But at this stage, I feel Shopify has better chance than eBay on branding... The long term value and potential scaling effect is still the mainstream before we live under universal basic income era.
The untold origin story of eBay that I lived (2018)
51–60 of 61 posts
Re: The untold origin story of eBay that I lived (2018)
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
eBay has a lot of attackers: You have FB Marketplace on the local C2C side. They own kijiji (annihilated CraigsList in Canada at least), but it probably cuts into their eBay revenue. Then you have Amazon on the B2C side. And Aliexpress doing their damage on the low-margin direct-from-Asia side.
Aliexpress increases ebay listings (and Amazon). Facebook Marketplace competes with kijiji/craigslist. Doesn't really compete with ebay. Amazon, Wallmart take brand name product sales. Ebay is left with what is rare. Ebay's problem is shipping.
Would you be to expand on why EBay’s problem is shipping?
Re: The untold origin story of eBay that I lived (2018)
#53"In 1995 the ebola virus had its second major outbreak, 19 years from its first, and I discovered a fascinating website about it called eBay. It turns out Pierre owned it and wrote the ebola information. The traffic it drew would help his new auction site get off the ground." wow. Seems relevant today.
Yeah... "Anyone truly afraid of the virus can use eBay to purchase a hazmat suit of their own."
https://fortune.com/2014/10/16/ebay-started-as-a-website-abo...
Re: The untold origin story of eBay that I lived (2018)
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aliexpress increases ebay listings (and Amazon). Facebook Marketplace competes with kijiji/craigslist. Doesn't really compete with ebay. Amazon, Wallmart take brand name product sales. Ebay is left with what is rare. Ebay's problem is shipping.
Would you be to expand on why EBay’s problem is shipping?
Most people are stuck paying USPS rates. Amazon’s network of delivery crews is/will be cheaper.
And ebay shippers can’t consolidate shipments. They’re stuck at many-to-many. Amazon is one-to-many.
Re: The untold origin story of eBay that I lived (2018)
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, the shopping cart performance has gotten so slow lately, I've gone days without being able to complete checkout. Or some items would complete and others would still be sitting there, lather rinse repeat, and some simply vanish without actually being purchased. Some get purchased twice... If I were buying anything expensive, I'd care, but it's still better than Amazon for many things.
ebay doesn't have those problems in California, aside from adding items to the watchlist sometimes. You might want to try: - using 8.8.8.8 for DNS - a different browser in case there's a plugin problem - traceroute - a different location in your city, like an Internet cafe
I've experienced some those issues in California, though not quite as severely as it sounds the prior poster has experienced them. I've never had a doubled order, that I've noticed, but things silently disappearing the carts without being purchased at purchase time seems pretty common to me (and not due to items being sold out).
It's been compounded by the sales that force use of the shopping cart when I otherwise might not use it (because the discount is one time).
Re: The untold origin story of eBay that I lived (2018)
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aliexpress increases ebay listings (and Amazon). Facebook Marketplace competes with kijiji/craigslist. Doesn't really compete with ebay. Amazon, Wallmart take brand name product sales. Ebay is left with what is rare. Ebay's problem is shipping.
Would you be to expand on why EBay’s problem is shipping?
I think shipping is where vendors push price markups. One price like Amazon for shipping would change the game.
Re: The untold origin story of eBay that I lived (2018)
#57Amazing to see the picture of the BEST Internet server facility .. that was certainly a pivotal and interesting company in the history of the Valley. I worked there on contract a couple of times, got to know some of the folks - and it sure seems like it was a breeding ground of interesting Internet ideas. Matt Dillon, who has clearly proven his mettle in the time since, was developing his keen sense of social steward…
Smugmug was also there around that time.
Re: The untold origin story of eBay that I lived (2018)
#58It’s funny how Amazon feared eBay, and then failed to beat them — in 1999. But when I worked at eBay in 2003, they had the mailroom put a sticker on every amazon box that said “Next time get it on eBay!” And now the tide is swinging back a bit as people get fed up with fakes and commingling at Amazon. At least with eBay you know the product you’re getting is actually from the seller you bought it from.
> And now the tide is swinging back a bit as people get fed up with fakes and commingling at Amazon. That isn't actually happening at all. That comes across as what you wish were occurring. Unless you're referring to eBay's share of online commerce persistently contracting as they stagnate. It isn't a new problem, eBay as a force in ecommerce has been eroding for many years now. It's why eBay has a $22b market cap an…
There is no future for eBay other than in the belly of someone larger, and soon.
Why is that the only option? What's wrong with a stable, profitable company staying a stable, profitable company?
Re: The untold origin story of eBay that I lived (2018)
#59"In 1995 the ebola virus had its second major outbreak, 19 years from its first, and I discovered a fascinating website about it called eBay. It turns out Pierre owned it and wrote the ebola information. The traffic it drew would help his new auction site get off the ground." wow. Seems relevant today.
I thought that was a typo and that he meant “20 years before the second major outbreak...”
But no, there was an Ebola outbreak in the mid 70s. Kind of scary to see a disease that can keep popping up.
Re: The untold origin story of eBay that I lived (2018)
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being "born from spam" really explains a lot about how most eBay sellers communicate to this day.
Never seen that over the past 20 years (I have 3,000 feedback, so I would know.) However: - You can sign up for a store newsletter - in the past few months, ebay is sending auction time notifications, and pinging sellers to offer discounts to viewers. That's the only thing that has the spam smell, but the discount offers do help distinguish who wants to make a deal :)
To be clear, I didn't really mean "spam proper", moreso the flea market / carnival barker language, eg "REAL 100% HD VIDEO BRAND-NEW CANON REBEL 5T QUICK SHIP WITH ORIGINAL LENS KIT", that often obstruct the info I'm actually searching for.
I'm sure folks who use the platform consistently either know how to avoid that content or are much more efficient at sifting through it (or my anecdata of its frequency is way off!). I agree in my limited experience there isn't much in the way of "true spam" itself.