Overstock Auctions, AKA The Big O Auctions, appears to be launching signal flares as their experiment from the primordial "OCEAN" begins to take on water.
For weeks Overstock Auctions has made changes to the site with some changes directly impacting the bottom line of many Overstock sellers. Normally the 4Th Quarter is a time of glee for online merchants, however Overstock merchants have not been experiencing positive growth.
The hopes of a wondrous Christmas selling season on Overstock have been suppressed with a site makeover removing individual seller branding, followed by a growth stunting Make It Mine policy revision, and finally today the removal of 60% of the subscription pricing plans.
Stormy Simon appears to be understating the impact of such changes as merely "frustrating", while many sellers have already purchased Q1 & Q2 inventory for 2007 based on prepaid subscription plan limits. According to Stormy's letter any prepaid portions of cancelled subscriptions will be credited to sellers accounts, however this does not address those payments made by cash, or interest accrued on prepaid contracts that will remain unfulfilled.
Like so many shopping centers around the country, Overstock Auctions can only maintain traffic flow on a limited basis without the Anchor Merchants. Small sellers will see sales continue to dwindle as Anchor Merchants take their customer bases to other venues, or even their own web sites. Overstock will in essence sink back into the primordial "OCEAN" project from whence came, and once again sell their returns on eBay.
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As long as Overstock continues to make Auctions a tab on their homepage rather than a part of their main search the auction business on Overstock.com will remain a footnote.
They are following the Amazon Auction model which we all no was Soooo Successful.
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