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Spring has sprung as e.e. cummings once wrote and even the Internet is not immune to this season’s growth. eBay, like Abe.com, is currently launching a series of changes that will affect booksellers.
First is the demise or absorption of Half.com into eBay as a whole. It is hoped that this will draw in more eBay users that will utilize the eBay stores while using online inventory in auctions.
This is not surprising since Half.com’s muscle in the online book market lags behind venues like Abe.com, Alibris, ILAB-LILA, and the like. Many sellers using Half.com did so through the partnership with Abe.com and probably will not see much difference in their businesses. Half.com did not generate the sales it promised but that was probably due to poor marketing. Their policy of listing every title imaginable for a pittance may have brought customers to their door, but it likely led to frustration when many titles were unavailable. Additionally they were never seller-friendly, issuing refunds was an unnecessary aggravation.
Quite possibly eBay tallied the negatives and decided it was best to retain what it could from the site - namely sellers that would continue to translate into income. How that income will be derived in the future is what concerns many of the users. Will eBay replace commissions with listing fees or will both be applied? This has more of a direct impact on a seller’s business than retaining Half.com as a separate entity.
In addition to the change in Half.com, new additions introduced to the site are Item Specifics and a rollback of categories.
With Item Specifics, eBay hopes to consolidate information that enables buyers to find products (or books) that match their wants. According to their announcement board, keywords will still enable buyers to find items within their interest but Item Specific designations will also channel customers to particular goods. Where this falls short is for a general browsing where a buyer allows happenstance direct them toward a purchase.
Item Specific is a way of narrowing the search, guiding buyers to a limited area, creating a more purposeful search.
Rollback of categories is another concern. Most sellers would prefer an expansion rather than limitation. For them, each book is unique even if they possess more than one copy of a single title. The nuances that differentiate one book from another or determine value are quite different than the ones governing DVDs or videos. For example, if you are selling a first edition of Jane Eyre, you would prefer to see the categories filter down from fiction to Victorian fiction to English Women Authors, to Bronte, then on to edition, publisher, etc.
It may be that eBay’s reclassification has ruffled some feathers within their community but they are no longer the only game in town. If eBay’s new methods are not proved fruitful, booksellers do have options that are tailor-made to their industry and Bookologist.com will continue to introduce those options as well as monitor eBay as a selling site.
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