If you could change one thing

[statesplace]

Let’s have a discussion - without complaining and negativity - what is one thing you would like to see changed about the Ebay platform and why? What would the change do to help your business grow? Don forget the last part - the why is everything. 

I’ll start - I would have Ebay require onboarding for new members when they want to sell items. I believe this would help with a lot of the new seller painpoints and bring a positive light to Ebay in general. It helps my business because it builds trust in the community - most trust equals more sales for myself and everyone else. I would also love to see Ebay explain their why during seller updates. I get that I need to require 30 day free shipping for top rated discounts but WHY is that going to help my business. Some facts would decrease the anxiety for most people. 

[retrose1]

I would like to see ebay divide and segregate new from used and vintage items.  All of ebay's changes for the marketplace, like catalog, are geared toward new items.  And like catalog, the changes are totally unequipt to deal with vintage and used items.

People looking for vintage items do not want to be shown factory new ones, and buyers looking for new items may not realize that the great bargain they found is used.  If ebay would create a place like ebay Motors where the new stuff can besold with all of ebay's new toys like catalog, then a large group of users would have a lot fewer problems shopping on ebay.

[slippinjimmy]

"Onboarding", had to look it up (maybe because I've never been an employee).

eBay does provide a lot of info for new and not so new sellers, not sure how you can convince the masses to actual study the material.

The one thing I'd really like to see is a mammoth effort to upgrade the back end hardware and software to eliminate a big chunk of the glitches. Unfortunately 24 years of bandages make this an immense task.

[yuzuha]

No more free listings.  eBay already has far more sellers than buyers; the last thing it needs is to be running buyers off with categories full of junk that people only list because it isn't costing them a cent to do so.  I guarantee you that if people had to pay for everything they listed here, they'd think a lot harder about whether or not anyone is REALLY going to buy that fairly common action figure that looks like it's been through a war.

[ebbyisme]

Well........... if we are going to ask for things that will never happen....

No matter what you look for or how you sort my items are always first in search....

Or.... something a little more reasonable - 

if you offer free returns - those same returns and the return rate that comes from said free returns aren't used to "punish" a seller....

[castlemagicmemories]

With all due respect, one man's junk is another man's treasure.

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@castlemagicmemorieswrote:

With all due respect, one man's junk is another man's treasure.

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Very true.

But there are many items listed that can truly be classified as garbage, especially in books and paper ephemera and booklets, that sort of thing.  I'm sorry, but sellers really shouldn't be listing dog chewed, water damaged, mildewed, coffee stained  common books with missing pages just because they can. Some things truly do need to go to the garbage can.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@southern*sweet*teawrote:

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@castlemagicmemorieswrote:

With all due respect, one man's junk is another man's treasure.

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Very true.

But there are many items listed that can truly be classified as garbage, especially in books and paper ephemera and booklets, that sort of thing.  I'm sorry, but sellers really shouldn't be listing dog chewed, water damaged, mildewed, coffee stained  common books with missing pages just because they can. Some things truly do need to go to the garbage can.

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I see what you mean.  Kind of like listing used pizza boxes, complete with residue.

[yuzuha]

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@southern*sweet*teawrote:

But there are many items listed that can truly be classified as garbage, especially in books and paper ephemera and booklets, that sort of thing.  I'm sorry, but sellers really shouldn't be listing dog chewed, water damaged, mildewed, coffee stained  common books with missing pages just because they can. Some things truly do need to go to the garbage can.

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Same in the toy category.  Unless it's very rare or it belonged to some celebrity, there's no reason to list toys that look like they've been used as a dog's chew toy.  I was trying to price one particular action figure I have (nothing rare, there are plenty of them listed here) and looking through the listings was just annoying because a lot of them were in such awful condition that they should've just been chucked into the garbage or sold at a yard sale for a nickel.

[getitright1234]

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@statesplacewrote:

Let’s have a discussion - without complaining and negativity - what is one thing you would like to see changed about the Ebay platform and why? What would the change do to help your business grow? Don forget the last part - the why is everything. 

I’ll start - I would have Ebay require onboarding for new members when they want to sell items. I believe this would help with a lot of the new seller painpoints and bring a positive light to Ebay in general. It helps my business because it builds trust in the community - most trust equals more sales for myself and everyone else. I would also love to see Ebay explain their why during seller updates. I get that I need to require 30 day free shipping for top rated discounts but WHY is that going to help my business. Some facts would decrease the anxiety for most people. 

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Not to get completely off topic:  I would love for you to share with us your take on Free Return, I noticed you offer alot of Free Shipping and Free Returns on clothing. 

Questions:  

How long have you had Free Returns and how do "you" feel about Free Returns for "any reason".   Do you currently accept returns for any reason and since starting Free Return has "your" returns increased.   What do you do to control the amount of returns.   

Business 101 tells "all businesses to take calculated risks; and most good/great sellers here on eBay take great pictures. write great descriptions, describe every flaw; they use those skills to attempt to minimize their risks or returns; in the end these sellers are selling as described products.  All that hardwork now goes out the window and contrary to Business 101 practices come  June 1, 2018 in order to remain a TRS+ seller, these sellers  must then accept returns for "any reason," so there goes taking calculated risks.  Acceptig returns for "any reason"  is  Flat Out Scary, that in itselt has created a lot of anxiety for sellers. 

OP:  please share with us your honest opinion on how you have survived with Free Return on clothing, what has helped you stay afloat, etc. ( see the questions above ) Thanks in advance.  

[getitright1234]

 If buyers are buying those things then there is a market for it.  The money generated from that sell is just as green and spendable as the money that came from the sell of a designer purse.   Check out the sold section, to verify if those items have a demand/buyer base.  

[bigdeals.etc]

OP I'll think about your question and get back to you on that. But sorry to add to @getitright1234 questions, can you care to share with us what is your current returns rate since you began free 60 day returns? I have no idea if you've had that for a long time or just made the change. Thanks

[bpr103]

Integrated video. Why? It's 2018, and if they're not going to let us show our YT or Insta videos of our fantastic products to make buyers feel that they NEED them, then they'd better have their own upload and hosting service.

Seriously, the site still looks like it was designed in like 1995.

[bigdeals.etc]

Okay so I have two things I'll name here. I know it's against your rules but I'll explain each one with the "why".

1) Draw in more buyers to the site than Amazon does. To be honest I can make my peace with a lot of problems in ebay if they guarantee that they will have a huuuuge flow of buyers visiting to actually buy. I.e. If eBay increases their buyer traffic by double, theoretically my profits will double as long as I continue with my methods. I understand that might draw more competition... but we're speaking unrealistically right? In this scenario there will be no increase in sellers.

2) Get rid of all the overseas "alibaba manufacture sellers"... what many classify as the China sellers. They receive much more preferable treatment from eBay than your standard seller. They often steal ideas and reproduce a shoddy replica and sell it dirt cheap, thus ruining the market for that particular product. They also steal your listing content which eventually will kill your product (personally been a victim to this many times). I think of them as locusts, find a spot, ruin it for everyone, then move on. If they set their sites on you... get ready to liquidate that product fast. Their bad customer service also tends to upset buyers... and since these buyers always see these sellers on the top of best match, they assume all of eBay is like this then they never come back. At least ebay should require these sellers to jump thru the same hoops we all do, no favoritism. I feel these sellers is the reason why eBay has less buyers than they should. If these sellers are all gone, I feel that the rest of us can compete in a healthy fair market and thrive.

[let_me_shop_and_no_one_gets_hurt]

I'd like them to re-enable the (*)  wildcard in Search.  I guess I miss it less and less, but was devastated when they disabled it ten years ago.  To this day I'm aggravated by my search results containing the wrong stuff because people aren't careful when specifying all the tedious categories ebay requires.  I just wish ebay still focused their search on the actual words in an item's title.