Its Aloha Friday

Here we are again, another Friday. Aloha is a very useful word, on a superficial level it means hello and goodbye, it also means love. Aloha is a spiritual thing, the Hawaiian dictionary says

love, affection, compassion, mercy, sympathy, pity, kindness, sentiment, grace, charity, greeting, salutation, regards; sweetheart, lover, loved one, to love, to be fond of, etc.

About the same time Noah was getting off the ark I arrived in Hawaii with two small children and not much of a plan. Yes I survived, and so did they, how did you guess? Over the years life on a large rock complete with volcano in the middle of an ocean has changed, not always for the better. It has been a gentle change, barely noticeable, it crept up on us starting with 'the traffic light'. Cable TV, a McDonalds, Costco followed by WalMart and KMart, the big box stores have probably made the most difference. No more back to school with mail order from the Sears catalog or Christmas with the Wish Book. No more back to school, the kids grew up and left.

What does this have to do with eBay?

eBay has changed, everything changes but eBays changes have been discordant in the geological sense. eBay has not evolved naturally. Previous CEO Meg Whitman often talked about pulling levers when needed to bump figures for the analysts on Wall Street. That was one thing, current management is completely different. eBay today is like living with a volcano which erupts violently and without warning, causing earthquakes and poisoning the atmosphere.

On the blogs in the days since eBay Live a recurring theme seems to be "They just don't get it". Why they just don't get it is incomprehensible. Since January the selling community has explained, signed petitions, ranted and blogged. At eBay Live sellers reasoned and explained, ranted and blogged. They (eBay management) don't get it because they are not listening. They are acting, a series of charades, the words are listening, transparency, working. The body language tells the truth, control, rejection, impatience, boredom, watch the videos.

I think the only way for 'them' to get it would be to sit down in front of a computer and manually edit 3500 store listings to remove the word "cash" while simultaneously answering emails from potential buyers, processing and packing orders, restocking and doing the daily inventory check on renewing listings (which mysteriously declare you have 99 in stock when you know you only bought a dozen in the first place and have had sales). They don't get it because they have never walked in our shoes.

What I see more and more in what is left of the eBay community is apprehension. Management is talking about monumental changes to the listing form, feedback, checkout, communication and finding "by the end of the year". Here is the disconnect, the end of the year is the peak selling season. These 'improvements' will come at a time when sellers do not have time to deal with them if they hope to make enough sales to carry them through the mid January through March drought.

On my morning blog round today, The Brews News headline is "2008 is the Year to Finally Become eBay Independent". Randy Smythe's blog theme is "Empower sellers and get out of the way!". His a post says "Please do not wait until there is little hope left to make the change in your business." Scott Pooler continues the saga of his client who is restricted from listing and unable to find out why because there is no communication from eBay. Tamebay has a quitting eBay story. AuctionBytes is about pornography for sale in Buy.com listings, read the comments.

So much gloom, but it is Aloha Friday so to cheer y'all up, crank up the volume, listen to the Aloha Friday song, while you look at pictures of old Hawaii and put a little doo be doo in your day! (Translation below the video)

Y'all come back










Here is where I sit, all cloudy and blitzed

with the Primo bottles lying everywhere

Got a guitar in my hand and a Wesson Oil can

Under my okole for a chair.

CHORUS:

It's Aloha Friday, no work till Monday.

Doo be doo, doo doo be, doo be doo be doo be doo!

(Repeat)

The cousins all here, drinking up my beer

got keikies running everywhere.

I got some poki on the side while mama's trying to hide

the Miller and the Heineken beer.

(CHORUS)

OK. You know when you wanna get away, I mean one ting

about Friday ma, da working work is ovah yeah.

Frankly, ya, I feel good man.

I work hard all week long.

I can't wait to get away, you know like down like the beach.

I'm cruise dis weekend yeah, get one hot concert too man,

dat's the most important ting. But main ting too,

is to get enough money fo gas and to go out to da disco.

I like to see all da beautiful chicks Yeah!

So now I gonna jus kinda cruise, take my Bank Americard,

you know adderwise, how can I get money?

Right, plus den my friends always say

eh braddah, you can buy me one drink then.

THIRD VERSE

Kimo and the crew sucking up the brew

pulehu meat smoking on the side

All the surfers are a-droppin'

while the highschool are a-poppin'

down Kaluakaua for a ride.

CHORUS:

It's Aloha Friday, no work 'til Monday.

Doo be doo, doo doo be, doo be doo be doo be doo!

REPEAT

Is eBay Live?

Please go to Randy Smythe's Blog, My Blog Utopia! and read his post entitled
"A Walk Down Memory Lane" in which he reminisces about all the eBay Live conferences he has attended beginning with the first one held at Anaheim California 2002. It is amusing and educational.

Ina Steiner over at AuctionBytes has a series of retrospective articles from eBay Live 2007 held in Boston. I was particularly amused by her coverage of the eBay Live TownHall. Ina is currently attending the Internet Retailer Conference in Chicago. She has posted many, many pictures but these, one of the PayPal booth, another of Google plus (just for fun) Google Checkout were special. Thank you Ina!

Also last year, the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance (PeSA) published a paper "Unhealthy eBay marketplace Dynamics - Seller Perspective" available here. I found this quote quite compelling:

In the past, PeSA has not had an issue with eBay fees. Our perspective was based on value received and that as long as sellers were receiving value for those fees, we found it to be a fair relationship. However, over the past 2 years, sellers have seen eBay’s take rate of member sales increase, while the value received has diminished. Sellers, not eBay, have felt the impact of the additional cost and lower sales.

Beautifully put, and if they had just shut up there, things might have been different. But no! They went on:

eBay should reward positive contributors in their marketplace. Sellers that have shown outstanding contribution to the marketplace should be rewarded with better placement in search. If the better sellers are shown higher in search, then buyers would have a greater chance of a positive buyer experience. As more buyers have positive experiences, they will return and be more active. As under-performing sellers find themselves in lower placement, they will have a strong economic incentive to pursue best practices.

Sound familiar? With 20/20 hindsight vision; this recommendation paired with eBay's inability to comprehend the basic principles of retailing, and matchless propensity for getting it wrong is the root and cause of all our problems today. Go PeSA!

Interesting article from Scott Wingo on Seeking Alpha, he has just discovered that when you go to leave feedback a pop-up box appears saying "You should leave honest and accurate feedback without fear of receiving negative or neutral ratings." Knock me down with a feather!

This year's eBay Live will be held in Chicago from June 19-21. It is the first that has not only failed to sell out but is still offering tickets at early bird prices. I wonder why?


Y'all come back