The eBay Article You Must Read

With all the press last week about eBay's big layoffs you may have missed the best article on eBay I have ever seen written in the mainstream press. Instead of regurgitating the layoff press release, the article digs into the cultural issues that are at the root of eBay's malaise. The author, Victoria Barret, pinpoints the consultant mindset that permeates the company as being at fault for much of the current problems, and I heartily concur.

I was one of the senior managers on the "eBay 3.0" team that the article mentions, and through that process I got to see first hand how dysfunctional eBay had become. When the team presented our ideas to the executives, John Donahoe said that it was his "best day at eBay so far." After the presentations, the marketing group, which had championed eBay 3.0 to begin with, based the entire 2007 advertising campaign around the ideas put forth. But some within the product group never really bought into it and it was those individuals who, I suspect, ensured that the budget allocated for eBay 3.0 product changes never materialized. The eBay 3.0 team handed executives a roadmap, one they said was great, but they chose to continue on the same meandering, directionless path as before. Products still were built by consultants after pouring over reams of data, but data can't tell you what is going to happen -- that takes insight, intuition, and courage.

The Forbes article also includes a great quote from a "former strategist," who says: "eBay is run by smart people who don't use eBay and spend hours debating the data about how other people use eBay." I can attest for the truth of this statement, and I think it is absolutely damning. When walking the halls at headquarters, you used to see cubicles decked out with stuff bought on eBay. Not anymore. Indeed, one of the most elaborate such decorations, a 4 foot long eBay logo made out of Legos, is currently being auctioned off on the site by an employee who was laid off last week.

Where has the eBay spirit gone? The biggest single cause is that eBay has, over the last few years, increasingly relied on outsourced developers (who rotate into San Jose on shifts) and H1B employees. These are good people, but because of the temporary nature of their work at eBay there is less reason to become emotionally involved in the company. There is also no effort to instill eBay culture into the employee base (including contractors and outsourced workers). For too many at eBay, working there is just a job.

One of the ideas that I had voiced many times was to add each employee's eBay user ID in the company web directory. When eBay bought Skype, it added everyone's Skype ID to the directory, making the omission of eBay IDs all the more striking. This small change would give those who don't use the site nowhere to hide (and come to think of it, eBay IDs should probably be added to public announcement board posts too). "Oh, Bob, I see you haven't sold anything for six months... are you sure that the changes you are suggesting to the SYI page are a good idea?" Working at eBay without using the site is like being a chef who won't eat what they cook.

I agree with much of eBay's current strategy. The investments in trust and safety are long overdue, and growing the fixed price inventory available through eBay makes sense. But the eBay website user experience is still terrible. There is no product visionary in a leadership position at the company - no person who has the knowledge and the ability to look at the day to day process and say "this sucks!" and then follow through to fix it. There is no one person who can manage the user experience in its entirety and say "no!" to dribbling out changes week after week. A strategy is great, but if the company doesn't have the ability to implement it right then that strategy is just a bunch of words. eBay needs its product visionary. eBay needs its Steve Jobs.

When I announced I was leaving eBay, John Donahoe set up a 1 on 1 meeting with me before I left. During the meeting John listened intently to what I had to say about eBay in general and eBay Desktop (my product) in particular. A point that I emphasized is that eBay needs better product leadership -- a point mirrored by the Forbes article. I like John and I respect him, and he has been left in a terrible bind by those he replaced, who neglected eBay for years. At the end of the meeting John asked me to "be a good eBay citizen." I have taken that to heart. I am an eBay citizen, and citizens need to speak up when things are going wrong. The time for real change at eBay is now.

Comments

[Scot]

Hey Alan,

Great note and good insights from behind the walls of eBay.

So you're basically saying that a couple of product people torpedoed the eBay 3.0 idea?

Scot

[Robyn - Chique*Life]

If they didn't listen when you were there; I suspect that your sage comments will fall on deaf ears.

Thanks for a great analysis, and for confirming the "feeling" that sellers have been getting for the past year as working with eBay gets harder and harder with less and less to show for the effort.

[Sue @ TameBay]

Wow. Thank you so much for writing this, Alan. As a seller, I continally feel that those in charge at eBay don't use the site - so it's superb to have that confirmed by someone who knows what goes on. Would be even more superb if they took your words to heart, of course.

[Alan Lewis]

Scot - I don't know how eBay 3.0 was torpedoed exactly -- I know of some individuals within eBay who were against it, and as far as I know there wasn't a concerted executive effort to kill it -- just other stuff got the funding instead and it died on the vine.

[BMX]

Alan,

So how do we fix ebay?

And what are us poor sellers to do while ebay shakes our business around some more?

I enjoyed your article, but I didn't see much specificity in what needs to be changed. 'Culture' is something that is broadly used but never narrowly defined.

Thanks for a good post and look forward to your insight.

[Roderick St John]

Alan:

Some inside info to help me understand a couple of things if you don't mind.

How could eBay develop the Detailed Seller Rating system that tells buyers a "4" rating is good yet tells sellers a "4" rating is bad? More importantly, how could this gross error be allowed to continue as long as it has?

How can eBay justify a non-paying bidder leaving negative feedback for a seller for "item condition" when the item was never sent to the buyer and never seen by the buyer? More importantly, how could this gross error be allowed to continue as long as it has?

Thanks for the insightful post and best of luck at Ning.

[Totally Agree]

Why don't you and some of your tech friends start a new auction site so we will have a real place to sell?

[Martin Adamo]

Hey Alan!

I hope you remember who I am. I wanted to wish you luck with your move. Clearly you are a person to watch! Loved the Desktop Idea and you helped me personally and represented something which is now missing at Ebay. Ebay will come back and draw people are yourself back in. Its an idea too powerful for the current crew at the top.

I hope all goes well with Ning and that you can stay in touch if you have time. Id love to talk to you about some ideas.

All the best always,

Marty

clhct1@aol.com

[TekGems]

I think every eBay employee, consultant, part-timer, etc must buy and sell a tangible good once a month. If eBay employees saw what they put buyers and sellers through on a daily-basis, there may be more empathy and priority with providing a frustration-free web site.

[vzaar Jamie]

Very interesting post and there are similarities in there that I picked up on from my time spent at eBay UK.

The Amazon story was alarming and I recall trying to get a similar bunch of stickers sent over to us at Richmond, London as the number of Amazon parcels started to tot up. But it certainly signaled a new type of employee who was perhaps less in love with the ethos of eBay. A company has to accept that as it grows the types of characters that walk the halls will become ever wider in personality and background so it should always strive to push the company brand or the company product in a way that engages and enthuses the staff. (Reminds me of a friend who works at PepsiCo who had to change the bottles at his own wedding venue because they were of the rival red variety!)

For me the lack of true inspiring leadership from a tech perspective has seen the site lag behind others. It suffers from its own success in that it's size restricts it but there has to be a call to arms to really develop the product so that it can not only keep up with the demands of modern day ecommerce but that it can in some way lead it.

[Alan Lewis]

> So how do we fix ebay?

eBay is a public company and as such is responsible to its shareholders. Buy eBay stock, and organize an effort to fire its Board of Directors

> And what are us poor sellers to do while ebay shakes our business around some more?

Sorry to say, but there isn't much you can do that would do much good. Try to engage with eBay. Instead of publishing internet rants about your frustrations, talk about specific incidents, with details.

> I enjoyed your article, but I didn't see much specificity in what needs to be changed. 'Culture' is something that is broadly used but never narrowly defined.

If the culture and process at eBay is fixed (and if they bring in better product leadership) then eBay will be "fixed." It may sound like a cop-out, but I truly believe that nothing short of that will make much difference.

-Alan

[Alan Lewis]

> Why don't you and some of your tech friends start a new auction site so we will have a real place to sell?

I think I've had enough of E-Commerce for now :-)

-Alan

[darthoz]

Interesting that the DSR shipping time is really based on how long the USPS takes to ship the item to the Buyer. Why is ebay allowing Sellers to be rated on the amount of time it takes the USPS to ship. Should it not be based on the amount of time it takes a Seller to go to the local Post Office?

If one does not actively use its own site, how in the world can one develop a feel of how Buyers shop?

There are always those that stand out in regards to a corporation, football game, etc.. It must be time to evaluate what is wrong, make a new game plan and execute it. Your article brings up some key points that should be noted.

Aloha,

Oz. [-o-]

[Ginny]

Hi Alan,

Today I received a message on my answering machine from a very young sounding woman who said she was calling to let me know the recent policy changes on ebay regarding not accepting checks and m.o.s. Then she said that Paypal was having a promotional offering and if I signed up with Paypal that they would not charge any transaction fees until February 28. To accept this offer you had to be at least a Silver Powerseller which we are.

But we are not accepting the offer. We are going to let them cancel our over 400 listings when they come up for renewal. If they stick to their rules, the listings should end because we do not accept electronic payments and won't. I am looking forward to them canceling the listings. We will not renew them once they are canceled. They will not get further listing or final value fees until they come to their senses. I'm not holding my breath that they will come to their senses.

We thought that the fact that they left that message is a clue that things are not going as well as they had hoped. That perhaps there are not as many frightened sellers flocking to the arms of Paypal as they were expecting. Sellers do have power. For one thing they are the ones to pay the fees and if they don't list, then there are no fees. No listings, then no fees for ebay, no income for ebay.

So how much stock as a minimum do you think that each seller would need to buy in order to do what you propose?

Like you, we have loved ebay but right now we are the angriest we have ever been. Because something that we loved is being wrecked!

Ginny

[Jon]

A recent comment by a Health Care System worker"My customer is the Doctor not the patients" The resposes are most often the seller is ebays customer? Its the buyer. I joing with harry Rinker and choose not to buy on ebay anymore becauese of the no check policy. Ebay soon won't have to worry about the angry seller when the core buyers are gone.

[Janice Ungar]

You have just confirmed what many current and former (and I mostly count myself in the latter category) have long suspected. Ebay employees aren't users. The policy decisions that result are the reason that many of us went from happy Power Sellers to people that no longer sell and have an independent web site.

[Profaustical]

According to Griff, the penultimate sell out on the site - your comments are not accurate and you are a disgruntled Ebay employee.

Sad when current employees are staring at reality and insist that their state of denial is corporate wisdom speaking.

Donahoe lacks a complete understanding of the Ebay site, the history of it and has misgauged the depth of anger at what he has instituted.

I think firing Donahoe and the BOD wouldn't save the site now. It's too far gone.

I did enjoy reading your comments, with one correction. Investment in T&S stopped when Matt Halprin left.

[Alan Lewis]

Profaustical - where did Griff say that? Just curious...

"Disgruntled"??? I'll really have to have a talk with him next time I run into him at Peets.

-Alan

[Roderick St John]

Griff inexplicably shows up in the thread at the link below. He moves from awful to worst to promising all things bright and beautiful for sellers in "a year or so".

Not sure how many sellers will be left after the Anno Horribilis Vendidores Suspendidos Donahoe Tiene Que Irse Rapidamente

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=520036364&start=0

[Alan Lewis]

Thanks for the pointer, although now the thread has been removed (figures).

-Alan

[Gail]

Mr. Lewis ~ Griff has his own 'Ask Griff' eBay Discussion Board, complete with groupies who hang on his every word.

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum.jspa?forumID=1000000027

I've questioned his drivel several times on that board, but my posts have either been ignored or removed.

[Paul in Chicago]

My mother still sells on eBay and is frustrated more and more by them each day. They’ve really seem to lost their niche and their concern for the at-home, garage find seller and seem to have forgotten where they have come. I'm forwarding this site to her next. Keep up this intelligent conversation.

[help with dissertation]

Blogs are good for every one where we get lots of information for any topics nice job keep it up !!!

[seosoeasy]

Really it provided me some unknown information about ebay and sure i accept that in reading blogs helps us to gather some good informations for all the topics which improves our knowledge.Thank you.

[Sade Tagbo]

From a buyer's perspective, eBay lost it's "you can save money here" feel. There were lots "buy it now" as full price tags for every opportunity to bid and save. It simply began to look like another online retailer.