Community Chat, April 3 @ 1:00 pm PT - General Topics

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone! 

Join the Community Team here at 1 PM PT for our Weekly Community Chat. Bring any general buying and selling questions that are on your mind! 

[dtexley3]

On my soapbox again.

Once again I had to exchange multiple, multiple messages with a buyer about combined shipping because..... their cart WOULD NOT allow them to "Request Total".    The items were not flagged for combined shipping and no discounts or free shipping was involved.  I also verified with the buyer that they did not have items from other sellers in the cart.

Please, Please, Please stop disabling the "Request Total" button.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Let me start by saying , due to the varied nature of my inventory, I don't get a lot of repeat customers. Still, repeat customers can be the bedrock of an ebay store, especially one within a narrow niche. What's the chance ebay will start identifying repeat customers for us? I know ebay shows buyers notes such as "you've bought from this seller before"----so it shouldn't be too hard to let us know when a buyer is a repeat buyer. Any chance we might get this valuable data sometime this year?

[gamersbaystore]

I have some serious concerns regarding ebay's new "Product-Based Shopping Experience." ebay is now advertising the same identical products I'm trying to sell, and they're doing it directly in my listings. Here we pay for a store, then ebay takes our own listings and our customers and drives them away.

This is also creating a price war, in which ebay is clearly trying to force sellers to drop their prices, otherwise you get no sales.

While I have no problems with ebay recommending "Similar" items in my listings, advertising the same identical product I'm trying to sell to my buyers is downright insulting.

We pay for a store, then ebay uses our listings to promote identical items being sold by someone else.

This is part of the reason why thousands of sellers are ditching your platform!

The changes with GTC are also an issue, and I'm sorry to tell you, its never going to work out in ebay's favor. You're destroying your smallest sellers with the GTC changes, they lost all their visibility.

All being said, ebay needs to stop introducing changes that solely benefit themselves and not their sellers.

As it stand right now, I cannot sell anything unless I give it away for pennies on the dollar. I put something up for sale and ebay tells the buyer to buy somewhere else. Yet, ebay can't figure out why its going broke.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

On this week's Selling on eBay Podcast, eBay's Liz Austin talked about Mother's Day. She said spending for Mother's Day has exceeded 24 billion dollars, in the US alone. So, this is a big retail event. She then went on to describe some "hot" items for Mom, none of which, as I recall, were vintage items. Yet there are many vintage items that are great for Mom: Just to name a few---old sheet music, prints, wall mottos and plaques, greeting cards, perfumes, and much more. But.....when I look for Mothers Day (or Fathers Day, for that matter, don't want anyone saying I'm ignoring Dear Old Dad,) in the Collectibles category under Holidays....Nothing. I can use something like "Other Holiday Collectibles", which you must admit does not immediately bring to mind Mothers Day.

One strategy I've had some success with over the years is changing categories as Holidays approach. For example, a vintage ceramic angel might be put in the Christmas sub-category for the 4th Quarter, but will be moved to the Easter sub category as Easter approaches. It would be nice to be able to do the same with Mothers Day items.

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
Also, still related to shipping: I don't use Free Shipping too often, but I would offer it more often (and I'm sure other sellers would too), if we could designate free shipping to nearby zones, with a flat or calculated shipping amount for other zones for Priority and First Class packages. Any chance ebay would consider this? I think it could provide a nice competitive advantage for those who use it.

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Can that be done in the shipping rate tables?

https://www.ebay.com/ship/rt

Don't use them, so I have no clue lol

[tyler@ebay]

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@deitycity wrote:

Can we create a listing with Add-on services?

I don’t think we can do this with “Create variations.”

ex) extended warranty, etc

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Hi @deitycity - add-on services are currently a feature that isn't a 'listing' option. If you have a service that you feel would be a good match for items in certain categories you should submit it for review! Steps below:

The following information is required in order to be considered:

• Description of services you offer
• Your eBay email address
• Your eBay User ID (selling id please!)
• Note that your service would need to be able to meet these criteria:
  • Nationwide coverage (includes Alaska and Hawaii)
  • Service will work well across entire high level category
  • Competitively priced for the service
  • The service must have a history of good ratings, reviews, etc
  • The service must meet a buyer need
  • The service provider must be willing to be vetted.
  • If the service you're offering is a product or subscription, you must have the rights to sell the product, accompanied with an approval from the manufacturer.

If your service meets those requirements write it up and send it to: DL-eBay-Add-onServices@ebay.com.

Thanks!

[brian@ebay]

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@mam98031 wrote:

PayPal has a new update to the fees they charge those that use their service to receive money from their customers.  It will be effective May 7th.

Starting May 7th if a seller has the need to refund a payment received for whatever reason they may have either in full or a partial refund.  PP will no longer be giving a corresponding credit for their service fees charged.  PP will be retaining the 30 cent transaction fee AND the full fee they charged the seller originally for the processing of the payment.

This update is going to have a negative impact on sellers of all sizes.  I believe some responsibility may lay with Ebay on why PP has made this change.  IMHO with a return system that is heavily weighted in favor of the buyer, sellers are left with having to accept a return and refund a buyer for some of the craziest reasons.  Many times reasons are incorrectly stated or factually inaccurate, yet Ebay will allow it to go through even if the seller tries to fight it and even if the seller can clearly prove the buyer is wrong or has done something wrong.

So IMHO this significant increase in refunds having to be processed through PP has likely played into the reason PP made this move because they were now losing more money than they were willing to swallow because of how Ebay is having sellers handle returns.

Now certainly returns are an issue.  But this change brings Cancellations front and center into a new issue that sellers need Ebay’s assistance in fixing.  Buyers can quite easily ask for cancellations often, for whatever reason they may have.  But now these cancellation requests that buyers file are normally in the best interest of the seller to grant will now cost the sellers MORE MONEY. 

I respectfully suggest consideration in this matter and the ability to partially refund buyers that request a cancellation when they have also submitted payment.  If Ebay would consider this, but are uncomfortable in giving sellers the control over how much the partial refund would be, Ebay could just program it to give us the option to refund less 3% [or 3.5%].  While that might be a little low on some things, it is better than eating the entire fees ourselves.  [$70 sale x 2.9% = 2.03 + .30 = 2.33]  [$70 x 3% = 2.10]

It should be noted too that sellers that partially refund buyers to accommodate a shipping discount will likely stop this practice too due to rising costs.

There is likely going to be a lot of fall out because of this PP policy update.  I’m just trying to be a bit proactive here and hopefully find at least some resolutions to the issues before they become HUGE issues.

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/upcoming-policies-full

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Hi @mam98031, I'm looking into the PayPal announcement and am seeking more information from our teams about it. I'll update this thread when I have more details. I'm also happy to take note of your suggestion. Thanks!

[coinslabz26]

I also had a question regarding the seller update.

I still do not have the option in my seller hub to send offers to watchers. Brian.T was kind enough to give me a link that would allow me to send watchers an offer outside of seller hub (the view for sellers without seller hub). I was wondering if there are any delayed or known issues that would prevent me from having this option in seller hub.

Also when I have watchers sometimes it will not allow me to send an offer to any or all watchers watching. Is this the result of their communication preferences? If so does ebay plan to notify buyers of this new option where they could receive offers and discounts that have changed since they last turned off their annoying watched item and relist notifications?

[Anonymous]

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@millcreekrescue909 wrote:

Approximately one week ago, I switched from the new version of the “Manage All Orders” page back to the original version because I needed a customer’s email address for an order that was more than 14 days old.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that there was no obvious way to switch back to the new version.  I know that this is also an issue for some other sellers as I have read multiple posts on this topic.

I am requesting that you either:

1 – Provide me with a way (if there is one) to switch back to the new version; or

2 – Forward this issue to the eBay tech team with a request that they make this option available.

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Hi @millcreekrescue909, Customer Service can actually adjust this for you. Additionally, The Community Team reviews this thread to add people daily. I've opted you back in, and don't hesitate to touch base with us or Customer Service if you need any help in the future 

[brian@ebay]

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@coinslabz26 wrote:

I asked this in the general chat too before I knew there would be a community chat today, but this is obviously a better place to ask.

I was hoping to get a comment from ebay on the new policy updates from paypal.

Specifically Paypal has introduced an update that says the following

"We’re changing how we treat refunds. If you refund (partially or fully) a transaction to a buyer or a donation to a donor, there are no fees to make the refund, but the fees you originally paid as the seller will not be returned to you."

source https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/upcoming-policies-full

Under the ebay and paypal operating agreement will this apply to ebay sellers considering paypal almost completely changing the way they do business?

This would cost me a couple of hundred dollars a month simply by buyers buying items, paying, and then requesting to cancel before even considering refunds for returns.

Will sellers be able to deduct these fees from refunds if this applies to ebay transactions? Can ebay please address this issue?

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Hi @coinslabz26, I saw the thread you tagged me in and am currently in the process of getting more details. Once I have information to share then I'll be sure to update this thread and the one you've tagged me in. Thanks!

[mendelsons]

Seeing a new issue with the shipping calculator.

One of our shipping templates has four shipping options for a listing.   Usually all four would display on quantity of 1 but now eBay is hiding one of the three options until the weight reaches 1 pound.  

So first class rate is displayed always no matter what quantity and its the first option shown which when you change the quantity to more than is acceptable to ship first class it will just double the rate or triple the rate as the quantity keeps going up.

But now the calculator is hiding the priority option until it reaches over a pound in weight.  

I reported it and got an SR#  if you want to take a look at it.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Southern, Good question. I've never used them, so I don't know. A good question for Trinton or whoever wants to answer it....

[gamersbaystore]

I think its totally ridiculous that ebay is actually encouraging buyers to return everything they buy. What retailer in their right mind would do something like this. Returns should be an option, but is practically begging buyers to do it.

As for leaving feedback, I've had buyers leave feedback before they ever received their merchandise. So I personally have no complaints there. Why buyers would leave feedback right after a transaction took place, I don't know, but I can't say it bothers me.

[tyler@ebay]

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@southern*sweet*tea wrote:

Hello, hello

What's up with the crazy seller limits?

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That's a lot of inventory! Not sure what happened here, but I can have someone have a look. 🙂

[dtexley3]

Is eBay monitoring whether or not there is an increase in visibility on Google for all the items that have been FORCED to be moved to GTC?  One of the reasons given was that GTC would result in higher visibility in Google.

I've been monitoring a few that were forced over to GTC on the 18th of last month.  So far not a single one shows up in Google shopping, not one.  Some show up linked to the ranch but very low in the best match list.  If GTC was meant to increase our Google presence it's not working so far.

I used GTC for quite a while at first and then found that my sales were much better if I used 30 days on, 7-10 days off and repeat.  For OOAK and seasonal that seemed to work best instead of slowing sinking down the BM list due to GTC age on these items.