Quote:
Originally Posted by ADC
Exactly, there is just no way you can do so much business elsewhere. It needs a big rival like google to claim some of their market share.
If it was any other industry the government would step in.
Imagine if one company owned all the major market halls and stalls in the UK and charged the stall holders 12.6% of their daily takings.
Thats the equivelant of what ebay are doing on the internet. If I sell an item at £15.99 it costs me 85p to list it, 59p final value fee (with my 30% powerseller discount) then another 58p in paypal fees.
That is absolutely extortionate in anybodys book. How can any company justify taking 12.6% of someones turnover. That's not 12.6% of their profit, it's 12.6% of their turnover. So if i turnover 20K a month, ebay takes home £2400. Ebay gets paid more than I pay myself.
But they can charge what they like, because there is nowhere else for business's to turn and they know that.
It's also forcing prices up artificailly, if i was paying 3-4% on every sale instead of 12.6% I could pass most of that saving on to my customers.
I feel like writing to Gordon Brown. He can't do much about the lack of competition, but he should make them either sell paypal or insist that a different payment provider is also offered on their listings. He should also offer some extremely favourable tax breaks to big companies like google or microsoft to try and entice them into setting up a rival auction site in the UK.
As more & more money is spent on the internet & less in shops, it needs some kind of regulation by the monopolies and mergers comission to stop the rich getting richer and to force some healthy competition which will drive prices down.
Sorry if that's a bit of a rant, but at least I've got it off my chest. 
Chris |
Thats not necessarily true. The internet is not the be all and end all of buying and selling.
For every company/person that relys on ebay to pay thier mortgage there are many others who don't.
I think people shouild be more flexible and have different business ventures
one could be internet, mail-order, property, amazon. Offline business works just as well.
The thing is it requires a bit more work/application but once it does it's great,
and you don't have to worry about getting negative feedback and being shut down for 30days, and you won't have to worry about paypal holding your money.
For people who rely on ebay, it's difficult for them to wean themselves off it.
People should realise because the net is more or less a faceless medium trust is an important factor. Website conversions are around 1% I have been told.
If you conduct business offline (ie) mail order or visiting people it is easier to build relationshhips because you can see who you are dealing with.
I watched a programme called 'Mary Queen of Shops' on BBC2 last monday. The host of the programme was helping a struggling botique.
She took members of the staff to a Gap store in Manchester to see how they work. The manager of the store said on a Thursday night they get 1,000 visitors and expect to convert 40% into sales.
This would never happen online, unless you are a big player or firmly estblished.
I think it shows that the closer you are to youre customers, the more trust you can get and the bigger your sales can be.
People should still try and set up thier own sites, but not see it as the be all and end all, and they should not think that if they can't sell on ebay it would be impossible elsewhere.
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