As many of you know, one of the primary ways I have been "making a living" for the past 15-odd years is through having a couple of (sometimes more) online businesses that primarily are conducted through eBay.
eBay has changed a lot through the years. When I created my first account there in 1998, it was more or less like a giant online garage sale and collectibles market for individual traders all over the world.
What was so cool about it was that whether you collected Beanie Babies, MTG cards or antique pottery, suddenly you had a means by which to access thousands of fellow collectors all around the world... and suddenly there was an open marketplace for buying, selling and trading.
What will YOU harvest?
Growth Means it Goes to Shit?
In time, what I have come to see as the "inevitable" evolution in a westernized capitalist market came to pass: Individuals got increasingly squeezed out, at the hands of large organizations and corporate sellers.
I tend to think of it as the "WalMart-ization" of an industry.
And — ironically — the last time I ordered office supplies on eBay, the seller actually turned out to be Sam's Club, a division of Wal-Mart!
Now, I'm not going to editorialize at length on the process, I'm simply going to point it out.
eBay is currently in the final phase of "WalMart-ization;" they became a publicly traded company. Effect? The focus now shifts from "providing a product/service" to "maximizing profits at all costs to satisfy investors."
Having worked for a couple of startups that became Fortune-500 companies, I have experienced that process, up close and personal.
All in all, I'd rather be on the beach...
So You Should Just LOWER THE PRICE!
So to circle back to what got me in a slightly "ranty" mood, one of eBay's newest "features" for sellers is that they keep track of your listings, and if someone adds one of your items as a favorite, eBay shoots you out a message saying "Your items have be put in shopping carts! Lower the price now to make the sale!"
With so many small business people "barely making it," in the first place, knocking 10% off the price of something only serves eBay's immediate goals: To increase their sales, so they can collect more seller fees, so their can keep profits growing and keep INVESTORS happy.
Of course, it's a short term strategy with more sinister long term implications.
Sure, I could knock 10% off my price to some people, but here's the thing: It's a kind of "Creeping Elegance." eBay incurs little risk, I'm the one agreeing to cut my profits.
What's more, the price doesn't go back up to where it was before if the potential buyer doesn't respond within a reasonable time... it stays at the lower mark (unless I go back and manually change it). And then next time the lowered price item ends up in someone's shopping cart, what do you think will happen?
Yup. eBay will shoot me a note, suggesting I "LOWER THE PRICE" to make the sale.
Walking in the woods...
Anger vs. Sadness
Many of my fellow small sellers are just angry about this new trend.
Inevitably, some sellers are going to be desperate/hungry enough to lower their prices; so indirectly eBay is "guiding" the overall market lower with its new strategy.
Meanwhile, sellers keep getting notified that in order to combat rising costs, seller fees and other services keep nudging UP in price.
And shipping, and packaging, and electricity and what the heck else anyone uses in the course of running their business keep going UP.
I actually feel more "sad" than "angry" at the whole ball of wax.
From where I am sitting, it comes back to the whole "short term thinking" and "instant gratification" mentality we even deal with here on Steemit.
How can you expect to "Build For The Future" if you keep over-harvesting the present? You CAN'T!
Metaphorically speaking, SURE you can harvest and sell every last bean in your bean field to squeeze out a few more dollars of profit, but because you didn't preserve some of the beans to sow for next year's crop, you'll starve to death next year. But sure, you made "record profits" this year. Congratulations!
Thanks for reading!
What do YOU think? You may not be an eBay seller, but do you experience "short term thinking" in other contexts? Have you seen a "squeeze" between rising business expenses and continual pressure for lowered prices? Where do you think that's going to come from? What do you think the outcome will be? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 180922 17:10 PDT
Published via SteemPeak.com