If you think that you can leverage on Ebay for your digital products, think again…
Ebay has recently introduced a new policy that effective from 31st March all goods that can be digitally downloaded or transferred electronically must be listed using the Classified Ads format.
Using the Classified Ads format, sellers receive a 30-day ad at a fixed price. This solution enables sellers to continue to market their digital goods on eBay; however, because Classified Ad listings are a lead generation tool and do not result in transactions that go through eBay, Feedback cannot be exchanged between buyer and seller.
The reason Ebay gave for such implementation is basically to protect the integrity of their feedback system from being manipulated. The main consideration is that since digital product can be easily reproduced at a very low or no cost at all, one can easily purchase or sell it to build positive feedbacks.
So how will the ban affect the ebay users, buyer and sellers alike?
Here are some of my thoughts:
- This is definitely going to hit hard on legitimate digital product sellers who are making serious income from Ebay
- It will weed out penny seller whose main objective is to build their list with low cost products
- Seller may not get quality buyer list since there isn’t going to be any initial transaction via Ebay
- Result in changes to the business model, especially product fulfillment
- Difference in traffic since the classified section is a totally different platform compared to the auction system
What is your take on this new policy? Would you market your digital products in the Ebay classified? Or are you going to change your business model to include physical product fulfillment just to leverage on the auction system which is what Ebay is famous for?
Do drop your comment below. I would love to hear from you.
Popularity: 15% [?]
No comments yet.