Community Chat, August 5 @ 1:00 pm PT - eBay Partner Network

[tyler@ebay]

Hi everyone! Thanks for joining us for the Weekly Chat with eBay Staff. This week we’re joined by the eBay Partner Network team to answer questions you may have about this program.

If you're new to our weekly chat, welcome! To post your question, click Reply in the lower right corner of the first post between 1-2 PM Pacific Time, type your question, and hit submit. The format of our chat mirrors the format of our Community Discussion Boards, where each post will appear in the thread chronologically - so if you don't see an answer right away, don't despair! We'll get to it. 😀

The Community Team will review each question as it comes in, and will quote the original question in our reply. This quote and the reply will appear later in the thread, so just keep refreshing and scrolling down to see our answers.

The chat thread will remain open until 2 PM PT at which point we'll close it from additional responses. After that time, we'll continue to work on responding to any queries that might still be unanswered. You will get a notification when we respond. See you Wednesday!

About the eBay Partner Network:

Basics about the eBay Partner Network can be found here, including details about the program, some FAQs, and a video on getting started. 

Already a member of the ePN? Consider requesting to join the private Community Forum group of other dedicated ePN sellers (link here).

[taosa]

I joined the EBPN a while ago and have had not much action, but what I have had is link clicks and no sales, and no commission. My items sell slowly, can I post anyone's items and get a referral fee? I have been posting about 3-6 links a day on facebook and Pinterest . Would you recommend using other places as I have not generated any sales... Thanks

[Anonymous]

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@shipscript wrote:

I have used eBay's Partner Network on and off for the past 10 years to place an eBay promo widget in web pages. Then, a few years ago, the old widgets went dead and I was unable to create new widgets that would target "sellers" instead of "categories". It was also difficult to navigate the partner tools site. So after a 2-3 year hiatus, I'm taking another look.

The site has changed a bit. It looks like I still can not target a seller in a promo "gallery", but that I can use a "link" to do so.

https://partnernetwork.ebay.com/solutions

However, the site coding has apparently left my Firefox 52.9 browser behind because the pages misbehave.

I can see my campaigns on my account page, but not on the link generation pages.
When I try to select a campaign from the drop list (apparently optimized for touch devices), the page goes blank.

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@shipscript We do offer API solutions (such as the Browse API) that would be ideal if you're looking to target listings for specific sellers instead of by categories. You can learn more about the API  at https://developer.ebay.com/api-docs/buy/browse/resources/methods

[deb@shipping]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

The EPN links are long and clunky. I know we can use bit.ly (or whatever) to shorten them, but it would be great if you guys came up with an in-house way we could do that with one quick click. (Or maybe automate it, so it would automatically shorten if we set that as a preference.) Any possibility of that?

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Hi @my-cottage-books-and-antiques thank you for the helpful suggestion. We don't have plans in the immediate future to update link generation functionality to incorporate short links. We will keep members updated on any changes on this front in the future. 

[gwzcomps]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

gwzcomps,

I look at it same as I look at Seller Initiated Offers.I don't have a whole lot of luck with them, but it's free to do, takes only a few minutes, and sometimes I make some decent money because of it. Same thing here: this is free, it's easy to do (I'd be posting some of my stuff to social media anyway, so why not post it as an EPN link?). So any money I make from EPN is gravy.

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I guess I need to take the time to read through the user agreement.  The whole process just seems complicated, but that is probably because I am too busy to learn new things that don't include instant profit incentives. 🤔

[dan@epn]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

A few years ago, ebay had a tool , I forget what it was called, that allowed us to create a page with a number of thumbnails to our listings (or other listings) It was a bit like Pinterest.  One problem with that was that non-GTC listings lost their link when they ended. But now all fixed price listings are GTC, so that is no longer a problem. And now that I can get free FVFs for my items (and affiliate fees for others' items), I'd love to see this return. It would be easy to create an entire page of related items, and if I could create an EPN link to a page like that it would be great to post on Social Media. For example, the Holidays are approaching....I could create a page with vintage Christmas items (my own and other sellers) and post that as a link.

Any chance you guys would consider doing something like that?

And if not, is there another way I can create a group of listings and have only one link for the group?

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques 

Unfortunately, there isn't a tool for creating a page of items like that. While we've looked at this as an option, it's not on our product roadmap at the moment.

There's a couple of suggestions I can make for how to do something similar, though:

- You can use Pinterest. You're allowed to post EPN links on Pinterest, and we have a Chrome extension called Smart Share that makes it easy to post directly to Pinterest. You can then promote your Pinterest page on other social media channels. https://partnerhelp.ebay.com/helpcenter/knowledgebase/Smart-Share-Quick-Start-Guide 

- You can create a web page. You could use a product like Wix or Squarespace or Wordpress to create a page of curated items, the links to those items would be EPN links, and then you can promote that page on social media.

Thanks!

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

gwzcomps, No, if the buyer clicks my link to my item and buys within 24 hours, I get the free FVF. If, while he's on ebay after clicking my link within that 24 hours, he buys your item also, I get whatever percentage that item's category brings me.  That's the Affiliate part of it...it isn't just my stuff.

[divwido]

Is there any chance eBay wants to make things easier for us?

Fees-if you put our fees in our side or order details that would save so much time on every sale.  I keep records of my own and I need to know that.  The way it is done now, is dumb and too slow.  Could they be added to the seller side or order details?

Since we know buyers don't leave feedback-how about a simple place to check off that it's been delivered?

If My Ebay was designed for sellers, things might be a bit easier here.  The add note feature isn't nearly enough.

[dtexley3]

Hi @distrovic 

I encounter the same issues when buyers purchase multiple lightweight items.  Once the weight exceeds 1lb or volume exceeds 1 cu ft the system fails.  It simply adds up the postage for each item and gives the buyer a huge overcharge.   We post complaints every few months but it's never been properly addressed or fixed.

The best solution I could come up with was to add Priority as the second shipping option, then the combined logic defaults to Priority rates once the items no longer "qualify" for the FCP rate.  It's still more than what they should be quoted/charged, but at least it REDUCES the overcharge amount to a more reasonable level.

[stephenmorgan]

You have two different variations of a Starter Store

One link states Free Fixed Price Insertions 250/Month and 250/Month Free Auctions in Collectibles and Fashion

I take this to mean you can only use the Free Auctions in Collectibles and Fashions and nothing more?

The other link states Starter 250/$.30 for Auction-style listings and Fixed price listings.

Why the two different policies?

Additionally, if a person opens a Starter Store is the 250 listings in addition to the 200 Free Listings that you get without a store, making you monthly free listings 450?

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

If I post an EPN link on Pinterest, do I do same as Facebook, include #ad at the beginning?

[stephenmorgan]

Second Screen Shot

[go-bad-chicken]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

gwzcomps,

I look at it same as I look at Seller Initiated Offers.I don't have a whole lot of luck with them, but it's free to do, takes only a few minutes, and sometimes I make some decent money because of it. Same thing here: this is free, it's easy to do (I'd be posting some of my stuff to social media anyway, so why not post it as an EPN link?). So any money I make from EPN is gravy.

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I am not exactly sure that money is going to be nothing but gravy. Since every seller's listing also contains their own Sponsored Listings within their listings. If that seller's Sponsored Listing's ad rate is higher than the commission paid out by eBay then it might be possible that the seller ends up owing eBay money. But I am not sure about this and would really like some clarification on this type of specific scenario.

45% of the Sponsored Listing's shown on each of my actual listings are my Sponsored Listings.

So how does that work out money wise?

[shipscript]

dan@epn 

I do use the Finding API and the Shopping API, and was notified of some changes that might require updating away from NV pair. The Browse API is beta. Is there a contact person?  I typically pull in about a billion listings a year via API.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

s Starter 250/$.30 for Auction-style listings and Fixed price listings.

250 are free, after you've used them, it's 30 cents for each additional listing, auction or FP.

"Fashion and Collectibles" is a poor choice of words by ebay. That term encompasses a total of 13 ebay categories. I don't have the entire list handy, sorry.

[patel@selling]

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@gwzcomps wrote:

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patel@selling wrote:

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@gwzcomps wrote:

I was invited to the previous version of this program.  I didn't join because of the typical vague wording of the UA.  It implied if I got in trouble or broke a policy regarding the affiliate program I would risk losing my selling account?  Seemed kind stupid since I have never had an advertiser threaten my livelihood if I advertised wrong.  I don't know if this is still the case.

Also where is my incentive if all I get is credits towards my FVFs?  Last I knew Amazon's affiliate program paid in real money.

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@gwzcomps  Hi, your Ebay Partner Network and eBay selling account are separate. If a seller faces issues/suspension on their Ebay Partner Network account, it would not impact your selling account. 

With the Ebay Partner Network, you would earn commissions and credits that are paid out in real money. The amount would be equivalent to your FVF on qualifying transactions on your own inventory (and the normal commission rate if they buy from another seller), but in both instances everything would be paid out via EPN.  

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It isn't real money though because it only goes against my FVFs if I understand correctly.  If I have a bad month and make no sales I get no money.  If I quit selling on eBay I won't get paid to promote eBay listings.  Basically from what I have seen I have to do extra work for a few extra pennies to rub together.  Hopefully they are shiny at least.

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@gwzcomps  - Hi, the example earnings table on this page could be helpful: https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/listing-and-marketing/ebay-partner-network.html

As an example, commissions in sports trading cards are 4%. Let's suppose you list a $100 Michael Jordan card and share via an EPN link. For simplicity, let's suppose your FVF on that is 10%. If that results in a sale, your FVF would be $10. You would still owe this to eBay. Through ePN you would receive a commission + additional bonus that total $10. These would be paid out via EPN. 

Now, let's suppose that prospective buyer clicks on your link but buys someone else's Michael Jordan card (for $200). In this case, you would earn $200 * 4% = $8 in commission earnings, also paid out in 'real money' via EPN.

With this new change, we are providing an even greater financial payout to sellers who drive sales to their own listings via EPN while still enabling them to earn commissions no matter if they buyer purchases from them or not. So, your ability to earn is not dependent on your own sales. In fact, you are more than welcome to act like a typical publisher and promote any listing or event on eBay and still earn commissions.