eBay had this little thing in the east, eBay China. eBay China was eBay's new baby, it was it's Simba (Lion King reference). eBay's place in China was thought to become sturdy and gain much more control over the online market place and also make eBay much much more wealthy. However, eBay wasn't thinking clearly, and obviously knew next to nothing about China or it's people. China wouldn't stand for having to pay the fee's.
What happens next? During the obvious decline of eBay China, a new little Chinese baby was born, and it's name is TaoBao. It's parent was Alibaba. TaoBao offered everything eBay did and more... and more in the sense that just about everything was free. Somehow, advertisements was enough to not only make TaoBao grow like a baby gorilla on steroids.... but it got so strong that it kicked eBay China in the head and buried it.
(I wonder what eBay would be like if they would have made their income from ads instead of by nickle and diming the people that want to sell their things and make money and thus lowering their profit. Oh wait, that's what eBay is starting to do, advertise other companies products before their own Sellers, almost giving them the middle finger and taking their lunch money)
TaoBao got big almost out of nowhere. Hell, China is big. With TaoBao getting bigger, so did it's parent, Alibaba. With both getting bigger, so did Alipay, which is their version of PayPal.
If you didn't graduate middle school, let me explain things.
All of the wealthiest countries, which we will associate with "eBay," are mostly Consumers. We consume things. You bring it to us, we consume it. Then we ask for more. China, which we will associate as "Alibaba" are manufacturers. They make things that consumers want and buy. They don't work for much, but saved over a long period of time, has put so much money in their pocket that they are now more wealthy than Japan as far as their economy goes.
The bridge.
You see, people who import or export things have always made some sort of good profit because a consumer could never just go to a Chinese website and buy something. Likewise. The "know how" just wasn't there for the average consumer. There was always this gap. People used this gap to make their money. I could go to China and order and ship a bunch of T-Shirts that cost me $1.10 USD a piece. Then I could sell these shirts for $16 USD here on eBay.us - Thats how I made profit. Now its easier for someone to just go online and buy those $1.10 USD shirts themselves. Hell, postage from China isn't even that much, and they don't have to buy 100 of these shirts to get them at that price. Well, if you have been looking at prices in China lately, that $1.10 shirt is now selling for $4.50 USD. Now maybe it can be sold for $10 USD on eBay. That's the bridge.
Now, back to the Fight. eBay and Amazon are still fighting but now they have this huge new competitor. That's Alibaba. Meanwhile, Alibaba is buying up things that sellers use on eBay, such as Vendio, Auctiva, and who knows what else. People use these to sell products on eBay, and Auctiva for example is very clever as promoting their company through eBay listings. You know who else might be starting to worry a little? Walmart, America's largest retailer.
Who could step in and help with the fight against the beast of Alibaba? Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and even Facebook.
Nobody knows for sure what's going to happen, but one thing is for sure. We are at the begging stages of the death of eBay. PayPal (owned by eBay) is still a major player, lets not forget that. But with PayPals constant nut-grabbing grip from the U.S. government and regulations... eBay's piggybank, PayPal, may be in for a surprise too.
Symptoms of eBay's Death:
Loss of Traffic (Check)
Increased Advertising Offered to Increase Revenue (Check)
Loss of Overall Sales (Check)
Lowering of Fee's (Not yet a Check, but we will see)
Minimal Fee's on eBay
and finally...
Lowering Fee's of PayPal while PayPal "increases security" by locking and freezing funds in and attempt to create a massive amount of interest.
PayPal will almost flatline.
How to avoid the loss of your eBay Business:
Jump ship. Other platforms ARE available and want your business.
Ultimately, Create your OWN ECOMMERCE WEBSITE.
Drive Traffic to said Ecommerce website.
Drive even More traffic to Ecommerce website.
Try to keep customers coming back for more products.
Do all this by learning more about how you can get the Search Engines to Work for you.
For the past couple years eBay and Amazon have been going toe-to-toe in the major online markets. While eBay is more auction based, Amazon is more direct purchase based. eBay was in the lead up until a couple years ago when there was a new CEO, and I won't say his name. I could write a book on the negative impact his decisions made on our beloved eBay, but I won't. Soon, even with Amazons higher and more direct fee's, they pulled ahead and have been doing better than eBay for some time now.
Meanwhile, eBay had this little thing in the east, eBay China. eBay China was eBay's new baby, it was it's Simba (Lion King reference). eBay's place in China was thought to become sturdy and gain much more control over the online market place and also make eBay much much more wealthy. However, eBay wasn't thinking clearly, and obviously knew next to nothing about China or it's people. China wouldn't stand for having to pay the fee's.
What happens next? During the obvious decline of eBay China, a new little Chinese baby was born, and it's name is TaoBao. It's parent was Alibaba. TaoBao offered everything eBay did and more... and more in the sense that just about everything was free. Somehow, advertisements was enough to not only make TaoBao grow like a baby gorilla on steroids.... but it got so strong that it kicked eBay China in the head and buried it.
(I wonder what eBay would be like if they would have made their income from ads instead of by nickle and diming the people that want to sell their things and make money and thus lowering their profit. Oh wait, that's what eBay is starting to do, advertise other companies products before their own Sellers, almost giving them the middle finger and taking their lunch money)
TaoBao got big almost out of nowhere. Hell, China is big. With TaoBao getting bigger, so did it's parent, Alibaba. With both getting bigger, so did Alipay, which is their version of PayPal.
If you didn't graduate middle school, let me explain things.
All of the wealthiest countries, which we will associate with "eBay," are mostly Consumers. We consume things. You bring it to us, we consume it. Then we ask for more. China, which we will associate as "Alibaba" are manufacturers. They make things that consumers want and buy. They don't work for much, but saved over a long period of time, has put so much money in their pocket that they are now more wealthy than Japan as far as their economy goes.
The bridge.
You see, people who import or export things have always made some sort of good profit because a consumer could never just go to a Chinese website and buy something. Likewise. The "know how" just wasn't there for the average consumer. There was always this gap. People used this gap to make their money. I could go to China and order and ship a bunch of T-Shirts that cost me $1.10 USD a piece. Then I could sell these shirts for $16 USD here on eBay.us - Thats how I made profit. Now its easier for someone to just go online and buy those $1.10 USD shirts themselves. Hell, postage from China isn't even that much, and they don't have to buy 100 of these shirts to get them at that price. Well, if you have been looking at prices in China lately, that $1.10 shirt is now selling for $4.50 USD. Now maybe it can be sold for $10 USD on eBay. That's the bridge.
Now, back to the Fight. eBay and Amazon are still fighting but now they have this huge new competitor. That's Alibaba. Meanwhile, Alibaba is buying up things that sellers use on eBay, such as Vendio, Auctiva, and who knows what else. People use these to sell products on eBay, and Auctiva for example is very clever as promoting their company through eBay listings. You know who else might be starting to worry a little? Walmart, America's largest retailer.
Who could step in and help with the fight against the beast of Alibaba? Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and even Facebook.
Nobody knows for sure what's going to happen, but one thing is for sure. We are at the begging stages of the death of eBay. PayPal (owned by eBay) is still a major player, lets not forget that. But with PayPals constant nut-grabbing grip from the U.S. government and regulations... eBay's piggybank, PayPal, may be in for a surprise too.
Symptoms of eBay's Death:
Loss of Traffic (Check)
Increased Advertising Offered to Increase Revenue (Check)
Loss of Overall Sales (Check)
Lowering of Fee's (Not yet a Check, but we will see)
Minimal Fee's on eBay
and finally...
Lowering Fee's of PayPal while PayPal "increases security" by locking and freezing funds in and attempt to create a massive amount of interest.
PayPal will almost flatline.
How to avoid the loss of your eBay Business:
Jump ship. Other platforms ARE available and want your business.
Ultimately, Create your OWN ECOMMERCE WEBSITE.
Drive Traffic to said Ecommerce website.
Drive even More traffic to Ecommerce website.
Try to keep customers coming back for more products.
Do all this by learning more about how you can get the Search Engines to Work for you.
