Creating a Modern Retail Marketplace Together in 2018

[alan@ebay]

Thanks for joining.

Today we’re asking sellers to read the latest blog from Bob Kupbens and submit your questions on this thread.

Before you submit your question, we would like to remind users that all posts made in The eBay Community need to be respectful of others. Please keep in mind the Community’s Rules of Engagement when you post. Non-constructive, disrespectful/harassing comments will be removed by our moderation team so that the thread can focus on a productive discussion.

This is an opportunity to connect with Bob about the direction of eBay in 2018, so please keep your comments to that topic.

Here’s how it will work: please submit your comment or question to this thread. At 11 am PST on 2/14 we will close this thread, and Bob will answer a collection of them live via video, starting 12:30 pm PST that same day.

The live video will be shown on this Community thread, so make sure to 'subscribe' to this thread and check back around 12:30 on the 14th to watch live - right here in the Community. 

Thank you for participating!

Here's today's live broadcast with Bob Kupbens & Griff

[theheadphonecompany]

Yes but eBays 10k statement says "managed marketplace", and since thats the only part any financial or governmental person ever sees - thats the only one that counts.

The wordsmithing is very different. Managed marketplace is the term eBay uses to give itself the power to override any and all rules "for the betterment of the platform". That means that they can do as they please when they please - and theres nothing anyone can do about it, ever.

[vintagecraze50]

All is well here for us with Ebay. We have 30 day returns with auto accept, making the ease of return for our buyers great. Not many returns, mostly EXCELLENT SALES FROM GREAT BUYERS, AND MANY OF THEM ARE NEW BUYERS!!!! . It works people, use it. Improving picture quality all the time, and that makes a Big Difference in sales. Big time sales Christmas and we think it was because of all the advertising Ebay did--Whoa, good job Ebay-Thank you.
Now, on to the question: I'm not sleeping too well recently with the new payment processing issue. Could you please clarify how Ebay is going to use the adyen system and clarify security measures using this new system for the sellers and the buyers. I am concerned about hacks and glitches as well. I do hate to say goodbye to Pay Pal. But, if the reason for excluding them is because they could not or would not cooperate with the new system, i can see why this happened. If sellers are going to increase revenue with the new system as far as lower fees than that's great. Just make it as safe as Pay Pal. Thanks.

[the_fancy_fox]

Ok I read the blog and now I have that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"Data shows that 75% of buyers check return policies before purchasing*" I call bunk on this statement. Many don't read the description let alone policies. Care to publish that data?

streamlining to the buyers expectation, simply put more of eBay showing you what they want you to buy and taking the choice  away from the buyer. I use Google more and more to find the things I am looking for on eBay, simply because I don't "find it on eBay" when searching eBay because eBay hides sellers/listings. I have had sellers on my watch list I cant find by searching eBay again yet they are active with lots of listings!  Do you really want buyers going around eBay's search engine  when google pulls up items from across the internet?

Better fee structure? Like join up to take the new payment processer with the better rates and it will mitigate the store/fee hike?

More pricing help? Your programming cant get it correct as is, no distinction  for lots, new, used, or even those with free shipping vs shipping extra.

3 updates a year? Been promised, that promise has been broken or we were told the other types of changes didn't count as an official update. Secret tests and trials sellers do not want and can not get out of yet eBay does not care if it causes a seller a loss of income!

3 day shipping? Maybe if you live in the center of the country. Either coast? Forget it. 

And are are you ever going fix the programming to get rid of refurbished condoms, diapers and toilet paper. It's unprofessional and tacky.

At this point all I can say is I am so glad I went month to month on my stores. 

[gracieallen01]

For Bob:

With Adyen, and ebay as the merchant of record, will there to be - even after the program(s) are fully enacted, on down the line - a way for sellers to block international buyers and/or not sell Internationally on ebay - should they choose?  Particularily countries such as some in Eastern Europe, Western Asia, Latin America or the western Pacific/Pacific Rim?

[dhbookds]

When will the first Seller release be, well, released?  or is this it? 

[lookng2015]

What's with the "only 3 updates"? We've always had TWO major updates only - Spring and Fall. (plus all the unannounced because they "don't impact the majority of sellers" changes)

When will this new THIRD update be ?

[gracieallen01]

Possibly the 'day of'.

[gracieallen01]

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wrote:

What's with the "only 3 updates"? We've always had TWO major updates only - Spring and Fall. (plus all the unannounced because they "don't impact the majority of sellers" changes)

When will this new THIRD update be ?

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Some time back, there were frequent updates.  Then there were some strong complaints.  Then they told us that there would be 2 updates a year.  A couple of years ago (I think) they added another and now there's been 3, anyway.

[lookng2015]

I've never noticed a 3rd.

[gracieallen01]

I think it was just the Spring and Fall for 2-3 years and then the Summer squeaked in there.

Of course, my time-sense ain't what it used to be. 

[ted_200]

Just as a general observation...  That blog post is just chock full of the latest and greatest propaganda buzzwords... in fact it's so full of them, it's almost unreadable at points.  But in terms of actual content, there is very little of it.

...reimagining the shopping experience and making eBay more personalized, intuitive and easy to navigate... leveraging product based commerce and our advances in structured data... invest heavily in cutting-edge technologies including artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and more, creating an eBay like you’ve never seen... we continue to roll out our new model of shopping. Learn more about how we’re evolving the shopping experience on eBay...

Frankly, I'm worried when I see the graphic and the other content in this:

https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/a-reimagined-shopping-experience/

The Grouped Listings part was a surprise... buyers who were opted into it, with no notice or explanation, were confused.  The Buy Box page, which I assume is part of that effort, is routinely showing pictures that don't match the titles, and people were buying things that were different than what they thought they were buying.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Product-Catalog/Product-Landing-Pages-Are-A-Disaster-If-You-Let-People...

That topic relates to the Buy Box page, but at that time I had no idea what it was called, or what it even was period. 

This all goes back to the problems eBay has with the Product Catalog, which if you read on that Discussion Board is not very popular with sellers, and buyers, across many categories.  The Product Catalog of course is the center-piece of "structured data", upon which all this "reimagining" and "replatforming" rests.  There are a LOT of errors in the Product Catalog, which means lots of errors in the structured data... and structured data is tied to Item Specifics...  Did you know eBay has been working on Item Specifics since at least 2003?  That's 15 years!  And they are still somewhere between almost useless to comical in many categories here... with inappropriate brands offered, very necessary sizes not offered or searchable or sortable, and pre-filled choices that have never existed with the actual product ever. 

The "Guaranteed Delivery" program seems troubled at best, with an unacceptably high number of transactions not meeting the guarantee.  I have no doubt launching this program during the height of the Holiday shopping-shipping season - with estimates based on data from non-winter and non-peak season postal system performance - did not help with that. 

The "Relevant Reviews" are frequently actually seller / transactional feedback, and are often just irrelevant. 

I'm almost afraid to ask about the "Price Match" program, or what sort of things the "Shop Bot" might be suggesting based on all this incorrect "structured data". 

The flowery prose of the blog post, and the eBay Inc. pages linked within it, does not seem to bear much if any resemblance to the content on this Discussion Board, or the Board I just linked to.  More importantly, it doesn't seem to bear any resemblance to the experiences of users who actually buy and sell stuff on eBay on a regular basis.  Including me.

I hear talk of Artificial Intelligence and "augmented reality", and of a "personalized shopping experience", and what I see is this...

... and I am worried.  I didn't make that up, and it's very recent.  That's not going to improve "buyer trust", or do anything for eBay's credibility either.

There is no question.  I just felt compelled to point out there are very real problems that need addressing and that the rhetoric is not aligning well with reality at times - because it honestly seems eBay is not aware of that, and you need to be. 

[theweddingringstore]

First, thank you for talking (listening) to the sellers, and for trying to answer our questions/concerns. 

Although we have been selling on other MAJOR marketplaces for the past several years very successfully, we still have not been able to even list our products (thousands) on eBay platform yet. 

This is due to these 2 main reasons:

(1) eBay fee structure:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/insertion-fee.html

eBay charges sellers insertion fees. Since we have 50,000+ products, it does not make much business sense for us to list our products on eBay. 

(2) Selling Limits (http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/sellinglimits.html)

While other marketplaces are inviting us to list our entire inventory on their platforms, eBay is putting these arbitrary limits ?? Why?

This to me is clearly a lose-lose situation. I would love to see what you're willing to do to turn this into a win-win situation!

Looking forward to hearing back from you soon.

[vanman1029]

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@terrycanarskywrote:

Data shows that 75% of buyers check return policies before purchasing*.

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Buyers also check  a sellers feedback before purchasing,  but with the "new and improved" feedback, no one bothers to leave feedback anymore because it is too time consuming.....

If you really want to creat a "modern retail marketplace" bring back the former feedback system which was much more user friendly.

[*madison]

we’ll give you more pricing and inventory guidance,

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ebay's pricing guidance is way off.

I listed a BIN, ebay UK advised I should price it at £35.00 when I was filling out the sell form, ( no chance ) I priced it at £140.00 the item sold 2 days later..

So, If I used ebay's pricing advice I would have lost £105.00, and ebay would have got less fees...

[chrysylys]

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@the_fancy_fox wrote:

Ok I read the blog and now I have that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"Data shows that 75% of buyers check return policies before purchasing*" I call bunk on this statement. Many don't read the description let alone policies. Care to publish that data?

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Even here on the boards in relation to changes of the boards, they often tell us 'the survey says ...' but they never tell us when, where or how the survey was conducted or who participated.  When asked, they either don't answer at all, or make some obscure reference.