Info about Spring update on ecommercebytes

[ryanrobyn]

Go and read for yourslf. I know that it is early and we might be surprised if it turns out okay, but from EVERYHING one reads, it wil be a gigantic gain for the  Bonanza marketplace and the downfall of Ebay. People want and can afford used items. Why buy brand new items at ridiculous store prices, especially for children who immediately outgrow them?  We are not Amazon and Ebay can never offer the prime shipping deal Amazon does. I could smell the beginning problem when I heard the Ebay chairman tell Trump that shipping takes 2 days to arrive. Dreamland is what I call it. The important thing to me is if the worst is stated will the store owners be allowed to end their yearly subscriptions without a BIG penalty or will they use it unfairly as a big revenue gain. Good luck to all - the buyers and sellers.

[chrysylys]

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@ryanrobynwrote:

 I could smell the beginning problem when I heard ....

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I'm not sure where everybody's been for the last 15 years, but the beginning of the end for small sellers was during Meg's reign.  She set it all in motion.

[swenson8781]

I didn't read very far into this article, but if anyone knows I'd love to hear an answer... is this what Amazon does? Where I type something in the search bar and only get a couple of items showing, then I have to really dig & figure out how to find ALL the items that are actually for sale? 

If that's so, that's the exact reason I do NOT shop on Amazon, ever.  HATE the search.  And in reality, what would simplifiy the search on eBay is just leaving it the same long enough for buyers to figure it out.  We can figure out and adapt to consistency, it's the ever changing system that is complicated & confusing, NOT the number of actual listings, or the way we have to search.

[oaklandmaryland]

If you take the time to read more on Google there is other info.

Found today also on ecomercebytes: Interesting 

I do realize they ARE predictions only but defenitely room for thought.

One thing I know from experience with Ebay news releases is the info will be vague and not retried out for validity and results. The future will be interesting.

10 eBay Predictions for 2018 Changes Are Coming Better Get Ready

 Ebay Add comments

Dec262017

Changes for eBay sellers are just an inevitable part of life. They are going to happen whether you like it or not. It’s also true that sellers who have been pro-active about these changes have done better than those who haven’t.

I’ve been selling on eBay since 1996 so I’ve been around to see a lot of updates. Over the years certain patterns have emerged. Based on what I’ve seen, here are my 10 predictions about what eBay will change in 1018. Prepare yourself.

#1 Images Will Be Completely Removed From Descriptions

Year after year eBay has shrunk what we are allowed to put in item descriptions. They’ve even gone so far as to partially hide them on on the eBay app and completely hide them on the mobile site. Next I think they’ll just do away with our ability to add photos for to our descriptions.

#2 eBay Stores Will Be Completely Overhauled

This one is well past due. As I pointed out in another article eBay’s store format is neither secure nor mobile friendly. The real question is why they haven’t done it already. My only concern is that eBay will try to spin this as an increased value that will cost us more in subscription fees.

#3 Even More Preference Will Be Given to Chinese Sellers

Just now I did a search for “bird pendant” on eBay. The third item from the top is a Chinese seller with 98.7% feedback and a 16 to 24 day estimated delivery date! eBay, Etsy, and Amazon are all guilty of this trend and there’s no end in sight. It’s just too lucrative for them. Cheaper items equal more sales and more sales equal more fees. More fees equal increased stock value. American sellers are an expendable cog in the corporate machine.

Therefore, I predict that eBay will place even more of these sellers at the top of the search results. It will also intentionally recruit more of them as sellers with incentives in China. If you want to know how this situation got started in the first place, see my article on why there’s so much Cheap Chinese Stuff on eBay.

#4 Free Shipping Will Become Almost Mandatory

This is another trend that’s easy to predict. eBay has been pushing free shipping with various incentives and penalties for years. In the coming year I think they will push items without free shipping all the way to the bottom of the search results. They may even make it mandatory in some categories.

#5 More Penalties Will Be Given to Encourage Faster Shipping

In 2017 we saw the roll out of Guaranteed Delivery. Before that we saw incentives for faster shipping in the Top Rated Seller Program. Now I think we will start seeing penalties since eBay is out of incentives. Listings that don’t offer 1 day shipping will be further demoted in search.

#6 eBay Will Try Again to Ban Watermarks in Photos

In the 2017 Fall Seller Update eBay announced that watermarks would no longer be allowed. That rule was later rescinded in another announcement in Nov 30th. They were faced with the reality that sellers were just not going to edit hundred of thousands of existing photos.

But they’re not going to give up. Most likely a new announcement will be made banning any new photos with watermarks. The existing ones will be allowed to remain.

#7 More Promoted Listings and New Native Ads

eBay launched Promoted Listings in 2017 allowing sellers to buy their way to the top of search rankings. Now it looks like they’re going to sell “native” ads to sellers as well. Those are ads that will appear in the sidebar and on the bottom of pages.

To use a phrase popular with gamers, this is going to be a “pay to win” system. Sellers willing to pay more will sell more. Those that don’t, won’t.

#8 eBay Will Raise Seller Fees Again

It doesn’t take a psychic to see this one coming. They find some way to do it every single year.

#9 More Product Identifiers Will Become Mandatory

Product identifiers are already required for new items. In the 2017 Fall Seller Update we learned that they will also be required for used items beginning in 2018. What’s next? ESIN. The Ebay Standard Identification Number. An identification numbering system for items without UPCs.

#10 Buy Box Style Listings Will Become the Norm

Grouped listings with a buy box are rolling out. Soon they will be the norm, just like Amazon. That part isn’t a prediction, it’s a fact that was announced in October 2017. This is partially why eBay has been pushing the product identifiers.

Frankly, grouped listings on Amazon are a mess. They will be an even bigger mess on eBay. I also sell on Amazon and I can tell you from first hand experience that product identifiers change.

Photos change. Manufacturers change their packaging and products vary slightly from year to year. Most of all, humans make mistakes putting in the identifiers. Customers end up getting things they don’t expect and you are going to get the negative feedback for it.

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[ted_200]

That piece ^^^ is actually a pretty good summary of what we've heard and what has happened and what I expect too. 

And that's really bad news for someone who sells OOAK stuff, without bar codes, in Lots, at Auction, without Free Shipping. 

Frankly, grouped listings on Amazon are a mess. They will be an even bigger mess on eBay. I also sell on Amazon and I can tell you from first hand experience that product identifiers change.

Photos change. Manufacturers change their packaging and products vary slightly from year to year. Most of all, humans make mistakes putting in the identifiers. Customers end up getting things they don’t expect and you are going to get the negative feedback for it.

Like a previous poster, I detest Amazon's search and product grouping.  Walmart's site might be worse.  And it is certainly going to be a bigger mess on eBay, not only for all the reasons stated there, but because the eBay Product Catalog it is all based on is already full of errors, incomplete, and with contradicitory duplications of the same "product". 

So why is there such a stark contrast between what this writer says about all this, and the writings of various ecommerce gurus and eBay management?   Simple.  They actually sell on these sites. 

[mr_lincoln]

@swenson8781

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@swenson8781wrote:

I didn't read very far into this article, but if anyone knows I'd love to hear an answer... is this what Amazon does? Where I type something in the search bar and only get a couple of items showing, then I have to really dig & figure out how to find ALL the items that are actually for sale? 

If that's so, that's the exact reason I do NOT shop on Amazon, ever.  HATE the search.  And in reality, what would simplifiy the search on eBay is just leaving it the same long enough for buyers to figure it out.  We can figure out and adapt to consistency, it's the ever changing system that is complicated & confusing, NOT the number of actual listings, or the way we have to search.

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What's funny is that recenty happended to me and I did not even realize it ... I searched for an item, only got a couple returned and did not like the choices ... I had first tried eBay but only got two items returned and neither Seller impressed me ... too many neg FBs for my liking and one was not in the US and I suspect the other was probably a dropshipper from China.  So I wound up stopping at a Best Buy and purchased one ... we're talking a muilti-tip AC Adapter ... less then 20 bucks.

[tweetystwades]

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@vintagecraze50wrote:
He said, get your listings in line with the change so you can compete with price on used, new and blah. That means do all the perks so you can compete.

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The other post about this topic, goes on for days. It is totally doom and gloom. I have no desire to read the updates now, as I am panicked  already. The other thread states this is the end of the small seller, especially if we don't sell brand new items. I'm a bit panicked right now, I depend on selling here.    

[mr_lincoln]

@tweetystwades

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@tweetystwadeswrote:

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@vintagecraze50wrote:
He said, get your listings in line with the change so you can compete with price on used, new and blah. That means do all the perks so you can compete.

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The other post about this topic, goes on for days. It is totally doom and gloom. I have no desire to read the updates now, as I am panicked  already. The other thread states this is the end of the small seller, especially if we don't sell brand new items. I'm a bit panicked right now, I depend on selling here.    

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Yes, if you read too much here it does sound like doom and gloom.  I have posted on one of the other threads about that ecommerce article and the new eBay being implied.  Looking at it from a business standpoint, it really makes little sense to let a successful portion of a business go that is worth literally millions upon millions of dollars.  Maybe I'm wrong but maybe eBay has to be this progressive entity with new products to put on a good front against their competition and maybe what we'll find a "used" or "collectibles" link on the home page and it will be business as usual for that group of Sellers while everybody selling new products plays the race to the bottom game.  Right now we only know what they ARE saying but we don't know what they are NOT saying.  The Spring Seller update will shed some light on things.

[slippinjimmy]

When you are speaking to an audience of Wall Street analysts you tell them what you think they want to hear.

Nobody on Wall Street wants to hear about what you are doing in regard to vintage, used, OOAK and the sellers involved in that sector. While it's true that eBay makes money in this part of the market I would speculate that it's shrinking both in real terms and as a percentage of eBay's overall business. Still significant enough to keep eBay interested and also something that differentiates eBay from the onslaught of big players in the ecommerce market especially with many of the big boys now embracing third party sellers.

[vintagecraze50]

Yes, I hate to shop on Amazon as well. To me their search is even idiotic. I go to search for something and have to move through all the stuff they throw in front of me to get to the price points I want in an item. Also, they have few things that really interest me there. It' mostly stuff you can buy locally.  I always check Ebay for something I want at a better price and know I cannot find anywhere else for that price. Oh Mr Wenig I hope you can see this aspect of Ebay that people love. Please do not disrupt this marketplace to the point where it excludes this uniqueness.

[vintagecraze50]

Ebay needs the equivelent of Amazons ASIN codes for a lot of sellers here. Call it an ESIN. 

[vintagecraze50]

Thanks Epo for finding this and posting--that's what it probably will look like without all the 10,000 listing in the scroll.

[chrysylys]

No, they don't.  They need to eliminate ALL similarities to that site and ban that name here on the boards.  Censor it to ****s like other bad words.  Oh wait ....  it's already prohbitied under board policy to discuss other selling sites.

When I buy this site and take over, the emphasis will be on the things you can't find anywhere else rather than the things you can find everywhere else.  Ya' know, the Finkleburger bit.

[chrysylys]

It seems odd to me that someone with an iD that implies they love vintage appears to want a site nearly founded on the sale of vintage items to abandon their roots and emulate a site where vintage doesn't exist.

[coolections]

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@vintagecraze50wrote:

I think people are taking this Drama blog out of context on several levels. Wenig wants people to be able to compete with other websites offering the same things and compete with better prices to win their business. At some point everyone is going to have some BOTTOM LINE on how low they can go and sell things without going under. Look at this simply without DRAAAAAMA. 

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And those that are already asking too much rarely get a buyer anyway. Just check all the Ebay is hiding my items threads. Of course the items are there, but it sounds like a better excuse then the reality of it.