2020 Wish List for eBay

[colorful*things]

Um, eBay? For 2020, can we have some site changes that are REALLY needed and not just cosmetic changes to keep your programmers busy?

Let's start with honest to gawd traffic reports, like the old Omniture reports (at the barest minimum).   You have yet to deliver on this, despite promising them to us for over 4 years now, ever since you dumped Omniture.  Kinda hard to plan a business when one has no idea of the traffic.   I used to be able to see sales by day and do comparisons to a wide variety of prior periods. This was especially helpful in determining what to list and when.  The current reports are a useless joke.

Then let's move to a fees and sales report that shows sellers everything - sales, taxes collected and remitted, postage expense, eBay fees, etc. Amazon does this for their sellers  so I know it can be done.   Even better, the Amazon reports are up-to-date daily - I already have the December 2019 and 2019 annual reports from my Amazon accounting clients.  For eBay, my clients had to give me weekly reports and manually figure out sales for 12/29-12/31.  Really, eBay? This is the best you can do?  eBay sellers should not have to look at every individual sale to obtain amounts paid for shipping and sales tax.

Oh, and every sellers favorite wish - arbitration in false SNAD cases so we at least have a fighting chance.  I honestly don't expect anything from this wish, but there's no reason under the sun as to why you can't give us sales reports and traffic reports.  No. Reason. At. All.

[bivy]

There are some great suggestions by sellers here.

I vote for a more complete reporting of sales tax and postage paid. I do that manually now and it's a needless time suck when the information should be in the system.

Fix the search capabilities--yes. Hire better IT people. Who has more money than you? It's worth it.

Get rid of mandatory GTC. I'm perfectly capable of deciding how I want to run my business. And, yes, stop advertising other seller's items on my listings that I pay for. 

I agree that U.S. sellers, true U.S. sellers should be identified. Buyers are losing confidence in a site that has people in other countries doing misleading listings.

And, here's my original idea--decide to give sellers with a proven, long established track record of honesty and good service the benefit of the doubt. If I say (although I never have had this happen yet) that someone sent back an old shoe instead of the necklace I sold, believe me. If I say that my item is genuine, don't allow a buyer to tarnish my reputation by stating that it seems like it isn't as a reason to return. 

Stop treating sellers who sell one of a kind things like those that sell quantities of the same item (e.g. mandatory GTC). Those are two very different kinds of selling. 

As you think of new policies and procedures, remember what we want is to LET US RUN OUR OWN BUSINESSES.

[prettywoman-2012]

I have several wishes...but the most recent thing I ran across is this: When I realize that I have listed some jewelry in the wrong category and decide to change that category that is a better fit for the item - why do I need to re-enter many of the item specifics when none of them changed? It would be really nice if some programmers would look into this and make it possible to ONLY change the category, but leave the information alrady entered under Item Sepcifics as is. 

Thanks.

PW

[ladyindecadence]

My request is simple how about a couple additional custom label fields to help us better track and organize our inventory. We currently get one. Two or three would be much better.

Thanks

[kathy507]

Lots of great suggestions here.

I would like the packing slip generated through eBay to show the cost of the item, the shipping cost, and the taxes paid as it used to do.  For those who do not include a packing slip this is a non-issue but it is something that I think benefits my customers.

[biggymoe]

A better and complete sales report is a great idea.  And definitely should not be that difficult to provide.

However, even bigger concerns, to me personally, are GTC and Item Specifics.

Sales have been dropping for a year.  Got worse with the mandatory GTC policy.  I refuse to play that game and end my listings on the last day.  I like to rotate my inventory and let some items sit for a month, or two, before relisting.  Be it seasonal, or not, I know better than eBay how I want to run my store.  Saw an even more dramatic drop in sales after I started ending listings early.  Just figured eBay wanted me to play their game and found a way to bury my listings.  The mandatory GTC is just out and out GREED!!

Then comes the new required Item Specifics.  I have spent untold hours, getting my listings up to snuff.  That ought to bring an upsurge in sales, NOT!!  Haven't seen one iota of any help that provided.

As I have said before, I used to enjoy listing, selling, trips to the PO, etc.  The listing and trying to keep up with all the "improvements" eBay has chosen to foist upon us, now makes it an unpleasant chore.

Hello eBay, does anyone hear and care?  Oh, that's just a rhetorical question.

[dhbookds]

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@somanystoressolittletime2007 wrote:

Good traffic reports would be helpful, and it would be a win-win for ebay as sellers adjust their strategies accordingly.  

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I agree with this..........we need to know WHERE traffic comes from......in order to do outside advertising well....  does posting on facebook, etc actually bring traffic or sales?  What keywords are buying searching for when they find our item?  The old Omniture reports were greatly detailed. Tho there were problems with it for some, they were much more help than the little that is now in Seller Hub.  

I've often wondered why ebay doesn't renew the old referral credit system to increase traffic.  Then you got a minor amount of credit.....if a buyer came and bought thru a posting link a seller made to their item on an outside entity.....  I know they have affiliate programs, but if easy enough, they could have thousands, if not millions, of salespeople working to get buyers to ebay.......  

[kathieskorner]

Saw an even more dramatic drop in sales after I started ending listings early.  Just figured eBay wanted me to play their game and found a way to bury my listings.

That thought crossed my mind as well since my signficant sales drop dates back only to March, 2019.   Originally, I allowed 25 items per month roll over as GTC - stopped after three months and only one sale of rollovers.  But newly listed items which used to account for up to 40% of my monthly sales have dropped down to less than 10% so there must be other AI factors at work.

In November I started experimenting with listing 20% of my items with "free" shipping - no difference in sales percentage.  I just wish I knew what algorithm changes eBau has made in 2019.  

[abfabvintage]

@bivy 

agree with all you have said here...just to document...tried to leave you a helpful, got the red bar...hope my reply to you goes through.

[luckythewinner]

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@purple-rain-store wrote:
Not to mention it's against the law to tack on amounts to the price and say a buyer is getting free shipping, as most platforms are recommending sellers to do.

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It is not against the law for a seller to restructure an item to raise the price and offer free shipping. 

I think you are confusing this with some other law. 

[abfabvintage]

@biggymoe 

and keep in mind about item specifics...they still have not finalized them. last announcement i think 11/18 was that task would be worked on in 2020. in addition, when they do supposedly finish their cleanup, you will have to go back into your listings and revise them again, similar to what happened after 10/15.

all they did was put a bandaid on that IS debacle so you could continue listing without using their incorrect IS to get us thru the holidays. sorry for rant...they have basically destroyed my 3rd party listing program that i pay for by not doing their final so called fixes. and no one can verify if you put in your custom IS if those are even seen in search since they are not ebay IS. i could care less about reports...key issues with the site need to be fixed first. every time someone comes up with a new idea/request, that gives ebay an excuse to not fix existing tech issues. again, apologize for the rant.

[frippislandsc]

I wholeheartedly agree. Ebay's antiquated system needs to be updated. When will Ebay learn to get in the game now that there is fierce competition out there? Buyers need to be held responsible for paying for an item once an offer is submitted and accepted. I feel bad for new sellers trying to list and sell here and I am sure many of the new sellers list a few items and then makes a sale and then see the non payment issues. Ebay is their own worst enemy. Going to be interesting to see if they step up their game.

[biggymoe]

OMG and it's going to get worse.  I hadn't heard about that.

The worst thing about the IS debacle, to me, was that the bulk edit wouldn't work on updating them.  Had to do every one individually.

[abfabvintage]

@biggymoe 

and my program guru still waiting for their fixes/updates...that is how i know nothing has been done since the 11/18 announcement that they wouldnt be addressing IS until 2020 and no updates on when. so i just keep entering my own custom IS to override their errors. but the big question is...do the custom IS (which i perceive as search keywords) even show up in search. a few months ago another poster tested it and came back with a big NO...not showing in search. good luck to us all.  

[beardedbovine]

Yes, yes, yes to better reporting! From traffic reports to sales reports to payments reports we need major improvement.

And how about an annual lookback for sales reports? Last calendar year and current calendar year should both be available in full through December 31st.

90 days just doesn't cut it.

[purple-rain-store]

https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/retrieveECFR?gp=&SID=4c2a16712079bc4bcaa6fed5899c2537&mc=true&n=pt16.1....