Episode 29 || 2019 Early Seller Update

[doug@ebay]

This week on the Selling on eBay Podcast we discuss the 2019 Early Seller Update with Jesse Kiefer, our Senior Director of Seller Engagement, and Kristi Diemoz, Senior Manager of Seller Operations.

Selling On eBay - Episode 29 – 2019 Early Seller Update

This week on the Selling on eBay Podcast we discuss the 2019 Early Seller Update with Jesse Kiefer, our Senior Director of Seller Engagement, and Kristi Diemoz, Senior Manager of Seller Operations.

Links
ebay.com/sellingonebay
ebay.com/meetups
ebay.com/community
ebay.com/sellerupdate

Hosts
Griff, Audrey Tracy

Guests
Jesse Kiefer (eBay Staff), Kristi Diemoz (eBay Staff)

Transcript

I'm Audrey Tracy.

And I'm Griff and this is Selling On eBay. Your weekly source for the information and inspiration you need to start run and grow a business on the world's most powerful marketplace. And this week Audrey and I have a very special episode all about the 2019 Early Seller Update which we announced on February 26th. You can read about the Early Seller Update at ebay.com/sellerupdate. By the way, as we go through this episode, we'll assume you've already read this information on the Early Seller Update pages and you're pretty familiar with the changes we announced. So if you haven't, we really recommend you head over to ebay.com/sellerupdate and read the update before you listen to this episode. We can wait.

Today we're talking with Jesse Kiefer, Senior Director of Seller Engagement about the early Seller Update. Welcome Jesse.

Thanks a lot. Happy to be here.

Okay, great. Before we get into the discussion, tell us what you do and how it relates to sellers, how long you've been here at eBay.

Cool. I've been at eBay for about seven years and I've done a variety of things. I used to work in our Electronics Vertical Team and then a lot with deals and promotions. Now I get to do a few things. One is I'm a responsible for our community programs, our message boards and supporting seller events. That's a lot of fun. I also get to help activate selling tools, things in Seller Hub for example, and I get to help sellers accelerate their velocity through exports and various promotional efforts. And so it's been a, been a great ride.

So Jesse, how do today's changes help build a marketplace where sellers can be successful. Yeah, I'm happy to provide a bit of a big picture view for 2019. As we think about the coming year, we're really focused on three areas that will help eBay improve the seller experience. The first is partnership, the second is velocity, helping our sellers sell as much as possible.

And then three is maintaining and enhancing a simple and stable platform. So on the topic of partnership, eBay is somewhat unique in that we don't compete with our sellers. We won't compete with our sellers. And so we want to make sure that our sellers can be as successful on eBay as possible. The Internet sales tax landscape has been changing dramatically in the last year or so as more states rollout their policies. eBay has started to collect and remit taxes on behalf of sellers as that's been required. So starting with this update, we will be making it easier for sellers to access that information. Another way we are partnering with sellers is that we're doing more in person seller events. These events are great ways for sellers to hear the latest eBay News and learn about tools and features and programs all with an idea of making them more successful on eBay. And I've been told that I can't announce all the details now but Audrey and Griff, I'm sure we'll be sharing those details as they emerge.

Oh, you can be sure. We will be blurting it out on the air someday.

Yeah and cheap plug. Keep an eye on our eBay for business Facebook page. We'll announce it there.

Exactly.

And speaking of those events, sellers really love them. So sellers, I hope we will all see you there. So Jesse, let's talk about number two, sales velocity.

So it goes without saying that velocity is, is hugely important for our sellers. Perhaps the most important thing. And so we're going to be making a number of changes this year to improve our seller's ability to drive velocity. One of them, which you've heard us talk a lot about is Promoted Listings and we'll be making some enhancements to Promoted Listings throughout the year that you'll hear about. We're also going to be making it easier for sellers to give offers to buyers on items that they are watching. And so we're very pleased to be rolling out some enhanced functionality there. And also part of velocity is the insights and pricing intelligence that we provide sellers so that they can price their listings and source inventory as best as possible. Included in most store subscriptions we're pleased to announce will be Terapeak information. And that of course is on top of the already robust set of tools we have like Promotions Manager, Volume Pricing, and Best Offer.

Okay, Jesse, that's great. We have one and two. What about number three?

Number three, simple and stable platform. In this area for 2019 we're focused on a few things. One is Managed Payments and you've heard a lot about Managed Payments from us. Uh, we really want to make sure we get payments right. So we're trying to add more sellers to the program and we're also going to be enhancing the feature set offered with Managed Payments. That's not part of today's update, but it will be a key focus for us in 2019 so stay tuned for more there.

Yeah.

Another key focus for us in 2019 is product based shopping and the underlying catalog to support it. And so stay tuned for more information on that as we go through the year.

So to recap, the three areas are partnership, sales velocity and simple and stable platform. So sellers, you can look for news on those three areas throughout 2019.

That's right. And we'll continue to support all these throughout the year. So as you say, there'll be a lot more news coming this year.

That's great. Thanks for the big picture. Jessie.

Thank you, Jessie. We really appreciate you sharing this with us.

Thanks for having me.

Okay. Coming up next Inside eBay.

Welcome to Inside eBay. Today, Griff and I will chat with Kristi Diemoz our Senior Manager of Seller Operations about the Early Seller Update. Kristi is here to walk us through some of the highlights of the update.

Welcome Kristi.

Hello, Audrey and Griff and Hello eBay sellers.

Hi Kristi. You know, we announced some exciting changes in the Early Seller Update.

We sure did Griff. Let me start by saying that the Early Seller Update is not meant to be like a full on update like our typical Seller Updates. In our very first Early Seller Update, we announced a handful of changes that were ready to go. Rather than hold on to them and announce them later in the year we thought, let's release them now so that sellers can start taking advantage of them sooner rather than later.

That's a great idea, Kristi.

Thanks Griff.. We're especially excited about a number of changes that we believe will positively impact sellers sales velocity and help them manage their business better.

That's great to know. Kristi. Let's jump right into the details. Tell us more about the new Offer To Buyers Feature.

Of course. So starting in March, a new Offers To Buyers feature in Seller Hub will allow sellers to send offers directly to buyers for their eligible listings. We think the Offers To Buyers feature help improve conversion by enabling sellers to target buyers who have already shown interest in their items with special offers.

So if I'm a seller, how do I send an offer to buyers?

So you'll be able to send offers to buyers directly from the active listing page in Seller Hub Audrey.

So what exactly will a buyer like me see on my end?

So if a buyer is watching a listing and a seller sends an offer, the buyer will receive an email from the seller with a special offer such as a discount, which will automatically expire after 48 hours. The buyer will also be informed that other buyers will still be able to purchase the item at the listed price during that 48 hour period. So they should take advantage of it while they still can.

What if buyers don't want to receive offers? Hypothetically speaking, of course.

Of course. Buyers can opt out of receiving offers simply by changing their communication preferences. And if they do that then they won't receive those offers.

So Kristi, when can sellers get started? Non-hypothetically speaking.

So we're rolling out offers to buyers feature in phases. We expect the offers to buyer feature will be available to most sellers by the end of March. If sellers don't see any listings that are eligible to use the offer to buyer feature in Seller Hub, we encourage them to check back.

And what determines a listings eligibility?

So eligibility is determined by a number of factors, including the age of the listing, the listing format, and then rules that manage the number of offers buyers receive. We're constantly evaluating listing eligibility and may expand the eligibility criteria over time. Like I said, we're relentless and we want these sellers to have these tools.

So Kristi, do my listings as a seller need best offer in order to send an offer to buyers?

Nope.

Sounds like the offer to buyers feature will really help drive sellers velocity.

Yep. Definitely offers to buyers is just one more tool in the sellers marketing tools. Don't forget, we have many tools to help drive sales velocity including this new Offers To Buyers and Volume Pricing, Promoted Listings, Best Offer format, and all the tools in Promotions Manager.

Hey Kristi, I know a lot of sellers have been asking us to give them the ability to edit their listings directly from the active listing page in Seller Hub. When will that be available?

Very soon Griff. Most sellers can now edit their listing price, quantity, and custom labels directly from the active listings page in Seller Hub. We should have this available to all sellers in the next couple of weeks, so if you don't see it, just keep checking back and it'll be there soon.

What do they have to do to edit their active listings?

It's so easy. A seller just has to hover their cursor over the listing price, quantity or custom label field and then click the pencil icon to either add to or edit their listing. The listings will be immediately updated when they click submit.

Wow. Just like that.

Yeah. Just like that. Sellers would also be able to add best offer to multiple listings in the active listings tab. They just need to select the listing they'd like to add best offer to and then select best offer and add it to the action. So more features and fewer steps. I love it. Yay. That's always our goal at eBay.

Great. Fantastic. I love it!

Speaking of Seller Hub, I read that sellers will be able to access and download the Orders Report directly to their computers from Seller Hub. This is something new.

Yep. Starting in March, sellers will be able to easily access and quickly download an Orders Report directly to their computer from the manage orders page in Seller Hub. The Orders Report will help sellers manage their business more effectively by allowing them to efficiently fulfill their orders and maintain accurate records.

So what exactly is an Orders Report, Kristi? So the Orders Report is a CSV comma separated file, you know like an Excel file that contains all the data that appears in the Seller Hub manage all orders page and more. For each order the Orders Report includes the name and address of the buyer, their shipping address, the price and quantity, the items purchase dates and other details about the order.

Oh Man, this is gonna make my life as a seller so much easier. It's so great to have that Info right on hand, especially during the end of the year at tax time.

Exactly. And it'll be easier to download the Orders Report than ever. Sellers will be able to download all the orders in their current results with just one click. They'll also be able to select and download individual orders if they want to do it that way.

So Kristi, how far back does the orders report go?

So today orders reports are available for the previous 90 days only. Some sellers will like to download an archive, the order reports for future reference. So every 90 days you can download it and save it to your computer if you want.

So is there anything new in the orders report?

Yes. So the orders report will include a new column that will show how much tax eBay has collected and remitted for each transaction in those marketplace responsibility states that require it. We will also add columns for eBay programs such as the Global Shipping program and Click and Collect.

Market responsibility states. Hmm, I don't know what that means? That sounds awful official.

As our sellers may already know, last fall we announced that several states passed laws requiring eBay and other online marketplaces to collect sales tax on taxable items that are mailed to addresses in those states. We call those officially the marketplace responsibility states. eBay calculates, collects and remits the sales tax for those states on our seller's behalf. We don't charge a fee or anything for this function.

And how many marketplace responsibility states are there?

Yeah, great question. So right now there are three, Minnesota, Washington and Iowa. Five more states will require sales tax on taxable items mailed to their states by July 1st. And we will apply state sales tax to item sold on eBay based on each state's unique tax requirements. As I mentioned, there's a new column in the Orders Report that details the tax that we collect and remit for each transaction in the marketplace responsibilities states. So if you need to know, you can always check that. We're trying to make it as painless as possible for our sellers and if you want to know what other states are going to collect and remit for over the coming months, you can check the links and FAQ is on the Seller Update page.

I see that we're going to offer Terapeak, our eBay insights tool free to basic and above eBay store subscribers. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, this is great. Starting in March we'll offer Terapeak free of charge as you mentioned, to basic premium anchor and enterprise store subscribers to help sellers improve their sales velocity. Terapeak uses supply and demand and pricing data to help sellers determine what to sell, when to sell it and what price. Terapeak also integrates recent eBay sales data and price trends to help sellers optimize their listings and improve their sales velocity.

Can starter store subscribers and non-store sellers also use Terapeak?

Yeah, definitely. Starter store subscribers and non store sellers can subscribe to Terapeak on a monthly or yearly basis.

So explain to us how do sellers use Terapeak?

Yeah, great. So sellers can use Terapeak to access millions of transactions and billions of dollars of ecommerce activity on eBay. They can search by a keyword or a product to get data on those parts of the market that matter to them.

What kinds of data, Kristi?

Well, really simple direct figures for average price, sales totals, number sold, typical shipping costs, top sales regions and more for each search. Sellers can also study detailed breakdowns that show which product sold when and where. Plus what strategies were used to encourage shoppers to buy.

So by using Terapeak sellers can find out what's sold on eBay. Now can Terapeak predict the future too?

I hope so. No I wish. Terapeak can't predict the future per se, but Terapeak can help sell our spot and analyze market trends. They can do trend charts for recent and previous selling seasons and use the knowledge to help them understand how to stay ahead of the changes in supply and demand. Sellers can also find out which products are driving sales and study top performers in each selling category and not just domestically, but in 22 marketplaces around the world. Sellers can use Terapeak data to identify opportunities for arbitrage selling, buying low in one region and selling high in another to zero in on global demands that others miss.

That's amazing. That's a ton of eBay insight. I imagine sellers could use that insight for their SEO too?

Absolutely Audrey. So sellers can use Terapeak SEO to find top keywords for any product and improve their Google and eBay search rankings.

Now, how will sellers find out when they can start using Terapeak?

Yeah, so don't sign up yet, but starting in March we'll start sending email notifications to basic and above store subscribers that the free Terapeak insights tool will be available. If you haven't tried it, I bet you're excited to try it now, but to get the free version, please be sure to wait until you get the email from us with more information.

If a basic or above store subscriber already paid for Terapeak subscription, will they get a refund?

Yeah, so yes, a prorated refund effective from March, 2019 will be applied to their account. So starter store subscribers and non store sellers who paid for a Terapeak subscription will be charged their Terapeak subscription on their monthly seller invoice and the new published rate. And if a seller already paid for a yearly Terapeak subscription, a prorated refund effective from February, 2019 will be applied to their original payment method.

That's all great information about Terapeak Kristi. I can wait as a seller, but moving to another topic. Starting in mid March, the listing duration for all fixed price listings is going to change. It's going to change to good till cancelled my favorite duration. What's the thinking behind the change?

Yeah. Great. So we're changing the listing duration for all a new fixed price listings to good till cancelled because longer duration listings potentially have greater exposure to buyers and really may be more likely to sell.

That makes sense.

Yeah. Good till cancelled listings can also help improve SEO, simplify the selling flow, keep their interested buyers and retain their sales history for multi quantity listings. Which helps improve search rankings also, so sellers can also take advantage of the out-of-stock feature with good till cancelled listings too. Now can you explain why sellers might want to take advantage of a feature called out- of -stock?

Yeah, definitely. When a seller uses the out-of-stock stock feature and their listing reaches a quantity of zero, we show the listing is out of stock to buyers. By using out-of-stock, the seller retains the purchase in search history and that's important because when the replenishes their stock, buyers can easily find the listings.

Do sellers have to do anything to change their listings from fixed price to good till cancelled?

No. Nothing at all. Audrey, the good till cancelled listings renew automatically every 30 days unless the seller cancels their listing. eBay ends the listing as a result of a policy violation or if the item sells before the specified duration. With the exception of listings that use the out-of-stock feature and we charge an insertion fee in every 30 day period.

When we make the change in mid March, what will happen to existing fixed price listings that are not good till cancelled?

Oh, good one. Existing fixed price listings will continue until they sell or at their specified duration. So if a short duration fixed price item is relisted, the duration will be automatically set to good till cancelled upon realist.

Do good till cancelled listings count towards sellers monthly zero insertion fee listings?

Ah. Great question Audrey, very important. Fee amounts are based on whatever terms are in effect when the listing goes live and when it renews.

Some sellers of collectible items, you shorter durations to generate buyer interest when they list. Is there another way to generate that same interest?

Yeah. We recommend that sellers of collectible items test the auction format as a way to generate some interest.

Well, that makes sense. Thank you, Kristi. Thanks for coming on the show and taking us through all of this information from the Early Update. We're can sellers find out more?

Yeah. Oh my gosh. Thanks so much for having me. I always love being on the podcast. So sellers can learn more and sellers can read all the details that ebay.com/sellerupdate.

All right. Thank you Kristi. Thanks for being here.

Awesome. Thanks guys.

And that's our special Seller Update Edition. Thanks for joining us and please do us a favor if you like the show, give this podcast to review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.

And if you don't like our show, don't tell anyone that! And send us a private email to sellingonebay@ebay.com. We're always open to feedback. Let us know we can improve or what topics you'd like us to cover.

Roll the credits. Audrey.

The eBay podcast team, Director of Community, Brian Burke, Community Manager, Alan Aisbitt. Hey, how's it going Alan? Give that baby a kiss for me Alan. Community Manager and Technology and News Editor. Doug Smith. Marketing Strategist, Liz Austin, Editor and chief and Cohost. That's you, Griff. Script Writer and Cohost and Top girl Audrey Tracy. I'll take it. Thank you. You're welcome.

Selling On eBay is produced and distributed by Libsyn and podCast411.

All right. Good job.

This is the week we don't ad Lib.

I know, but here I am. Ad libbing.

We just go. We just cut it.

I just can't stop myself.

I know. Okay. Shut it off.

Update, update, update.