Ep 212 || Fall 2022 Seller Update Recap

[podcast_team]

Chelsea Cooley from the Seller Update Team returns with a few of the details of the recently announced 2022 Fall Seller Update. And Brian and Griff answer your questions regarding shipping or not shipping to FPO / APO addresses and best (and worst) practices when creating an item title.

You got questions? Call us at 888 723-4630 or email us at podcast@ebay.com.
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Episode Links:
2022 Fall Seller Update
Ep 183: Creating A Scan Sheet with Single Labels
Ep 198: Steps for Adding Countries To Your Exclusion List
Recurring Links:
eBay for Business Podcast
eBay for Business Podcast Discussion Group
eBay for Business Podcast Listener Survey
eBay Seller News Announcements
eBay for Business Facebook
Community Chat with eBay Staff
eBay Seller Center
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Brian: This week on the eBay for Business Podcast, we'll check in with the Seller Update Team to recap the contents of the 2022 Fall Seller Update.

Griff: And we'll also be answering your questions about shipping to FPO, APO military addresses. What are things to avoid when you're creating an item title and how to list something like a book quickly by utilizing the eBay catalog.

Brian: I'm Brian.

Griff: I'm Griff and this is the eBay for Business Podcast. Your source for the information, the inspiration, and everything else you need to help you start and manage and grow your business on the world's most powerful marketplace. And this is episode 212. You like that new intro?

Brian: I do!

Griff: I do too. I think we'll stick with it.

Brian: It'll be interesting to hear if, you know we get any feedback from our listeners.

Griff: We won't.

Brian: You don't think so?

Griff: No, no one's gonna give us any feedback, but I think it sounds better so.

Brian: Well you're the boss, so if you like it then I think it sticks.

Griff: I'm the boss?

Brian: Yes.

Griff: Oh, I guess I'm the boss.

Brian: You're in the room with the big banner that says eBay for Business.

Griff: Yeah. I got this control board in front of me and all this gear. So yeah, I guess that makes me the boss. . I like the sound of that. Hey boss.

Brian: Hey boss.

Griff: Well, with Boss comes a lot of responsibility.

Brian: Yes, it does.

Griff: And with responsibility comes agreeing to go to events and by the time you're listening to this, we'll be at the event.

Brian: We will be in Las Vegas at the Reseller Remix.

Griff: I know.

Brian: And I don't think it's too late for folks, if you're in the Vegas area, it doesn't start till Tuesday afternoon. Check out reseller remix.

Griff: You can come and see the boss.

Brian: And connect with a few hundred like-minded sellers.

Griff: Yeah. There should be about 300 sellers there. That'll be fun

Brian: It was a good event last year. I'm looking forward to this year again.

Griff: Yeah. And this will be my first trip, like official trip, like getting on a plane and going somewhere since the Fall of 2019 when we went to Chicago to meet with sellers. Were you there for that? We used to go to those, I forget what they were called in person.

Brian: Oh yeah it was , eBay in Person. Yeah. I was because we had Rich and Nyla had 25 people come in from kind of the suburbs of on Chicago on a bus.

Griff: Yeah. Cause we didn't realize that people lived outside, didn't want to drive into Chicago.

Brian: on the weeknight in the evening.

Griff: In a sketchy, sketchy neighborhood. It wasn't that sketchy really.

Brian: It wasn't, but I think it's just the traffic. I mean, you know, it's seven miles but it takes 40 minutes during rush hour.

Griff: Oh, who wants to do that? It was a great crowd. It was a great venue. It was like an old industrial building

Brian: Like warehouse kind of thing, converted. Kinda like what I was in in LA for eBay Open this year.

Griff: Yeah. It's kind of the same thing. Well anyway, I'm a little bit panicky, but I think I've got everything ready. It's just one open.

Brian: It'll be a good trip.

Griff: Boy, I hope so anyway.

Brian: As long as the podcast gear gets there.

Griff: I'm carrying the gear. I've got that in my bag.

Brian: Well that's good. That means you'll be there too. If it gets there. You'll get there.

Griff: Yeah, because we're kind of connected. The bag doesn't travel on its own. It can't like go and check itself in and then get on the plane and take a seat. It's a carryon bag. It needs a human attached to it. I happen to be the human of choice this time.

Brian: Well. Well good.

Griff: Anyway, I checked Brian, I don't think there's any news. I looked at the announcement board. There was nothing new.

Brian: Did we not announce anything this week?

Griff: We didn't. Very strange.

Brian: I think probably because we had so much the last couple weeks between eBay Open Yeah. And Seller Update. Everyone took a breath.

Griff: A little pause in the news cycle. Yes. Which is, you know, no news is good news.

Brian: So next week we'll have six items for you. I'm kidding folks. I don't wanna stress any of our sellers out. That was Brian saying a bad joke.

Griff: Yeah. Okay, so, So no news this week, but lots of other stuff to get to. So let's talk to Chelsea from the Seller Update Team. And then after that you and I will answer this week's batch of questions.

Brian: Oh, that sounds good.

Griff: Okay, Great.

Griff: Two weeks ago we announced the eBay 2022 Fall Seller Update or the new things that are happening at eBay. These seller updates come at least twice a year. This one's pretty interesting and we're gonna go over the main topics. Joining me as she has for the last few updates is the manager of Global Seller update. Chelsea Cooley. Welcome Chelsea.

Chelsea: Thank you Griff. It's great to be here.

Griff: Has it really been a year since your last visit to the podcast?

Chelsea: That's about right, Griff. I was on to discuss our Fall Seller Update last year.

Brian: Before we talk about all of this, for those who don't remember you, and I hate to say that somebody might not remember you, but they might. So can you tell us what it is you do at eBay?

Chelsea: My name is Chelsea Cooley and I have been with eBay for about three years now. I started with eBay on the Search Team as the SEO Program Manager for North America. And I have supported previous seller updates in the past, but now I manage our Global Seller Updates. And as always, eBay staff around the world has been working hard behind the scenes to deliver our Fall Seller Update. And I'm super excited to share the updates with you today.

Griff: Does any one particular topic on the Seller Update stand out?

Chelsea: If I could choose only one, I'd have to choose the new video uploads for seller storefronts.

Griff: Okay. So how does that work?

Chelsea: With the seller storefronts, you can now add video and it gives sellers the option to let buyers know about the history, values and passion that go into their businesses by using videos to inspire buyers to make purchase and to drive that action on the site.

Griff: And the video shows up on the store front page?

Chelsea: Correct.

Griff: So you could do, like a lot of sellers right now do promotional videos on TikTok or Instagram. Now they can do 'em on eBay.

Chelsea: Correct. Yes. On their listings and also on their storefronts if it makes sense for sellers to use a video. Now these videos can act as a 24 /7 salesperson bringing listings to life by engaging potential buyers, answering their most common questions and showcasing sellers products, unique features and applications. And sometimes video can tell a really good story in a way that maybe even images cannot. Sellers can easily upload their videos to their eBay stores about tab directly from their store edit page.

Griff: Does this go along in tandem with being able to add videos to your listings?

Chelsea: Correct. Sellers can also add videos to their listings in the new listing experience as well. There's two entry points.

Griff: Of course, you have to have a store in order to have a storefront video. Is the video in the listings for every seller?

Chelsea: Yes. There's more information on the site about how to do that on Seller Center. So highly recommend reading the update to, to get more information about how to put your videos up. Since obviously there's some requirements for posting videos that seller should take a look at.

Griff: I know that when you put a video up on a listing it has to be reviewed before they'll launch it understandably, who knows what's in the video. Is that the same for the storefronts?

Chelsea: Correct.

Griff: What else really stood out for you in this last update?

Chelsea: Well, earlier this year we launched the beta version of the new messaging experience in the eBay mobile app. The new messaging experience better connects sellers to their buyers and makes it easier to manage messages. And in the coming weeks app users will be moved to the new messaging experience and if they prefer, they can still opt out and continue using the old messaging format until 2023 when all sellers will be moved to the new experience. We're also launching a desktop beta version of the new messaging experience. And sellers should watch for a prompt and the coming weeks and sellers won't automatically be opted into the desktop beta version, but if they decide to opt in, they can still opt out and continue to use the old messaging format while we roll out the beta version. Sellers can also receive a notification when we move them over to the new messaging experience in the eBay mobile app. Also, sellers should watch for a link in their message inbox to join the new beta experience on desktop if they wanna check it out.

Griff: Yeah, it's like what, how we roll out a lot of things at eBay where you can switch back and forth. Classic, new, classic, new. I always end up opting into the newest version of everything. I'm looking forward to the new stuff so I get into it right away. It's a lot in this update though. Those are just two things. What else is there?

Chelsea: Another favorite of mine is our eBay stores update, which introduces not one, not two, but many innovations that will help sellers attract more new and repeat buyers, elevate their brands and boost their stores visibility on eBay. For example, sellers can now create newsletters for buyers that highlight their new inventory with customizable templates and send promotional offers to drive growth. They can showcase new and seasonal inventory by activating their inventory strips and they can increase their brand recognition and visibility by adding a store logo that will appear across eBay, including their listing pages. Also, new reporting capabilities can help sellers gauge buyer engagement with their newsletters and updated sharing features can be leveraged on popular social media platforms to reach more buyers, draw attention to their store and encourage repeat business. And sellers can also attract more buyers to their stores with enhanced search navigation.

Griff: That's a lot of news about the stores. You know, know sellers are always asking me, I want to get a store. What's the different, you know, what's the value there? And they kind of go right to like how much is it gonna cost in fees to list, is there a discount? And there is, but this is another example of how there are so many aspects to an eBay store that beyond the fees that provide great value to anyone who's trying to run their business on eBay.

Chelsea: Correct. Yeah, no, there's a lot of great value in telling your story, right? Why you're on the platform, really creating your brand presence, like your store presence, getting that good relationship with your buyers so that they start to recognize you over time. Interesting story. I buy a lot of old used books.

Griff: You do?

Chelsea: Yeah. On eBay. I love antique books. I just love to buy books. My husband and I are currently just buying all kinds of books that catch our interest and I actually have been noticing I'm buying from the same store because the seller has a storefront. I've been doing a lot of repeat buying from that store just because I've been searching their inventory specifically for used books. So it's been a good experience for me as a buyer as well. It's a good experience.

Chelsea: It's working. I'm bought in myself.

Griff: What else is on the update list for this Fall?

Chelsea: On the horizon and beyond, when we're looking at our Fall Seller Update, we're announcing several international updates to help sellers take full advantage of cross border selling opportunities. For example, eBay International Shipping is a new shipping service for US sellers that eliminates many of the challenges, complexities, and fees associated with international shipping. And the best part, eBay will handle customs clearance tracking and post transaction request at no extra cost to sellers. Sellers who are using the Global Shipping Program are being transitioned to eBay International Shipping now and their listings will automatically default to the eBay International Shipping method. And sellers who ship internationally but are not in the Global Shipping Program will be notified as soon as are eligible to participate.

Griff: We live at a global economy, Chelsea, so eBay International Shipping that's coming sounds like it's gonna be a great way for US sellers who aren't doing so already to extend their market reach into new markets across the globe.

Chelsea: Yeah, it's a real game changer Griff. We're also alerting sellers to new regulatory requirements in the UK and France following its departure from the EU. The UK now has its own domestic regulations covering most goods previously subject to the EUCE marking. The CE marketing shows that the goods meet EU safety, health and environmental requirements. It's important that sellers who sell into Great Britain and Northern Ireland markets prepare for the new regulations so that they can continue selling into those markets. And to avoid any business disruptions, we recommend that sellers review their listings and update impacted items With the new CE markings by January 1st, 2023 and in our Fall Seller Update, we're providing sellers with guides produced by the UK government that have all the information they'll need to prepare for the new UK goods regulatory requirements.

Griff: So Brexit makes it a little harder for sellers outside of the UK.

Chelsea: Right. More steps in this process for sure. But we provide all of the documentation and guidance in the Seller Update so sellers can read more about it there.

Griff: What do eBay sellers need to know about these new regulations from France? These are news to me as well.

Chelsea: New environmental protection laws may also impact eBay sellers who sell into France. So extended producer responsibility or EPR legislation as we abbreviate it, is part of a Europe wide initiative to protect the environment. US sellers who sell to buyers in France will need to register with relevant French organizations called eco organisms. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that correctly?

Brian: I think the English pronunciation is echo organisms.

Griff: Echo organisms. These monitor affected selling categories for compliance with French EPR laws, which also cover packaging.

Griff: Oh, this sounds like the German Packaging Act.

Chelsea: Yes. Since July, 2022, all marketplaces including eBay, have been legally required to make sure sellers comply with EPR regulations. In our Fall Seller Update, we provided a list of impacted categories and outlined steps sellers need to take to comply with French EPR regulations.

Griff: Of course, if any seller doesn't want to go through all of this, they can always add specific countries to their exclusion list and then continue to ship internationally to other places.

Chelsea: Correct.

Griff: I know there's a lot of sellers after the German Packaging Act looked at their sales, realized they weren't selling that much into Germany and just excluded Germany from their list of countries. I suppose that's always an option as well. And if you listen to the podcast, go back past episodes, it's actually a two step process. It's not that difficult to do. Each shipping policy that you create has an exclusion list. You can add any countries that you like to that exclusion list. But if you use GSP and I assume moving forward eBay International Shipping, you need to check in your shipping preferences for the setting that says override your exclusions for GSP and make sure that box is unchecked. Unchecked. Anyway, you can hear that in uh, past episodes on the topic. Or if you have any questions, just send them to podcast@ebay.com. Well Chelsea, it's always great talking to you and thank you for these updates for the Fall Seller Update 2022. If a seller has a question or wants to see details about a specific topic in the update, go right to the update splash page on Seller Center and then I believe it's under resources, but there's a link there. And we will also include a link directly to the page in the summary overview for this episode. Chelsea, will we see you next year?

Chelsea: Yeah. Book it Griff.

Griff: We will, You can learn more about the updates in our Fall Seller Update now live on eBay at Seller Center. Can also always go to the announcement board and look for the seller update post. That should be towards the top still. And there's lots of links there.

Brian: You got questions.

Griff: And we've got answers. And our first email isn't actually a question, Brian, but I thought it would be fun to include. It's from an eBay seller named Matthew who had some comments about what we said regarding USPS package scanning way back in the earlier part of 2022. As always, Brian, why don't you read his email and I'll interrupt you at different parts.

Brian: Okay. Yeah. Matthew sent the following to podcast@ebay.com. Hello. I know it's six months old, but I just wanted to clarify the scan five packages is a union issue with rural route drivers. Mail handlers as they are not clerks, a clerk at an office is required to scan all packages.

Griff: So you know this came up that somebody had said, Hey, my driver won't scan more than five packages.

Brian: Yep. A clerk refusing to scan all can be disciplined. Reaching out to the POM or MOPS for the postal district will get it all corrected.

Griff: POOM? MOPS?.

Brian: I know. ,

Griff: You know how I feel about undefined acronyms.

Brian: Well, we throw 'em at our sellers all the time.

Griff: I know, but that's, We shouldn't be using them.

Brian: Well anyway, Matthew continues. It's important to know if you take your packages to your own zip they, meaning that office, get revenue credit for all your shipments. If you sort your packages in bins by inter district outgoing Priority and First Class, you will get an even better response than donuts.

Griff: And that's because I recommend, you know, bribe your clerks. Give them a little treat. But I don't know what's better than donuts,

Brian: Especially early in the morning when they're warm.

Griff: I think it's the best bribe in the world. I have a postal carrier who has been very standoffish and I think it's because my dogs bark and the guys probably doesn't want anything to do with dogs. And he had to ask me to cut a branch that his head was hitting as he walked up the ramp to the door. I said, Oh yeah, I'll do that. And then it got, we, you know, like a month ago, we had that really bad heat wave. So I was prepared when he came up to the door and I opened it and you know, the dogs, I kept them the back. I said, Hey, it's really hot. Would you like an ice cold root beer? And he went, Yeah. And so for the next few days I gave him a cold beverage.

Brian: Well it did get hot here. Yeah. That was like good bribery.

Griff: And you know what? He's like my best friend now.

Brian: That's good.

Griff: A week ago I caught him on the street and I was out to go to the post office with one package and I said, Oh, can you take this? He said, I'd be happy to. And he scanned it and I didn't have to go all the way to the post office.

Brian: Look at that!

Griff: All it took was a cold beverage.

Brian: A little bit of nicety goes a long way.

Griff: Anyway, we, Sorry Matthew, we interrupted your email.

Brian: We did. Well Matthew continues, the scan form is a manifest document. eBay could correct this feature by allowing you to print a scan form at the end of the day and select all the labels you printed, essentially building the manifest. This is how Stamps.com and Ship Station have solved some of the problems.

Griff: Wait a minute, You can do this on eBay, but go on.

Brian: Yeah, you can do it. Yeah. Printing labels one at a time is important to many sellers as it prevents costly shipping errors and wasted cost of printing packing slips that 99% of customers toss.

Griff: Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm gonna disagree with you right there, Matthew, on the packing slip comment. Packing slips are a sign of professionalism. And as a buyer I can tell you I save those for every purchase I make.

Brian: But still, Yeah. Many sellers don't bother with the packing slips.

Griff: Yeah. And that's their choice. But for me, and I'm speaking for me as a seller, I strive to be as professional as I possibly can. And since every single retailer I ever purchased from includes a packing slip or a paid or invoice, I think is a matter of courtesy, not just information. I'm gonna continue to do so as well. So Matthew, it's already possible to print out single labels throughout a day and then print out a single scan sheet, but there's a little trick to doing so, and we outlined those steps for that trick in episode 183, way back in March of 2022. We did it in an answer to a question we had received at the time. And in brief, if a seller selects the bulk label option up on the right hand corner of the print label page, at the time of purchasing the label, even a single label, that single label will start a scan sheet to which any subsequent single labels printed through the bulk labels option will also be added all the way throughout the day. Then it's only a matter of accessing that scan sheet and printing it out so that you can take it to the post office or hand it to your driver who's, you know, limiting you to just five scans a and without a cold beverage or a donut, you're not gonna get anywhere. And again, the details are in the question segment of episode 183, which you can find at ebay.com/podcast. And I'll put a link in the transcript right to the episode as well.

Brian: But it's relatively simple. Once you know it, it's one of those things, you just have to know it cuz it's not intuitive.

Griff: It's not intuitive. I've asked the Shipping Team, please make this more intuitive.

Brian: Yeah. But it was something that sellers had asked for quite often. And so they created a solution. You know, someone like Matthew, who obviously sells a lot was unaware.

Griff: If anyone goes back to episode 183 and follows the steps, you're gonna say, Well, how is I supposed to know this? And I would say I agree with you. Because it is not intuitive.

Brian: But the nice thing is you can do it.

Griff: You can, Yes you can. And I've, I've tested it and it works.

Brian: Perfect. Well, Matthew signs off with, Keep up the great podcast, Matthew. User Id PAE28. That's PAE28.

Griff: What were you doing on your computer just then?

Brian: Looking up POOM and MOPS?

Griff: Oh yeah. And uh, what did you find?

Brian: Well, POOM stands for Post Office Operations Manager. They usually oversee a district and are the next step up from Postmaster.

Griff: So it's like the Postmaster's boss.

Brian: POOM is an important person to know then. And M O P S stands for Memorandums Of Policy. And they are corporate procedures intended for specific audiences within the USPS. And I think we're bad with acronyms.

Griff: Yeah. Well these are two acronyms that possibly don't need to be defined to the public, but if you're gonna use them in any place, it's always good to define them. But Matthew, That's okay. We did the work and we learned something. But I love the Memorandums of Policy. It's sort of like in Initech. Do you remember Initech?

Brian: That name's familiar?

Griff: It's from a movie from the late nineties, which was very popular. And it's about the memo. Hey Peter. Uh, yeah. Did you get that memo about the cover sheets on the TSP reports? Yeah. If you could go ahead and do that from now on, that'd be great. We're talking about Office Space, obviously.

Brian: We should maybe like have a contest for who can I think Matthew's in the lead who can send us the craziest acronym or the most unique probably unknown acronym. Okay. Of course now you know what's gonna happen. Every one of our sellers is gonna, who's listening? Go. I knew what a P was and I knew what MOPS was.

Griff: Well, good for you. What do you want? A donut and a cold beverage?

Brian: Thank you, Matthew. I'm glad you raised it because I bet a lot of our listeners, especially the newer listeners, were not aware of the bulk capability.

Griff: Yeah. And it's nice to be able to call it out again. And until such time as the Shipping Team or the Product Team is able to make that process more self-evident, just thank yourself, pat yourself on the back for listening to the podcast where we've done the work for you and have explained how it works in Episode 183. You can find it in the library at ebay.com/podcast or on your app if that's how you listen. But I like that it's on the community page. You can go right to the transcript and you can read it as well. Our next question comes from eBay seller Sarah, who sent this to podcast@ebay.com. Hello Sarah from Sarah Styles llc here.

Brian: We know Sarah.

Griff: Yeah, She was on the podcast. We chatted a few weeks ago. She says, I did a YouTube video on some important information from your podcast. And one of the questions that viewers kept asking is about listing title spam. You stated that punctuation and abbreviations aren't great, especially for "most relevant searches".Is punctuation in brands okay. Like Levi's, What about SZ instead of size or VTG, if there isn't room for vintage? Signed, Sarah. Well, I dunno if Sarah knows...

Brian: Sarah, that last one.

Griff: You know, it's just gonna set me right off.

Brian: Yeah. The last one will set you off.

Griff: If you've listened to the old eBay radio show and you've heard this when it comes up, my biggest word pet peeve is the word vintage. It's meaningless now before you start sending in all the email or even calling us at (888 )723-4630...

Brian: He has acquiesced and realizes people like to use it.

Griff: I haven't acquiesced, I've just, I've just calmed down. The word vintage means nothing. And I can tell you why I still believe it means nothing. Get 10 sellers in a room and ask them to write down what it means. And I guarantee you that there is pretty much no chance that two sellers are gonna agree. But anyway, I won't go there. So yeah, she says, or VTG instead of room for vintage. I just wouldn't use the word vintage. And I tell you why, Sarah, if you search for vintage, you're gonna see millions of items. It's not a specific enough word to use that's gonna help narrow down your search.

Brian: And oftentimes it's used within some other framework like vintage fifties.

Griff: Yeah. And that's okay.

Brian: Or vintage, whatever. So when it's done that way then it makes more sense.

Griff: It makes more sense visually and I guess if somebody searches on vintage, they're gonna find it, but they're gonna find lots of other listings. So a punctuation in a brand like Levi's. Yeah, you can use that. It's when people use punctuation and I saw a title the other day where there was a hyphen between every word. I have no idea. Instead of a space. Well immediately I went and search for the item on Google Shopping. Google's gonna block that right out. Always emulate retailers. That's what I tell sellers who are selling on eBay. Go look and see if any of them use that sort of punctuation. And they don't. When you want have a title on eBay, you want a word, a keyword, a relevant word, and a space and then a keyword, and then a space, and then a keyword, and then a space. As far as abbreviations like SZ for size, I don't see a problem with that.

Brian: Especially if you don't have enough characters left to write out size.

Griff: That's not bad. It won't get you blocked from Google shopping. I know that.

Brian: Right. But a buyer is unlikely to type in SZ..

Griff: Or size. Right. What they'll do is they'll filter by the refinements, which are related directly to items specific. So it's more important that you have the item specifics as well as in the title for something like size. And again, when it comes to vintage or VTG or any of those other acronyms that were very popular on eBay for years, they were seller created things like, you know, NWB, New Without Box or whatever, you know, NWT, new without tags, all those don't use those anymore. Don't waste the space. And if there's an acronym, and especially if it's in all caps Google shopping is more than likely to block it. Go back to that advice. Go look at what a retailer does. If it's new without tags and it's in the right category. If that's an important thing, like for example, in the fragrance category, you have new and new without box. Those are the two options now that's gonna tell the buyer. You don't have to necessarily put it in the title unless you have space. But even then don't use NWB, new without box.

Brian: The one where I will still see it used frequently and I've even sometimes typed it in.

Griff: What's that?

Brian: NOS. In auto parts, it means New Old Stock. . And you know, I still see sellers use it. That's why I will do it. But that's very, very specific to car part.

Griff: Is there an item specific for New Old Stock?

Brian: I'm gonna go list an item and see. I don't know if there is. There might be.

Griff: I guess there may be exceptions. So yeah, that's a general use case, so.

Brian: But that was like an old term that was used even before eBay. Prior to eBay.

Griff: So Sarah, thanks for asking the question. I think it's a good one. Or you know, you're asking it as a proxy on behalf of one of your viewers. And the advice I would tell you to give all of your subscribers on YouTube is to always default to a retailer. What would they do in a title online? I'm not saying within their mail order catalogs. And that's gonna give you the guidance you need for creating a title. It's nice to have the brand upfront if the brand has punctuation like Levi's. Yeah. It's okay to put the apostasy and make sure that all the important stuff for that item is upfront in the title. And that's just generally for areas that display eBay listings and maybe they don't display the whole title. So you get the important information up front. But avoid unnecessary acronyms, especially if they're not generally used in the industry in which you are selling. And make sure it's, again, the format is a keyword in a space and a keyword in a space and a keyword in a space as opposed to, I say people tie them together with tildas. And they think, I think they're looking at this. Oh it, it'll make my title stand out and what it does is get your listing knocked out of Google Shopping. So Yeah. Don't be cute.

Brian: Well our next question, and thank you for that Sarah.

Griff: Yes, Sarah, thanks. And thanks for coming on the show.

Brian: Yes. Our next question is from eBay seller Kristin, who sent the following to podcast@ebay.com. Hello. Is there ever a circumstance where I should expect to complete a customs form while shipping, when using the eBay Global Shipping Program? I use the Global Shipping Program and I love the convenience of it as a seller. However, I recently ran into an issue where it was recommended to me by customer service to cancel the order because the shipping section was requiring me to complete a long and complicated looking customs form. The customs forms was very intimidating and it was not allowing me to ship the item without completing it. The sale was through the Global Shipping Program and it was being sent to a FPO or APO address to a United States military base located in Spain.

Griff: Ah, okay. Now I get it going. Yes.

Brian: I wanna make sure that filling out a customs form is something that I learn how to do in the future if it actually was not a system glitch error. Thank you you for the information and fun podcast. My store name on eBay is Sunnyside Boutique llc and my username is Kristen_greeneyes. Well thanks Kristen.

Griff: Yeah, Kristen, the Global Shipping Program does not ship to FPO APO addresses within the US but they do ship to international. Like in Spain, the FPO APO military addresses within the US would be considered domestic shipments. And your shipping policy applied to a listing would have to have the box in the exclusion section either checked or unchecked for FPO, APO. If it's unchecked, then GSP shipments to international FPO or APO addresses would not be excluded. Any domestic FPO or APO shipments would be handled as domestic postage and your policy would apply. However, if this exclude FPO or APO boxes checked for a shipping policy, which is what I suspect happened, where the international option that you've put into that policy is Global Shipping Program, it will exclude all shipments for FPO apo, both international and domestic. That's what I suspect happened to Kristen in that case. It wasn't being shipped by the Global Shipping Program.

Brian: If she was basically because she excluded FPO?APO. Yeah. GSP didn't apply.

Griff: It didn't apply. So you'd have to ship that yourself. There is a way to exclude FPO/APO for domestic, but not for GSP shipments. It involves unchecking the box and your shipping preferences for overriding your GSP settings. And I know this is confusing, but that's how that works. And depending on whether you are opted into business policies or not, you would access these settings one of two ways. If you're not opted into business policies, you can find both the exclusion and the global shipping program override options in the following pathway. Go to my eBay, click the account tab and then click on shipping preferences. And then look for the edit feature for exclude shipping locations. If you're opted into business policies, each policy will have its own exclusion list at the bottom of each shipping policy when you're setting it up. And for sellers who are opted in for business policies, the GSP override box can be found in the same location at My eBay, the Account Tab and then the Shipping Preferences page. But unlike those who are not opted in, they'll only see the option for unchecking or checking the box for GSP override. They won't see the exclusion list on that page.

Brian: So that, that makes sense. And then Kristen, as far as filling out kind of the custom form, they are complicated, which is one of the benefits of GSP. Don't have to it do. But your local post office can assist you with filling it out. I mean, can answer any questions you might have, but if you're shipping solely through GSP, you'll never have to worry about a customs form again. But you've gotta go up and do what Griff just did.

Griff: Exactly. So if you have a question about this Kristen, you can email me. I know it's complicated and I apologize for that. This again, should be a lot easier for sellers to figure out. And I have two minds of this. And one mind says we should make it easier for sellers. And then the other mind says, if we make it easier, then no one will send the question in for the podcast and we won't have the content.

Brian: I'm sure there'll be some other part of our site that will have some complexity to it.

Griff: You think?

Brian: Our next question is from eBay seller Julie, who wrote to podcast@ebay.com. The following, I've been selling with eBay for a very long time. I'm now listing some books and cannot figure out how to get the information about this product. Other listings of the same book. Have them. So I know they're available, I just can't figure out how to get them. Please help me with this. Thank you so much, Julie. Well of course we'll help you, Julie, now calm down. We're gonna fix it for you. So Brian, why don't you do this?

Brian: Well, I didn't think she was that upset.

Griff: I'd be that upset. I feel like I being excluded. Everyone else has the product information. Why can't I have it? But then that's me. I've got some problems.

Brian: We all do. Well Julie, when you list a book, there should be a place for entering a title. If you enter the title of your book and click search and your book is in the eBay catalog, you will see one or more options stating top picks from the product library. Select the one that matches your book and all of the product details will be automatically filled into your listing form.

Griff: And the product library, uh, Julie isn't limited to just books. It covers records, CDs, tapes, LPs, and even video games as well as other types of products. So it never hurts to discover if your product or item is listed in the eBay product catalog by simply at the point of listing, when you click on either in the app or in the desktop, it asks you what are you selling. If it's a book and you type in the title, chances are really good, it's gonna show up as an option from the product catalog.

Brian: And then you can imagine if you put in a book title, you're gonna have multiple options because there's gonna be a hard cover version and a soft cover version. Don't just pick the first one. You know, make sure that you're picking the one that matches the book that you're selling.

Griff: And it's a great way to list because then you don't have to enter any item specifics.

Brian: Right. It all fills in.

Griff: In a lot of cases it'll give you a stock image. If it's a used book, we always say, nice to have a picture of the book. If it's brand new and the stock photo is the same photo, you know it's the same cover and everything, use that. Right. People who sell books tend to list a lot of them and this is a way for them to be able to list them fast without having to do a lot of data entry.

Brian: You can also scan it.

Griff: Some cases. Yeah.

Brian: Some cases you can take your camera, your phone and take a picture of the barcode. And it may return the exact listing if it's in the catalog.

Griff: So if your book that you're selling is more recent and it has a barcode, try scanning it and then you don't even have to type the title in. And you'll see it in the app, it's not on the desktop, but in the app when it says what are you selling in that search bar, there's a little scan icon. If you click that, it'll bring up your phone's camera and you can just hold it up. And if it finds it, I think Julie, you're gonna be so amazed how quickly this happens.

Brian: Especially if you're on your phone, especially if you're selling any like Griff said, recent books. Yeah. It'll be in the catalog. Yeah.

Griff: It's hard to find a barcode on like an, you know, an 1890 weather bound copy of History of England.

Brian: Especially since barcodes didn't really come out to the 1970s. And what were they first used for Griff, barcodes?

Griff: Oh my, this is, this is a, you put me on the spot. Barcodes. I have no idea.

Brian: So I don't know why I know this, but they were first designed for the grocery business.

Griff: Of course. Yes. For scanning at the register, right?

Brian: Yes.

Griff: Yeah, that makes sense. I used to be a bag boy, cashier. A bag boy, not a bad boy. I was a bad boy cashier. I used to wear leather jackets and slick back my hair and caused trouble in the produce aisle. Yeah, you think I would know that. But this was back even, this was like the late sixties and back then there was no barcodes or scanning. You had to, you had to sit there and enter everything on the keypad. Yeah. You got really good at it. And you had to count out change. And you had to walk uphill to school both ways.

Brian: In the snow in bare feet.

Griff: And it snowed all year, even in the summer.

Brian: Okay. I think it's time to move on to our next question.

Griff: Why? Oh yes. Because it's here. We have to answer this question. Right?

Brian: So our next question, it's our last one of the week, and this is from seller Amber who asks a question that we've heard a few times in the past. Good morning. Over the weekend I was listing and went to hit published and noticed that I was getting a 25 cent fee for my listing. I have a store subscription. So I was confused. I figured out quickly that I had maxed out my free listings under the basic store subscription. I looked at the next level store Premium, which has 10,000 free listings per month. I cannot be the only person who is growing their eBay store and gets to this juncture and believes that this is a huge jump from starter to premium. And I think she meant Basic to Premium. Why isn't there a store between these two? I just listed 150 items per month, so it makes sense to adjust my store subscription to the premium store. My store updates November 1st as I pay for the yearly rate. So good timing, I suppose. It seems to me there should be another store subscription level in between the Basic and Premium. Am I the only one who thinks this? Why isn't there an option for 5,000 free listings and pay $30 per month? Just seems like a natural step and would help people build their store without the $58 increase each month. I just recently found the podcast and look forward to listening each week. Thanks Amber.

Griff: Well, Amber, I have to admit it's a question that we do actually hear a lot. Brian and I speak a lot with an old eBay colleague of ours, John Lee, who's actually part of the Pricing Team. And he's explained this to us in the past and it does make sense, which is that, yeah, we could create tier after tier after tier with at inflection points that benefit or would be helpful to specific sellers. Where does it end? I mean, where do we stop slicing and dicing? I think every seller who gets to the point where you're at has to do the math. If you're only going to list a hundred to 150 items a month, you're at that point. If your plan isn't to grow and list a lot more, it may not be that you're gonna jump up to the next store tier. It may be that you're gonna see, okay, I'm paying 25 cents per listing at the current rate. Does that justify moving up to a store level? It may not. If you're not gonna list more, you're not gonna have more than a hundred or hundred fifty live listings. It's like me, I hardly ever have 200 then yeah, even the new tier isn't gonna make sense for you because you're gonna be paying more in the subscription fee. And does that make sense if it's just that many listings? If your aspiration is to grow this to a thousand listings, then you have to do that math and say, well actually probably should upgrade. But we're not gonna start inserting a bunch of tier in between because when does it end?

Brian: Right? It just, it would actually make the store experience even more confusing for sellers. So today it's relatively easy to make that decision of where do I start with my store subscription? And then the guidance that I would give Amber on this one is, is you go through that threshold to Griffs point. If you think you're gonna really get towards like the next level, you don't necessarily have to get all the way, if you're getting 40% to the next level or 50% towards the next level, it probably makes sense to upgrade to the next level store. Don't feel like you have to max out the next level to make it actually pay for itself. But that's gonna be every seller's gonna have to make that decision on their own as they look at how much above that threshold they are for whatever tier they're in.

Griff: And again, it's just a simple math. Taking the number of listings over your current allotment that you're doing every month, finding that figure for those insertion fees and then determining would it be worth it at this point for me to upgrade? What are those two figures? And if there's a big disparity between the two or you're gonna end up spending more for the store's subscription than don't. Stay where you are. But if you're moving up and it's getting close and you wanna continue moving up, then that's around the time you're gonna think, Okay, now it's time to upgrade my store.

Brian: And we don't just hear this from people with Basic stores talking about Premium. We also hear it a lot from sellers with a Premium store who have gone over that limit looking at the gap between Premium store and Anchor Store.

Griff: And we do hear it from Anchor Store and Enterprise.

Brian: Exactly.

Griff: We could slice and dice and cut the tier up forever and it's, you know, so that there's 20 different levels of store subscription. Let's just say we got to eight. So let's say we got to eight or to eight or ten. Can you imagine how many questions? When is it right for me to move up to the next to level six? And now should I move up to level seven? Should I move back down to level four. We're just not gonna make it that complicated.

Brian: Yeah. I think five levels is complex enough.

Griff: Exactly. We hope we've answered your question, Amber. I suspect you wanted to hear that we were gonna add a tier and I need to disabuse you the notion. It's just not gonna happen. So sorry. Yeah.

Brian: The one thing that I will say, if she's up to that level, congratulations. That means you're doing the right thing and you're selling through. And so keep doing what you're doing and maybe at some point you listed so far above it does make sense for you to jump to the next level.

Griff: You can only hope.

Brian: It's something to aspire to.

Griff: I think so.

Brian: Well, if you've got a question about selling on eBay, why not Call it in to us here at (888) 723-4630.

Griff: I think I will. I think I'll call (888) 723-4630 and ask myself a question about selling on eBay. And I know that I can call that hotline any time of the day, any day of the week, and I can leave a question or comment to myself and that ourselves might just put it on the air.

Brian: Next week, I'm gonna wanna hear that question that you call in Griff. And if you're not a call in the phone person like Griff you can always email us at podcast@ebay.com. That's podcast ebay.com.

Griff: Now drum roll please. It's time for your Three Point Podcast Checklist.

Brian: Number one. Check the Announcement Board at ebay.com/announcements for up to date Seller News every day. Check!

Griff: Number two. Only 56 more days till the end of the holiday shopping season and selling season. Are you prepared? I bet you're not. At the very least, make sure you have an adequate supply of boxes and packing material and lots of tape and lots of greeting cards and other little things. You stick in those boxes so you aren't scrambling for supplies at the last minute. Check.

Brian: And number three. Need to review anything in this episode? It's easy. Check the transcript for this and all episodes for follow up on what you've heard and to find the links we referenced during the episode. And that's a check.

Griff: And on our next episode, we'll meet up with a long time eBay seller and friend of the podcast and friend of eBay, eBay seller, Sherry Smith from Denver.

Brian: We'd like to again thank our guests this week from the Seller Update Team Chelsea Cooley.

Griff: The eBay for Business Podcast is produced and distributed by Libsyn and podCast411.