Ebay First Class to Ground Advantage Bulk Edit Problem, LARGE QUANTITIES, No Business Policies

[maverickindustrialsales]

We have 30,000 active ebay listing, and do NOT use ebay business policies.  Instead, we have 20 listing templates that our team uses when creating new listings.  We have avoided using business policies because we like the ability to customize shipping specifics and return specifics when we are listing items because certain items are required to be shipped a certain way, or not allowed to be shipped a certain way (batteries, liquids, some test equipment, etc).

Around 10,000 of our listings are "calculated shipping" with USPS First Class as the first option which we have as free for the buyers.  Then we have Priority Mail, UPS Ground, and UPS Next Day Air as optional calculated upgrades for the buyer if they want to pay for a different shipping service.  

What do we do?  I am unable to find a way to bulk-edit these items.  The bulk editing tool does not allow us to filter our listings by first-class listings.  When I download a CSV of our listings there is no way for us to sort them by first class either.

Is there not a way for Ebay on the back-end to create a rule to automatically switch first-class listings to ground advantage?

Is there anything we can do to automate this or will all of my first-class listings be removed from ebay?

[simply-the-best-for-you]

@suzysemporium   I do not use Bus Policies currently.  I am curious though from what you describe, what happens if you list an odd item that does not fit the criteria of any of your shipping policies.  Is it possible to just manually do that one differently?  Or do you have to create a new policy for it, even if it's a one-off?  

Thanks! 

[fern*wood]

To be honest, I've not seen any ebay rep explain how to update the listings using any method.  So telling you that you are right or wrong will probably never happen.   The only help with how to do this that I've seen is from other sellers.   Ebay just said to do it.

[mr_lincoln]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

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@maverickindustrialsales wrote:

Business Policies will not work with our business model. 

Looking for other feedback besides directing toward Business Policies. 

Cheers.

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Business Policies absolutely work, I use third party tools to manage my eBay listings, they have had a form of business policies (Shipping Presets) that predate eBay's by more than 20 years, I have always used them and they make changing shipping parameters totally painless. I can change anything related to shipping in bulk with just a couple of clicks regardless if I have 100 listings or 100,000 listings.

Almost 100% of the issues sellers are having with the change from First Class to Ground Advantage are due to sellers resisting using Business Policies which have been available and have been encouraged by eBay for many years.

"I refuse to use Business Policies"

"I refuse use the Seller Hub"

"I refuse to use Item Specifics"

"I refuse to use xxx"

All these refusals eventually come back to bite you.

Meanwhile, sellers who have been using Business Polices were able to update their First Class Package listings in just a couple of minutes no matter the number of listings.

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@slippinjimmy   I don't use Business Polices but "refusal" might be a bit strong considering what I sell and how I sell it.  Would it be possible to have a Business Policy written for this and if so how exactly would it be written, screen shots would be appreciated.

[suzysemporium]

I have had that happen. Currently I have two listings that did not fit my other regular business policies. I  created business policies just for them.

One is for a lighter that needs to go ground no international. The other is a comic book that I wanted to ship in a padded flat rate envelope. I just looked up the item, since I forgot what it was. I have two separate business policies just for them.

When the items sell, I can keep those policies and let them sit with no items for later possible use. Way on the right side of the screen I can see how many items are under a policy. When I click on the number, I can view the items. It will bring up a list like when you go to seller hub to view active listings.

I do have a free shipping policy sitting there with a 0, just in case I want to use it later on. If I want to de clutter, I can delete those policies that are sitting at 0. I give each policy my own title so I can tell what it is for and any special settings. You are going to see the title of the policy when you create the listing.

You can sort the policies by type (shipping, returns, and payment) or by how many listings are in each policy.

You can also have more than one return policy and payment policy. When creating the listing, you can mix and match the policies. You might want a 14 day return buyer pays on some items, and a 30 day return seller pays on other items.

[allthingssurplus]

Knowing eBay can't be trusted to repair the platform or give good information on how large Sellers can make this shipping revision without spending Thousands of dollar, telling us its not the 9th is a pipe dream.  Someone grow a pair and come out with a date so business people like volume Sellers can plan.  I get the concept of planning is very hard for eBay.  However when it comes to fees you seem to have excessive plans.  GIVE US A DATE

[suzysemporium]

Your store is similar to mine. You have a lot more trains for sale though, and I only saw one book. I have a lot more figurines. We both have kitchen items. I don't like selling mixing bowls though. I do sell jewelry, key chains, toys, paper ephemera, bottles, . I'm not sure which shipping services you use. I'm assuming you use calculated shipping. At minimum 3 business policies. I'll even show you mine.

1) Titled - Ground Advantage (For items under a pound Originally titled first class)

Calculated Shipping

Service selected - Ground advantage.

(There is a link under the shipping service where you can add more services.)

Handling Time - 1 day

No international - since I don't ship international directly through USPS or other service.

Note If you do not want to sell internationally through Ebay's international EIS service aka GPS, you need to opt out through selling preferences now.

2) Titled: Ground - Priority (This is for items over a pound)

Calculated

Service selected - Ground Advantage and Priority

(Note you can add UPS, Fed EX, Flat Rate, or any other service you want here)

Handling time - 1 Day

No international

3) Titled: Media mail - ground (for the book)

Calculated

Service selected - Media mail and Ground Advantage

Handling - 1 day

(Note if the book is over a pound, you can add other services. I actually have two business policies for medial mail. One for books and other media items under a pound, and one for over a pound.

If you ship internationally but have an item you don't want to ship internationally. Under international shipping click on edit exclusion list. Exclude all countries.

Say if some of your items you have over a pound you want extra handling time to pack. You redo #2, and change the title and handling time

2) Titled: Ground - Priority 3 Day Handling

Calculated

Service selected - Ground Advantage and Priority

(Note you can add UPS, Fed EX, Flat Rate, or any other service you want here)

Handling time - 3 Day

No international

This is dealing with the shipping policy side. Will be giving more photos and explanations, and explain the listing side of things in another reply.partial list of shipping services that can be added.

Example 1) In Shipping PolicyExample 2) In Shipping PolicyExample 3) In Shipping Policy

[suzysemporium]

Continued....

Calculated will not work unless you have filled out the package weight and package dimensions when you are creating the listing. This is a screenshot from create a new listing.

I'm new to inserting images. If I known I could put text underneath the image, I would have done so in the first reply.

Right under Shipping policy, you see ground advantage with an arrow. This lists all the shipping policies that I created and titled. Title them so you know what they are. I need to fix some of the titles. Next to the titles you can see how many listings I have for each policy.

[suzysemporium]

"I don't use Business Polices but "refusal" might be a bit strong considering what I sell and how I sell it. Would it be possible to have a Business Policy written for this and if so how exactly would it be written, screen shots would be appreciated."

Final thoughts after posting the how I would create business policies for your store with images in the posts below. I'll eventually figure these forums out someday. Read the other two posts first.

I was never really good at presentations I know you directed this to someone else, but thought I might try to help. Sorry if my first post seemed cluttered, or a little confusing.

If you need any clarifications or more explanations, let me know.

This was only for calculated shipping. You can have these calculated shipping policies and also use the flat rate and free shipping at the same time. It is not either or situation. Each business policy only controls the listings you add to it.

The business policies controls the shipping method, service, handling times, and international. The weight and packing dimensions are controlled by each individual listing. Otherwise the policies would become one huge mess.

If you want to offer free or flat rate shipping, it is easiest to use ebay shipping calculator to figure out shipping costs. I'm not sure if you know about that or not.

I use 3 day handling times, because sometimes I'm not always able to make it to the post office in one day. Handling times can go up to 40 days.

I hope this might have helped you, or someone else.

[suzysemporium]

PS: The shipping policy with the arrow is where you choose which shipping policy you want for the item. The three dots next to the list is a menu

- View Shipping Policy

- Edit Shipping Policy

- Create Shipping Policy

[mr_lincoln]

@suzysemporium   First, I can't thank you enough for going through and creating those posts.  That really helps explain it since prior to your explanation many just say "use a business policy" which is like the tip of the iceberg with regard to getting them set up.  

I have 1 day handling on all of my listings, I use Priority mail on anything over 1 lbs ... I used to use Parcel select plus Priority and most Buyers picked Parcel but I could ship Priority and still pay less than the Buyer's Parcel select cost ... that worked until USPS raised their rates to where I would lose money doing that, so I dropped Parcel select ... so until G-A I just offered Priority for stuff over 1 lbs.  

Most of my listings are created from one of up to 50 Templates so for future listings G-A will simply be pre-set in the Template.  For existing listings I have most of the First Class ones converted to G-A.  I can add G-A to my Priority mails listings at my leisure. 

Again, my sincere thanks ... I could set on up based on your explanation.

[suzysemporium]

You are welcome. Glad I could help.

I use to do the same thing, except with ground retail and priority. Now with ground advantage, you can offer both ground advantage, and priority.  The buyer normally chooses ground, but with the ebay discount you can ship priority and still pay less than what the buyer paid for retail. Yesterday, ebay priority discount was actually cheaper advantage by 15 cents. Not by much, but still.

I basically work with one Ebay template. That is information I have in every single listing, or almost every listing. Size, Condition, Combined shipping, and three lines at the bottom. I put in the description, and fill in the rest.

I seen a person on you tube who has a template for each type of item they have, and everything that can be filled out from category, shipping, generic beginning of title to generic item specifics he does. He can fly through them when he is listing 50 hats or movies at a time. He can list 100 items a day. He isn't too picky about photos either.

I tried, but I tend not to list the same items. I like listing different items, and building up various categories. It does slow me down, but maybe that is a good thing for me personally. I'm still working on getting back into listing after I attended my dad's funeral. I guess I'm picky, and go over everything, like more detail, get anxious that I'm missing something when I list a lot of the same items together. I actually listed ten movies at once. Got a return on the most expensive movie because I missed screener. I was trying to list more, and go faster.

Here is the fun part. I originally sold that movie for $24.95. After the return and relisted it, I sold it again for $29.95. About the difference in the return shipping cost.

I really need to work on building/having confidence in my pricing.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

@suzysemporium  I just wanted to thank you for offering that very detailed & thorough explanation, complete with pictures 🙂  Like @mr_lincoln  I also use 3rd party software & also have presets set up with them.  Having been in software most of my life though, I don't want to be dependent on the 3rd party software in case it ever shuts down, so I'm going to look into how the 2 play together.  It seems like Business Policies & Presets in Sixbit are very similar things & SB had told me the other day (when Ebay hadn't updated the API yet, so SB couldn't offer Ground Advantage) that if I used Bus Policies, then I didn't need to do anything in SB, so that tells me they are at least somewhat redundant. 

[allthingssurplus]

You never addressed First Class Package.  eBay has stated that those listing using that method of shipping will require manual revision.  Reason, all of the additional shipping services will not be included with the revision ie FedEx, Priority and UPS.  Those would have to be added to the listing after the change.  You do not deal with the range of items and shipping requirements that companies like mine.  All of your policies you have going will be great after the conversion to Ground Advantage has been completed.  Again eBay has agreed with me so far and you have not hear them come out with a fix for this.  All they have done is same you will have more time to get it done, just get it done.  

I have been doing this for a really long time at a high level.  We have tested various ways to bulk revise these listings with no success.  The OP of this thread is in some what the same business we are can't get it done and he knows how to write code.  He has 30K listing to my 4200.  This is costing us a great deal of money and all eBay is saying just get it done.

[wastingtime101]

Hey @allthingssurplus . I've read your posts and understand your situation exactly.

Your current method of updating listings one by one from FC to GA is not efficient. There are less time consuming ways to address it.

My advice to other sellers in your situation, and yes, it has worked successfully for them in auto parts, computer parts & other categories with variety:

Set up biz policies. Those FC listings will be converted to GA with the biz policy set up if you follow the info posted here:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping/Setting-up-Business-Policies-Update-to-USPS-Ground-Advantage/...

It makes no sense to update your listings then convert to biz policies after. You're doubling the workload. Instead, your listings can be updated when you make the switch.

Basically, you enroll in biz policies. You ignore all of the auto-generated policies. You set up your own policies. Then - and this is where the work comes in - you assign listings to those new policies which can be made easier by using bulk edit tool and category filtering. More details at the link I posted above and in my signature below.

[allthingssurplus]

I never said I was going to enroll in eBay policies at anytime.  I said after all the revisions were made for Ground Advantage that policies would work fine.  Either way there is a great deal of work involved making this revision.  Due to our inventory the most expeditious way to make the change is manually.  I have no trust in using eBay policies.  To date eBay has proved their lack of ability in most areas of the platform.  We do not have a static inventory.  We have a great deal of one-offs.  The time need to build special polices for many items would exceed making the current required changes manually.  

This is a problem eBay should have a fix.  Its their platform and are being paid heavy fees to provide a vehicle for Seller to pay those fees.  eBay has made it clear they want in the logistics business.  Well logistics requires IT that will provide the ability to make changes for all the Sellers in all categories.  Logistics is always a fast changing business. 

I appreciate all the input.  It will be cheaper and faster for us to manually make these changes.  I am not a hard head or angry about change or afraid to make change.  Being in business for 52 years and having at one time 20 convenience stores has groomed me for change.  Change is something that requires planning.  This is the fail on eBay's part.  All should read a 30 page book written years ago, The Minute Manager.  It spells out how you can be a manager or a firefighter.  In this change the platform is acting like a firefighter without water.  Again eBay has not come out and said policies will fix this CURRENT revision issue.