Bill Watt’s Blog

I’m assuming we’ve all had the experience where people find out we work at a place, belong to a club, or know something about something and as soon as people find out they start to associate you with the experience they had with the thing. Working for eBay turned out to be the single biggest generator of those experiences I ever had. We’d be at Starbucks and people would see the work badge and want to talk about a problem they had on eBay. Going to a wedding in Pittsburgh, PA I ended up having a round table with users about their experiences on the site. (Starting to see why Alice thinks all I do is work?)

So, it isn’t a big shock when I open up the laptop this morning to find this IM:

[09:56] friend: i had possibly the worst experience i’ve ever had trying to do something online yesterday
[09:56] friend: trying to sell something on ebay
[09:56] friend: i hold you personally responsible
[09:56] friend: i would like those hours of my life back please

Which is a pretty funny version of what I hear all the time. So, as funny as that is on a personal level it is pretty annoying considering eBay has been doing this for so long.

And here’s the real issue… as eBay moves to compete more directly with Amazon (based on all the news I’m reading this is the direction they’re heading… good luck with that) the seller experience is going to matter and the buyer experience can’t stay the way it is either. There have been posts and discussions for the last couple years about this (see this interview with Andre) but I think the world has changed quite a bit since then. We’re Web 2.0 now and customization by vertical or by experience is likely quite a bit easier than it was in 2004.

I shop eBay when I want a deal. I shop Amazon when I want something of higher quality, when I’m looking for a suggestion or thoughtful product comparison, or want the thing immediately. eBay is still for the bargain hunter while Amazon has done a better job of providing me the best retail experience without needing to talk to people.

Also, if you were to believe Ryan Spoon then Amazon became the 2nd coming as soon as they figure out how to get him his razors and toilet paper.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 22nd, 2008 at 10:57 AM and is filed under eBay, About Me, Technology, Friends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.