Yes Please PayPal. Pay Me Later!
Paypal has released a new product in the US, called Pay Me Later.
According to the press release on May 15 2008,
Starting today, eBay buyers in the United States can take advantage of Pay Later’s financing offer of no payments for 90 days for qualifying purchases between $50 and $199.
With Pay Later, buyers now have more ways to pay for items at checkout and can use Pay Later even if they don’t have a PayPal account. The streamlined application can be completed in 30 seconds and provides a buyer with instant access to credit.
Sellers also benefit through increased sales and higher selling prices. According to a study conducted by Northstar Research Partners commissioned by PayPal, 56 percent of PayPal users are more likely to purchase from a merchant if a PayPal deferred payment option is available.1 Pay Later purchases are the same as regular PayPal purchases: the sellers are paid quickly, and standard PayPal fees apply. Sellers who accept PayPal on eBay will automatically offer the Pay Later payment option.
I well and truly put my hand up to accept any new product opportunities like this, especially with all the market changes going on.
For higher priced item seller and product like this could be great in Australia. Australian TV is awash with ‘No money down, pay nothing for 4 years, interest free’ commercials for whitegoods, computers and furniture. It is a popular marketing model here and a product like this for Paypal users can only help to boost ASPs and conversion rates on eBay (and on our own websites!).
I hope it arrives in Oz soon…
My Personal Experience with the eBay.com.au Feedback Changes
OK, so the feedback system on eBay.com.au has now rolled out.
The world is taking notice too, with some heated discussion on Ina’s blog AuctionBytes, and I am sure elsewhere too.
Let me start by saying it’s never going to be a perfect system. Of course there was always going to be opportunity to abuse the system, by using feedback extortion or other pressures, retaliatory feedback and so on.
But to now count a neutral as a negative? I find that a bit hard to swallow.
Has Your Feedback Score Worsened Recently?
If your eBay seller feedback score has dropped, don’t be too alarmed as many other sellers will notice the same thing in Australia.
eBay has just rolled out their feedback changes, now counting neutrals ‘as negatives’ when calculating your feedback, and ignoring feedback older than 12 months.
See the full list of changes here.
Most of our account ratings have fallen a little, and I did some quick checks of other sellers around too. Most others have fallen too.
There will be plenty of sellers concerned now that they are unable to leave negatives for buyers. With a popup box appearing on the Australian eBay site now stating
Buyers, you can no longer receive negative or neutral Feedback from sellers. You should leave honest and accurate Feedback without the fear of receiving negative or neutral ratings
will buyers leave more negatives from before, hurting feedback ratings even more?
I know this change is designed to reduce retaliatory feedback from sellers, but I have seen so few instances of this that I can’t believe it is that large a problem.
Here is a tool to compare your feedback in old and ‘new’ system courtesy of AuctionBytes.
Also of course, Mutual Feedback Withdrawal is now no longer an option.
After much consideration, we’ve made the decision to remove the Mutual Feedback Withdrawal process. The reason is that - under the new rules - it opens sellers up to extortion. As part of this decision, Mutual Agreement from third-party Feedback mediation services, such as SquareTrade, will also no longer be accepted.
The marketplace continues to change in some big ways … I notice even eBay describe them as ‘bold changes’.
Release : ChannelAdvisor Catalyst Conference Coming Soon!
I got sent this press release information from ChannelAdvisor today regarding their upcoming conference at the Sunshine Coast in July. The early bird discount rate is nearly over, so if you are considering attending to learn more about online business, how to grow and improve it then you might like to consider attending.
Yours truly will be attending (I will be sitting on one of the panels), along with many sellers that I know. It should be a great conference with a lot of fun networking. It would be great to see some of you there!
Press release below:
“ChannelAdvisor is about to hold our first Asia/pacific major conference aimed at the top online retailers in the Asia Pacific Region July 2-5. Around 400 of the top online retailers from over 10 countries will descend on Twin Waters for three days of intensive networking, top speakers and international strategy.
ChannelAdvisor (US) hosted their second annual Catalyst conference this past April. Previously, ChannelAdvisor hosted two annual conferences, ChannelAdvisor Marathon in the spring and ChannelAdvisor Summit in the fall. Catalyst is a combination of those two conferences, focusing on the needs of retailers of all sizes. After seeing the success that has come from the US Catalyst conference, ChannelAdvisor AU has decided to bring the Catalyst conference to our online retailers.
Catalyst is a fantastic opportunity for online retailers of all sizes who are looking for strategic and tactical information to grow and take their online businesses to the next level. Comparison shopping, search marketing, fraud management, alternative payment vendors, and multichannel management experts will be presenting real-time actionable information.
- Registration is only $199 and includes:
- All Conference sessions
- Lunches, Dinners, Receptions, and Refreshments throughout the day
- Golf tournament with Awards luncheon
- Welcome gifts and sponsor gifts
Bring the family! Spouses and business partners are welcome to attend all conference sessions with paid registration. Childcare will be provided by Club Dolfi and paid for by ChannelAdvisor!
Representatives from ChannelAdvisor, Trading Post, eBay, PayPal, Shopping.com, and GetPrice will be in attendance and will be available for one-on-one discussions in addition to their keynote sessions.
The ability to network with other sellers, buyers and industry experts will prove invaluable to the success of your business.
Registration is $199 until May 15 and includes FREE golf with lunch at Pacific Harbour Golf and Country Club.
http://www.channeladvisor.com/catalyst/AU/
eBay faces the angry mob in Melbourne last night
I have been catching up on the news this morning about eBay’s public meeting in Melbourne regarding the Paypal only changes coming in June.
I wasn’t surprised to hear that there was quite an angry mob asking questions of Simon Smith, Andrew Pipolo and Alistair MacGibbon.
I got invited to have an informal Q&A sessions with Andrew, Alistair and a few others before the general meeting. It was a small group of sellers, maybe 12 of us. The discussion was good, and we learned a little about the attitude of Paypal towards the change. It was actually floated as an idea in August last year by Simon Smith and Alistair and from the sounds of it, met with surprise by Andrew Pipolo.
Australian Auction Site Oztion Sees Registrations Surge
Since eBay Australia’s announcement that Paypal will be the only allowable payment method on the site (apart form cash on pickup, and credit card via Paypal), competitor Australian auction site Oztion has seen a large jump in daily site registrations.
According to Oztion,
… daily new member registrations has jumped by more than 250% since eBay’s recent announcement. Our internal data shows that 79% of buyers per month use direct deposit as their payment method.
A 250 % increase in your daily user registrations is pretty large. Although Oztion is a much smaller site compared to eBay Australia they have seen steady growth and are now more commonly discussed as an alternative selling platform by Powersellers.
I believe they could really capitalise in the short term thanks to eBay, and boost their seller and buyer base enormously.
Oztion’s resgistered member count now sits at about 250,000, well short of eBay Australia’s millions, but is still growing.
To be honest, I was surprised when Oztion told me their data showed 79% of transactions occurred with direct bank deposit, but in Australia bank transfer or bank deposit is easy and convenient with online banking. eBay’s payment percentages will be skewed because of international payments whereas Oztion is heavily Australian focused I feel.
So, if you are a seller or buyer, and like to use bank deposit then Oztion might be another place to try. Best to have your eggs spread around in a few baskets, and more competition in the marketplace is required I think.
PeSA Australia : Seller anger as eBay narrows payment options
PeSA Australia has released a press release today, in light of yesterday’s announcement from eBay Australia regarding the move to Paypal payment options on the site eBay.com.au.
Seller anger as eBay narrows payment options
Australian eBay sellers are angry at a policy change by eBay that will push transaction costs onto its sellers.
The new policy requires all sellers to accept Paypal as a payment method, whereas payment methods until now have been at the discretion of the seller.
Phil Leahy, President of the Professional eBay sellers Alliance (PeSA) said:
“PESA appreciates that eBay is focused on improving buyer activity in the marketplace. However, we believe that the current changes are at the expense of sellers in the short term. Paypal payments will reduce the friction of completing transactions, but the limitation of payment choice, higher cost of payment processing and limited real integration between eBay and Paypal far outweighs this benefit.
The change will result in increased transaction charges, as Paypal charges are higher than some other payment methods, such as bank transfers. There are also buyers for whom Paypal is not a preferred online payment method, causing concern that this change will reduce buying activity by such buyers.
The Paypal system is owned by eBay, so eBay will realise an immediate increase in its revenue. PESA says this also raises the question whether the change may be a breach of the Trade Practices Act prohibitions on anti-competitive conduct.
Mr Leahy said that eBay should be making the changes more palatable to its key customers by using this change to improve the system:
“We believe that eBay is serious about improving buyer activity and are committed to helping sellers navigate the rapidly changing marketplace.
However, as an organisation, we believe sellers would be more encouraged if eBay provided a positive impact to these changes. For example, eBay should be able to eliminate all non-paying bidders, which are a real cost to sellers. Such a change would help offset the higher costs that sellers will incur with the new policy, and could be funded by the extra volume of business eBay will push to Paypal.”
PESA has called on eBay to announce a timetable regarding fee reductions for Australian sellers, which it believes should be put in place before the new Paypal policy takes effect on June 17, 2008.
eBay Australia forcing sellers and buyers to use Paypal
In a big move today, eBay Australia announced that shortly only Paypal will be a viable payment option for sellers on the site, along with cash on pickup of items, and credit card payments (via Paypal).
According to the release :
These changes are part of our ongoing commitment to protect our members. We believe buyers will be more confident shopping on eBay if only the safest payment methods are permitted.
In 2007 on eBay.com.au those who paid with PayPal were much less likely to enter a dispute. In fact those using PayPal were almost four times less likely to have a dispute over their purchase than people who paid with bank deposit. Plus, PayPal sellers were almost half as likely to experience an unpaid item as sellers who did not accept PayPal.
The information embargo was broken by local press, resulting in the news reaching buyers and sellers before eBay officially told them. This of course has resulted in a torrent of angry posts in the eBay forums.
The Powerseller forum in particular was active, with 230 replies to one post about the news by mid afternoon today.
And I have to say the overall feelings were very negative. To summarise the local eBay Powersellers:
- Some sellers believe their main demographic may not buy from them any more (older audience) and only younger buyers will be confident to remain on eBay
- Sellers don’t want to feel like they will be paying higher fees as a result of being forced to use Paypal
- Annoyance that eBay stands to possibly boost their ‘take’ per transaction by disallowing payment methods like bank transfer, BPay etc
- Sellers won’t be able to offer buyers a good choice of payment options.
All in all, a bold move, and for my money a potentially dangerous one.
Maybe eBay Australia is being used as a testbed for the other eBay markets, we know this may happen. But is this a step too far? Trust and Safety is an issue yes, and some bold changes need to take place to improve the marketplace so a step back to take 2 steps forward should be the theme for eBay at the moment.
But is this 2 steps back, rather than 1?
I hope eBay Australia haven’t underestimated the impact this change could have in site GMV.
I could just imagine the staff at Oztion running around their office clapping their hands in the air with joy today!
Personally, 50% of our transactions are made with Paypal, the other 50% choose one of 6 other methods we offer. Most of these buyers :
- Don’t know how to use Paypal or what is it (they dot trust it!) or
- They don’t want to have to set up another account/login on the internet, just to make a payment.
I am going to be frustrated that direct bank transfer won’t be allowed, nor BPay.
Will sellers lose buyers on the site? Will sales drop?
The gamble is that business conditions will improve in the short to medium term as a result of these changes but I can see a lot of sellers now moving faster than ever to set up their own stores and find alternative channels to sell their products on.
Of course, most sellers will remain selling, and most buyers will remain on the site buying, but the next 2-3 months will be interesting. I will be watching our sales and keeping a finger on the pulse to see…
Newsflash - Attractive Models In Ads Boost Conversion Rates!
Yahoo auctions in Taiwan there are a growing number of females modeling for clothing sellers, helping to boost conversion rates.
Charlene Hung, General Manager Yahoo! Taiwan posts :
Items that are modeled by these young women are viewed 30 times more often and sales are 30% higher than merchandise that’s merely displayed via product images. As a result, more than 95% of our VIP sellers are now using these models. And that is, in turn, fueling the growth of online sales across Taiwan.
The growth of women’s wear sales on Yahoo Auctions Taiwan has grown tremendously over the past year, and currently an item is sold every 5 seconds. Pretty impressive!
Of course, using attractive females to product is not new but it is interesting to see what affect a trading platform can have, generating not only the opportunity for sellers of product to establish a unique business, but also enabling young models to earn a decent dollar modeling clothes for these online sellers.
Many are college students fitting the shoots between classes. Some earn more than US$6,000 per month.
Not bad money!
I wonder if some attractive models would help boost some of my site conversions? Anyone volunteering to model a fishing reel or guitar for me? No? Didn’t think so!
eBay continues to make changes - no more digital products!
eBay continues to make changes, and this time in Australia we get one too.
eBay.com recently announced that digital goods would be available to list only in a Classified Ad format and now eBay.com.au hasbanned them altogether. Apparently eBay.com.au will see if they can be supported in a Classified Ads format in future but for now its goodbye digital goods.
This will be unpleasant for legitimate digital product sellers who rely on eBay for marketing but I guess eBay feels that the marketplace will benefit from these tighter controls. eBay has to make some decisions that are going to upset people in order to maintain a standard and retain sellers and buyers, so I can see their reasoning.
The official line is this : “Digitally delivered goods are often reproduced at little to no cost to the seller. On eBay, this creates the potential for feedback manipulation (both real and perceived). To preserve the integrity of the Feedback System, effective 8 April 2008 all goods that can be digitally downloaded or transferred electronically will be banned on eBay.com.au.”
Link, for the full news item.
