Why EBay Fee Protest Just Doesn't Work

On September 14 through September 17 2006, eBay sellers in the United Kingdom and some in the United States vowed to boycott eBay with a promise to neither sell nor buy on the venue for a special “clean up eBay” weekend, but so far, impact is less than impressive. Sellers had recently become angered with eBay’s announcement that store fees would increase at a rate that some felt were beyond fair. Since store listings had been all but shut out from the search listings, sending store traffic to a grinding halt.

Many sellers feel that eBay’s fee increase had all but added insult to injury; others have come to the assumption that eBay is trying to discourage store usage altogether, hoping that sellers will have no alternative than submit all listings to the higher revenue generating auction core format. But eBay enjoys quite a large chunk of business traffic, a fact that sellers have not ignored. Believing that an eBay protest or boycott would force eBay executives to take into consideration the error of raising fees, sellers have been gathering on sites like Powersellers Unite, a site which came into existence after 2005’s unreasonable core listings fee hike.

Market analysts are quite perplexed by eBay’s apparent “shooting itself in the foot” strategy, but the fact of the matter is, protests have done little to rock the boat in the past, and it is likely that eBay protests will ever tarnish eBay’s reputation as a growing investment. Why does eBay come off looking like a rose when so many sellers have vowed to leave? Damage control, newbies, foreign marketplaces, and of course, the fact that many sellers rely on eBay to the point they can no longer fight Goliath.