eBay CEO Meg Whitman resigns!

Well this is the day that many many people have been called and or praying for. Meg Whitman has officially resigned as CEO of eBay (USA).

Whitman has come under fire many times over the last few years with the main criticism being that fees are too high, customer service is non existent and that nothing is being done to clean up the "shonks" from the site.

Replacing Meg is John Donahoe, "During the last three years, John and I have worked very closely together to arrive at this day," Whitman said in a prepared statement, "and we'll continue to work together through the transition. I'm extremely confident in John's skills."

To be honest I don't know huge amounts about John Donahoe, but I am happy to hear of some of his immediate plans for the site. Tops of the list will be a fee decrease, to lower the costs of selling on the site. EBay USA, has intense competition from other huge hitting sites like Amazon.com, who doesn't charge their sellers to list an item on their site, only when it sells. This model, as seen on Oztion.com.au here in Australia, works to reduce the risk to sellers when listing their items, as they are only charged when their items actually sell.

Also on the agenda is eBay's antiquated search engine. The clunky system currently in place has long been condemned by sellers and buyers alike, for the fact that they "know" there is more items available but they aren't finding them.

The proposed search engine, will be intuitive and will take into account the buyers past purchases (since ebay own Paypal, this type of info is readily available). It will also give preference to sellers that match the buyers "preferred seller profile". For example if the buyer only buys from high feedback/low negative sellers, or sellers that offer low postage, then these sellers will have priority in that buyers search.

While some sellers may cry foul at the very thought of it. It will be a good thing for sellers who work hard to offer a heightened buyer experience, but it will be a great thing for buyers who have long wished for filters to get rid of the sorts of sellers that don 't wish to buy from.

What does this mean for eBay Australia? Well if this works on it's American cousin, then you can be assured that it will be brought in for our site as well. I for one can't wait, for some positive changes within eBay - the site used to be the absolute best auction site around which benefited, buyers, sellers AND eBay, it could easily get back to it's former glory!

Happy eBaying,
Amanda Callbutt
www.helpmyauction.com