eBay Executive Chat, Oct 17th @ 1pm PT - Brian Burke

[alan@ebay]

Hi Community! 

Next up in our series of Executive chats is Brian Burke, whom you may know from the boards already as brian_burke@ebay. 

Brian's current role is Seller Evangelist. Brian has held a variety of roles during his eighteen + years at eBay. He first joined eBay in June 1999 as the Community Development Manager, similar to the role I have today. 

As a Seller Evangelist, Brian is focused on engaging with our seller community through the Community and social platforms ensuring that the seller's voice is heard internally and supporting the multiple Meetup programs run by sellers across the country.

Over his eBay career, Brian has spent time in Trust & Safety as policy manager, including Feedback policy, Merchant Development and Seller Communications. Prior to eBay, he spent time at Apple Computer, Inc. and 3Com Corporation.

Please join this 'Ask Me Anything' hour-long chat session to get to know Brian, ask questions and share your insights about selling on eBay. 
 

Brian is looking forward to answering your questions!

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@odditiesandantiquities1 wrote:

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@dtexley3 wrote:

During the month of September there were "issues" with the "reporting" of impressions of promoted listings.  (Supposedly our visibiltiy was not affected, but I had a terrible month of sales so I take that statement with a grain of salt).  On the last weekend the message on the promoted listings impressions page changed to state it had been fixed and the data would be backfilled.

Now the data has been backfilled but starting last Friday it's reporting 0 impressions for everyone, everyday for every set of promoted listings.  Is this even being looked into?  The message on the page still claims the error has been fixed.

eBay needs to get a handle on their software release process, we are seeing a constant stream of broken and non-working code being released as production.  I work in a large company with major web and internal software, we would lose our jobs if we were producing this much broken code and pushing for it to be released as production.

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Not to piggy back on your post dtexley3, but I added 23 listings a few weeks ago and have been increasing my listings for the past 3 months. My sellers hub says that I was down 20% in active listings? (Almost the exact same amount I had added).  I hope you don't use any of that data because it's clearly wrong. 

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@odditiesandantiquities1 The issue dtexley3 raised was very specific to Promoted Listings. It is a known issue. I haven't heard of any issue with Seller Hub reporting, so can you take screenshots of the report you are referencing - if there is an issue I would like to get it to the Seller Hub team. 

Thanks

Brian

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@mallontown wrote:

Why can't I use the same tracking number when a buyer makes 2 or more separate payments for items purchased same day (usually less than 5 minutes apart). Ebay will not let me input the same tracking number.

Ebay is forcing sellers to use require immediate payment and not educating buyers that they can combine items into 1 order.   99% of my items are free shipping and sometimes I get 3 or4 separate payment and combine all items in 1 package to keep cost low.

Ebay then says I did not ship the items and it affects my shipping metrics because ebay will not allow me to input the same tracking number.

If ebay truly cared they would fix this.

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@mallontown Check out this blog from Griff - https://community.ebay.com/t5/eBay-for-Business/How-to-Combine-eBay-Shipments-Destined-for-the-Same-...

You should be able to combine shipments. Ideally you will pass on the shipping savings to the buyer. You can also set up promotions in the Marketing tab in Seller Hub to allow buyers to combine items and receive a shipping discount - this may incent the buyer to combine the purchases up front, rather than you having to combine them after.

Thanks for selling on eBay

Brian

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@mallontown wrote:

Why can't I use the same tracking number when a buyer makes 2 or more separate payments for items purchased same day (usually less than 5 minutes apart). Ebay will not let me input the same tracking number.

Ebay is forcing sellers to use require immediate payment and not educating buyers that they can combine items into 1 order.   99% of my items are free shipping and sometimes I get 3 or4 separate payment and combine all items in 1 package to keep cost low.

Ebay then says I did not ship the items and it affects my shipping metrics because ebay will not allow me to input the same tracking number.

If ebay truly cared they would fix this.

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@mallontown Check out this blog from Griff - https://community.ebay.com/t5/eBay-for-Business/How-to-Combine-eBay-Shipments-Destined-for-the-Same-...

You should be able to combine shipments. Ideally you will pass on the shipping savings to the buyer. You can also set up promotions in the Marketing tab in Seller Hub to allow buyers to combine items and receive a shipping discount - this may incent the buyer to combine the purchases up front, rather than you having to combine them after.

Thanks for selling on eBay

Brian

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@labs118 wrote:

Hi Brian
With the roll out of the ebay catalog Q&A it appears to have caused a few issues
1st: The boards are filled with questions from buyers asking where ask question has gone
They are not aware it was moved & renamed Contact Seller , many buyers have said they moved on to another site because if they can't ask the seller a question they aren't going to purchase. 

Somehow there is a glitch and some browsers & devices aren't even showing the contact seller information, I believe Tyler & Trinton are aware of this on the Buying board.

2nd : The boards have questions asking what has happened to the post answer to item?
If it is a seller specific question can we no longer answer buyer & post it?

3rd: For items that are in the catalog it appears buyers are using the new catalog Q&A area thinking it is going directly to a specific seller about their item since it is in the same place that they are used to the old ask question being located.
Seller gets the question but has no idea who the buyer is so cannot reach out to the buyer & answer .
This cannot be a good exprience for the buyer & is making the sellers look bad.

New Way to Contact seller I am lucky enough to see it, many are not seeing it can we find out why?


Old ask question about item (now gone so how & can we post an answer to my items questions )







New Q&A about products that have buyers confused thinking they are asking a seller direct question

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@labs118 Thanks for flagging, we are aware of the other thread and are attempting to replicate the issue. Trinton and team are working on it and will update the Community as we get more information. 

Thanks for selling on eBay

Brian

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
Brian, I realize ebay believes it needs to market the "new" side of ebay heavily, because many buyers still associate ebay with "used stuff" But Christmas is a nostalgic time for many people, and seems like a great opportunity to do some targeted marketing that would directly benefit sellers of older stuff, antiques, vintage etc.

Any chance we'll see something like that as part of ebay's Holiday Marketing, or will we be pushed aside, as usual?

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques I've been with the company for 18 years and it pains me when I hear sellers make statements about being pushed aside - why would we do that? We cannot run specific ads for every type of product or listing type. Those we do not highlight are not being "pushed aside". If we don't run car parts ads does that mean we are pushing aside the car part sellers? Of course not.

As you state, buyers already think of eBay as a place to find unique items, so that means less need to spend marketing dollars to attract those buyers. And used inventory is traditionally not as popular for gifting. It doesn't mean it cant be, it's just not as popular for gifting as new items.

I do not manage eBay marketing, but Suzy and her team have delivered excellent marketing over the past couple years that has brought more buyers to eBay and I'm confident her team will again drive buyers to eBay.

Thanks for selling on eBay - and don't ever feel like you are being pushed aside - you are not. 

Brian

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@southern*sweet*tea wrote:

Have you ever considered spending a few days a month just hanging out with your fellow "happy" Ebay buyers and sellers? Reading about their problems? Interacting with us and offering help and advice?

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/bd-p/selling-db

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Bidding-Buying/bd-p/bidding-buying-db

Come join us...it might open your eyes.

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@southern*sweet*tea - Thanks for the invitation 🙂  I pop in to read the Selling board regularly, multiple times a week. I will post more when I do drop by so you know I'm there. 

Thanks for selling on eBay

Brian

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@plumbingspecials wrote:

It would be REALLY helpful if sellers could block buyers who leave too many negative feedbacks, those who are constantly abusing the system to get refunds, yet do not get suspended. I would love to be able to block someone who has left three or more negatives in a 12 month period.

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While we're on the topic of buyer requirements wish lists, I really wish we could screen buyers who have made more than "n" number of bid retractions in the past 6 or 12 months, where n could be a user-selectable number. It's frustrating to see that your lead bidder has a record of maybe dozens, hundreds or even thousands of retractions (in extreme but not unknown cases), and your choice is to either wait for what appears to be a likely retraction later on, or cancel the bidder pre-emptively and leave your other bidders to wonder what the heck is going on.

A bid retraction can cause an auction to collapse like a house of cards. Not only the initial retraction can harm it, but also other bidders may decide that there's some problem with the item that they're not aware of, and they'll retract as well. (Some years ago, there was a reporting option for Invalid Bid Retractions, but it was removed.) We have helpful tools to enable us to screen out those with too many non-payment slaps or policy violations, but we currently have no means of screening those bidders who don't seem to take their bidding commitment very seriously at all. 

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@a_c_green  Most buyers do the right thing with bidding and one of the most common uses of bid retractions is when buyers are attempting to uncover a reserve auction. The most egregious buyer behavior was eliminated when we restricted bid retractions. Today a buyer cannot retract a bid with less than 12 hours remaining in the auction unless the bid was placed with less than 12 hours remaining. We need some flexibility since buyers make honest mistakes. 

Send me an actual example of an auction listings you had that was impacted and I'll forward to the policy team so they can evaluate. Email me at bburke@ebay.com

Thanks for selling on eBay

Brian

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@becksrelics wrote:

I promised to behave 😁 Brian Google 62 coming out on October 24th supposedly ...will ebay pages be ready ,ie https so Google won't tag listing pages as non secure?  

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@becksrelics I hope so, eBay pages are updated - the one exception is the item description page - if a seller has links to HTTP content, we will place their item description "one click away" - if you are a seller I encourage you to read the following to ensure your item descriptions will not be a click away - http://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/listing/browser-security-standards.html

Thanks for selling on eBay and here's to "secure" URLs

Brian

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@tomuchstuff5 wrote:

I hope that you will accept my perspective in the spirit it is meant. I Love the site and have sold here for 18 years. The constant changes in policy , software, and requirements to get reasonable visibility have overwhelmed most small sellers. Particularly in the niche market of antiques, collectibles and vintage. We sell unique items that do not require free shipping to compete. You can't get them anywhere else or pick up a phone and order more. These items often require careful and extensive packaging to get to our customers safely. Our buyers would typically like timely delivery and SAFE delivery rather than the 1 -3 day delivery required to get into a better visibility position. 

Meeting our customers needs often require being able to communicate with them. It also provides better customer service and a relationship conductive for future business that is common in this type of buying and selling. In general, its a little old school customer service. 

A good majority are family run or indivually run businesses in the entrepreneueurial spirit that Ebay started with. 

The subject of possibly a door to the Ebay original or classic experience has been discussed. I have a couple of points that I hope Ebay would consider on this subject.

Free shipping-not necessary

Returns policies-Sellers need to have better control and manage there own returns with Ebay stepping in only as an absolute last resort.

GD and handling times. As stated we are generally not 24/7 operations with staff. We pack each order with own hands and care.

A search for an item that was meant for vintage may bring up hundreds if not thousand of non-vintage items with free shipping before a buyer would find the vintage item. I understand the filters are meant to somewhat eliminate that however they are problematic. The phone app being really problematic. 

When entering a vintage item search with a free shipping or free returns filter the result is usually none when in fact there may 1 or 5 that do not meet this filter criteria. Can this not default to here are some other matches that fall outside of the filters. Not every buyer is a pro at search. 

Then there is the most times false INAD or SNAD that allows free return shipping. This is a situation that seems forced on sellers. While I believe most people are honest and good. This has become common place as most may not realize this is quite the hardship to absord 30.00 in shipping on a 25.00 item. Customer service and a relationship with our buyers would make this a little more difficult . You are not just some anynomus buyer or seller when you are able to have a relationship with the buyer or seller. This could be done on site without info exchange successfully. 

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@tomuchstuff5 Sorry I didn't get to this during the hour. Regarding your points:

1. Free shipping - I agree that free shipping isn't always appropriate, but it has become standard ecommerce practice. As long as your competition is always charging, this shouldn't effect you

2. Returns - sellers have control at the time of listing, taking images. If a buyer receives an item and it doesn't match their expectations, they should be able to return the item. We have to do more to help sellers when a buyer is abusive of returns, but returns are a standard part of ecommerce and antique buyers are no different than buyers of new items

3. Handling time - I read this, like #1 as not being able to meet Top-rated seller status. At this time we do not have a way to carve out specific leaf categories. There is nothing to prevent packing an item once listed, so that all that is required once purchased is to place the label on it. 

4. I will send to Shervin, who manages Search, those issues. And if you have a specific example, please send it to me at bburke@ebay.com

5. False returns, we have made in roads on this over the past couple years, but still have more to do. 

Thanks for selling on eBay

Brian

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@banana*shoe*boutique wrote:

So I get this message on the details in my return request details on an exchange:

"The returned item is on its wayPlease ship the new item by Oct 20, 2017 or you'll have to refund the buyer instead."

Why do I need to ship it before I get it back?  This particular item had something wrong with the shipment address and got sent back to the buyer.   Maybe this was an accident or maybe it's a scam but eBay wants e to send the ANOTHER item over $100 before I get the 1st one back?

What if I do get the item and it's a rock?  When did this start?  I don't remember seeing this in the past on exchanges.

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@banana*shoe*boutique The short answer is because you want to provide great service to your buyer. When we send this message, it means the buyer sent it - with tracking. If you don't get it back you can appeal to us, but the buyer sent you money for an item they haven't received yet.

The counter to you perspective is that the buyer's is out $100 and the hassle of returning the item to you. They sent it back with tracking. As a seller you want to make sure that buyer knows the replacement is on the way as soon as they send the item back to you, not when you get it. 

If you wait, and we refund the buyer, you lost a sale. 

Thanks for selling on eBay

Brian

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@dhbookds wrote:

Relative to Immediate Payment Required, ebay help pages say this:

For items priced below $1000 with a specified shipping cost and where PayPal is the only payment method offered, buyers who click Buy It Now are asked to pay immediately.

Yet GD, Guaranteed Delivery Program, requires sellers to put Immediate Payment on the listings as I understand it.

The ebay IPR seems to apply to some sellers, but not all, some who have had it.....have had it disappear......and having both IPR from Ebay AND from the seller has seemed to screw up combined invoicing......

Can you clarify whether sellers who have their own IPR in place can remove it, with the assumption that there is IPR from ebay?  Or when, if, it will be in place for all sellers......and how do they tell?

You can refer that one to Bob.....lol.....as part of the cleanup yet to be done.........

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@dhbookds Lot's of questions and nuances. Bottom line, if you want to be eligible for guaranteed delivery you have to select immediate pay yourself, you cannot leave it up to eBay to apply immediate pay. We apply immediate pay for items that are below $1,000. For sellers who wish to offer combined shipping they can use the tools in the Marketing tab in Seller Hub.  If you want to ensure your buyer will have Immediate Pay I recommend you select if for all your items. 

Thanks for selling on eBay

Brian

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@chrysylys wrote:

Need ability to save search settings as default: 'US Only', or 'Within'.  Also 'Free Shipping'. We should not have to continually reset these options for each search.

US Only needs to mean seller registered location, not item ship from location. We need to be able to eliminate foreign based sellers if we wish.

Seller Management list, similar to Bidder Management List. Buyers need to be able to block individual sellers from appearing in search results.

Sellers that 'dropship' need to disclose it in each listing affected.

Eliminate 'Guaranteed Shipping'. It means nothing. It's a gimmick.

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@chrysylys So, just so I understand, if a foreign based seller is the only seller that has a product you want you will go without the product rather than buy from the foreign based seller?

We want buyers to see the full breadth of product offered and the majority of buyers want the same. If they wish to filter they can - left hand navigation gives them that option.

If you are searching for the same item(s) you can create a saved search and it will keep all of your settings. 

If we made "US only" based on registration instead of where the item is being shipping from it would include sellers from countries where we do not have a full site - the default registration is eBay.com for those sites, the item location limits their visibility when a buyer selects "US Only", so the item location is the best option. 

I too like the idea of the ability to block certain sellers - based on experience, but I don't think we will be building that anytime soon.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Brian

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@golfingaddict wrote:

Hi Brian. You have worn many hats at eBay during your tenure. How does this one differ from the other roles you have had?    Good to see you doing these chats. As a long time seller I appreciate the efforts!!

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@golfingaddict Good to hear from you and sorry I didn't get to this yesterday. I just ran out of time. My current role is still with Community, but will focus on small to midsize sellers in the Community and in person at events like the Meetups that our sellers around the country host. 

And this long-time employee appreciates all that you and sellers like you do. 

Thanks for selling in eBay.

Brian

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
When ebay rolled out the new "Ask a product question" tool, I said it seemed like a good idea, but that it would be a mess if ebay failed to provide clear instructions to buyers, who generally don't draw a distinction between an "item" and a "product". Sure enough, buyers are using it to ask questions related to specific listings, not products. ebay's messaging to the buyers is Godawful. Any possibility that ebay will correct that, so the tool will actually work the way its intended to work, rather than just sow more needless confusion for buyers and sellers?

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques Every question is reviewed prior to posting and if the question is specific to the seller, it isn't supposed to be published. The Contact Seller link is at the top of the view item page, and we will monitor buyer use, but do not see any reason to change the current design. 

Thanks for selling on eBay

Brian

[brian_burke@ebay]

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@dtexley3 wrote:

60 day returns, that reminds me.

Why are we being encouraged to offer 60 day returns when the eBay system will only refund the FVFs on refunds processed within 30 days?  This puts an unnecessary burden on the sellers to have to sit on the phone with under educated CS agents trying to get the FVF credited.

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@dtexley3 I don't know the answer to this, so will get it to the Trust and Shipping teams. I'll circle back with what I hear. 

Brian