Posted on 01/24/2010 8:43:24 AM PST by khnyny
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- As one of his first moves upon becoming CEO, eBay chief John Donahoe unveiled a slew of changes to the online marketplace, kicking off an uproar among sellers and sparking boycotts. Two years later, eBay is finally starting to see signs of success on its turnaround plan.
The San Jose, Calif., e-commerce giant on Wednesday reported 2009 sales of $8.7 billion, up from $8.5 billion in 2008. That's a 14% increase from the $7.7 billion in revenue eBay had in 2007, the year before Donahoe's overhaul.
EBay's profits, though, haven't kept pace with its sales growth. Net income dropped 8% from last year, to $2 billion -- putting eBay's earnings below where they stood two years ago. Gross merchandise volume, a closely watched metric tracking the value of items sold on eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500), was essentially flat from last year and down slightly from 2007.
"These turnaround efforts are paying off," Donahoe said Wednesday on a conference call with analysts.
That's a sharp change from the tone he adopted last year, as the company struggled through its changes.
"This business has continued to fall short of our expectations and customers' expectations," Donahoe told analysts at a meeting in March. "That's not acceptable. EBay has a storied past. But it's a past that we held onto for too long."
The firestorm: In February 2008, then brand-new CEO Donahoe announced a major revamp of eBay's fee structure and feedback policy. The goal was to make the site more buyer-friendly.
The move inflamed eBay's core community of active sellers, which numbers in the millions. They raised virtual pitchforks and organized protests, including a week-long boycott. Amid a flurry of scathing blog posts and online messages, many jumped ship entirely and migrated their online storefront to other sites.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Sorry - but a buyer has potential to screw a seller over as well, and it will hit the seller in the pocketbook. There’s more to being a good buyer than just paying promptly. As a former powerseller, I would rather have someone pleasant to deal with then a super prompt payer.
Oops - I should have said ‘reasonable’ instead of ‘pleasant’. In any situation, there is room for miscommunications and problems. Being reasonable is important for both parties. That’s part of the transaction.
But I don't shop on eBay anymore, and that's the reason.
DAMMIT!!! I've been discovered.
Exactly!
When Ebay went anti-gun, I stopped using them. Thank the Lord for Gunbroker.com...
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