Last week we wrote about a boycott of online auction site eBay that was organized by sellers angry over recent fee and policy changes. We noted that the full effect of the boycott wouldn't be evident until today, when the consumer action was scheduled to come to an end. "If [eBay's listings total] falls below 12 million we've made a pretty good impact," eBay PowerSeller Nancy Baughman told Fortune Small Business last week. Listings didn't fall quite that much, but almost.
USA Today reports that eBay's listings were down 13% over the week to 13 million, according to third party tracking firms. Though eBay officially denies the dip, analysts see the seller strike as a harbinger for tough times to come for eBay.
eBay is facing stiff competition, especially from Amazon who unabashedly admits it wants eBay sellers for its Sell Your Stuff service. But more interesting than the success or failure of the boycott and what it means for the online auction industry, is why this action had a more significant impact than similar eBay boycotts in the past.
USA Today theorizes that the reason this seller strike was able to work where others in the past have barely made a dent was that organizers used social media sites to quickly bring people together on the issue. Boycott organizers created a YouTube video that has been viewed over 140,000 times, and they used MySpace to spread the word about the boycott and sign people up to their cause. (A Facebook group had much less traction.)
We've seen social networking sites be used to organize protests in the past. Earlier this month a massive political protest in Colombia that attracted as many as 2 million people was organized in large part via Facebook. While the eBay boycott was far smaller, the same dynamics are at play. Social networking and social media sites let people get ideas out very quickly, and allow people organize around a common goal without much lead time.
This sort of nearly spontaneous organization is a perfect demonstration of the utility that social networking and media has the potential to provide. More than just a place for people to super poke each other and share party photos, social networking has the ability to organize people to effect change. Have you ever used social media to organize some sort of social, political, or consumer action? Let us know about it in the comments.
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I think this is a great thing. A lot of the big sites like Ebay were the first and best in their niche. But then they got a little too big for their britches. They think their size and the fact that they virtually monopolize a section of the internet gives them the right to step on toes and do what they want. It makes me wonder if we need more customer service oriented people calling the shots at these sites. I was a retail manager for years. The things that some of these internet companies do would have put a brick and mortar store out of business. But they have the advantage that not everyone who uses their site knows everything that is going on. Ahh, we lost 1000 of our 1,000,000,000 customers, boo hoo. I like this. Hoorah underdogs.
Posted by: Stephan Miller | February 25, 2008 1:33 PM
I wish I'd known it was going on so I could organize a 'Buy eBay' campaign in support of the changes. I always pay instantly via PayPal, and yet time after time vendors hold back their feedback until after I leave mine, as an implied threat against negative feedback.
In my opinion, there should be one piece of feedback about buyers-- "Did they pay on time as agreed?" That's it.
It's also kind of funny that people think they're rooting for underdogs when they root for eBay Power Sellers. Yeah, right. The changes eBay made already made the marketplace more trustworthy for buyers, I would have thought that would be applauded, but I guess you can get a movement supporting just about anything.
BUY EBAY! Ahh, that fixed it.
Posted by: Morgan | February 25, 2008 2:11 PM
The "down 13%" statistic is actually pretty meaningless. (Do they mean down 13% from the week before or the year before? If it's the week before, did they factor in the three-day weekend?) And what about these sites that purport to track eBay metrics -- they don't really appear to be credible. Have you actually looked at them? dealscart.com in particular looks like it was put together by an autistic teenager.
There's something extremely fishy here.
Posted by: Jeffrey | February 25, 2008 3:35 PM
PowerSellersUnite.com appears to be the best, or at least most complete, of the third party tracking sites: http://db.powersellersunite.com/auctionsitewatch.php/
But they all tell more or less the same story.
As for the 13% number -- it is based on the drop from the beginning of the boycott last week. That number is muddied a bit, though, because eBay recently ran some sort of pricing special which I would wager got a lot of casual eBayers to list last week when the boycott started (and there appears to have been a spike in listings around that time).
The numbers, as I pointed out last week are to be taken with a large grain of salt -- eBay experiences listing fluctuations fairly often, so it's hard to tell if the boycott had much effect.
The real story here, in my opinion, is how people are beginning to use social networks to mobilize around causes and motivate others to action.
Posted by: Josh Catone
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February 25, 2008 4:13 PM
Sellers pay eBay's salary. Sellers should have the right to leave whatever feedback they see fit, whenever they see fit.
BUYERS - to see how a seller leaves feedback, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO is check their feedback left for others, note the time and date, and check it against when that person left feedback for them. If they leave feedback after they receive it, and that bothers you, DON'T BID. Also, READ THE ENTIRE AUCTION BEFORE YOU BID AND YOU WON'T HAVE A F***ING PROBLEM 99.9% OF THE TIME.
Buyers need to stop being illiterate.
eBay needs to stop pandering to whiny buyers who obsess about the whole feedback thing and realizing that sellers pay their salary. Buyers don't pay a dime to eBay to bid on items. It all comes out of the seller's pocket.
Posted by: eBaySUX | March 11, 2008 10:49 AM