Its important. Its bound to drag exposure for regular listings down even further. Now that the TRS discount is slashed in half, its not worth having 1 day handling for many sellers (like myself) anymore. Not everyones orders go in bubble wrappers and small boxs. Its just not worth it if your packing heavy or big, time consuming orders anymore. Dropping TRS and not opting into this new program thats horrible for average to medium sized sellers, will push listings further and further down the page for otherwise great sellers.
As the article im posting a link to at the bottom mentions, ebay does intend for us to pay for the shipping refund a buyer gets if their package is past the guaranteed date. Money will come from our pockets. So if your not big enough to absorb the losses, or sell items with many many multiples where its finacially worth it to do everything to stay on the top of the list. For the average seller of single item listings though, your getting the shaft.
Ebays new changes make it so you have to jump through hoops to get the TRS exposure (because the discount is almost useless now). Take 30 day returns and ship next day for peanuts, but if you dont, exposure goes down. Now with this and the new promoted listings, you will have to pay ebay way more in for the listing, AND have to refund shipping (or take it back if they want) if it doesnt make it in 3 days.
So, if we dont want to get buried by big business compitition, and continue to get the same exposure we get today, we would need to continue to jump through hoops for the now useless TRS Plus listing discounts, pay extra for promoted listings, and offer 3 day guaranteed delivery or the shippings free. Just to end up at the same exposure. As it sits now only bigger companies can afford to absorb all these expenses. Its just wrong.
Is this the new direction the new young CEO wants to go? Hes dong a major diservice to many of his best sellers. He seems to forget that unlike Amazon (Amazon Prime - which is what he is attempting to compete with), ebay doesnt have a warehouse full of employees to expidite shipping. Plus they dont own the merchandise, nor have 3rd party items in their possession. Its not their guarantee to make, and to then make US refund shipping if its a day past their made up date!? Ridiculous.
Am I alone on this one?
Under the new eBay program, if a product doesn't arrive in the guaranteed time, both eBay and the seller will chip in to refund shipping costs. If an item was shipped for free, eBay and the seller will provide an eBay coupon, expected to be $5, Lawton said. Two-thirds of the products on eBay include free shipping, according to the company.
