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. 

[newview]

I’m getting more than a little fed up with eBay’s rah-rah, rose-colored-glasses, all is perfection, rainbows & unicorns stance. Anyone whose been here any length of time knows that site glitches are a daily occurrence now, bugs take forever to get fixed, if they ever do get fixed and rarely get acknowledged publicly (Duplicate Listing Bug, for instance). I’d like to see a whole lot less “spin” and a lot more energy on quashing bugs before they affect my listings and my sales. I’d like to see a PUBLIC facing dedicated bug reporting & tracking tool like Bugzilla used so we know EXACTLY where we stand on the many bugs & glitches introduced into the site by programmers.

[mallontown]

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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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Remove Ebays unfair practices which have given China and Hong Kong an unfair advantage over USA sellers.

That would be epacket and  multitudes of Chinese counterfeits/knockoffs 

[mr_lincoln]

@getitright1234  Excellent points ... this whole thing seems to be geared towards "new" products but many of us in collectibles, vintage, antique, etc are faced with potentially much higher shipping costs then those selling tube socks, t-shirts, etc.  A 4 lbs item from here, coast to cost, Parcel Select is just over $ 18.00 ... my items are set for Buyer to pay return shipping ... pretty much every listing Description ends with "Questions welcome" ... MEANING:  ask so you know what you are buying because if you want to send it back it will cost some $$.  

Granted, I think there may be fewer scams in the Collectibles categories ... it seems the collectors and Buyers who have found our items seem to be pretty up front with things.  But it would not take too many Free returns to add up to a decent pile of cash, that's for sure.

[mistwomandancing]

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@mallontownwrote:

Remove Ebays unfair practices which have given China and Hong Kong an unfair advantage over USA sellers.

That would be epacket and  multitudes of Chinese counterfeits/knockoffs 

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The epacket program isn't an eBay thing.   That was given to China under the Obama administration.  There isn't anything our USPS or eBay can do about it.  

Yes, it would be wonderful to get counterfeits off of eBay.   Counterfeits of one thing and another have been with us for at least a few hundred years so I don't think they are going away soon.   Counterfeits and fakes are found on every website... not just on eBay.   I'd love it if this could be stopped.   Frankly, I don't think it can be.   With listings in the billions and billions, I don't think eyeballs are going to look over every listing.   And, frankly, there are TONS of buyers who knowingly buy counterfeits and are thrilled to do so.   The money in counterfeits keeps it going, and there are millions of buyers who are happy to make the purchases to keep it all lucrative. 

[mr_lincoln]

@banana*shoe*boutique

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@banana*shoe*boutiquewrote:

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@mr_lincolnwrote:

@getitright1234  Free Returns will bascially eliminate SNAD return claims ...

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@mr_lincoln

I think it wil be worse!  Because now they will need to file SNAD to get their original shipping refunded.

I fear that the kind of buyer who only buys from a seller because of free returns is also expecting free shipping.

Come the next seller update, I expect to see TRS+ requiring free shipping both ways.  Next it will be free shipping both ways for 60 days....and then the discount will get cut in half again.

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Yes, that would not surprise me ... after all, the site has been chasing their competition with evey new tweak they come up with.  i really wish Home Office would stop trying to be the other company and focus on what made them great way back when and use that to be unique and a leader rather than a follwer always playing acatch up at the expense of the Selling community ...

[mistwomandancing]

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@mr_lincolnwrote:

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Yes, that would not surprise me ... after all, the site has been chasing their competition with evey new tweak they come up with.  i really wish Home Office would stop trying to be the other company and focus on what made them great way back when and use that to be unique and a leader rather than a follwer always playing acatch up at the expense of the Selling community ...

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Unhappily, I think that eBay hanging tough with focus on the *original* design and emphasis on the unique and secondhand offerings here for so many years was what allowed The Other Site to AMASS the market in new product.   By the time eBay's figures showed them falling behind and spurred them to the decision to no longer focus on the garage sale / flea market aspect as strongly, they were already YEARS behind in modern e-commerse retail. 

I sell nearly entirely in pre-owned merchandise here and always want to have that area be strong, but the *used* market has always been a very small percentage of retail sales as a whole, whether it's online selling or in our brick & mortar shops.   By not being a leader in a home for New Product, eBay lost out on a huge advantage which was grabbed up by The Other.   Now they're trying -not to BE Amazon, as they are two entirely different types of business platforms- but at least catch up to modern shoppers' desire to buy online... and that is mostly new product.

[mr_lincoln]

@mistwomandancing  Yes, thank you that makes sense and I understand it ... I think one failure was their "unique and used" identity NOT being the right platform to compete against the other guy.  Maybe there was a time when a new site with new name would have done better competing  ... like NewBay ... or something altogether different.

Anyway, will have to see what transpires ...

[bearswatching]

How about a level playing field? I recently had several pieces of vintage Wedgwood to list. I wanted to get some guidance on pricing so I did a search for current listings. I was surprised to see a seller engaging in blatant search and browse manipulation. Everyone of her (I'm guessing the seller is female) listings title has a minimum of two heart symbols, many have cartoon faces, puppies, teddy bears, etc. When I mentioned this to a friend she said the seller is one of the eBay's "darlings", a term I had never heard before. Also that the seller had been reported over and over. How can I compete with a seller whose listings just jump out to the buyer? I'm debating whether or not to list the pieces on the other "e" site. If eBay ignores their own policies then I start out at a disadvantage right off the bat.

[sharingtheland]

The epacket program isn't an eBay thing.   That was given to China under the Obama administration.  There isn't anything our USPS or eBay can do about it.

Ebay helped broker the epacket program; it was a 3-way deal between China, ebay and USPS.  Click on the link.

"In 2011, the United States Postal Service formally announced the new shipping service and agreement with Hongkong Post and eBay China, allowing packages from China and Hong Kong to receive USPS First Class Mail Service along with a delivery confirmation service."

[rainbowcolorz]

I would like eBay to put back the ability for us to see buyers' IDs.  I want to be the one to decide whether I want to sell to someone who has left repeated negs for other sellers, or not.  

[bpr103]

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@chrysylyswrote:

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@bpr103wrote:

Integrated video.

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

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I would flat out prohibit video in all forms.

There has only been one case FOR it that I can remember in recent discussions.  That is to show how some older toys and antique items work since there are none in stores anymore for people to see or understand the item.  Despite my total ban for most items, I could aee allowing it for those types of items, but limited to a special category.

I'm not sure what the purpose of a video ban would be. People expect it today. Frankly, any used electronics equipment or anything with any kind of mechanical functionality (your example of antique toys is a good one) would increase sales. As a musician, I might be more willing to pull the trigger on a new synthesizer if I saw a quick video of the seller putting it to use.

Further, some people are just really good salespeople and can demonstrate how useful and versatile that handbag is, and they're killing it on Instagram. They couldn't do that here. And, while that's not exactly my cup of tea, I could see it as a potential benefit from a sales standpoint.

Is video needed for selling rare books? Prolly not, but who are we (or eBay) to put limitations on how sellers shop their wares?

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[rainbowcolorz]

@mistwomandancing wrote: The epacket program isn't an eBay thing.   That was given to China under the Obama administration.  There isn't anything our USPS or eBay can do about it.  

********************

No surprise there.  

[rainbowcolorz]

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@bearswatchingwrote:

How about a level playing field? I recently had several pieces of vintage Wedgwood to list. I wanted to get some guidance on pricing so I did a search for current listings. I was surprised to see a seller engaging in blatant search and browse manipulation. Everyone of her (I'm guessing the seller is female) listings title has a minimum of two heart symbols, many have cartoon faces, puppies, teddy bears, etc. When I mentioned this to a friend she said the seller is one of the eBay's "darlings", a term I had never heard before. Also that the seller had been reported over and over. How can I compete with a seller whose listings just jump out to the buyer? I'm debating whether or not to list the pieces on the other "e" site. If eBay ignores their own policies then I start out at a disadvantage right off the bat.

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I noticed one of the costume (designer) jewelry sellers had lovely colorful hearts in her listing title and one Christmas item had a Santa Claus in the title.  I thought that was very pretty and would never think to report someone for that.  

[vintagecraze50]

I have been using automated 30 day returns for several years. I have not used free returns in the past and just started it. I sell in a fairly high risk category and have had few returns. The stuff we sell is not ordinary more risky type return stuff like clothing snd electronics, which probably have fairly high return rates due to fit, confusions about functuality, eg buyer does not know how to use it then sends it back, or breaks it and sends it back claiming it was broken when they got it. Everyone is going to have to evaluate the free return stuff based on the type of product they sell, whether it can be bought anywhere and thus  not something someone would return because it was a rather rare find, and their current return percentages.

[vintagecraze50]

In regards to showing video. One of the Ebay resent blogs pointed out how Zappo's use videos to showcase their shoes and I am sure they get a lot of sales doing that.