Survey the people that sell things on craigslist before going nuts! I talk to many users of CL online and offline about the service.
Selling stuff.. heck even giving stuff away for free is a hassle. 100 people reply... then 95% never show up.
Its a great place for people who dont know any better and dont have anything better to do with their time than to mess around on the computer all day long.
I got a kick out of Kieran's last comment--"Its a great place for people who dont know any better and dont have anything better to do with their time than to mess around on the computer all day long."--so true of 95% of the web!
But let me say this about EBay--the nature of their business is that every little seller of anything can tap into the largest market imaginable, without having to go to multiple places or lose lots of time. So long as EBay keeps its users happy, whether they be buyers or sellers, they will have no desire to go elsewhere because everyone in the world will already be there. EBay was lucky enough to have been first in line to create a business model so fundamental that, with good management, it can create the conditions for fanatical customer loyalty and profitability for a century to come. So how can such a business model ever suffer a downturn? By making poor choices. By making it impossible to communicate with the company when you have a question: by not backing your guarantees: by not disciplining the rotten eggs: by nickel-and-diming your small sellers to death: by operating a secretive, quasi-legal shadow-bank (Paypal) that inspires fear in all who use it. For a company that's almost pure profit EBay has invested remarkably little in customer satisfaction and the result is the cultivation of a substantial minority of its users who hate the company but can't leave it. EBay needs to invest in customer satisfaction, and all that midlife crisis will go away...
Obviosly Craigslist is not the place to go if you have new merchandise for sale. Then again ebay is not really either. It is really a buyers market unless you have a the edge on some particular product.
Where do we go next?
Craigslist is a great place for people wanting to get rid of their junk as there are hundreds of people ready to snatch it up at a moments notice.
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Selling stuff.. heck even giving stuff away for free is a hassle. 100 people reply... then 95% never show up.
Its a great place for people who dont know any better and dont have anything better to do with their time than to mess around on the computer all day long.
KM
But let me say this about EBay--the nature of their business is that every little seller of anything can tap into the largest market imaginable, without having to go to multiple places or lose lots of time. So long as EBay keeps its users happy, whether they be buyers or sellers, they will have no desire to go elsewhere because everyone in the world will already be there. EBay was lucky enough to have been first in line to create a business model so fundamental that, with good management, it can create the conditions for fanatical customer loyalty and profitability for a century to come. So how can such a business model ever suffer a downturn? By making poor choices. By making it impossible to communicate with the company when you have a question: by not backing your guarantees: by not disciplining the rotten eggs: by nickel-and-diming your small sellers to death: by operating a secretive, quasi-legal shadow-bank (Paypal) that inspires fear in all who use it. For a company that's almost pure profit EBay has invested remarkably little in customer satisfaction and the result is the cultivation of a substantial minority of its users who hate the company but can't leave it. EBay needs to invest in customer satisfaction, and all that midlife crisis will go away...
Where do we go next?
Craigslist is a great place for people wanting to get rid of their junk as there are hundreds of people ready to snatch it up at a moments notice.
KM