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 January 2008 |
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***Message from Rajan Mehra - 2008: Looking at The Road Ahead*** |
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31 January, 2008 | 03:40 PM IST
Wishing you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year! I hope you have got off to a great start in 2008.
At the outset I'd like to thank all our users for their passion for buying and selling on eBay and helping us to continue the zeal of launching features and product changes to improve the user experience.
I'd like to take this opportunity to revisit a few of our key achievements in 2007.
2007 was an excellent year for eBay India wherein, thanks to your support and co-operation, we made significant progress in improving user experience, strengthening trust in the marketplace and focusing on customer service. During the course of the year, we :
- Introduced insertion fee which helped us improve the findability of listings and thereby improve the success rate for our sellers
- In July 2007, we introduced a simplified buying flow for Fixed Price items and introduced a Shopping Cart.
- eBay Gift Vouchers - an important marketing lever and a persistent suggestion from our seller community was introduced in September 2007.
- Throughout the year our Customer Service department's consistent effort was on improving customer experience and providing better support. Launch of PaisaPay phone support in July'07 was a step in this direction.
- We undertook Trust & Safety initiatives (e.g. Vetting new sellers and tele-calling buyers who have not paid after placing an order) to provide more safety for our buyers and increase buyer fulfillment.
- Introduced offline marketing programs including advertising on television in the months of Nov & Dec '07 to increase eBay brand awareness & we should see more of that in the coming year.
- We rounded off the year in December 2007 with the launch of New PaisaPay which brought about several enhancements to PaisaPay including EMI benefiting both buyers and sellers.
These have been some of our biggest milestones in '07 and without the support and enthusiasm of our community (sellers and buyers), this wouldn't have been possible. Having said all of the above, I also know that there are lot of things we still need to do to deliver on a seamless experience for our buyers and sellers and accelerate business growth, which will be the focus for us going in to 2008.
I'd like to take this opportunity to share the priorities for 2008 I've set out for our team in January this year:
- Maintain leadership and position eBay India as THE place to “find & buy” the widest range of products at great prices'
- Continue acquiring new buyers efficiently and deliver a great buying experience towards increasing buyer loyalty & repeat buying
- Improve seller experience and economics of selling on eBay
- Continue to invest in making PaisaPay a best in class product
- Grow cross-border trade
All the initiatives that we plan to undertake in 2008 will be towards meeting the above laid out priorities and some of the key ones which we want to focus in the 1 st half of 2008 are :
- Attractive merchandising and promotion strategy to ensure that we deliver a great experience to our Buyers
- Leverage our new features to improve buyer retention & loyalty
- Redouble our supply acquisition & seller development efforts in ensuring that our buyers have a wide range of products at great prices
- Enhance PaisaPay by incorporating various suggestions for improvement received from the Community
- With the launch of General Phone Support for all users in Jan 2008 our customer services efforts will work towards providing customer delight
- Continue our efforts to grow Cross Border Trade
Our community has always been our most vocal supporter and our strongest critic. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for support in the last few years and look forward to your continued support in 2008. I'll be happy to discuss the same with you in the Open House discussion . You can post your question in advance on this thread , or join me on Thursday, the February, 07 2008 at 5 PM for a live discussion.
See you on February, 07 2008 at 5:00 PM!
Sincerely,
Rajan Mehra
Country Manager - eBay India
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***A Message from Vidmay Naini – More Details for Evolving Feedback*** |
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31 January, 2008 | 03:38 PM IST
Hello everyone,
I'm Vidmay Naini, Manager, Trust & Safety, eBay India . I'd like to give you details about the changes we're making to Feedback over the coming months.
The eBay Feedback system was originally designed to provide a simple, honest, and accurate record of the buyer's and seller's online experience and to ensure safe and satisfactory trade. Over a period of time, we found that the current Feedback system was not performing to the desired objectives. Hence, we felt the need to modify the way the Feedback system works in the current business context.
We'll be making a few significant changes to eBay's Feedback system to continue to improve accuracy and accountability. Within the next six months, these changes should help to differentiate and reward sellers who provide a positive buying experience on eBay.
Repeat Feedback Credit
Starting in February 2008, we're going to give members credit for multiple Feedbacks from the same buyer or seller for listings that end in different calendar weeks (Monday to Sunday). We think this is a great change for our sellers (and buyers). If you are delivering great customer service – and it shows through repeat buyers – your Feedback score will reflect this.
Feedback Percentage based on Past 12 Months
Starting in February 2008, the Feedback percentage which calculates a member's percentage of positive Feedback will be based on just the last 12 months (and not the member's lifetime transactions, as it is today), although the total count remains lifetime.
We're doing this because a member's recent Feedback is the most relevant to their transaction partners. Over the years, many members have questioned why a single negative can affect their score for years. The Community has asked for this change, and we are happy to deliver. Going forward, any negative Feedback left for you more than 12 months ago will no longer affect your positive percentage.
Changes to Feedback for Buyers
To make the Feedback system more relevant to the buyers and motivating them to express themselves more freely by way of Feedback, we are making the below change:
Starting in May 2008, sellers may only leave positive Feedback for buyers, at the seller's option .
We all realise this is a huge change and that it's important we put appropriate seller protections into place so that buyers don't abuse the system. To ensure the system remains fair, we will continue to hold buyers accountable via non-public seller reporting tools, such as Unpaid Item reports. In addition, in May'08 we are also adding a number of new seller protections, such as:
- We will remove, not just de-score, negative and neutral feedback when a buyer doesn't respond to the Unpaid Item process.
- We will remove all negative and neutral Feedback comments left by a buyer or seller, when the buyer (or seller) is suspended. We're going to do this retroactively too. So all negative and neutral Feedback left by suspended members historically will also be removed.
Additionally, we're putting the following safeguards in place to help sellers avoid negative feedback:
- To promote communication, buyers will be prevented from leaving a public negative or neutral Feedback within 3 days after a listing ends for sellers with an established track record;
- We are reducing the number of days a member can leave Feedback from 90 to 60 days;
- We are increasing a seller's Block Bidder List capacity from 1,000 to 5,000 user IDs;
- We will increase our monitoring and take action based on seller reports of buyer misuse.
I'd like to reiterate that we realise these are major changes, and we will be watching carefully for any unintended consequences.
To learn more about these upcoming changes, please read < Upcoming Changes to Feedback (FAQs) >.
Stay tuned for an online workshop on the Feedback changes with me on February, 11 2008 at 5 PM IST.
Sincerely,
Vidmay Naini
Manager, Trust & Safety,
eBay India
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