Episode 69 || Cashing in On Year-End Sales, Internet Sales Tax Update, New York City UpFront

[doug@ebay]

On this week’s episode, Anitha Chakravarthi, Global Head of Indirect Tax at eBay, joins us with an internet sales tax update. We’ll listen in on some Q&A with eBay sellers Viv Vassar and Adam Wexler from the recent New York City UpFront, and learn how to cash in on year-end sales with Jen Deal and Griff. Of course, we’ll cover topics of conversation from the eBay Community in The Buzz. To have your questions answered on eBay for Business, call us at 888 723-4630 or email us at podcast@ebay.com.

Links

eBay for Business Podcast (ebay.com/podcast)
eBay Meetups (ebay.com/meetups)
The eBay Community (ebay.com/community)
eBay Seller Center (ebay.com/sellercenter)
Weekly Community Chat (ebay.com/communitychat)
eBay Seller Protection (ebay.com/sellerprotection)
eBay Help (ebay.com/help/home)
eBay System Status (ebay.com/sts)
eBay Seller News Announcements (ebay.com/announcements)
Why is there zero accountability for Buyers?
Looking for advice from sellers smarter than me
Proving Income

Hosts

Griff, Alan Aisbitt

Guests

Anitha Chakravarthi (eBay Staff), Jen Deal (eBay Staff), Viv Vassar (eBay Seller), Adam Wexler (eBay Seller)

Transcript

This week on the eBay For Business Podcast:

"In June 2018 there was a Supreme Court case with Wayfair and that basically removed the requirement that a seller has to have physical presence in a state for the state to impose a sales tax. So what that means is regardless of where you're physically located, if you do business in certain States, those States may require you to collect taxes on your transactions."

"It really helps to talk to people, to be in contact with them, to get information. It cuts your learning curve down, plus you feel better because you're working with a group."

" I would say when selling on eBay, don't just think about that one sale. Think about trying to build a relationship with that customer so that they keep coming back."

" If your inventory isn't sparking a sale, let it go!"

I'm Alan.

And I'm Griff. And this is the eBay For Business Podcast. Your weekly source for the information and inspiration you need to start, run and grow a big or small or medium business on the world's most powerful marketplace. That would be eBay.

eBay. And this is episode 69. How was your Thanksgiving Griff?

It was fine. Fine. How was yours?

It was really good. Got to spend time with friends and family. Most important things. Good to be back though. I missed the podcast.

Yeah. How nice for you.

How nice for me and you.

If you insist, but I digress.

Oh, you always do.

Well, you know Alan, we got lots of ground to cover this week, so we should get started post-haste.

Okay, good call. It's time for my favorite segment, The Buzz.

Each week on the eBay community at community.ebay.com, thousands of conversations happen between buyers and sellers, but we like to focus on those that happen between sellers. And we pulled some of our highlights from the last week. Alan has got them for us. So what's up first, Alan?

First one up this week that caught my attention. The seller said, why is there zero accountability for buyers?

Oh brother!

The opening post went on to say, this member recently purchased an item from me, and it's been four days and no payment. Okay, fine. So I look at all of the feedback, all 100%, everything looks good until I read the comments and there are over 10 comments all stating that he or she never paid. So why can't be eBay allow sellers to leave buyers like this a negative feedback? I can't be alone wondering this.

Well we'll talk about some of the responses that were left.

Actually, the first response I'm going to read out here hits the nail right on the head. So the post says "if sellers had filed unpaid item disputes against the buyer and you had set your preferences at the most stringent, he or she would never been able to buy from you in the first place. All sellers, including you should file unpaid item disputes when potential buyers do not pay."

And that's true. There is a block in the seller site preferences, which allows a seller to say block any buyer with X number of recent unpaid items.

That's right. That's right. So it's uh, yeah. I suppose if you're a new seller to eBay, maybe it's something you're not aware of or have not the need to use it. But yeah, if you go to my eBay, in site preferences, you'll find it in there. So you can tighten up kind of your buyer requirements. And if there's buyers out there with a history of not paying for items and hopefully sellers are opening unpaid item records against them. So that way that helps the marketplace we talked about before, the immediate payment option. So if you're selling buy now items, you might just want to put immediate payment on it. So when a buyer clicks buy it, now they have to go through and check out at the same time. That reduces it we know. Any other tools you can think of Griff to reduce unpaid items?

I think you've covered them all. My old wise Sage.

Oh thank you.

That is sound advice. I'm being serious. Well good. Well that was a great first one. What else do you have for us this week, Alan?

So the next one up is a topic titled "looking for advice from sellers smarter than me."

Well, okay. And I'm sure there's no lack of those.

Interesting response to this one on the community. So the seller goes on to say they're listing a product. It's Hawaiian Host Matcha Max, and they say that at one time this was one of their best sellers. "I sold several of them a week. Sales have suddenly dropped to almost zero." They sold one item in the last month. They say they made no major changes to the listing. They've very little competition and they cannot figure out the reason for the sudden drop in sales. "Maybe there is no reason. Maybe it's just one of those things that I can't do anything about." The seller asks, "does anyone have any ideas?"

Best thing you could ever ask. And did anyone have any?

You've come to the right place.

Yeah, so call out a couple of responses here. So first one up says, "although it is anecdotal, I like to tweak prices and descriptions every so often in the theory that listing changes drive traffic. I've also heard that increasing the price on something and then later on running a sale can help drive more traffic to the listings." And then the responder also calls out something a practice the seller is doing in the title, so they said, "I wonder if having the first two words in all caps is hurting you in some searches?" They say, they forget but they think Google doesn't like words in upper case in the title.

They don't.

They don't?

It actually could make a difference in Google shopping. Yeah.

Oh wow.

We will put the links to each one of these specific threads in the transcript where you can find them so you don't have to hunt for them, but you can also find these and many others at community.ebay.com.

Very easy to find on the top of our discussion boards.

This next response, Alan is pretty cool. It starts off the poster says, "Well, I'm sure I'm not smarter than you." I love modesty, don't you?

Yes. Love it.

And that poster goes on to say, "You may want to update your item specifics. It looks like you can add quite a few item specifics such as expiration date, serving size, package type, et cetera. He goes on to write, try to fill in as many as you can until you see the illustration appear as the second screenshot shows." I guess they were giving screen shots?

There was a screenshot. So actually if you click the link in the transcript, you can check out the screenshot.

Then he says he ends up with, "Maybe this would help Search."

Isn't this great? I mean, I love how sellers are so helpful to other sellers when they have questions.

It really is an amazing resource for sellers. As we mentioned before you can call up eBay and you can get advice from eBay, but isn't that fantastic? You can get advice from your peers 24 hours a day on the eBay community, so such a great resource.

I would much rather get advice here.

Like this. Yeah. Then sellers who have been in the same situation as you, who've had the periods of time where sales have been down, and they've had to take a step back and look at what they're doing and now they're willing to share that advice with you.

I love this last response of this thread. Can you read it out?

Yeah, so this is another one where they, they kind of look at the seller's title and they provide a critique. So they say, "Oh, is Matcha Max what they call them. The chocolate covered macadamia ones? So you should really put the word macadamia in the title then.

Are these macadamia nuts?

I thought yeah. I was confused cause I, when I hear Matcha, I thought Matcha tea and coffee, but I didn't know mac was. Mac, Macs?

So he did a little research and thought, wait these are macadamia nuts. Oh that's brilliant.

That was a great point that I always try and tell the sellers as well as you know the product and you might be the expert on, maybe it's your passion the thing you're sourcing and you put it up on eBay and you don't think about it through the buyer's eyes, but if you're a buyer and maybe you're searching for something like what are the keywords that your buyer would type? You should put macadamia in there. There were these and many more other responses.

So what did the original poster actually have to say about all this advice?

Came back and they said "Thanks everyone. I guess I'll go in and make some changes and see what happens. Which with one sale last month. It certainly can't hurt."

There is a seller with an open mind and ready to try some new stuff.

Yeah, hopefully they come back and update us. We can go check the thread or we can go check him cause we know their user ID and you can see this too. Again in the transcript you can find the link to this discussion. Maybe you have some advice you want to give to the original poster. You can go in and post it there. Maybe you sold macadamia matcha in the past and you know the solution to this issue. So yeah, jump in to the link in the transcript.

I never sold them but I think, I think I've eaten them.

They sound really tasty. It's making me hungry. Okay. Are you ready for one final one? Number three. Okay. Number three is very important, especially around this time of year when we're thinking about taxes and end of year fun stuff admin that we need to go through. The seller opened their post by saying, " I will be moving in the next couple of weeks and the new place is trying to verify my income."

Like the landlord?

Sounds like it. Yeah.

"For this year eBay has been my only source of income. All they need is something to show how much I make per month. PayPal shows all the detail like money in, money out. They don't need all my shipping costs and stuff. Only my income. eBay has a couple of problems. It shows my store name and not my full and last name. The invoices only go back four months. I had created a folder and put all my invoices in it. I opened it today and now it's blank. So I've lost them all. I was never successful in downloading a CSV file onto my laptop. Could someone give me some direction as to where to go from here? I'm guessing I'm not the first seller out there needing this info?"

So quite a tricky situation for this seller, Griff. But hopefully with the power of the community and our two brains, we can share some info to help them out. So have you been through this Griff before?

Yeah.

And what did you do?

He's in a tricky position because sounds like he had some other job or some other source of income and now he's selling on eBay. So normally what people use is their taxes for the previous year, but he hasn't filed those for his business. However he has, we assume he has some business that he was in or he was working in and has some record that he could prove for last year. For this year I would compile a really quick profit and loss statement that's easy to read for each month you've been selling on eBay. If you don't have your invoices, you do have your PayPal data, you can get all this information off PayPal. It can show you every sale you've made. Put it in a monthly format. If you have any bank statements, print those out, use it as supporting documentation, but the first one should be a very simple profit and loss statement to date for the time period and if you need to know how to do that, you can go online and search for profit and loss statements. There's many different templates out there and instructions on how to do it. But what did some of the posters say?

I knew I should ask you. That's great info.

I've been audited by the IRS.

You did that off the top of your head. I'm going to call it two really good responses here from the thread. First one up. "Every seller gets an itemized monthly statement. If you go to the Seller Hub and you see your name in the upper left corner, hover your mouse over Settings and then click that. On the right side is 18 month’s worth of completed invoices. Select the month you want from the drop-down menu."

That's a great thought. Yes.

"Wise to do this monthly for your yearly income tax. It is not a button. It's a drop-down menu on the right side of the page and then when you open it, there is an option to print. So print a year's worth of them one at a time."

There's an important caveat I'd put in here. That's going to show your gross income. A profit and loss will take into account your cost of goods and supplies and operations.

That's important too.

Make sure that there's a difference between the gross income which eBay will show, but your net income is your gross minus your expenses including the cost of the items you sold.

Good point Griff.

Include those invoices in your packet to your landlord.

If it's just for your landlord, that might be enough to keep him happy.

Supporting documentation. You can't have enough of it and it shows that you're serious.

Yeah, right, exactly.

Another seller said, "actually when it comes to proving your income, you'll probably be better off using your previous year's tax return or your businesses profit and loss statement. If of course the one requiring the proof accepts them."

That's why you want to make the package look really professional. You want it printed out on clean paper, get a folder, you know, create title pages, make it look like you really put some work into this.

Wear a nice shirt, have a folder. All the things that you would do when you're serious about something and you want to make sure you can seal the deal.

Rent a Rolex and just like flash it. My business is so good. I've got a $5,000 watch.

There you go. Rent a Ferrari for the day. There was another response on here I really like can I read it? It says "if selling on eBay is really your only source of income, you need to keep track of every sale you make. How do you file your taxes each year? "

That's a great question and I'm afraid sometimes the answer is, I haven't. But we're just going to assume that is not the case.

And then the poster says, "you cannot rely on the service of eBay to keep track of like your books. So he goes on to say, get yourself an external hard drive and start backing up your files."

Buy it on eBay.

Of course, where else?

"You'll never lose anything again. It's super easy to use and you can purchase an external hard drive from," Hey, what? "Best Buy, they often go on sale." You can get them on eBay for cheaper. Anyway, he goes on to say, we'll forgive that lapse. "You can do this and since this is your only form of income you have at the time, you can easily prove your store belongs to you with one monthly invoice from eBay. So it doesn't matter that your name isn't used, you have PayPal as another source. Start putting this together and you'll make it work. Best of luck to you." And we should mention one more thing. A new feature this year in Seller Hub, you can actually see it on your orders page in Seller Hub. You can download reports and you can make them for a quarter or for a month. You set the time period and it includes all this information in a spreadsheet so that you can use this as a supporting document, mostly for creating a readable profit and loss. But look at that reporting function now. It's really good.

Great advice. I really liked the, buy an external hard drive and backing it up on eBay. Yeah, definitely on eBay. Cause you just don't know, especially with these cloud services and you can put it somewhere and then you can delete it very easily. So actually going old school and having a hard drive that you can carry around with you.

And then even older school, which is to print out the papers and put it in a safe. (spoken in granny voice)

Think of the environment. Don't do it!

Yeah right. Hey, the rainforest will grow back.

Oh no. Well, Griff, yes, we've come to the end of The Buzz. That's all we have time for this week.

That was a really good Buzz, Alan. Thanks for all that research and like we said earlier, you can read these conversations and so many more. Hundreds more that are going on at any time at community.ebay.com. You can lurk and if you think you want to jump in and test the water, you can also post and give your advice or ask your question. Great resource. I've been using it for 24 years. That's how I got my start on eBay is at the community. Things have changed over the years, but the passion and dedication of those sellers on that forum have never changed.

That's right. A hundred percent agree. It's fantastic.

We'll see you next week. Alan.

You will. See you then Griff.

Earlier this year, eBay began hosting small seller events in various U S cities. These events, we call them eBay UpFronts are where local eBay sellers can spend an evening with each other as well as eBay staff, including support reps and eBay executives. At a recent UpFront evening in New York city, eBay, Vice President Harry Temkin was joined on stage with two eBay sellers. Adam and Viv. Let's listen in as they share their eBay stories with the audience:

Well thank you so much for being here. This is fantastic. I always like to start with that question of how'd you guys get started? How long have you been on eBay? Tell us a little about your business. You want to start Viv?

Sure. In 1999 I owned two stores in Staten Island and I also had three children under the age of nine. Had my hands full. A friend showed me eBay. I went to his house and he said, Oh, you have to see this. And I remember us looking at it going, what is this? But we figured it out. I got an account. Within one year I was making more money on eBay than I was in my two stores.

Awesome.

So I sold the store, sold the building, went home, started my business and this way I could be home, pick up the kids at the bus. I kind of have a flexible schedule and it made a big difference in my life.

That's fantastic. And 17 years, right? I know you said '99 but officially 2002 on the platform?

No, March 1999 is when I opened my account.

Wow. How about that? I mean, that's incredible. Awesome. Thank you.

I've been selling on eBay for 20 years.

Twenty years as well.

Yes, I started classic story, college dorm room. I've always been into music and Hi-Fi equipment, but I was never able to afford it. So up in school where I went to in Ithaca, there was a Hi-Fi store there and I'd always frequent it, but I could never really afford anything. And then I noticed that they had a consignment rack, and nothing ever really was selling on it. The same stuff was always there. I had heard about eBay, never tried it and I had the bright idea. I went to the store owner and I said, you know, if I could sell that for you, would you give me maybe 20% commission on it or something? And they said, sure. And then I started listing on eBay and started selling and before you knew it, I had the coolest stereo out of anybody that I hung out with and it's been going since then.

Fantastic. I mean I think that's the power of eBay. I mean Geneva and Ithaca, they're great towns, great college towns, but you're not getting a lot of foot traffic right in those stores and you know eBay, the platform effectively takes that, that inventory and exposes it to 184 million people. So take that tiny little consignment shop in Ithaca and open it up.

Yeah, these guys were not internet guys.

And I took something very specific like vintage clothing and reproduction, 1950 style clothing and went from having the Staten Island audience to having a worldwide audience.

Exactly. That's fantastic. In 20 years, I mean incredible. What would you say was the secret to your success in listings or what would you share with the audience in terms of tips of being a 20-year veteran seller?

Consistency. If you put in the time, you do the research, you may be joining groups and just keep at it. I know it's a hard slog sometimes and there are days when I come into work and I say, okay, now I have all this stuff here, let's sell some of it and nothing seems to be moving. But then I'll list something new or I'll go on a forum and it gets my energy back up and I just find eventually things sell. And it's just stick with it.

So is there anything special you do when your listings aren't selling?

First, I light a candle and then I turn to the mannequin next to me and I say, Veronica, what do you think? (audience laughter) I'll go in and just jog it. I will go in and I will change the title maybe a little. Or I’ll go in and make sure that it's on promoted listings or I'll make sure that the item specifics are filled out. That's one problem I have, or issue is I have listings that I've had up since about 1999. Cause I'm using the same ones over and over again. And when there's a big shift like this, I have to go in and make sure that they're updated. But somehow it feels to me that when I jog it a little, it somehow gets people looking at it again and maybe I'll run a sale, but just doing something different makes me feel like, okay, something's going to happen. And sure enough, it does.

That's great.

Well for me, I have a very unique product offering that's always changing. So I feel like in terms of building a customer base, I have a lot of people watching my store to see what is Adam going to put up next. Cause it's ever changing. It's not a static product offering. It's collectables essentially. Beyond that, I would say the best of my ability, I recommend following the customer is always right mantra. As far as your sanity will allow you to follow that.

Okay. That's really, it's neat. The two different perspectives there on listings. So this is one we always ask. We're not afraid to ask this question. I mean we know it's a competitive marketplace and you guys are trying to get as much exposure as you can to buyers. Do you sell on other marketplaces and if so, why?

Yes, I do. I sell on Amazon.com ,Amazon.ca, Bonanza, Big Commerce, Poshmark and Walmart.

Whoa, okay. That's a lot actually. What listing tool do you do to manage your listings across all of those platforms?

I use Shipping Easy.] Which is my inventory system and my shipping program. It does real time management of all the inventory across all the marketplaces.

So that way if your multiple listing the inventory and if it sells on one it knows to delist it on another?

I rarely, rarely oversell.

Okay.

It's very good. It's real time and it's very dependable. Sorry, that sounds like a pitch for Shipping Easy. Yes, that's shipping easy.com! But if you're going to make money in this game you have to be multi-market and each market has something like, I love that eBay gives me access to everyone from collectors of vintage to people who are doing a Broadway show and need reproduction clothing. I get all those customers through eBay and also, I can do listings in all different ways from buy it now to auction and other market places don't have that.

Yeah. Great.

I appreciate eBay.

Thank you. Awesome. And we appreciate you guys. Believe me. That's what we do it for. Adam?

I think you're going to like this answer. I sell 99% on eBay.

Awesome!

I'm kind of addicted to listing items for 99 cents, 10 days, no reserve. And just letting it roll.

Wow. So you use auction a lot then?

A lot. Mainly.

That's interesting. How do you determine when you do something fixed price versus auction?

Sometimes just how I'm feeling that morning.

That's cool.

I'll be honest with you. I sell high end items, expensive items. I'll list something for $5,000. Let's say fixed price. It'll be up there for a month. Doesn't sell, send it to auction 99 cents and it sells for seven grand. You know in 10 days.

Now, do you use best offer on your fixed price or seller initiated offers at all?

I do you use best offer and I would say that, you know, it does work, but um, I'd say I have more success with auctions.

Well that's great! How about you Viv?

I'll take something that's been sitting for a few years and then I'll put it into auction, and I'll put it at like $10 where I really want to get a lot more, but almost always it will sell for if not as much as I wanted. I'll still get a couple bids and it is a way to shake up my merchandise.

That's great.

Plus again, it makes me feel like I'm doing something, and I find that a lot of this is baking the feeling like I'm always moving forward. I'm always trying something new. I'm trying to learn what eBay is offering and how to get that to work for me.

How would you say you differentiate yourself from your competitors? Is it just the uniqueness of your inventory?

It is the uniqueness, but also, I am in fashion, can't you tell? But I'm in fashion but I'm not going with the fads. I tend to sell what I think of as building blocks for retro clothing. I'll sell solid colored scarves like they wore in the 50s and I don't keep changing that up. I sell that. I've sold that for 30 years and I differentiate myself from people because I'm not changing with whatever is most popular at the moment. It's more like if you want a white blouse with a Peter pan collar in your size, I'm your gal.

When I first started selling on eBay, especially in the electronics category, it seemed like it was like this anonymous selling playground where it was like unspoken where it was like, you just sell this item. You don't know me. I don't know. You give me the money, thank you, goodbye. And I didn't like that. I want to kind of build trust. So I've kind of personalized my listings with even a picture of me in it, you know, and links to pictures of my team and just really personalizing it and kind of getting that trust out there. It's like, hey look here I am! You can trust me. Hey look, you know.

That is actually very cool.

Wait a minute, you have pictures of you in the listing?

Well, it is a customize listing that we've done. So I don't post, I don't like upload photos of myself.

But that's, but I mean I look, I appreciate the fact, I mean there, it does express what we like to say. We are the human commerce company, right? And you're showing the human element and we talk about the messaging angle of it and incorporating personalized messages that really does help a lot. And it's kind of the spirit of eBay. Tell us one fun fact about your biz.

The first thing I ever sold on eBay was a poodle skirt. And I went on to sell thousands and thousands and thousands of poodle skirts in the ensuing years. And I've had poodle skirts in the movies, on Broadway and in many, many high schools across the United States as everyone does Grease.

Wow. That's awesome. Very cool. Adam?

Not quite a fun fact, but my business was completely devastated by Sandy. So all my inventory was seven feet underwater. My office, my warehouses is in Red Hook in Brooklyn, and I lost everything. Interestingly enough, thanks to eBay, I sold every single waterlogged item on eBay.

Wow!

Obviously, I disclosed that, but believe it or not, thanks to eBay my losses were, you know, minimized a little bit.

But now you've built your business 100 percent back? That's amazing. That's awesome.

Speakers float by the way.

Just one last question, so we talk a lot about, you know, we've got, it's all about community. What would you say the best piece of advice you could give to, we have new sellers here? What would you say that would be?

Sure. A lot of us work alone or with mannequins or with maybe one or two people, and I think it's good to build a team. Whether it's advisors, maybe an accountant if you go that way or a group like you go through Meetup and find an eBay group or an eCommerce group or just even putting out the word in the town where you live and meet up with other people who are on e-commerce. It really helps to talk to people, to be in contact with them, to get information. It cuts your learning curve down, plus you feel better because you're working with a group. That's my advice.

Adam?

I would say when selling on eBay, don't just think about that one sale. Think about trying to build a relationship with that customer so that they keep coming back. Gain the trust, open communication, help them any way you can and repeat customers. And they'll keep coming back. You know, I've had customers coming back for many, many, many years.

Fantastic. All right, well thank you Viv. Thank you, Adam, for taking a few minutes with us. Much appreciated.

Thanks Harry and thank you Adam and Viv for sharing your eBay stories with us. We'll have more from upcoming eBay UpFront events in 2020 so stay tuned. Make sure to check your email from eBay for any announcements of upcoming eBay upfront events in your local Metro area.

We've been preparing for it for months on the podcast and now it's finally here. The holiday retail frenzy has begun. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are behind us now, dear seller, but there's still a few weeks left for you to ring out more sales during what is the biggest selling season of the year. And taking a cue from retail your business on eBay can really benefit from a planned sale and discount strategy through the rest of December and even into January. Jen Deal is with us now to help us parse out why end of the year sales can make or break a business and what makes a good sales strategy for this time of year. Welcome Jen.

Thanks Griff.

So, uh, how's your holiday sales going? I know you're selling on eBay.

I've got a slow start. I recently just moved, so all my inventory is moved. So steady sales, but I can't exactly say that I've been swept up in the holiday frenzy yet. But that's by design.

Yeah. I'm selling pretty well, but I've learned I have to keep on top of it. So what I do is I go through and I'm constantly making sure I'm the lowest price for that particular item. And if there's Watchers, I'll lower the price, a few dollars in the inline edit. I love that. But yeah, I've been selling about four items a day, which for me is a lot.

That's great. That's great. Yeah. Like I said, we're doing well pretty consistently, almost on a daily, but you know what's happened is because I've moved, I've recognized how much inventory I have, so I am planning to do a clear out for the year, end of the year.

So this is the perfect segment for you.

It is! It's getting me motivated.

So you're the expert and I'm going to play dumb as hard as it is for me to do.

I mean who can believe that you're going to be the dumb one here?

It's not that hard if you know me! So Jen, you brought with you an outline to cover what constitutes an effective cash in strategy for the next few weeks here, otherwise known as end of the year sales.

That's right. I want to talk about the why, what, how, and when factors of the end of the year's sales plan.

Well, let's start off with the why. Why do retail discount sales work so well during this time of year? Considering the volume of purchases that happened during the holidays, it almost to me seems counterintuitive.

Well, it might seem to be, but think about it. Let me start with the easy way to think about it. If, and I'm going to take a page out of Marie Kondo's book, but make it a little bit my own. If your inventory isn't sparking a sale, let it go.

Really good. That's really good mash up.

Thank you. I appreciate that. But really competition for buyers on eBay for example, is fierce all year long. The competitive heat is turned up too high though during this time of year. And unless you own a hot niche market with no competition, buyers have the best selection possible from competing merchants right now. They're out there in droves, those buyers both in store and online and as for timing, the last six weeks of the year present an ideal selling opportunity that can really boost a seller's bottom line, but only if that seller makes her inventory the most compelling to the buyer.

And the best way to do that is to offer really highly sought-after items at a steep discount.

Exactly.

I get where we're going with this, but isn't December a little late to start putting together a discount and sale plan?

Maybe, but not really. It will take some quick and nimble execution, but that's the best part of being a seller on eBay. Most eBay sellers can be much more nimble and quicker than a big retailer.

Big retailers have to plan months if not a year in advance.

That's right. Should I think of the end of the year as a time to liquidate inventory fast?

Maybe.

Well, I was hoping for something a bit more definitive Jen. Why maybe?

Well you should definitely be at the very least considering a forceful sales plan to help drive up purchases. And of course sales do deplete inventory. So along with making a focus on more sales, you also want to keep in mind which inventory you want to see go out the door first.

I get it. So you mean like dead inventory as it's known.

Right. The dead stock, Yes. Dead meaning inventory that's been sitting on your store shelves for months or longer.

And the reason for maybe focusing on this particular inventory?

Is because this is the best time of the year to reach the largest volume of eager buyers.

Of course. So I should think about marking down that dead inventory. That makes sense. What if I have to take a lot of losses on that inventory?

Well, that's okay. And you probably should. You should probably get it down to where you paid for it, right? So it's the cost. Try to get it there first and then in fact, you should plan on losing a little bit of money.

I don't want to lose money. I'm in business to make money.

Of course you are. Every business is in business to make profit. But all businesses can take a loss on inventory at some point in their lives. And for the business majors out there and accountants that's called a sunk cost.

A sunk cost? I like that.

Yes, most retail businesses actually anticipate these losses and build them into their annual plans.

Well, okay, but I'm just a small little seller. I'm not a big retailer and I can't afford to absorb losses. So there!

Actually, I think you're underestimating your businesses durability. All it takes is a change in how you view the inventory.

What do you mean?

Well, I'll answer that with a question.

Okay. I'm game.

Is inventory a business asset or a business liability?

Oh, let me think. I spend money to acquire it and store it and it has value. I couldn't run my business without it. So it's an asset, right?

Yes.

I thought so.

And no.

Wait a minute. What do you mean? How can inventory be both an asset and a liability? Is this a trick question?

Yes and no.

You're confusing me, Jen.

Well, it was sort of a trick question. An item in your inventory is actually both an asset and a liability depending on where it is in its life cycle.

Okay. Explain that please.

Okay. Let's get down to the basics. Here's an example. Say you buy a lot of 100 identical items to sell on eBay, and let's say they're brand named socks.

I like socks. Are they bright and colorful?

Sure. Let's make them 100 pairs of identical, bright and colorful...

Cotton.

Okay. Bright, colorful cotton socks.

Thank you.

Okay. And let's say you paid $1 a pair for them.

That's a good deal. I'll take them.

Yeah. Great Griff. You already did. They're yours. You have a hundred bright and colorful cotton socks that you bought for resale.

Can I keep a few pairs for myself?

Oh my gosh. Okay. You have 98 pairs of these socks. Bright and colorful and cotton.

I'm wearing the other two right now.

Perfect. They're lovely. Very good. So now you've spent $98 for your bright and colorful socks.

Okay, I get it now and that $98 and I know this is my cost of goods. So those socks are now a $98 business asset.

Not really. Oh, okay. Think of the phrase you just used, cost of goods. Any particular words stick out there?

Well, obviously cost.

Right. Exactly. Those socks are not so much an asset or a liability at this point. They are best thought of as a cost, a business cost. One that if you run your business as most eBay sellers do, which is a cash business, it will not turn into an asset until they sell generating you a profit.

Okay. Now that makes sense. I like where we're going with this. Is there some point when these socks could possibly become a liability?

So eventually sooner or later, and for some types of merchandise, that actually means much sooner instead of later.

Okay. Explain.

Remember that $98 you spent to purchase those socks?

I do. Yes.

Then you put those socks up on the shelf.

I did very carefully numbered in bins.

Awesome. Very organized. I appreciate that. And you listed them on eBay for say, $15 a pair.

Wow. What a markup. That's a hold on a minute. I have to calculate this. Carry the five. That's a 1400% markup. I'm rich!

Well, not quite. Keep your socks on the floor still. You see you only sold nine pairs since you first listed them a month ago.

Oh, okay. It's not great, but not bad. I made a gross profit on those. Let me see those nine pairs. I kept two for myself, so 9 pairs, wait a minute. I made $135, yay!

Yay, But...

There is always a but with you.

Okay? Yeah. Sorry. Griff. You haven't sold any beyond those first nine in over a month.

Oh no. Dead sock inventory. Jen, what should do, what should I do?

Okay, calm down. Calm down, we have the answers. Okay, so let's review. You made $135 on nine pairs.

I did.

So you paid $100 for a hundred pairs. And so now you've made your cost back minus selling fees of course, and you arrived at a breakeven point.

I love those kind of breakeven points. Good. The good points. You have now, 89 pairs of socks because you kept two for yourself. What you can figure out as no cost now. So those 89 pairs are an asset of sorts.

Of sorts?

Well, you can't really value them yet and you can't pay for groceries with socks, so you have to sell them. And now you're just in the right place with these socks to start a sale. Now is the time to start marking those puppies down. So Mark them down.

Oh, I see this now. Wait a minute. I can actually sell them for a very steep discount and still make a profit.

Exactly. Time to go to Seller Hub promotions and start a markdown event on my colorful, bright cotton socks!

Or a BOGO sale. Buy one, get one or free or at a good discount.

BOGO. I like that. But um, what about inventory that doesn't fit this profile Jen? You know like a skew with a hundred pairs of identical bright and colorful cotton socks?

Well, it's the same approach with maybe a different application. Give me an example.

Well I actually have a small lot of several collectible figurines that I have to admit, I paid a pretty penny for.

You are gonna lose some money on those.

What? I didn't finish. How do you know?

You have listed them, right?

Well, yes.

Okay. And they're not selling?

Right.

Okay. And you want them sold.

Of course, but only for the right price.

So how long have you had them listed?

I don't know. Maybe about a, maybe a year.

How much do you have in those figurines?

About $300 a piece.

And they haven't sold in a year?

Nope.

Okay. Has there been any interest in them as shown in your traffic reports?

Oh sure, you know, I check my traffic reports and there's lots of impressions and click throughs. Just no sales.

Okay, wait, so let's review. You have $300 times X amount of figurines. This is just your capital sitting around doing nothing in a bunch of ceramic nick knacks.

I beg your pardon. These are high quality figurines we're talking about.

Of course they are. Of course there are $300 tied up in these high quality figurines that is doing nothing for your business.

Well I wouldn't I wouldn't go that far.

No? Well, okay. What if you had that money back to spend on inventory that might move faster?

Oh, I see where you're going now. You're so smart.

Okay, good. So follow along, because we have a lot of working capital tied up in the inventory that is not moving it's now a liability. It's nonproductive inventory. It's not helping your business at all.

Well, I don't know. I disagree. Those figurines look really nice in my eBay store.

But are you running a museum or a business?

Good point. So I should lower the price in a sale for end of the year and maybe get some of those click throughs to convert into purchases.

Yes, you should immediately.

But what if I lose money? Oh wait. Like you said, every business takes a loss on some inventory, but I can get a percentage of that money back.

Exactly. You are a fast learner Griff.

Thank you. You can number one, write off the loss on your P and L for next year's taxes.

Check.

And number two, you can recycle that capital as diminished as it might be into inventory that can generate bigger margins at a faster velocity.

Oh, double-check Jen. I just adore it when you use business jargon.

Thank you. Well, you got me all primed now to reduce the price of some of my inventory, including those horrible figurines, to get it moving. But what percentage discount should I consider Jen? 5% 10% 50%? There's no specific set rule, but generally the lower the asking price, the higher the percentage.

Even then it still depends on the demand and the item.

So I'm going to have to test my way into the right discount.

Yes, you could and you probably should, but take those socks for example.

I'd be happy to.

Okay, great. They're marked at $15 a pair, 5% discount is 75 cents. Not really a compelling discount. Even 10% which is $1.50 off is a bit meh. But 20% and now you're taking $3 off the $15 price and that might be the push I would need to go from a nibble to a bite.

From nibbling to biting. I love that. And at that discount, by the way, I could still be making a good profit.

Totally. You would be, and you could make the discount even steeper, say every few days, all the way up to 50% and you still at $7.50 cents are making a profit, all be it a smaller one. And because you'll likely increase the velocity of sales at this new price point, you'll be getting your capital investment back and your profit faster.

So if I hold out for higher profits, so I may take a longer period of time to realize them or if I make lower profits, I can make them quicker. So it's kind of a tradeoff there. I'm so psyched to get these socks flying out the door, Jen, but what about the figurines?

Okay, this is a little bit more complicated. You paid $300 apiece.

Yeah. You don't have to keep reminding me.

Sorry. And no sales in a year.

Yeah, that's correct.

I just want to be sure I have all the facts.

You've got them right.

Okay, but your traffic reports show interest.

Yeah, they do. Actually, I have some Watchers as well.

Okay. Good Watchers are great. You're in a better position than you might have imagined. I'd start at 30% discount and then plan on even a steeper discount, maybe up to 75%.

Oh at 75% I'm going to lose money.

You will, but you'll get it.

I get it. I'm going to get my capital back to reinvest in better, smarter, faster inventory. Voila.

Griff is brilliant.

Thank you.

And then you make some of those buyers who haven't bit yet, bite down harder. You'll make them really happy.

Oh, you know what? Happy buyers tend to be return buyers. So it's going to be an investment in my future customers I hope.

That's the way to think about it. So back to those Watchers you mentioned, they are your best bet for a future sale. You can use the send offer to buyer feature with a discounted price before you actually mark them down on a site.

They've already shown interest. I just use one of eBay's features and this is a new feature. I just love this feature. Just send them an offer. And it's great if you have more than one or two Watchers. They're all getting it. So it's like a bunch of fish nibbling at the bait and someone's going to take it.

That's right.

What are some of the other tools in this new Seller Hub promotions?

So under seller hub promotions you can look out for the right tools that fit for you. So we have markdown manager plus sales event.

That's an old tool. I've been using markdown manager for over 10 years.

Yeah. We have sellers out there that still love that. Promotions Manager is what most people are using now and there you can do the BOGOs as we talked about the purchase discounts. You can do shipping discounts there.

If you're charging for shipping, you can lower the shipping price for combining more items into one package.

That's right. Like you can offer get free shipping at $40 and above or something like that.

I love that. Yeah.

Yeah. That also encourages multi purchases from a single buyer.

Right. And I may lose a little bit on shipping. I'm actually might make some too. You never know. But again, these are all losses that help me generate more sales, get more of my capital back so I can reinvest it in better inventory.

That's right. That's right. And then we have Promoted Listings.

Promoted listings. Yeah, we've talked a lot about that this year.

We did. And then I just like to remind people that there's the powerhouse couple, which is when you're running a promotion, getting it out there by using Promoted Listings and really pushing that, those pieces out there that you have on sale that really helps drive some of the conversion.

And you can be very tactical about it. You can select very specific inventory to promote. That'll help drive traffic back to your store and other inventory.

That's right. Like purple tends to be a color that doesn't sell as well.

I love purple.

Okay. So if you didn't keep all or the purple socks, but you know if you and your colorful bright sock collection, if you've got a particular color or something that's not moving as fast as the others, you can make those part of the discount or its own discount and then promote.

Well Jen, this has really been great, but I do have one more question. What merchandise sells best at holidays? I always thought it was just the gifty stuff.

Gifty stuff?

You know the usual ties, ornaments, sweaters, iPhone, six foot wide flat screen TVs, SUVs with big bows on them, his and hers in the driveway?

Wait, let's pause right here. I got a car one year. With a big giant bow on it. Red. Really pretty. Glitter cause I love glitter except it took me like two years to get the glitter out of the car.

It was a gift that kept on giving.

So if you're going to do that, anyone out there use a satin bow.

Okay. Not glitter.

Just saying.

Well so just about anything then?

Right. Okay. So well you'd be surprised actually just about anything can be sold at the end of the year. It's not just a holiday purchase. Don't forget shoppers may be checking off things on their gift list. Yes. But they also tend to get carried away with all the sales and they buy for themselves.

Yes. So at the very least plan for it. What do we have to lose as sellers?

Right, exactly.

Jen, I want to thank you so much for stopping by. This has been great and you eBay seller can read about all of the promotion options available to you on eBay, on Seller Center. You can get there by just clicking the link for Seller Center at the bottom of any eBay page. And once you're on the Seller Center page, scroll down. There's a whole section on promotions with a bunch of links to the different promotions and the links have some wonderful documentation. The team has spent a lot of time putting this together and there's some wonderful stuff there and you'll learn a lot and you're going to start discounting and you should be discounting ASAP because there's still time left in December. Jen, thanks.

Thanks Griff.

Today we have Anitha Chakravarthi from our Tax Team and she's here to discuss, well guess. Internet sales tax. Everyone's talking about it. Hi, Anitha welcome to the podcast.

Hey Griff, happy to be here.

Now could you introduce yourself and your role at eBay?

Sure. Like you said, I'm part of the Tax Department in particular, the indirect Tax Team. So we look at everything from sales tax use, tax, V, A, T, G, S, T, all those things you pay at the cash register. And I've been at eBay for four years and happy to be here.

Well we've talked a lot about the internet sales tax on the podcast and we may refer to the internet sales tax as, IST. So I've defined the acronym. I'm off the hook. But could you remind us about the law and why our sellers should pay attention to this new sales tax ruling?

In June, 2018 there was a Supreme Court case with Wayfair and that basically removed the requirement that a seller has to have physical presence in a state for the state to impose a sales tax.

So what that means is regardless of where you're physically located, if you do business in certain States, those States may require you to collect taxes on your transactions. And then following this ruling, many States implemented marketplace sales tax collection requirements. So what that means is they extended that rule of not being physically present in a state to saying, if you're a seller and you sell into a state through a marketplace like eBay, where else would you sell? Then it's the marketplace that would be responsible for the collection of the sales tax.

So that's what eBay's doing now. That's right. How many States have started collecting this tax so far? So we started in January of 2019 and right now we're up to 34 States that require us to collect tax.

So we're only 16 States away from every state, but not every state has a sales tax.

Right. We're there, there's a majority of States.

What is the requirement of sellers who sell into those States?

Simply put, really nothing.

Nothing?

eBay charges and collects a sales tax, a checkout. If a sale is made into one of those States where we have an obligation and then we make the payment to the state.

What role does eBay play in IST? You say we make a payment to the state. How does that work?

eBay wasn't always synonymous with internet sales tax and there's been a change in terms of requirements for what marketplace facilitators and in particular eBay is now responsible to do. We are kind of required to charge, collect and remit the tax to the state on behalf of the sellers. What that means is we will handle the compliance, but also the audits related to any of the sales tax related to those transactions.

So when you said nothing, you really mean nothing.

I mean nothing.

From a fee perspective. What is eBay charging to collect and remit?

Again, nothing!

Love nothing.

Yeah. We believe selling on our side should be easy and so we're taking care of all these requirements to do with sales tax.

This is at eBay's expense because this doesn't come free.

Nope, this is at eBay's expense.

What else are we doing to help sellers with this and their internet sale tax obligation.

So you know, we, over the years we've heard from our sellers that it's a real relief for eBay to handle the internet sales tax on their behalf from a compliance and audit perspective. As you can understand, there's a lot of complexity and challenge to complying with individual jurisdiction requirements all over the country. The fact is IST is not going to go away. It's a fact of life and if you're buying and selling on the internet then there's going to be tax. We are trying to make it as easy as possible by taking on all these requirements and complying for buyers in particular. So I know some of our sellers are also buyers. If you're a reseller or your sales tax exempt in a certain state, if you provide eBay with your valid reseller exemption certificate, you will have the ability to shop tax free.

Is it for every state or is it just the state you're in?

You get certificates by state.

By state, so you'd have to get them by state. But once you've submitted them, tax won't be added to your invoice.

eBay wouldn't charge tax at checkout for you on applicable items.

On applicable items. Of course. Being in California, I sell regularly on eBay. I pay sales tax. I know that eBay is now paying that tax to California. Do I still have reporting obligations? Those obligations vary from state to state. So what are we telling sellers?

They should consult with tax advisors. There are state specific information made available on most state department revenue taxation websites and they should check that out.

We're collecting sales tax for 34 States. Sellers have to do nothing. Unless you are a reseller and you want to not have to pay the sales tax for applicable items in States where you have certificates, you send those through. And I've seen the website, there's a site on the Seller Center for the IST page, internet sales tax page, where you can submit your documentation you need and those won't be added to the invoices. And if you have further questions about your obligations to report or your standing with a particular state that you're in, you need to contact that state's tax department.

That's right.

Is there anything else you'd like to add, Anitha?

Well, we have a lot more information than what I've covered on our Seller Center and our help pages including how the sales tax shows up on your report. So you should go check that out if you want to get more information.

I did and I now see on my report the column for sales tax. It is pretty cool.

That's right and we do that so in case an auditor asks a seller about the sales tax, they can say, look, eBay already collected and here it is.

Yeah. Well I want to thank you for joining us, Anitha. This has been very informative. We've been joined by Anitha Chakravarthi to discuss internet sales tax and your obligations or lack of.

Now it's time to bring the curtain down on this week's show.

But before it falls we have our standard beg.

Standard beg?

Yes, we beg. The number.

Oh, Of course. All right. If you want to join into fun here on the eBay For Business Podcast you can call us on (888) 723-4630.

That's (888) 723-4630. And the best part you can call that number any time of the day, any day of the week you can leave a question or a comment. And if it's really compelling we just might put it on the air. And of course I believe Alan, we're still giving out a podcast hoodie to callers?

Yeah, we are. Sure. Why not? Anything to get our dear listener to call in. So if you call in and leave us a question.

And we select it for airing on the podcast. Good point. We will send you a chic cotton zip up hoodie in Podcast purple with a microphone icon on the front.

And the eBay For Business logo on the back.

It is so pretty.

It Is.

If your question is selected. We'll call you to collect your mailing address and your hoodie size.

What sizes are available Alan?

A whole host, Griff, we have sizes. S thru double XL.

What? Well no. Triple XL?

No.

Hmm. Ah, well that's unfair to the diametrically challenged, isn't it?

Well, you can't please everybody. And if you are not a call on the phone person, you can always email us at podcast@ebay.com that's podcast@ebay.com.

But remember only phone call ins to (888) 723-4630, qualify for the free podcast hoodie. Not emails. So there's that!

Yep, that's right, Griff. Hey Griff.

What?

What is a lonely eBay seller with a little free time on their hands to do for a little fun around town?

That's easy. That seller should sign up for a local eBay seller meetup in their general area.

And tell me what happens at eBay seller meetups?

At this point, you don't know?

I don't have no idea what goes on.

What doesn't happen. There's tip and business insights sharing. There's information from other sellers you can use to help you manage your business better. There's food, there's drink, there's dancing, well maybe not dancing and even a little wait for it, Kvetching. Interested? Of course you are. To find a local eBay meetup in your area, just visit www.ebay.com/meetups.

And if there isn't a meetup scheduled in your Metro area, well you might just consider moving. You could probably a little bit less hassle and maybe start up your own local eBay seller meetup.

And you know our good friend Stephanie Inge of the Dallas, Texas eBay meetup group?

Yeah, one of the oldest eBay meetup groups in existence.

That's true. It's in its 50th year. Anyway, Steph has penned a great little handbook that can help you get started and you can purchase that online. Just Google meetup organizer step-by-step success guide.

Oh Griff, I want to tell you about a new meetup that just launched. Seller Louie in Miami beach recently launched, actually just last week, launched the first Spanish speaking eBay seller meetup.

That's fantastic!

So if you're in the area and you want to go to a Spanish speaking seller meetup, you can find out all the details on ebay.com/meetups should be listed there next month.

It's in the Miami area?

It's in the Miami area. So while you're thumbing thru Steph’s book, don't forget to tune in into the weekly live video stream on the eBay For Business Facebook page every Wednesday at 12:30 pacific. Go to facebook.com/ebayforbusiness. And then right after the live stream you can hop on over to the eBay community for our weekly chat. It starts every Wednesday at 1:00 PM Pacific. Go to ebay.com/communitychat. You'll see the weekly chats right there and you can click on the top one and enter the chat with staff .

And that's it for this episode.

Roll the credits.

Head of Community and one time Buzz Contributor Brian Burke. He helped us out this week. Thanks Brian. Our special correspondent, Jen Deal. Our traveling correspondent from Temecula, Doug Smith. Our Marketing Strategist and Facebook Fan, Liz Austin. My esteemed Co-host, Alan Aisbitt, Editor in Chief Griff.

The eBay For Business Podcast is produced and distributed by Libsyn and podCast411.

Oh, so yeah. Time to get down to the gym and work off all this Turkey from Thanksgiving, cranberry and all that gravy.

You ate too much didn't you?

Guinness.

Guinness at Thanksgiving?

I'm thankful for Guinness. Yeah, a little taste of home.

I can't figure out why you don't weigh 500 pounds. I think that is enough self indulgence for one weekend.

It's a lot. Yeah. It's time to go home.

Bye listener.

Turn off the lights.

[grafton41]

Precious metals bullion in not taxable in my states. 

[gold56mike]

Since June 1, 2019....New York State now collects 8.88% extra from us in new taxes. Can someone tell me how those Billion$ are being spent? Will 1 or 2 billion be spent to employ my neighbors and myself?...... or on out of state contractors?

[living-lotus]

Really enjoying the variety of topics covered each week.  Thanks to Jen Deal for some great selling tips!

[danstromm]

REMOVE ME FROM BLOG I JUS NEED ANSWRS TO MY QUESTIONS