Stanford University: Research shows online auctions are not popular, eBay style shifting to Amazon

May 27, 2013 A report released this month by Stanford University researchers shows that online auctions are declining rapidly. Currently, less than 15% of eBay users choose to sell goods through auctions, while most users choose to sell goods at a fixed price, which makes eBay more like a traditional e-commerce website.

"Most people think of eBay as a giant auction site, but we realized they run a business more like Amazon," said Liran Einav, an economist at Stanford University and one of the study's lead authors.

The report believes that part of the reason for this change is that people are more inclined to spend their leisure time through other means such as social networking sites such as Facebook and video sites such as YouTube. Anaf believes that the emergence of different forms of entertainment services has greatly reduced the appeal of online auctions, which may lead to the failure of goods to be sold. Anaf pointed out that people are now more and more fond of quick transactions. Although some people are keen on shopping, this consumption method is really time-consuming.

The rapid development of mobile devices has accelerated this change. According to reports, the average browsing time of eBay mobile users has dropped by 25% compared to desktop users. In addition, due to the rapid development of e-commerce websites, the price discounts brought by the online auction model are gradually disappearing.

However, there is good news for buyers in eBay's auction model. Buyers who participate in the auction often get a good deal. Research shows that in recent years, the transaction price of auctioned items is often about 16% lower than the price of similar priced items. Research also shows that auctions on eBay now look more like marketing strategies used in traditional retail markets. In addition, some hard-to-buy items still rely on eBay, such as collectibles, jewelry and singer Justin Bieber's hair.

eBay has already taken countermeasures to these signs. In 2008, eBay changed its search algorithm to emphasize products related to the search rather than the remaining time of the item sales window, which greatly reduced the weight of auctions. However, this change did not affect its sales. eBay's revenue last year was $6.1 billion, an increase of 12% over the previous year.