About Video In Stores

[valueaddedresource]

I was checking out the action from eBay's first Hard To Find Holiday pop up event in Detroit over the weekend and noticed the featured seller has a video in their store's about section.

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques and anyone else who has been asking about this - here's what it looks like in the wild on app and desktop.

I haven't seen it on any other stores yet and checking my own account I don't see any way to add a video either on desktop or in the app - so it appears to be another phased rollout.  But at least this shows they *do* have things ironed out on the tech side and the feature is working, so hopefully the rest of us will be gaining access to it "soon" too.

Still no newsletter sign up button though. ☹️

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@valueaddedresource Thanks for posting that!  The video looks pretty polished, and reminds me of most of the seller profile type videos ebay produces....while I don't doubt this seller can afford a well produced video, I suspect ebay had a hand in producing this one. As usual, ebay isn't saying much about it....we don't know if its actually being rolled out right now or if this was a special deal sort of thing.

I wonder what sort of quality control ebay will try to apply? obviously, ebay isn't going to shoot video for all of us LOL  

I'm also getting a little nervous. Will this be available to all stores (with maybe the exception of starter stores) or will they have second thoughts about that and restrict it to say Premium and above, or even Anchor and above?  

I also notice this runs 1 min 17 seconds....I'm expecting a minute max for regular sellers....

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Just an aside, but it's interesting that the store uses video on the About page, but uses none of the new store features (rows, banner) on the main page. 

Still hoping ebay releases this to all store owners ASAP, so we can make use of it in Q4.....

[valueaddedresource]

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques  the account says it's been around since Jan 2021, but based on sales history, the collaboration on the pop up shop, and the fact they are using the new 3D image feature as well (only shows in app for some reason) I'm going to guess that the store design is very recent and I agree, likely set up by eBay or at least with some significant help. 😉

I would guess the video may have been shot and/or produced by eBay as part of that bigger collaboration with this brand and you're right, it may be used in a seller feature at some point too.

So yeah, I'd say it's definitely a special deal, but like I said at least it shows that the feature is working and they can do it which might give us regular folks some leverage to push for a more definitive timeline on when/how it will be rolled out to more sellers.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Agree....they have the ability to do this, but do they have the ability to host a lot more videos like it?  And do they have whatever infrastructure in place to ensure that the videos comply with whatever rules they impose? No way to know.  It would be great to get a real timeline from them, but that would require them to actually adhere to a schedule, which does not seem to be an ebay strength LOL

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

I also wonder how often they'll let us change the video? I could certainly see a seller having a regular video, but also a holiday themed video, and maybe a "coming attractions" type video if the seller just got in some great new items, etc....

[valueaddedresource]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

Agree....they have the ability to do this, but do they have the ability to host a lot more videos like it?  And do they have whatever infrastructure in place to ensure that the videos comply with whatever rules they impose? No way to know.  It would be great to get a real timeline from them, but that would require them to actually adhere to a schedule, which does not seem to be an ebay strength LOL

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One would hope it would not have been presented as something "coming soon" to the stores experience if they didn't in fact have the capacity, infrastructure or intention to follow through on that promise for all stores...but transparency is not always an eBay strength either. lol

tyler@ebay velvet@ebay do you have any update on this feature that you can share?

[tyler@ebay]

Hi @valueaddedresource & @my-cottage-books-and-antiques - it looks like it started making a (very quiet) debut last week. 

The Help Page has been updated with some details here, and I found an internal document today that said it began a ramp on the 17th of this month, but without much more detail than that. 

Will one of you check to see if you have the option and let us know what it's like? I'm curious myself.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

tyler@ebay   Thanks for looking into this. I do not have it. I check periodically. If and when I get it I will post to the Selling Board. 

While we're discussing video, two additional questions:

Any update on videos for listings (rather than the Stores About page)?

In some of my listings, I currently use clickable thumbnail links to videos I've posted to YouTube (to show such as things as vintage music boxes in operation).  Will these still be permitted once the new video tool for listings goes live?  

[valueaddedresource]

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tyler@ebay wrote:

Hi @valueaddedresource & @my-cottage-books-and-antiques - it looks like it started making a (very quiet) debut last week. 

The Help Page has been updated with some details here, and I found an internal document today that said it began a ramp on the 17th of this month, but without much more detail than that. 

Will one of you check to see if you have the option and let us know what it's like? I'm curious myself.

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Thanks tyler@ebay  - I just checked again but still don't have it.

[tyler@ebay]

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques - no timeline on video in listings that I can find, but if it's similar to the things I've seen about the Video in Stores it probably won't be able to be YouTube clips. The Stores videos seem to be hosted with us, and not a third-party provider service like YT. Just my instinct there, though, nothing confirmed.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

tyler@ebay  It's my understanding as well that ebay is hosting the videos. And listing videos will be hosted within the Photo Gallery (not sure if the video will count as one of the 12 photos, or if it is in addition to the 12 still photos---another question I'd like to see answered).

So, I realize I would need to see if I still have the original video I submitted to YouTube....if I do, I could submit that to ebay. (Or maybe I can download the video from YouTube, and then upload it to eBay?)

But my question is, right now I have these clickable links within my listing description area, and they work (well, they did last I looked). Once the ebay video feature goes live, will the links continue to work? Or will ebay deprecate them in some way?  I really don't want to find myself rushing to redo those videos, if I know in advance that I will need to replace them with an ebay hosted video, I could start working on that now, and do it gradually....

[tyler@ebay]

I'll see if I can get any answers @my-cottage-books-and-antiques !

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Thanks tyler@ebay 

Hope this doesn't violate any posting rule, but here's an example of the kind of video link I'm talking about:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/384472631678

[valueaddedresource]

tyler@ebay  - @my-cottage-books-and-antiques beat me to it but yes, it has been confirmed Video In Listings is hosted on eBay.

Here's the part about it from Connect 2021 dev conference.

https://youtu.be/xSoZOeZq52c?t=191

And here's what it looks like live

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Video-In-Listings-Now-Live-On-Desktop/td-p/32476401

It would definitely be good to let sellers know ASAP if they are going to be required to remove and/or redo any existing videos they may have hosted through the current YouTube link option they may be using.  Thanks for checking into it!