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).

[deb@shipping]

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@throwthings.com wrote:

The promotional video prominently features sending the links by email. In addition to eBay we sell through our own site and other marketplaces. There are times when someone will contact us directly that it would make sense for us to send them a link to the eBay item instead of selling something through our site. This is not a situation of an eBay customer looking to purchase something off eBay. Although emailing links is covered in the promo video the Code Of Conduct specifies that this can't be done without prior written approval. We requested such approval about 2 1/2 years ago but the request was denied. We were not looking to use the links for any kind of an email campaign - just in direct communications initiated by a potential customer. Have the policies changed? Would something like this be approved? No sense in going through the whole process again if it will just result in another denial.  

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 Hi @throwthings.com thank you for the question. Our best recommendation is to complete the quick and easy eBay Partner Network approval for for Messaging: Email, IM, Chat and Test. Approval responses are typically sent within 24 hours. You can also contact the eBay Partner Network to correspond about your business use case by contacting them here.

 

[cmomgo_boutique]

No answer?

[patel@selling]

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@throwthings.com wrote:

If someone clicks on a link, waits more than 24 hours, and then clicks the link again will the 24 hour clock start over for them to make a purchase that will count as a Qualifying Transaction?

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@throwthings.com  Yes - if they click on the link again, the 24 hour clock will start over and will have 24 hours from that 2nd click to make a purchase for it to count as a Qualifying Transaction

[gwzcomps]

How do I earn commissions if I don't sell on eBay?  I guess I am confused since I have the understanding these or nothing more than FVF credits.

[brian@ebay]

Thanks for joining us today! We'll continue to answer questions in this chat, so keep an eye on it for a reply if your question hasn't received an answer just yet 🙂

[shipscript]

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dan@epn wrote:

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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!

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Looks like I may need to create another seller widget...

-ship

[patel@selling]

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@taosa wrote:

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

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@taosa  Yes - you can post any item on eBay and earn a commission. If you post links that result in sale of your own items, then you stand to earn more with the new incentive we rolled out for sellers, but you can still earn anywhere from 1-6% of the sale price from driving sales to other items on eBay. Some other sellers have also used Instagram as well. I'd also think about your marketing strategy - are you posting links to very unique items that "sell themselves" or do you have some compelling messaging that would make people want to click? Targetting as well is another important consideration - is the right audience seeing these?

[Anonymous]

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@go-bad-chicken wrote:

Questions

If I post an EPN link to one of my listings and the

prospective buyer then clicks on it and arrives at that listing of mine

that I advertised on social media platform, and does not convert on

that specific listing per se but ends up clicking on one of the

Sponsored Listings located on my listing page and that Sponsored

Listing happens to be one of my Sponsored Listings, will I be

charged the Sponsored Listing Fee based on the percentage that I

set when I initially created the campaign?

How exactly are the fees and credits calculated in these types of scenarios? I have read all of the various information pages that eBay currently has for the EPN program and can not find any details that specifically address this highly probable situation.

Because what I am finding as of late is that each one of my own

listings contain approximately 48 various Sponsored Listings within

each of my listings that belong to me and that I created. But the

kicker is that of those 48 Sponsored Listings approximately 45%

are my Sponsored Listings.

Does that mean that should I choose to participate in eBay's EPN program is their a possibility that I might actually be incurring more fees due to my labors on social networks due to the fact that almost half of the Sponsored Listings shown on each of my listings are my Sponsored Listings?

Generally speaking there are 6 Advertising Carousels located within

each of my listings. 4 of which are Sponsored Listings advertising carousels.

Similar sponsored items - 1/2 - 12 listings total.
3 of the Sponsored Listings belong to me.
3 POTENTIAL SPONSORED LISTING FEES

Sponsored items from this seller - 1/2 - 12 listings total.
12 of the Sponsored Listings belong to me.
12 POTENTIAL SPONSORED LISTING FEES

Sponsored items based on your recent views - 1/3 - 18 listings total.
6 of the Sponsored Listings belong to me.
6 POTENTIAL SPONSORED LISTING FEES

Explore more sponsored options: - 1/1 - 6 listings total.
1 of the Sponsored Listings belongs to me.
1 POTENTIAL SPONSORED LISTING FEE

People who viewed this item also viewed - 1/2 - 12 listings total.
0 NONE of the listings belong to me.
NO POTENTIAL OF FEES BEING ASSESSED

More from this seller - 1/2 - 12 listings total.
12 ALL of the listings belong to me.
NO POTENTIAL OF FEES BEING ASSESSED

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@go-bad-chicken When you promote an EPN affiliate link on social media, and a user clicks on that link, it will start a 24hr attribution window. In the above scenario, if the user, after clicking through to eBay from your affiliate link clicks on a Promoted Listing and makes a purchase. You'd receive a commission based on the sale through EPN, but if the Promoted Listing belonged to you, you'd still be charged any applicable promoted listing fees.

[patel@selling]

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@gwzcomps wrote:

How do I earn commissions if I don't sell on eBay?  I guess I am confused since I have the understanding these or nothing more than FVF credits.

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@gwzcomps  As you know, Ebay Partner Network is our affiliate marketing structure. Anyone (seller, publisher, etc) can join EPN and earn anywhere from 1-6% of sales price (depending on the category) for driving traffic to eBay that results in a qualifying transaction. This is our normal commission structure and the program hasn't changed. 

Last month, we enhanced the incentive structure to provide even more incentive specifically for sellers for driving traffic back to their own inventory that results in sales of their own inventory. WIth this new incentive, the earnings is equal to their FVF.

So, anyone can earn commissions - sellers can earn commissions on any item on eBay, and have the opportunity to earn even more on their own items 

[deb@shipping]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

I think you'd get more seller interest in this if you provided some tutorials focusing on sellers who aren't really looking to go all in as an affiliate marketer, but who want to get the free FVFs and any "bonus" affiliate income that we might get. No offense, but this is typical ebay: you launched this new thing "free FVFs!" but have really not done much to promote it or to provide us with examples of sellers who are using it , strategies, etc. This isn't going to work very well unless you can give us some help in how to most effectively use social media, email marketing and so forth. With the Holidays coming up, now would be a good time to give us that sort of help. I know HOW to create the link. What I'd like to know more about is how to really use it effectively.

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Hi my-cottage-books-and-antiques thank you for the feedback, much appreciated. We will continue to add relevant tips and updates to the eBay Partner Network Seller Center page. The eBay Partner Network's Help Center is also a robust resource.  To learn tips and tricks from ePN users and staff, we recommend joining the eBay Partner Network Community group, here's a link to join. 

[Anonymous]

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@shipscript wrote:

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.

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@shipscript EPN has been working closely with the Developer Ecosystem Team to start migrating partners that are on the legacy APIs (Finding and Shopping) to the new APIs. Any API integration specific questions can be sent to EPN-TIGS@ebay.com and we'll be able to work with you and provide guidance on APIs available for EPN partners that might be a great fit. Additionally, API questions can be submitted at https://developer.ebay.com/my/support/tickets

[tyler@ebay]

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@stephenmorgan wrote:

When listing an Auction at varying times there is a block that can be checked that allows Item to Automatically Relist up to 8 Times for no additional fees.  Why is this function turned on and off at random?  Once a person has agreed to this option why would eBay just turn off the function in midstream of completing the 8 Relists? 

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Hi @stephenmorgan - once checked, the 8 free relists should run their course on the item unless you end the listing. The only time I've not seen that happen is if there's a technical issue or the listing can't relist due to your selling limits (which is typically a rare occurrence). 

If you're encountering this often please consider contacting CS for more support so they can review your account and see what may be happening. Thanks!

[tyler@ebay]

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@nancyscottagetreasures wrote:

Once a return / refund case has closed, can it be re-opened? Everything I find says no but ebay re-opened a return case that closed on July 22 and charged my credit card for the balance on a partial refund. I refunded a partial due to the item being returned with damage. Now the charge is on my credit card account as of two days ago, which I have disputed. Thanks.

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Hi @nancyscottagetreasures - in most situations a buyer or seller have 30 days to appeal the outcome of a request with Customer Service, which may be what happened based on what you describe. 

If you contact CS directly they will be able to review the situation and get you further details. Thanks!

[tyler@ebay]

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@nancyscottagetreasures wrote:

Sorry for posting this on the wrong thread.

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Oh you're just fine @nancyscottagetreasures! The weekly chat is a great place to ask these types of questions. Most weeks are 'General Topic' weeks where you can bring anything. This week was a topic-specific chat based on the eBay Partner Network, which is why your question didn't get addressed right away (we prioritized answering on-topic questions). Thanks for your patience! 

[brian@ebay]

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@divwido wrote:

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.

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Thanks for the feedback @divwido!