Feedback no longer working. System needs a revamp in order to compete with Amazon.

[sanzibar17]

When eBay began the feedback system was a hit and attracted buyers to the site. But that has now been supplanted by product reviews. Most buyers couldn't care less about feedback, they just want the cheapest price. Which makes eBay nothing more than a car boot sale.

Lets compare Amazon. eBay has much cheaper prices but people flock to Amazon where prices are higher. Why you ask? Simple, feedback has been pushed to the back. There are no service metrics, no top rated sellers but where Amazon excels is with product reviews. Instead of asking buyers to fill in service metrics and feedback it concentrates on buyer reviews of the product. The world has changed, but eBay turned the wrong way and Amazon turned the right way to become the worlds biggest online retailer. eBay has been pushed into 5th surpassed by Alibaba and JD.com. The Amazon model has worked much better, just ask Jeff Bezos. People want to know how good a product is not how good a seller is. eBay needs to concentrate on products not sellers. Come on eBay march into 2024 and give buyers what they want.

[plpmr]

There's plenty of places on the internet to check out products but just one place to check out a seller - feedback.

[m25jet]

eBay now provide 500 characters in the feedback field, up from the maximum of 80 that they used to provide before they changed the maximum amount of characters allowed in feedback.  Personally I'd say that this would allow more than enough space to give feedback on both the seller and the item that has been purchased.

[rare_treat]

As long as an item has lead to some feedback for the seller (and the item isn’t marked as private), then feedback relating to that product can be seen on / got to from the item page. Quite often people will leave feedback for an item in that review. At the least, a lack of negative or neutral feedback against an item shows it must be satisfactory, at least.
And, as @m25jet points out, the newer 500 character limit defintely improves feedback on eBay. And the inclusion of photos makes people more like to leave product reviews (but still as seller feedback).

I for one mainly used Amazon for the reviews. If you had a bunch of competing products, all similarly priced, then I would go there and look at reviews. But that is no longer the case (it hasn’t been for quite some time).

Amazon’s feedback system is very flawed.

Reviews are often paid for – some secretly, some with the free products for review purposes (and any reviewer on there knows the more positive reviews they give, the more stuff they get free!). Meaning rubbish products get good reviews.

Some sellers have caught onto a trick – they find an old product with good reviews, and then change all the details (I still can’t understand how Amazon can let them do this). Then, unless a buyer looks closely, they think all the feedback is for the item now for sale.

Sellers sell/supply cheaper alternate products than what is advertised. Because people are receiving generic versions, and paying a premium price, they leave a bad review. This means good products end up with bad reviews.

Similarly, reviews for bad sellers themselves end up as product reviews.

Generally, all the above is never caught on to / the reviews are never removed. However, if a seller doesn’t like a review about themselves, it’s easy to complain to Amazon and get it removed!

[sanzibar17]

All of that maybe the case but by restricting sellers with metrics and stopping sellers from being able to leave negative feedback for buyers has had a negative effect on eBay which has been seen in worldwide profits and the fact eBay is unable to penetrate lucrative markets. They need to stop putting handicaps on sellers. I know of at least 100 of my friends who no longer sell on eBay because what used to be easy is now difficult. As I said it has become a giant car boot/flea market where people want items for peanuts.

[sanzibar17]

You are all like Nero fiddling while Rome burns. The feedback system is antiquated and the metrics system punitive. 

Lets compare profits. In 2013 eBay made $8.2 billion, Amazon $274 million. In 2023 eBay made $10.1 billion. So in 10 years eBay profits have remained fairly flat. A 2.5% increase per year. Not very good. In 2023 Amazon made a staggering $30.4 billion profit. Over 10 years that's approx an 11,000% increase. I'm glad I'm not an eBay shareholder.

eBay needs a radical overhaul in order to compete with Amazon and other online retailers. It's no good burying your head in the sand and pretending everything is ok. In 2024 the eBay business model does not work. It is flawed at its core as can be seen by the flat profits. What eBay needs is a fresh approach. Get rid of the metrics and people still buy in there thousands from cheap Chinese sellers with terrible feedback.

As I've said people want product information first and foremost and using feedback is a poor way to let others know what a product is like. Most don't use feedback for product information. The 500 character feedback limit is good and should have been introduced 10 years ago. Leaving negative feedback for buyers should never have been abolished because there are some inexperienced bad buyers out there and we sellers have no real weaponry to defend ourselves now. A product review system needs to be introduced. It's no good saying people can find product reviews from other sources on the net because most are lazy or can't be bothered. If you start sending people off site for product reviews then they end up buying from that site.

Delivery is another let down. eBay must be the only major retailer without its own delivery system. Most major supermarkets have delivery options you can book for a 1 to 2 hour timeframe on a specific day. Convenience! That's been overlooked by eBay.

In 2024 people who shop online want product reviews at their fingertips, and a convenient delivery system, something Amazon has executed brilliantly and in doing so has left eBay in its wake.

I hope someone from eBay is reading this because nothing they have done in the last few years has attracted more buyers.