Buyers & Sellers Not Rolling with eBay Express

Fixed-price service a flop, WSJ reports

It may be no surprise to you if you are an avid auctioneer, but eBay's fixed-price venture, eBay Express, has gained little traction with consumers. The woes of the initiative are detailed in a piece called "eBay Express Flops with Buyers, Sellers" on Startup Journal, the entreprenuers' section of the Wall Street Journal online.

Vauhini Vara interviews a number of users, whose experiences she describes as "lackluster." For sellers hoping a listing on eBay Express will put more eyeballs on their items, Vara mined this little nugget: "While eBay's main auction site attracted more consumer visits than any other online retailer in November, eBay Express was at No. 87 on the list of top shopping and classified sites, according to research firm Hitwise Pty. Ltd."

One assessment of the challenges that have prevented eBay Express from catching on concerns perception. As a fixed-price enterprise, eBay Express may not be connecting with consumers who associate eBay so closely to online auctions. "The company is now so synonymous with online auctions that it is having trouble convincing people it can offer something beyond that," Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc., told Vara.