ebay power seller

In a move clearly designed to see how well large retailers will do selling on eBay - and to boost fixed-price listings with free shipping and other perks - the auction giant in spring struck a secret deal with Buy.com, allowing the online retailer to sell products without paying the usual fees charged to its other merchants.

The deal comes as auctions seem to be losing popularity among online shoppers who want faster transaction cycles once they find what they want, and as eBay struggles to maintain its dominance as the "it" online marketplace and therefore continue its growth.

What makes the Buy.com arrangement especially interesting is that eBay has yet to formally announce the deal. Details are being kept private, so sellers and bloggers really have only their own experience and anecdotes to rely on for information.

Power Sellers say that eBay began promoting Buy.com merchandise in its search results in spring, after testing the cross-listing partnership in the winter - without making any official announcements to the community.

Power Sellers Saying Sayonora

OThe Buy.com partnership is clearly upsetting sellers, who call the deal unfair and say that Buy.com inventory is flooding the eBay marketplace. One report puts the number of fixed-price listings on eBay since the arrangement at 5 million, for items including books, DVDs, video games and home appliances.

At eBay Live 2008, several Power Sellers voiced concern over the Buy.com deal to Ecommerce-Guide.com. "They're flooding the market, they're not paying thousands of dollars in fees each month like the rest of us (Power Sellers), and so there's no level playing field," said one seller who asked to remain unnamed for fear of reprisal. "And the whole thing, the way we found out about it, it's this secret deal. It's just so unfair."

In fact, sellers attending eBay Live in Chicago last month said the Buy.com deal is making them prepare to leave for other online marketplaces.

"Everyone is saying that with the recent changes eBay is favoring Power Sellers, but that's not necessarily true," said the veteran eBay merchant. "It's a death by a thousand cuts - fee changes, feedback changes and now the Buy.com deal, it's prompting me to get ready to leave and go to Amazon."

Perhaps in an effort to make it seem like it wasn't accommodating just Buy.com, eBay announced in Chicago a new level for super-Power Sellers - the Diamond tier.

Dinesh Lathi, vice president of seller experience said, "We are launching a new Diamond level for PowerSellers with $500,000 or 50,000 items in sales a month, who also maintain 4.8s or above across all their DSRs. Diamond PowerSellers get the same baseline benefits as Titanium PowerSellers. In addition, eBay may consider alternative fee structures for Diamond PowerSellers. Consideration for alternative fee structures will be made on a case by case basis."

While some eBayers believe this is a disguise for allowing Buy.com to list without paying many of the fees, eBay management said it is an incentive to attract high-volume e-tailers and for smaller ones to grow their business since the case-by-case negotiations are open to any merchant who qualifies.

Neutrals and Negative Feedback News

In other eBay news, management reversed its controversial stance on how it processes neutral feedback. eBay had been counting "netural" feedback as negative, defending this position by saying that research showed that shoppers leaving neutrals actually had unsatisfactory buying experiences. Many sellers vehemently disagreed with this approach, and told eBay executives at many eBay Live discussion forums.

In this case, eBay listened. Lorrie Norrington, president of global marketplace operations, recently announced neutrals will no longer be counted in feedback percentages.

In her blog, she wrote, "Effective in late August, neutrals will no longer be counted as part of the Feedback percentage. This means we will be recalculating Feedback percentages retroactively for users worldwide. In the interim, no one will lose their Power Seller status as a result of neutrals being included in their Feedback percentage."

She also announced that eBay will improve its conflict-resolution process by the end of October. Sellers voiced concern over the lack of options for changing negative feedback due to mistakes and reconciliations.

"Everybody makes mistakes, buyers and sellers alike, and buyers should have a mechanism to change feedback if they make a mistake or if the seller rectifies an issue in a timely manner," Norrington said. "Unlike with our previous Mutual Feedback Withdrawal system, our new process will enable buyers to change their feedback of the seller, not just withdraw the rating. We'll provide more details of this new process in the fall."