May 25, 2008

I have owned eBay stock for over 7 years now, and still believe that they are a company that knows how to do business.  I initially bought them because they had a business model that I liked – they don’t directly deal with merchandise, but instead provide a marketplace where others can exchange merchandise.  The buyers and sellers take care of everything, and on a vast majority of transactions, the only involvement that eBay has is to collect a commission on the sale.  They provide a service that, upon successful completion of an order, makes the user want to come back for more.  If you look at their growth in the last few years, you see that not only do people keep coming back, but they are bringing their friends with them.

Another aspect that is key in eBay’s success is their effort to continually improve.  They recently came out with a newer “Trust and Safety Center”, which is where buyers and sellers alike can go to find a mediator in case they are dissatisfied with a particular transaction.  Their newest development, which is actually what inspired me to write this post today, is their updated feedback policy.  In the past, it used to be that if you (as a buyer) had a bad experience, while you could leave negative feedback, it was a risky proposition, because often the seller merely retaliated by leaving you negative feedback (even if you didn’t deserve it).  As any regular eBay user knows, once you leave feedback, it can’t be withdrawn.  And a 99.9% positive can never become 100% again.  I myself have carefully guarded my feedback rating, and as a result, have had several times where I have opted to just not leave feedback, rather than risk getting negative feedback myself.  However, when I logged into my eBay account to leave feedback for an item I purchased last week, the following screen popped up:

What an amazing move by eBay!  Now, if I really do have a bad experience, I can leave negative feedback without fear of ruining my own feedback rating!  This is an excellent example of the continued evolution that any company needs to experience in order to continue to be successful, as I believe eBay will do far into the future.

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