posted on June 10, 2005 07:57:46 AM new
Last night, I received an e-mail from someone that is on the Yahoo!
Auctions staff. I was asked this question: "What do you think the top
three problems are with Yahoo! Auctions?"
I guess they have seen my posts in the past and wanted to limit my
tendency for an extended diatribe to ONLY three problems! *smile*
Anyway, I've already responded with MY answers, but I'd really like
for EVERYONE here that's interested to post their opinions on this as well.
I will make a compilation and forward it on!
So:
What do YOU think the top three problems are with Yahoo! Auctions?
Also, if anyone wants to weigh in on this subject but doesn't want to post their views publicly, you can respond to my e-mail at:
posted on June 10, 2005 11:39:34 AM new
Previously, I would have said the fees. That's no longer relevant.
1) Non-paying bidders. Bidders on Yahoo are not as serious as those on eBay. It's like a game to some of them. What can they do about this? I don't know. Back in the day, they could have made Paydirect mandatory... sort of like "require instant payment" works on eBay now.
2) Be more reliable and predicatble for third party listing services. My auction service supports Yahoo, but quite often returns some unexplained error on another when posting to Yahoo. This NEVER happens when they post to eBay.
3) Advertise. Both on their homepage, mail page and on non-internet sources (radio and TV). Their listings WILL explode now that they are free, all they need is buyers.
Keep in mind, Yahoo auctions have been around for years, and they have an excellent system. They have the software bugs and features all worked out already, unlike Overstock, who is still getting on their feet technologically and procedurally.
Some of us even have hundreds of feedback points already existing with our Yahoo accounts. All we need as an incentive to go back is the chance to actually sell something.
Yahoo COULD make a big comeback if they worked at it. I'm certainly more inclined to spend time listing on Yahoo than on Overstock, even though the sell-through results are similar.
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Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum sonatur.
posted on June 10, 2005 12:00:08 PM new
I agree about Yahoo needing to advertise.
The auctions are buried down at the bottom of the Yahoo home page under "More Yahoo Services" instead of being featured prominently under "Marketplace". It took me forever to find a link.
And while we're at it, let's integrate "My Auctions" on to "My Yahoo". My Yahoo is one of the best, easiest to use portals that I've found, but I cannot include My Auctions as part of My Yahoo page (at least I haven't found any obvious way). I had make a link to My Auctions using My Bookmarks.
Of course, that's all about selling. The thing they need to do is find a way to get more buyers. They need to do some mass market advertising, as well as promote auctions on their own site.
Do they upload auctions to Froogle? They should. I don't care if they're competitors. That's where people shop for price.
posted on June 10, 2005 02:15:06 PM new
My biggest complaint about Yahoo auctions is the listing of items in search results.
After Yahoo's own banner, item catagories, search box, and advertising links, you don't see many search results.
And the way the the search result are displayed, you have scroll and scroll to find items you want. Each item takes over 4 lines of space (and oversized fonts on top of that).
posted on June 11, 2005 03:00:02 AM new
They don't market to their own Yahoo email accounts. I have never ever received an email from Yahoo that they had an auctions site and I'm a longtime email account!
Advertise, advertise advertise. Whenever there's mention of Yahoo in the news, it never mentions that they have an auctions site. Yahoo is described as a "portal" site and a competitor to Google. Hello! It's more than that.
posted on June 11, 2005 05:53:17 AM new
Decide whether they want the auction site to succeed on it's own accord or if it is just a venue to push traffic to the Overture Sponsored sites the get the click thru revenue. If the auction site is going to succeed they need to reconsider the layout of ads. The current layout is a detriment to auction sellers. Keep the ads on the side but get rid of the top and boottm (or at very least the bottom) ads.
Take a good long look the the Japan site and what has worked there. In advertising, play off the fact the site was so popular in Japan the it chased eBay out. Have some fun with it... Japans auction Godzilla is coming to take over America.
Put the link back at the top so that people can actually find it.
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No, I'm saying -- I'm merely -- I'm saying what I'm saying. I don't know why I'm always having people say, are you trying to say -- you know what you can do if you want to know what I'm saying is listen to what I'm saying. What I'm saying is what I said ...
posted on June 12, 2005 09:29:17 PM new
Looks like they did make one improvement. They now allow 5 relists, up from two. Since Yahoo is going to be somewhat of a parking lot for slower moving items, this change will be good for sellers so they don't have to relist as often. This in turn will allow you to list your better items on Ebay and keep most of your time over there.
posted on June 14, 2005 02:00:20 PM new
Thanks for all your responses! I've passed them along.
Here is a little "news" that I can report:
(1.)If numbers keep improving, it is likely that "Auctions" will be put back on top of the Yahoo! main page.
(2.)Yahoo! staff is also working on SEO (search engine optimization) changes for all of auction pages, to get higher placement in search engines. And working on feeds to prominently include auctions in other sites, such as Froogle and Yahoo! Shopping. Money MAY also be made available to buy Google AdWords and Overture placement for auctions results.
(3.)Sellers, keep using that feedback box! It helps Yahoo! Staff to convince Y! management to make changes, especially when a lot of people send the same suggestion!
posted on July 5, 2005 09:09:41 PM new
Allow dutch auctions again. When they gave us back free listings, they took away dutch listings. Problem with the current system, it will not allow you to list two auctions with the same title. I have an item that I have a quantity of 8 that I wanted to list as a dutch item. Not possible any more. Problem is this item sold alone is cheaper in the stores once shipping is figured in. Most of my sales on this item is for two or more. I can see the need to curb the amount of same item auctions, but the need for dutch listings is there. Maybe limit them to 10 items.
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Alive in 2005
