Monthly Chat - January 11th at 1:00 pm PST

[devon@ebay]

Hi Everyone! This month's chat you’ll have an opportunity to talk to specialists from our Growth Advisor Team. The theme of the chat is, “Focus on setting yourself up for success in the new year and setting goals”. Get all of your questions ready for the team, so we can make the most out of this month's monthly chat on January 11th at 1:00 pm PT!

Edit: Thanks for joining us for the Monthly Chat with eBay Staff and the Growth Advisors Team.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.To post your question, click Reply in the lower right corner of this post, type your question, and hit submit between 1-2 PM Pacific Time. The format of our chat mirrors the format of our Community Discussion Boards, where each post will appear in the thread chronologically. The (specialist name) and 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 scrolling down to see our answers.As a reminder, we want (specialist name) to be able to get to as many members as possible during the allotted hour, so we have a few things to ask of you:

Keep on topic
Scroll through the list of questions to see what has already been asked to decrease chances of redundancy
Keep the message/question simple and no more than one to two items. If you include multiple questions in a post, please be aware that they may not be addressed during the chat and (specialist name) will do their best to follow-up with it after the chat has closedMissed the chat? Send your questions to the podcast by calling 888-723-4630 or email us at podcast@ebay.com and maybe your questions will make it on the air! Or listen to past episodes while you wait for next month!”

[sarah@ebay]

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques While there has been a focus on Verticals, all of our sellers are valuable. We want all of our sellers to feel support when selling our eBay. We have a team that works with small businesses and sellers to ensure visibility such as getting sellers into daily deals. I am not aware of any Verticals being added at this time, but we are always looking for more opportunities to assist our sellers with growth.

[maxoptical]

When will you support multiple warehouse locations so my shipping times are correct?  I have 3 US shipping warehouses. 

John Norman

ebay seller Maxoptical

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here. 

[golfingaddict]

Why are you suggesting things that are not reasonable?

No one has that kiosk thing within 100 miles of me.

I work an 8 -5 job.

I can't stand in line for an hour.  I can't drive 100 miles to find a Kiosk.  

I did change my handling. 

Can you think of anything else I am doing wrong?

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

I have Best Offer on many of my listings, and I do send offers to buyers as well. This can lead to increased sales growth, even if I'm lowering my net to get it. However, I am finding it less desirable because of the number of non-paying buyers. I would make more use of this, if I were confident that I'd actually be paid..

Are we finally going to see mandatory immediate payment for all offers and auctions in 2023?

If not, will ebay at least reduce the number of days buyers can hold our sales hostage from 4 to 1 or 2?

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here. 

[sarah@ebay]

@golfingaddict Thank you for your feedback on this. It does seem as though USPS is having issues with scanning items when received on time. This definitely is a situation that sounds frustrating. I would recommend reaching out to customer service on this issue as some defects can be appealed.

[sarah@ebay]

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques This is a great suggestion and definitely one I will be passing along to the team to look into. Thank you!

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

For years I pushed for ebay to do a store redesign, and we finally got one a couple years ago. But not much has been added since. I believe a store can be a real growth driver, but , again, we have no tracking for stores. I frequently change my homepage, especially the marketing banner, but have no way of knowing whether anyone is even looking at the home page itself. Nor has ebay really followed through on providing new ways to draw attention to our stores.

Can we expect store tracking in 2023?

Also, can we expect more flexibility in design?

For example, when I run a sale, I'd prefer to have the marketing banner above the "rows", but it is currently in a fixed position. And we could use more characters for the text area.

I won't go through a long list of items we could use, but will just ask: what changes, if any, are coming to stores in 2023, to help us grow our businesses? Will we be able to promote our stores in some way?

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here. 

[maxoptical]

eBay should remove ALL FVF for traffic sellers can direct to their own eBay store. That would prevent sellers from creating Shopify stores.  Right now If I am going to promote my items I will be directing buyers to the store with the lowest fees.  (Shopify) 

John Norman

[dhbookds]

To help us grow........the one-offs/non "vertical" sellers...........does ebay have any plans for a massive ad campaign to introduce itself  to those who have never known ebay?............In the last several years.........everything has been about shoes/luxury stuff......... just when recycle/reuse seem to be bywords.  About all I see/hear is about that is "refurbish".     Many of us sellers feel totally left out of any kind of ebay promotions........do you know we are still around?       

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here. 

[golfingaddict]

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sarah@ebay wrote:

@golfingaddict Thank you for your feedback on this. It does seem as though USPS is having issues with scanning items when received on time. This definitely is a situation that sounds frustrating. I would recommend reaching out to customer service on this issue as some defects can be appealed.

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FYI eBay support said they would remove the late marks and then it never happened.

That is the way eBay supports sellers. 

[sarah@ebay]

@golfingaddict Promoted listings are a way to get exposure. However, making sure that your item has all required and recommended item specific filled in, is just as important. Each item specific is a searchable filter for buyers to utilize. Also, photos are just as important. As a growth advisor, we can see sellers grow their sales by improving their listing quality without using PL. If you would like to experiment with PL, you can set it at the lowest threshold percentage. Also, utilizing things like seller initiated offers, coupons and store newsletter all are proven ways to help generate and grow sales.

[sarah@ebay]

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques Thank you for this suggestion. I will pass this along to the appropriate team.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Thanks devon. So, basically, the reply from the Livestream team is: No, it will not be expanding to all sellers this year. Is that correct?

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Edit: A reply to your question can be found here. 

[elizabeth@ebay]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

One way to grow any online business is to make effective use of social media. A year or two ago, ebay indicated that we would be getting a new feature, which would provide a heavily reduced FVF for sales tracked to our social media referrals. I believe something similar is being beta tested in Australia. This would have a positive impact on my growth, as not only would I have a strong incentive to use social media, but if more ebay sellers use social media to direct buyers to the site, it would help us all.

Can we finally expect to see this here in 2023?

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Hi @my-cottage-books-and-antiques. Let us dig into this, and we'll touch base once we get an answer. 

[mobileman67]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

Are we finally going to see mandatory immediate payment for all offers and auctions in 2023?

If not, will ebay at least reduce the number of days buyers can hold our sales hostage from 4 to 1 or 2?

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I second this!!