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]

Hello everyone! My name is Sarah, and I am a member of the Growth Advisor team at eBay. Our team helps sellers focus on the health of their accounts to ensure a solid foundation, and then look at growth opportunities to help grow your business on eBay. I also create content and host live seller webinars for different category teams here at eBay. I am excited to take part in the monthly chat! 

[mobileman67]

In the spirit of the theme of today’s chat, having a streamlined and efficient workflow would be monumental in helping me realize success and in achieving my goals.

The current clutter of cancelled transactions that clog my feedback queue is the opposite of helpful and efficient. They are, after all, transactions that did not happen, so what feedback is to be left? Would you leave a review for a restaurant that you’ve never patronized? Would ebay want to be reviewed and rated for it’s value as a sales platform by someone who’s never used ebay?

As it is now, each feedback item tile has an “x” in the upper right corner so it can be closed, only for it to return as soon as the page is refreshed. To see the status of the transaction, you need to click on “Transaction Summary”, which provides you with a popup which contains a link that takes you away from feedback to a completely new page, where you can finally see if it is an actual sale or not.

This is not efficient. It doesn’t help me be successful; it slows me down.

While this is an annoyance from me as a seller, especially when I have to determine which are actual sales and which are cancelled transactions, because it matter - or what’s the point, I suspect it’s an excellent way for a new account to quickly accrue feedback.

Buy + Cancel = Feedback. Rinse and repeat.

It would be most helpful for my success if cancelled transactions did not appear in, or were able to be permanently removed from the feedback feed. Or, at the very least, labelled as a cancelled sale so they can just be left to time out on their own. And since my success is also eBay’s success, this would be a win for us both.

Please address my suggestion to the proper channel.

Cheers to a Prosperous & Happy 2023!

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

[postcardcountry]

How does one begin to develop a working relationship with your team? 

In all honesty, for all the years I have been on eBay, I don't think I have heard of you before this session.

What are you general suggestions for growth opportunities?

I should state I do not sell watches, handbags, trading cards, sneakers, jewelry.  I sell very little sports memorabilia.   I am not in eBay's 'favorite' categories.

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

[maxoptical]

Hello Sarah,   I sell new replenishable office goods. I use the out of stock feature and I currently have 4000 active listings.  Once a quarter I get 100 items that I sell at $4.99 each with free shipping.  They sell very well and they usually sell out in 10-15 days.   But for these 10-15 days the sales of my other 4000 items drop by 80%.  This is a repeatable experiment.  I have been doing this cycle for several years now.   My question is,  why does eBay limit my exposure (impressions) in one category when I start selling larger quantities in outer categories?   

John Norman

eBay store Maxoptical

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

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

I believe many of us could grow our sales via Live Streaming, whether auction or fixed price. However, at present, ebay's Live Streaming service is available only to a handful of ebay sellers in a handful of categories, and so ebay sellers who want to livestream to grow their business most use other channels.

Will ebay be expanding livestreaming to all ebay sellers this year?

If not, just what are the 2023 plans for Livestreaming?

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

[sarah@ebay]

@mobileman67  Thank you for joining today. I would be happy to pass along this feedback and suggestion to the appropriate team so we can help streamline our sellers process with feedback!

[dhbookds]

What suggestions do you have for One-off sellers who use Terpeake, send offers, use PL?

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

[mobileman67]

Thank you, Sarah. I appreciate you. 🙂

[sarah@ebay]

@postcardcountry This is a great question. Our team works with account referrals from different categories as well as accounts we search out that would benefit from a partnership. One of the best things to start with, when looking at growth opportunities, is to evaluate any stagnant or stale listings. One thing to keep in mind is to ensure that your account is as healthy as possible when it comes to metrics as well. Both the health and growth of an account are important.

[valueaddedresource]

Hi sarah@ebay  several sellers have expressed disappointment about the Listing Quality Report being discontinued and the lack of actionable reporting/insights for sellers in general.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/The-listings-quality-report-will-be-deprecated-on-February-28/... 

What if anything is eBay planning to do to provide access to data and metrics that sellers can use to help their businesses grow?

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

[wastingtime101]

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sarah@ebay wrote:

I also create content and host live seller webinars for different category teams here at eBay.

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Hey Sarah! Where would one find these live seller webinars?

Or was that a general reference to events like seller check-in and eBay open?

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

[sarah@ebay]

@maxoptical Thank you for your question. I am happy to reach out to the appropriate team and ask if there is more information they can provide on this, and if so, we can follow up with you.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

ebay is clearly very focused on the so-called Verticals....such as high end sneakers, luxury handbags and watches, etc. I do not sell in any of these categories. It seems clear, however, that sourcing and selling items in the Verticals can lead to growth, since ebay is so focued on them. I do not believe ebay added a single new Verticals in 2022.

Will ebay be adding any new Verticals this year?

And, if so, can you tell us which categories will get the Vertical treatment? If it is a category I can source , I can begin sourcing now, which would help me grow my business in 2023.

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

[golfingaddict]

 I have a question about the "health" of my account.  As a seller from September 1998 it feels like I know what I am doing but eBay insists on tagging my account with "false" or "faulty" seller issues. 

For example.  A buyer purchased an item and I prepared the label to ship.  The buyer then immediately opened a return.    Yes, the item was still in my hands.  I refunded the buyer, voided the label and essentially appeased the buyer that didn't want the item any longer. 

And what did I get?  A ding on my seller dashboard for not getting a carrier scan on the package (of the canceled order and voided label)

Second example:  My post office is having severe personnel issues and is falling down on scans, delivery, you name it.    Packages shipped sometimes don't get scanned until they reach the distribution center which delays them a day or two on the "scanned in time" 

I know I can use a scan form (5 different accounts that I ship from ) or stand in line to have them scanned.  I won't go into how that just won't work, You wouldn't know if you haven't stood in line for an hour at the post office to get packages scanned.

Instead, I let eBay slam me with late scans, no scans.

How am I suppose to "grow my business and keep my account healthy when eBay is doing everything they can to make it seem like I don't know what I am doing.

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